Legend has it that in ancient times, the priests drew the starry sky on precious natural materials for divination, and accidentally drew the first fire element magic element on a magic crystal, and obtained artificial flames. For millions of years, this flame has been regarded as a sacred fire.

In the embryonic period of magical civilization, ancient alchemists successively discovered the magic elements of water, wood, earth and wind, and they no longer directly painted them on the magic crystal, but used magic metal to draw and make magic items, and the crystal was used as a replacement magic source. This method greatly improves the efficiency of the use of magic crystals.

After tens of thousands of years of evolution, magicians can now draw a dazzling array of complex magic arrays, but it is still the five magic elements that have been passed down for a long time that make up all of them.

When focusing on drawing magical elements, mental power will change wonderfully, and this is where the magician comes in.

......

Magical primitives are the cornerstone of the entire human magical world.

――Excerpt from "Introduction to the Magic Array"

Wesley said that Professor Victor has been obsessed with his various experiments recently, and he doesn't even have much thought about going to class, and it seems that everyone will have to rely on self-study for this year's magic array course. What he didn't know was that the culprit for all of this was none other than his cleaner partner.

Donner has been working on materials science with Victor every night lately. The composition and chemical properties of most substances in this world are very similar to those of the earth. However, Donner's attempt to synthesize gunpowder failed, which somewhat disappointed him. Since the other day, Victor has been working on the collation of experimental data, supposedly to write a long paper.

During the day, Donner read the list of books that Wesley listed for him in the library, and the first-year courses of the college were very simple, graphics, magical materials, pharmacy, etc., which were basically equivalent to the most basic geometry, physics, and chemistry courses.

Although the graphics of the five magic elements are very small, they are not complicated, but the role of a single magic element is so weak that it can only have a little effect if it is directly engraved on the magic crystal. The magic arrays that are really practical are very complex, for example, a small fireball magic array needs to be carved with flame gold to depict hundreds of fire-based magic elements, which are arranged according to special rules, and the density must not be lower than a certain critical value.

Using various magical metals to repeatedly draw magic elements, the most basic spiritual power elements will naturally form in the spiritual world of a small number of people, and these people are considered to have magical talents. However, the process of drawing the elements is very mentally draining, and the slightest carelessness of ordinary people can lead to insanity, and even an apprentice of magic cannot devote himself to it for a long time, otherwise there is a danger of mental collapse. Therefore, the first-year students of the academy must practice drawing the five magic elements under the guidance of the teacher. If you haven't condensed any of the spiritual power elements within a year, then dropping out is a wise choice.

When drawing the element, the unconscious formation of the spiritual element slowly accumulates, and the total amount of the formed element is called the spiritual power, and the individual element is the same as the magic element, which has almost no effect, and they must be combined into a magic model in the spiritual world to have the possibility of casting magic. The ability to build complex models is closely related to the number of Shenyuan. Therefore, the second and third year students of the academy mainly spend their energy on drawing diagrams and accumulating spiritual power, in order to advance to the junior magic apprenticeship as soon as possible.

The completed magic model is the form in which the magic is stored in the spiritual world, and once it is cast, the spiritual power is consumed and it takes time to recover.

"The five basic elements of magic, such as water waves, flames, tree branches, hills, and abstract shapes of the wind, are the keys to the wizarding world. Donner vaguely felt that there was a strange feeling about these figures, but he couldn't tell the specific strangeness, maybe this was the mystery of magic. However, he didn't dare to take risks without the guidance of his teacher, and besides, he didn't have magic metal to practice.

"Let's wait for Victor to finish his paper and see if he can help. ”

At the beginning of November, Donner took advantage of the vacation at the beginning of the month to visit his younger brother Richard at the Knight Academy, and Richard was ecstatic to see his brother and hear that he had gone to work at the Academy of Magic. The two told each other a lot about what was going on in the academy, and it sounded like Richard was adapting to the new environment, and seemed to be quite popular with the teachers, not knowing that there was no Merkel factor. Donner then remembered to visit Mr. Merkel.

Merkel did not marry and had no children, did not live with the rest of her family, but made her home in the teacher's quarter, near the Knights' Academy. He was very happy to see Richard bring Donner over, entertained the two of them to dinner, and arranged for them to stay with him that night.

The next day, Donner followed Merkel to the family's weapons workshop. It is said to be a workshop, but in fact, it is about the same size as the factory in Richard's concept, dozens of workers are busy in the spacious factory, and it seems that there is already a concept of division of labor and cooperation. There were four or five blacksmiths who specialized in making the Thousand Forge Sword. Donner also saw the legendary dwarven steel, which is indeed very hard, but it is not afraid of high temperatures and is difficult to process.

"I originally thought that the Thousand Forging Sword had about half the performance of the dwarven steel, and if it could be sold at half the price of the latter, the profit would be very considerable, but I didn't expect this mysterious pattern to be very popular with the nobles, and the price of the early sale was almost higher than that of the dwarf steel sword, and it was in short supply. During this time, I was preparing to increase the number of people, but I was afraid of ...... Now these workers, all of whom have worked for the family for many years, are loyal, and if the people they recruit are unreliable and pass on their skills, the gains outweigh the losses. Oh, patronizing and telling you this, forgetting the most important thing, you see, your creation has greatly benefited our family, and Richard's expenses at the Knight Academy are really nothing compared to this, and this transaction seems too unfair now. So, Donner, I've decided to pay you another two thousand gold coins. ”

If it weren't for the extravagance of the nobility at the Academy of Magic, Donner might have been dizzy in the face of the temptation of two thousand gold coins, but now he knew that two thousand gold coins was really a drop in the bucket when he learned magic.

"Mr. Merkel, actually, I am very grateful that you were able to help Richard get into the Knight Academy, and in my opinion, this deal is fair. However, listening to what you just said, I have a proposal. ”

"What offer?" Merkel thought of Donner a little higher in her heart when she heard Donner lightly reject a large sum of money.

"I thought I could try it and allow you to increase your production without hiring additional workers...... Almost doubled. If the attempt is successful, I would like to receive 20% of your profits from the sale of the Thousand Forging Sword in return. ”

"What about doubling the output? What about the cost?"

"There will be little to no cost increases. ”

"Oh my God, if there is such a good thing, don't say 20%, even 30%, I can promise you. ”

"No, no, no, I only need 20%. ”

The two hit it off immediately. Donner spent the whole day drawing more than a dozen drawings for Merkel to follow to customize various parts in preparation. Before leaving, he asked the other party to take care of his younger brother, and if possible, bring a message to his father on Lante Island to report that he was safe.