Chapter 389: A Summoning Spell That Can't Summon Anything?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 389: A Summoning Spell That Can't Summon Anything?
I stared blankly at the Academy Dean and then at Teacher Ji Niang, unable to believe what the Dean had just said.
She had mentioned completing it into a full spellbook earlier, which had been my plan all along, so that didn't surprise me.
What caught me off guard was what she said next—she had chosen to temporarily join Teacher Ji Niang’s laboratory as a member specifically dedicated to researching this rune and its derived spells!
After the initial shock, I quickly realized that the Dean before me was a physical clone. If Teacher Ji Niang hadn't told me, I really wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.
To be honest, I didn't know the Dean that well, and it wasn't like I could just go around using Spirit Vision to scrutinize her every move, right?
Once I accepted that, I came to terms with the situation.
With the Dean joining us, our progress accelerated at a breakneck pace.
I had originally thought that following the Dean would allow me to learn a vast amount of Transcendent Knowledge, but I soon realized I had been shallow. What I was learning was something far more important than mere facts!
It was the "mindset" for transcendent research.
For a witch, knowledge is always there; the key is knowing how to use it.
After all, I might not even finish reading the entire library of the Witch Academy before graduation. However, the mindset and methodology for exploring the transcendent... those were far more precious than raw knowledge.
These insights were the optimal solutions distilled from endless cycles of trial and error.
From this alone, it was clear that the Dean was a much more skilled educator than Teacher Ji Niang.
But I couldn't blame Teacher Ji Niang; I had heard that this was her first time being a homeroom teacher, after all.
Time slipped away, and another half-day passed. With the Dean’s involvement, her sheer erudition acted as a total dominance over the research. Tasks I thought would take days of grueling effort were completed in just those few hours.
The price, however, was that I felt my own level of participation was quite low. Teacher Ji Niang had simply stopped participating in the mid-stage spell derivation experiments altogether, choosing instead to stick to her routine and keep grinding away at the [Transcendent Knowledge].
"Watch closely. Although you cannot master Real Editing yet, with your Spirit Vision, you should be able to understand how it operates."
The Dean spoke to me while holding the spell prototype, which we had temporarily named "Summoning Spell."
I immediately braced myself. I knew the Dean was intending to demonstrate the process of Real Editing for me. Even if I wasn't qualified to learn such a technique yet—and even if it might leave me feeling "impressed but clueless"—it was still a massive opportunity to broaden my horizons.
Seeing that I responded with action rather than words, the Dean didn't waste any more breath.
She reached out and tapped the air in front of her. A composite rune manifested at her fingertip, and then, countless runes shot out rapidly, using it as a medium.
"Real Editing technology is a technique based on Real Time. In essence, it is also an application of rune rituals. What you see now is the operational method of Real Editing. You should understand where the threshold lies now, shouldn't you?"
"...Yes. Transcendent," I replied after a moment of thought, offering an answer that felt like stating the obvious.
However, I saw it very clearly. Those runes did not appear in False Time—the reality where ordinary people reside. Those runes had completely severed their connection to False Time and appeared fully within Real Time!
This meant that even if the Dean were to create a spellbook right in front of the students, they wouldn't necessarily see what she was doing unless they had mastered Spirit Vision at the prophetic level.
But I possessed Floating World Level Spirit Vision, so I naturally spotted many unusual details.
That "starting stance" with the finger tap seemed to involve Real Touch—one of the Real Five Senses that I still didn't fully understand. The subsequent Real Editing required to create the spellbook would likely involve even more abilities. Thus, saying the threshold was "Transcendent" wasn't wrong at all.
As the Dean operated and explained, I felt a sense of powerlessness, as if I were listening to a lecture in a foreign tongue. The content she discussed was simply too difficult to grasp.
"If you don't understand, don't force it. I'll give you a brief primer to help you build a conceptual framework for perceiving it in a way you can understand," the Dean said, seeing my brow furrowed in concentration.
She didn't blame me. Learning has its thresholds—not just in terms of IQ, but also in terms of perception, comprehension, and existing knowledge.
The reason the threshold for Real Editing was the Transcendent level wasn't just because it required the cultivation of the Real Five Senses. It was also because ascending to the Transcendent Life Level brought a comprehensive upgrade to one's being. This naturally included memory, learning capacity, comprehension, logic, and cognition. In fact, Life Level itself acted as a gatekeeper for certain types of specialized knowledge.
After all, [Knowledge] comes in many categories. Some can be disseminated, like the ordinary knowledge taught in the academy. Some cannot be spread, or rather, the knowledge itself is power—this is [Transcendent Knowledge]. And then there is knowledge that can cause unpredictable harm or benefit to a lifeform just by being viewed, understood, or heard—this is [Forbidden Knowledge].
The more one knows, the more one realizes that many things cannot be forced. Mei Lind understood this well.
The concept of "learning ability" in the transcendent world had become an attribute directly linked to one's strength. Some would grasp it firmly, while others would let it wither.
This was especially true for those born as Transcendent beings or those who gained power too easily. They often failed to cherish what they had acquired without effort, including their own cognition. After all, power can inflate one's desires and lead to arrogance.
At this point, the Dean entered a tedious phase. Creating something is far more difficult than destroying it. It had been easy for me to dismantle a spellbook, but I knew the internal complexity well. The structure of the spellbook and all those runes had to be manually crafted!
Just thinking about the difficulty made my scalp tingle.
I took this time to start testing the spell. I had watched the entire process of its derivation and completion, so once the spell was declared finished, I had effectively learned it simultaneously.
In fact... I could manually cast this spell and its rune ritual right now.
This wasn't a joke. The reason this was a highly classified laboratory within the Witch Academy wasn't just because there was no cell service. The primary reason was that this independently existing space managed to ignore the effects of the Main World Great Weakening Spell!
Actually, "ignore" wasn't the right word; it was more like finding a loophole. Only a Great Spell could counter the effects of another Great Spellbook's magic. Ordinary methods or spells could only slowly wear it down.
The effect of that spell in the Main World had persisted until now. Although the various Transcendent Academies had originally agreed not to destroy the spell's effect, who knew what happened behind the scenes?
The fact that this Great Spell effect remained so resilient was proof of the absolute suppression a Great Spell exerted over regular magic.
Right now, I was constructing the magic ritual bit by bit. Although the Dean had confirmed that this was a summoning-type spell, no one knew the specific effects until an actual test was conducted.
As for why we were so eager to construct a spellbook for a spell that hadn't been tested yet, the Dean explained that the spellbook form provided a platform where the spell could be freely derived and modified.
This answer really hit home for me. Among the students of my year, no one understood better than I how convenient it was to have a spellbook platform for modding spells!
I had almost forgotten about that.
As I manually cast the spell, I felt a certain... sluggishness.
However, I soon succeeded. The spell ran smoothly, the runes flowed, and the ritual flickered.
I was in the laboratory's testing area, and the flickering ritual runes expanded outward with me at the center.
The spell was clearly complete. This was the effect. According to the standard procedure for a summoning spell, something should have appeared. I instinctively stepped out of the center of the ritual and put a bit of distance between us. After waiting for a while, however, there was no movement at all.
"Strange... nothing? Is this really a summoning spell?" I looked at the magic ritual curiously, completely baffled.
According to Teacher Ji Niang, this summoning spell had spatial characteristics. That meant it wasn't a spell that created a summoned creature out of thin air, but rather something that teleported an existing object or entity.
Could it be a contract summoning?
Because the spell had no contracted target, it couldn't summon anything?
I pondered this, using the permissions Teacher Ji Niang had given me to search the Ley Line system for the source of the problem. I mainly wanted to cross-reference which category this summoning spell belonged to, hoping it wasn't what I had just guessed.
Furthermore, based on that previous rune, this spell system should have worked. That rune alone had allowed me to see that beautiful girl; theoretically, the completed spell shouldn't be useless.
I had even jokingly called the effect of that previous rune the "Beautiful Girl Summoning Spell." How could it be silent now?
Or was it... because there was no guidance?
I had been able to see that girl before because I had that strand of Luck acting as guidance, or perhaps an "anchor"?
In short, I suspected this spell couldn't summon an entity out of thin air. It felt a lot like my teleportation spell—the kind that required a pre-existing marker.
I instinctively looked at the strand of Luck on my hand, but it didn't react at all to the spell.
I wondered if I should use this Luck as an anchor directly.
But after thinking it over, I decided to hold off. I might not be able to afford the cost of failure. It would be better to wait until the Dean finished the spellbook and then test it before messing with the Luck thread.
If that Luck thread accidentally dissipated, it would be gone for good.
I stood by the side of the magic ritual for a long time until the maintained effect faded away. Nothing had been summoned. It was honestly a bit embarrassing.
Even Teacher Ji Niang, who had been busy, took a moment to glance over at my situation.
Ultimately, she just shook her head.
I didn't lose heart. Testing is testing, after all. Even if you succeed on the first try, you still need multiple tests to gather more experimental data.
A laboratory isn't a battlefield. Failure isn't feared here; only the lack of repeated attempts or the refusal to try a different way. Here, there is only success or failure, but fundamentally, they aren't that different.
Time stretched into the late night. Since even the Dean wasn't resting, I naturally stayed. What was one night without sleep? I could handle pulling an all-nighter.
Besides, I wanted to witness the Dean completing the construction of the spellbook. Moreover... not long ago, the Dean had said it was almost done.
So, I put down my work and went to the Dean's side.
From my first attempt at the spell until now, I hadn't been idle. I had used Teacher Ji Niang's data retrieval permissions to begin organizing and analyzing the spell.
Of course, I also had the Dean's drafts and notes from when she was completing the spell, as well as the notes I had recorded on my own Memory Bookshelf. Still, I hadn't found any major breakthroughs.
With the Dean's final movement, the prototype structure of the spellbook was finally complete. After adding the unique protective layer characteristic of spellbooks, the task was finished.
"It's done. Give it a try."
The Dean instinctively narrowed her eyes and tossed the spellbook to me. It was clear that making this spellbook over such a long period had drained a lot of her energy. Once everything was finished, she closed her eyes briefly to rest.
"This... I should try it right now?" I asked, surprised.
"Yes, you can start trying it immediately. We are your greatest insurance policy. What? Don't you trust us?" The Dean opened her eyes and asked with a smile.
"No, no, it just feels a bit fast..."
"Speed is natural. Research is all about efficiency. No amount of theoretical analysis is as good as an actual attempt. Witches aren't afraid of trying, wasting resources, or taking risks."
"I... suppose so." I nodded hesitantly. After all, when it came to testing spells, a witch with a mana source could afford infinite trial and error. How much could a single spellbook really consume? As for experimental risks... a witch's own strength was the best safeguard against them.
Just as I was about to use the spellbook to cast the spell, the Dean suddenly interrupted me.
"Wait a moment."
"Is something wrong?" I looked at her, wondering what the issue was.
"I almost forgot. This is another spellbook I'm sponsoring in my personal name. Consider it a meeting gift for my abrupt decision to join your lab."
"Huh? A meeting gift?" I stared at the Dean blankly. What kind of logic was that?
Was there any fundamental difference between this and paying someone to let you work?
But as I looked at the new spellbook she handed me, I felt a surge of curiosity. What kind of spell had the Dean given me this time?
The last ones she gave me were Resurrection and Teleportation.
"Yes, take it," the Dean said with a smile. "Didn't you say earlier that you couldn't understand the language of the girl you met? This spell allows you to bypass the linguistic level and engage in direct consciousness communication. The only drawback is... it only works between the caster and the connected individual."
"Thank you, Academy Dean." My eyes widened in surprise. I hadn't expected her to be so thoughtful. To have such a spellbook on hand and just give it away... it seemed the Dean's spell pool was incredibly deep.
I was truly envious, but I felt that given enough time, I could reach that level too.
"It's nothing. Start trying them out," the Dean urged.
"Okay." I didn't refuse. I slotted the spellbook into my Spellbook Shelf spellbook and began my first casting attempt.
As a magic ritual rose, the spell released incredibly smoothly this time. I had to admit, compared to manually casting, using a spellbook felt much better!
To my disappointment, however, even with the spellbook, there was still no sign of anything being summoned in the ritual. I observed closely with Spirit Vision, but I couldn't even find any abnormal information.
"It's still the same. Nothing is being summoned... Is there something wrong with this summoning spell?"
"Perhaps we can change our mindset and try a different way to cast it. Since the spell is running successfully and stably, it must have a functional effect that we haven't discovered yet."
"A different way? How?" I couldn't exactly cast it while standing on my head, could I? This was outside my area of expertise.
"Perhaps... you should try standing in the center of the magic ritual?" the Dean suggested.