Free Web NovelChapter 219: Chapter 193: What Language for Magic Programming (2)
In the past, when Inscription Masters deciphered an Inscription, they would design the basic magic for it themselves.
But Xiaomo’s team couldn’t be bothered with that work. They were already too busy just verifying new Inscriptions.
A new Inscription was released every day or two, and for a long time, many Mages would camp out in the announcement hall. The moment they got their hands on something new, they would immediately send it back to their labs to begin experiments.
Being the first to develop a new Magic no longer depended on who was more skilled, but on who was faster and could pull more all-nighters.
There had also been a recent string of Mage duels, mostly taking place in front of Mage Guild branches.
These were all cases of Mages developing the same Magic, running into each other on their way to register it with the Guild, and dueling on the spot to determine ownership.
Given the immense destructive power Mages wielded, the frequent duels caused a great deal of trouble for the city, much to the misery of the Guard Corps.
Finally, Soron stepped forward to shoulder his social responsibility as a Legendary Mage.
He announced that any Mages in Twin Tower City who developed the same Magic at the same time would share ownership. If anyone disagreed, they could take it up with him at Soron Tower.
Only then did the magical clashes that had been erupting throughout the city finally cease.
"No, no, no. The new Inscriptions are only a change for the Mage community."
"Who else could the structure of Magic possibly change? People with no talent for Casting?" Furin said with a laugh.
"Exactly. People with no talent. I want to enable even those who can’t sense Magic Power to design Magic."
Zog said, handing her a proposal.
"A High Level Magic Language?"
Furin carefully read Zog’s proposal. It wasn’t very long, but it still took her nearly an hour.
With her wealth of knowledge, she could usually understand the gist of most magic-related content with just a glance.
But what Zog wrote was an exception. His ideas were rarely profound, but they were always packed with new concepts that required careful consideration to understand.
"So, this is what you meant by the system allowing everyone to master Magic? You use a language that corresponds to the structure of the Magic, and then this system converts it into Inscriptions."
Furin thought it over. In theory, the method was feasible, but it wasn’t quite what she imagined when she heard the word "master."
"Understanding the general principles of Magic without learning its true essence... you can’t really call that mastery, can you?"
’She understood this would likely improve the efficiency of developing new Magic, but she didn’t think it would be a quantum leap.’
’Besides, having people with no Magic Power learn the principles of Magic seemed impossible, no matter how you looked at it.’
’Changing the structure of Magic was just another one of Zog’s exaggerations.’
She was very familiar with Zog’s sales pitch. He could take anything even slightly noteworthy and hype it up as a once-in-a-lifetime marvel.
For instance, every few weeks a game would pop up claiming to "give players an unprecedented experience," only to turn out upon release to be little more than a reskin with a few minor innovations.
Zog would just dig his heels in. "Well, it *is* unprecedented, isn’t it? Has anyone ever played this exact game before?"
"For an Ordinary person, just having the opportunity to learn how to create Magic counts as mastering it," Zog answered.
"Don’t underestimate the ingenuity of Ordinary people. The steam technology of today was all built by them. Magic is just another part of the natural world, no different from science."
Furin had to admit, as an incredibly powerful Dragon and a Legendary Mage, she had once looked down on ordinary creatures.
Over the last century, however, that prejudice had been slowly eroding. She had personally witnessed them create numerous feats of engineering that could only be described as miraculous.
’Maybe Magic wasn’t so special after all.’
"So, would the people trained this way be considered Mages, then?"
"Of course they would."
"But they have no Casting ability."
"There’s no rule that says a Mage has to be able to cast, is there?"
Zog’s question stumped Furin. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around the logic.
"You should remember," Zog continued, "back when the division between Schools wasn’t as distinct, only someone who had mastered every School could be called a Mage. Otherwise, they were just an apprentice."
"Later, the Schools split, making it nearly impossible to master all of them. Now, there’s a trend of even further specialization within the Schools. If this continues, Mages from different fields might not even be able to understand each other’s research.
"Increasingly fine specialization is an inevitable result of progress. In that case, adding one more type of Mage—one who only designs Magic but doesn’t cast it—isn’t so strange. If you can’t accept that, how about we call them Magic Programmers?"
’Zog had always suspected that it was the ability to cast that limited the creativity of Mages.’
’Because they could cast, they naturally gravitated toward combat Magic. It was a classic ’my neighbor hoards grain, so I’ll hoard guns’ mentality. If you could win any fight, you could have anything you wanted.’
’This led to the number of combat spells far outweighing practical, everyday ones.’
’And yet, Magic had so much more potential in daily life.’
’People who couldn’t cast, however, likely wouldn’t have that same bias.’
"’Programmer?’" Furin had never heard the word before.
"Yes, think about how much they could contribute to games, and the various functions in the Divine Remains Network," Zog said excitedly.
’He couldn’t wait to usher in the age of magical information.’
Furin nodded, acknowledging the potential of this so-called High Level Magic Language.
"But who will develop it?" she asked.
Normally, this kind of work would fall to her as the chief Illusionist, but she felt she wasn’t capable enough to complete it, and Xiaomo’s team certainly wasn’t up to the task either.
"Do you think that spiel, combined with the proposal, will be enough to convince the Round Table Elders of the Mage Guild?"
Zog revealed his ideal candidates for the development team.
"Probably not enough," Furin replied after a moment’s thought. She’d had far more dealings with those Mages than Zog had. "If you want them to get involved, you’ll need a practical demonstration."
’Practical applications...’ Zog mused, hugging his claws. "Ah! I’ve got it! We’ll do it like this: we’ll prepare a language program demonstration for just one Magic spell..."
「A few days later.」
The Round Table Elders of Twin Tower City gathered at the Zog Group headquarters.
Outside of a general assembly at the Mage Guild, it was rare to see so many top-tier Mages gathered in one place.
Their presence at the Zog Group was largely thanks to the efforts of Saint El, the Chairman.
He was quite enthusiastic about Zog’s ideas.
However, the Chairman couldn’t force the other Elders to do anything. He could only gather them here and hope Zog could broker this unprecedented grand collaboration between Mages.
"I’ve finished my introduction. Does anyone have any questions about the concept of this Magic Language?"
Zog crossed his claws, prepared to field any difficult questions.
But there were no questions. The elders, each holding a copy of the proposal, remained silent.
"Then let’s discuss the collaboration..." Zog began.
Before he could finish, someone spoke up.
"I would very much like to participate in this project, but my apprentices have been researching new applications for the Inscriptions lately, and as their mentor, I must guide them."
"Same here. Traces of a large Bone Dragon were discovered in Angeriel Forest. A Necromancer might be plotting something, so I need to go investigate."
The Elders came up with all sorts of colorful excuses to decline.
Soron had remained silent, his eyes fixed on Zog, whose expression had turned somewhat grave.
’The atmosphere felt a bit off. ’A leopard can’t change its spots,’ Soron thought. ’Is this old Dragon going to resort to brute force now that everyone’s refusing him?’’
Just then, Zog abruptly unfurled a Dragon Language Scroll. In the blink of an eye, a thundercloud coalesced above them, churning with rolling lightning.
Dragon Language Magic: Storm Summoning.
The Protective Shield Soron had been keeping at the ready instantly deployed, and he prepared to activate his escape route.
However, he quickly noticed something was off.
The lightning never struck. Besides, casting Magic like this wasn’t Zog’s style.
He showed no signs of attacking. Instead, he was displaying the Scroll.
It contained only a few short lines of Spells and no complex Inscriptions, a far cry from the number required for Storm Summoning.
"This is...?"
"This is the purpose of the High Level Magic Language. It vastly simplifies the process of constructing Magic, saves on Magic Materials, and makes casually casting High Ring Magic a reality," Zog declared with the flair of a salesman.
"I’m in." While the others were still stunned, Old El was the first to speak up.
Then Soron and Master Xiao Xiong raised their hands.
The others felt like something was off, but they couldn’t quite put their finger on it. Still, Zog’s demonstration was undeniably intriguing, so they too agreed to join, one by one.
And so, the most star-studded team of Mages in the history of the Feilin Continent was officially formed.
