Time flew by as Eldrian and Ziraili spoke. And the more they spoke, the better Eldrian came to understand that the complexity of things depended on how you looked at them. Just as Ziraili had said.
A rock, for example, is just that. A rock. However, you could ask what type of rock it is. How it was formed, what type of structure it has, the size of its grains, and so forth. These all add to the definition of the rock. But, in the end, it remains a rock.
'She's still holding back,' Eldrian thought. He was still struggling to accept the notion as it was. So he wasn't mad that she was going slow for him to follow. However, he knew there was a better method.
She could force all this information into his head. Share a telepathic link with everything he needed to know. Though... that might fry his brain.
Eldrian was glad that she wasn't resorting to it, and not for fear of his brain frying. He wasn't sure why she wasn't, but it allowed him to contemplate things as they talked. To make the knowledge his own. And he appreciated that, even if it slowed things down a bunch.
It made sense, yes. However, a rock included all that complicated information too. You can't say it is a rock if it doesn't have some sort of micro-structure with grains and stuff. It wasn't that a rock was simple or complicated. It was both at the same time.
The things which made it one, or the other, were how you looked at it. With magic, however, this didn't quite hold true.
The Tier of a spell actually limited the complexity found. Tier 0-4 spells, for example, wouldn't have any micro-structure. Take a microscope to it, and you won't find anything.
Yet, to the eye, it will look like the element it was copying. Frost Needle, for example, appeared just like ice. However, Ziraili had proven it wasn't by having Eldrian cast the spell and then having him use a microscope to investigate it.
Just as she had said, there was nothing there. No water, no ice, no crystals. It was like the ice he was holding didn't exist. Even though it was cooling his hand and was clearly within his sights.
He could see the mana—if he used Mana Sense. But even then, it had no structure to it.
Higher spells better reflected reality. Tier 5 and 6 he had to start imagining the structure of the element. In return, when zooming in on these spells, they actually have structure. However, this again only holds up to the level of detail related to the Tier of spell.
Zoom too far, and all you will see is mana without structure. And only if you are using an ability or spell to see mana. Else, you won't see a thing.
Tier 5 and 6 were the transition stages. With static casting, they included having fast amounts of information encoded in the spell modules. With Dynamic, things were less clear.
As a result, spells in these Tiers could differ vastly. Spells generally rely on three components. Vision, mana, composition. As long as two of the three were satisfied, and the third not completely disregarded, the spell should complete.
The result would still be lackluster if one of the three was lacking, but the spell wouldn't disperse into the surroundings. Nor would it backfire.
"That, however, is because of the abundant nature of mana on Gaia. The same won't hold true on Earth." Ziraili warned, and Eldrian nodded.
He hadn't tried casting high Tiered spells due to the mana cost, but he understood that it would be difficult. The lower the mana density around you, the easier a spell would disperse into the surroundings.
Not only did more ambient mana stabilize a spell, it also altered it. It would fix what you miss, bringing the thing to what it should be. Like fixing an anomaly in nature.
Tier 7 was where the structure really became important. Not only do you need to include the structure of the element, but also the molecules that makes it up.
'I've been thinking of water molecules for Tier 6 spells, but I guess that's wrong. Or rather, that's why Ziraili called it flexible. The micro-structure I envisioned was lacking, but included my earthen knowledge of what a water molecule is fixed it. And then the ambient mana helped me succeed.'
Which also explained why Eldrian was struggling more with fire magic. Since he didn't fully understand how fire existed—on a micro-scale—he couldn't properly cast the spells. Shockingly, he understood lightning better, which was supposed to be more complicated.
With all this knowledge, it was clear to him now why it is important to understand the playful nature of simplicity and complexity.
With mastery, you can cast highly advanced spells by relying on a simplistic understanding of a complex system. And when lacking mastery, you will instead fall into the complex system and soon become lost. As Eldrian often found himself when trying to envision the entire structure of a spell.
It was simply too much for his mind to create in one step. However, he didn't need to. He could separate and segregate what he should focus on. Instead of brute forcing things with magic minds or similar ideas, Eldrian simply had to simplify things.
"Understand the underlying nature of what you are casting, and you can ignore the complex reality. The nature of the thing will fill in its own complex reality. Like a formula, it will describe reality in a simplistic nature that is easier to understand."
Naturally, this was easier said than done. And Eldrian lacked the knowledge. He could still wing it with his current knowledge base for now, but for higher Tier spells, it was going to become increasingly difficult. After all, Tier 9 required inclusion of atoms, and Tier 10 subatomic particles.
Eldrian had no idea how he would need to envision them to produce the needed effects. However, from today's talk, he realized he didn't need to actually envision each particle. What he truly needed to envision was the nature of the atoms, and what the effect of said nature was on the thing as a whole.
Eldrian wanted to question how a society without the knowledge of atoms were able to create spells reliant on that knowledge. However, that question was less important to Eldrian at the moment. And he already had an inclining of how.
After all, you needed only understand the nature of the thing you are casting. Just like Eldrian had never seen an atom with his eyes, the ones who made these spell didn't need to see them to know that something was causing some sort of affect.
Experimentation would be enough for them to reate some data, and from that, they can develop spells. There is no need for them to know what exactly is causing the effects. Only that something more exits.
Eldrian considered it kind of like the relationship between mass, weight, density, and other properties. You needn't know what the density of an object is to find its weight. You can find the properties without knowing everything.
However, since everything is intertwined, knowing more is beneficial. But that doesn't mean it isn't possible to get the right answer with the wrong data. And as long as you properly group everything, then the wrong data becomes less and less important.
Since you would focus on the answers instead of the methodology. And if the answers were wrong, then the spells would naturally not work. 'Kind of a blind approach, but my attempts aren't much better.'
At least, this is how Eldrian assumed spells were developed normally. A path which he shied away from due to all the math required.
Sadly, they had never returned to the topic of lifeforce. And that was now more important to Eldrian than asking more about this.
"What of lifeforce?" He asked, not satisfied. The lesson had started with it. How could they end it without discussing it?
"You've certainly explained a lot today." Eldrian pressed. "And I get it. But this is all in relation to standard magic. Magic cast with mana. What about auras and bloodlines? What is lifeforce in relation to all this?"
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l