Chapter 462: Chapter 459: Tree of Law Iteration
The Tree of Law and the Tower Spirit both grow stronger as the number of Users increases. For the Tree of Law itself, the more nodes that are born, the higher its tier in the Symbolic Realm.
The Tower Spirit, on the other hand, relies on a computational core. There are no real computing machines in the Boundary Land. The Tower Spirit must either connect to real machinery operating in the Material Realm or, as the Tree of Law grows, form fictional computational units among its roots according to the Perfect Blueprint.
In other words, the more the Tree of Law flourishes, the higher the Tower Spirit’s performance becomes. This is a natural consequence. However, the growth benefits to the Tree of Law from an increase in Spell Cloud Users are limited, which in turn limits the extent of the Tower Spirit’s performance improvement. The relationship between Users and performance is one of mutual promotion, but also mutual restriction.
The best way to reduce the strain on the Tower Spirit is to limit the number of times a User can cast. The standard Rorschach currently has the Tower Spirit set is no limit on Zeroth Ring Spells, but for High Tier Spells, the number of uses for each Ring Tier is determined by the Mage’s Level.
The Tree of Law can sense a Caster’s energy level—that is, the three major tiers from Initial Tier to High Tier. This is consistent with the Magic Power levels that a Magic Guild Badge can detect, indicating that it’s a universal law for a Caster’s Endogenous Magic to have three distinct stages.
Drawing from the Guild system, the complete Mage Level is established by subdividing the three major tiers into three minor tiers each. Each level-up grants more spell uses and unlocks higher Ring Tiers. Advancing through the minor levels is also similar to the Guild’s system: submitting one’s own Magic to the Spell Cloud or making other contributions can accumulate Points for promotion.
In essence, access to permissions depends on two dimensions: personal strength and contribution. The principle is the same as the Guild’s. However, while the Guild merely distinguishes Mages of different levels through treatment and honor, the Spell Cloud provides those who advance with tangible improvements.
Regarding the limits on spell usage, following the occult conventions of his previous life, Rorschach set the number of casts to refresh once a day at 4:00 AM, based on the time in the Bayern Kempson Region.
"A Third Level Mage is allowed one Fourth Ring Spell and three Three Ring Spells... The casting limits are quite generous." Feuerbach was helping Rorschach evaluate the system he’d designed. For the average Low Level Caster, casting a Three Ring Spell or higher was no easy feat. They usually required complex Spells or gestures, and at that level, Casting Materials were also generally needed for support.
Rorschach’s system, however, was consistent from Low Tier to High Tier. One only needed to use their Endogenous Magic Power to construct a frequency that would stimulate Magic Power according to a pattern. The actual process of drawing upon ambient Magic was mostly handled by the Tower Spirit.
Through their discussion, the initial rules were finalized. Since Feuerbach himself was a member of the Aurora Elder Council, he was able to offer Rorschach a great deal of reference material for evaluating a Mage’s contributions and designing promotion conditions—essentially, by borrowing from the Magic Guild’s system.
For Andre, Hanna, and the others who had experienced unrestricted Casting, these limits on spell use felt like a downgrade. But Rorschach was also planning to launch an extremely useful new feature: the "Spell Chain."
When the Spell Cloud was first created, the first Magic uploaded—the "Major Accident Reversal Technique"—was a Spell Chain, composed of multiple spells. Back then, however, he had constructed it entirely based on his own casting habits, without clear rules on whether the individual spells should activate in parallel or sequentially.
Now, the "Spell Chain" feature would be refined and standardized. It would allow Users to package multiple spells together and assign them to a timeline. They could be activated in parallel, sequentially according to the timeline’s schedule, or looped within the timeline. The timing for the Casting wouldn’t be based on the Material Realm’s Time Scale, but on the divisions of a timing component within the fictional computational units.
The current Time Scale was 128 units, which Rorschach named "Spell Inscriptions." Most "Descriptors"—the process from a node’s activation to drawing upon ambient Magic Power to produce an effect—required anywhere from 4 to 8 Spell Inscriptions, while more complex Descriptors would take up even more.
To put it simply, specifying that the [Light Technique] should emit blue light would be a description requiring only 1 Spell Inscription. However, using a "Mapping"-type Transformation Magic to retrieve the image of a "cup" from your mind would take about 2 Spell Inscriptions. Constructing a person’s face from the Caster’s memory would need 7 Spell Inscriptions. To transform into Elemental Creatures or Star Realm creatures—assuming the Caster was already sufficiently familiar with the target—the Tower Spirit would still need to gather relevant data from the mind and request the target creature’s essence from the true Original Layer for a match... The final time consumed on the timeline could be 10 Spell Inscriptions, 20, or it could even fail.
Constructing a "Spell Chain" is also restricted by Mage Level. Low Tier Mages of Third Level and below can call upon any Magic they have mastered within the Spell Cloud and are given access to a two-layer timeline. This means they can have a maximum of two spells running in parallel. However, even if the timeline isn’t full, the total number of spells called cannot exceed three. They can only use one Spell Chain per day.
Middle Level Mages are allowed to construct a three-layer timeline, and a single Spell Chain can call upon a maximum of five spells. The highest Ring Tier of the spells called cannot exceed the Fourth Ring. They have two uses per day.
As for Great Mages... any Great Mage who still needs to rely on the Spell Cloud to cast might as well be buried! A Spell Chain cannot accommodate High Tier Magic. A Great Mage of normal skill would naturally possess Casting Techniques that can accomplish what the Tower Spirit provides, so they don’t need it.
Each time a Spell Chain is finalized, the Tower Spirit generates a new frequency sequence—a simplified Casting System—to make the time and difficulty required to cast the Spell Chain as close as possible to that of a single spell.
In Rorschach’s vision, it would be best if "Spell Chain" constructions could also be shared with one another. For example, a creator could publish their Spell Chain on the "Spell Cloud" or record it onto a Scroll, allowing others to "copy their homework."
’If they can be published and acquired on the Spell Cloud, should I call it a "Workshop" or a "Spell Chain Depot"? No, no, no, if I do that, I’d have to figure out how to develop a visual interface for every Spell Cloud User to communicate. Wouldn’t that be like giving everyone their own system panel?’
’And would the Tower Spirit... or rather, would that little imp beat me up for it? After all, its workload would skyrocket with every new feature...’
When Rorschach explained his idea for the Spell Chain to Feuerbach, the Master was conflicted. It was foreseeable that the "Spell Chain" could greatly enhance the versatility and combat power of Low Tier Mages. At the same time, one could imagine that with such a convenient tool, they might no longer bother to study difficult Casting Techniques.
The Thirteen Magic Towers knew the true nature of those Apprentices and most Low Level Mages all too well—a bunch of lazy slobs.
In the words of Rorschach’s previous life: "It works, so just use it. What’s there to complain about?"
The Master still felt a sense of incongruity. After helping Rorschach construct and debug the upcoming changes to the Tree of Law’s new system, he voiced his doubts. "...Rorschach Mage, don’t you think this new system is... very ’un-magical’?"
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