Chapter 329: Fernando's Questions
All the sorcerers present were at least of senior-rank, although Lucien's description remained rather blurry, they knew immediately how important and meaningful his finding was.
Both Thompson and Lacie Carter, for a moment, felt the situation was a little like a dream. This was Lucien's first time attending their gathering, and he shocked them already with his findings in the field of Illusion and Electromagnetics. Lucien was a geniu, they knew that, but wasn't it a bit too much? In their memory, only a few grand arcanists once had similar experiences. However, Illusion and Electromagnetics were not the fields Lucien specialized in!
"After Lauren has accepted Energy Essentialism, he once thought of the possibility that human being's thinking was actually an outcome of a dual effect of electric current and magnetic field. But his researches are everywhere, and he hasn't been able to focus on one direction when being busy with preaching to people that the problems in Energy Essentialism, in fact, are not true. If he had stuck to his Brain-Electromagnetic Field Theory, he should have accomplished something big already," commented the Lord of Storm. Obviously, his words were quite sarcastic. After all, his friend, Lauren, just missed the opportunity of further improving the system of arcana.
It was ridiculous that Lauren stuck to Energy Essentialism when the theory itself still had so many problems that could not be explained.
Then, Fernando looked at Lucien and said, "Give us more details on your finding. We can make a bold assumption, but at the same time, careful verification is always the key part."
When it came to arcana, Fernando had zero sense of humor. Unlike Lucien's first impression on him in the library—a creepy little old man in the bright red magic robe—right now, the Lord of Storm looked rather serious and calm, and the pace of his speaking was very moderate. Fernando did not get all excited like the students when hearing that there were probably special brain waves in human being's brain.
In such a gathering held by Fernando, Lucien had no worries. None of the other students would try to steal his research outcome. Also, Lucien did not worry at all that his teacher, Fernando, the Lord of Storm, would take it away from him, as Fernando was way more keen on pursuing the ultimate truth of this world instead of the reputation like soap bubbles.
"By chance, I got part of the Book of Necromancy. From a part of the structure of the spell Charm Person, I learned that it works partially on human being's soul. However, I wondered how the other part works. After a long time studying, and again, by chance, I compared the structure of Charm Person to that of Mechanized Mind, and I found some similarities between them. Then I worked on improving the spell, Charm Person, and I succeeded."
Lucien introduced with confidence. In fact, he changed the order of how he got the finding. Bringing the knowledge from his world with him, Lucien could find the similarities in the two spells because he had been already aware of the truth and thus he had the accurate theoretical guidance first. However, in his words, he explained the process by inverting the order and following the common methodology of doing arcana research, which was very acceptable to the rest of the arcanists present.
"Like I said, 'by chance' is a large part of the reason why I've found the direction, so I must say I'm very lucky. But at that time, although I've created a new spell that works based on my assumption, I was not able to understand the meaning behind my finding, thus I've been working on studying the spell for a long time, until one day I came to know Electromagnetic Wave Theory..."
Fernando slightly nodded without making any corrections, which was rare, and he let Lucien continue to speak. Lucien was not the only one - in fact, many arcanists were lucky enough and they had also created new spells by chance, but most of them failed to dig into the true reasons underneath the spells, and thus they missed lots of valuable findings.
"I was in a total mess. I found the existence of the very weak electric current in the human body, and I also spotted the special waves sent out by a human brain. I did have clues but always failed to connect them together. Then, the dream from Nightmare King and his perception of dream inspired me. In today's meeting, the words from Mr. Lauren that human body, in fact, consists of energy and electromagnetic waves is the evidence that touched me, and the research outcome from Ms. Isabella has shocked me. I finally realized what is behind the new spell that I created. When encountering different situations, a human brain can produce different special waves, stimulating body to produce the special alchemical substance found by Ms. Isabella, thus emotions and feelings are brought out," said Lucien. He said a lot of things, and he did it in an illogical way to show the fact that he was totally unprepared.
Fernando nodded seriously, "So you've found the electric current in the human body and the special electromagnetic waves. Anything about the magnetic field of the human brain?"
"Nothing yet. Maybe the requirements for finding it are too high, and the interference in my experiment environment was too strong." Lucien shook his head.
"I see. Then how many kinds of the special electromagnetic waves did you find? What are their corresponding functions?"
"There are several... By adjusting their intensity, it is obvious that..." Lucien briefly introduced what kind of emotion and illusion could be brought up by each kind of waves.
Looking rather serious, Fernando asked Lucien many questions. Lucien gradually felt more and more nervous and started to stammer.
Finally, Fernando made his comment, "There are so many kinds of feelings and emotions owned by human beings. It is hard for the several brain waves that you mentioned to direct all of them. You still have a long way to go on this. But you should still develop a paper on this as soon as possible, so more people can join the discussion and exploration. If you don't mind, why not show us the two versions of your Charm Person?"
"Try it on me!!" The dragon Alferris jumped up. It was a big fan of Illusion magic that worked on one's mind and spirit.
Thompson released a sigh and said to it, "Alferris, we're talking about Charm 'Person', not a dragon..."
"Ohh... That's right..." Alferris looked at them in an innocent manner, with his tail swinging back and forth.
After Lucien cast the two versions of Charm Person, Fernando slightly nodded and said, "Your practice has surpassed the progress of your theory. Using the improved spell, your theory shall be more acceptable. Many sorcerers who are good at Illusionary spells are rather conservative. Although they accept arcana, many of them are not willing to let arcana explain Illusionary spells since they regard themselves as 'nobler' than mages from other schools. But they do have their reasons. Those sorcerers enjoy the high social status and are very powerful, and they have lots of students. They control the direction of the development of the school of Illusion."
Lucien nodded seriously. He knew that the growth of any advanced theories would be challenged, which was always the same in both worlds.
After the examination of a series of questions from Fernando, Ashikana stopped looking at Lucien like a monster. She smiled and said, "Evans, you can probably share the Laurel with Isabella, as long as those fuddy-duddies from the Family of Sorcerer can accept your idea."
"My theory is far from being fully developed since it still has many problems. It's gonna be very difficult for me to win the Laurel. Ms. Isabella is very well prepared, and I'm sure she's got enough support and evidence," said Lucien honestly.
When hearing the word, Laurel, Alferris suddenly turned around and stared at Lucien with its big, amber-colored eyes. Then it reached out its two front claws and laid them on Lucien's shoulder. At the same time, Alferris licked Lucien's right hand with its red tongue in a very intimate manner. Lucien directly jumped back and activated the Absorbing Wall, feeling startled.
Alferris continued to lick the magic wall, and the wall was shaking under the dragon's strength.
"Add my name on your paper after you, sir... May I?" Alferris swung its tail covered with crystal scales and said very sincerely.
Lucien wondered if Alferris was, in fact, a puppy. Fernando was definitely a bit out of his mind like other arcanists said. He had trained his dragon like a dog. However, it seemed that Alferris also enjoyed it.
Fernando made a fake cough and said, "Alferris, go back to your seat. Cole, it's your turn now."
Alferris withdrew its claws and tongue reluctantly and hurriedly added, "I'm really good at mind, spirit, and soul spells. I'm of senior-rank, and I can fight physically as well. I am fine with you dressing me in whatever way you like. I can play with your students or kids. I can write papers and do math for you, also experiments! I can help you send letters and flowers to ladies..."
Cole waited until Alferris finished his wordy self-promotion. Before he started to share, he first said to Lucien, "Evans, Mr. Lauren's words in the letter about the fact that human body consists of energy is not rigorous, since there's zero evidence. Even though the human brain can produce electromagnetic waves, it doesn't mean that Energy Essentialism is accurate. Human brain is complicated. You can't easily believe in Energy Essentialism."
"I won't. I believe in evidence," Lucien responded.
Cole slightly nodded and started to share his research on investigating the second law of Thermodynamics using Probability and Statistics. Also, he said that he had been spending much time arguing with people who believed in Energy Essentialism. Cole himself was a loyal supporter of Atom Foundation Theory. He looked a bit depressed when mentioning this part.
"Put aside the argument first, Cole. Focus on your research," Fernando commented very briefly but did not give Cole any harsh words or questions.
"You're right, sir." Cole was relieved that his teacher did not give him a hard time and thus he looked a bit more cheerful.
Later, Thompson shared with the class the difficulties that he was encountering now with his study regarding high temperature, while Alferris shared how it felt as a research subject.
"Lucien, so you come here every morning to help me with the experiment on thermal radiation. You can spend time in the afternoon trying to reach the fifth circle," Fernando said at the end of the meeting.
...
When leaving the thirty-third floor of the magic tower, Alferris waved its front paw to say goodbye to Lucien. It had forgotten what it had promised Ashikana. So, Ashikana dragged it to the lab.
Lucien went back home directly. He was going to update his badges when he submitted the new paper.
As soon as he came back, Lucien saw Leo walking toward him.
"Master, Mr. Arthur Doyle is waiting for you in the living room. It seems that you've been invited by the prince," said Leo.