Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree

The plaque on the door was engraved with a line of concise script, "Cecil Astra, Level 5 Mage, Level 5 Arcanist, Deputy Minister of the Arcane Research and Knowledge Management Department."

Duke lightly tapped the door three times, and a calm voice from within said, "Please enter."

He pushed the door open and entered. Inside was a spacious circular study larger than Wilkinson’s Alchemy Room. The walls from floor to ceiling were entirely embedded with bookshelves, densely packed with various styles of books, scrolls, and folders, permeating the air with a sophisticated scent of old paper and magic ink.

Cecil Astra sat behind a wide desk, in front of him, a thick ancient tome opened wide enough to serve as a weapon, a steaming cup of red tea beside him.

He appeared to be in his early forties, with lean features, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, his deep brown short hair meticulously combed, dressed in a tailored dark blue wizard robe, a Silver Thread Badge of a Level 5 Mage pinned on his chest.

The initial impression he gave was gentle yet shrewd, like a seasoned scholar immersed in the library all year round, rather than a high-and-mighty powerhouse.

"Lord Duke, please have a seat." Cecil closed the ancient tome, took off his glasses and placed them on the desk, rubbed the bridge of his nose, then raised his head to look at Duke. His amber pupils shone with a bright curiosity behind the gold-rimmed glasses. "Your consulting application mentioned two issues: one is the bottleneck of the Rule of Water comprehension, and the other is the mismatch of Wind Rules with the spellcasting system. These two issues span widely, yet both are quite intriguing. Especially the second one. Honestly, it’s been a long time since anyone brought such an abstract issue to me. Let’s start with the first one."

Duke sat on the chair opposite the desk and detailed Selena’s situation.

A Level 3 Early-Stage Peak Mage specializing in the Water Attribute had been stagnant in rule enlightenment for decades, having tried methods like retreating into the depths of the polar ice layer without effect.

After listening, Cecil sipped some red tea, set down the cup, crossed his hands on his knee, leaned back into the chair extremely comfortably, and closed his eyes to ponder for a moment.

A few breaths later, he reopened his eyes and pulled out a blank parchment from the desk drawer, picked up a feather pen, and began writing while speaking.

His pace was unhurried, yet his train of thought was extremely clear, each concept logically connected.

"The traits of the Rule of Water differ fundamentally from other elemental rules. The core of Fire Rules is eruption and release, Earth Rules focus on stability and bearing, Wind Rules center on flow and penetration.

But the core of the Rule of Water is infiltration and circulation. It is not still, not a single-point breakthrough, not linear. The problem of your friend likely stems from her extended retreat in such an extreme and singular environment as the polar ice layer, causing her understanding of the Rule of Water to be rigidified in just the form of ice.

Water has three states: solid, liquid, gaseous. If one comprehends the Rule of Water only from the solid state, it is akin to freezing a rushing river into an ice stick. Inevitably, what can be comprehended is incomplete.

My suggestion is to change to a completely different environment to re-sense the Rule of Water. Avoid the poles; go to the tropical sea region, steam-laden hot spring areas, or simply under a waterfall."

Cecil sketched a cycle diagram on the parchment, from liquid water evaporating into gaseous steam, steam condensing into clouds in the high sky, clouds raining back to the ground flowing into rivers, rivers flowing into the sea, sea edges freezing into ice in the poles, ice melting back into the ocean during warm seasons. A complete cycle.

"The essence of the Rule of Water is not the form of water, but its cycle. Let her feel this cycle, jump out of rigid knowledge of a single form, and the bottleneck will naturally loosen."

Duke took the parchment, examined the diagram carefully, and found it contained Wind Attribute Rule Power added by Cecil, which would be very helpful for those practicing Wind Attribute Rules.

Duke then cautiously placed the parchment into the space ring.

Then he raised the issue of Zephiris, framing Zephiris’s perplexity as a purely academic discussion.

Claiming that while consulting some ancient literature, he accidentally encountered a casting system based on syllable and magic power resonance to guide rule power, a system completely different from the mainstream spell model system in the Wizard Plane, though similar attempts indeed existed in certain plane histories, albeit extremely niche.

In this system, casters need not construct a magic model but directly call rule power through fixed spell syllables.

Yet he noticed when this spell system was used to invoke Wind Rules, the response of rule power always deviated from expectations, neither a random error nor finding a fixed pattern.

Duke speculated that perhaps this casting system has some characteristic mismatch in its underlying design with Wind Rules, but could not ascertain the specific reason.

After listening, Cecil did not immediately respond. He took off his gold-rimmed glasses and methodically wiped the lenses with a cloth, a motion that lasted quite a while until the lenses were spotlessly clean, then put them back on and slowly spoke.

His tone was slower than when discussing the Rule of Water, as if considering the precise meaning of each word.

"The spell system you mentioned indeed had researchers in the history of the Wizard Plane, although always very niche. Its core logic uses fixed syllable sequences and magic resonance frequencies to guide rules; its advantage is fast casting speed, low entry threshold, not requiring us to expend time constructing and solidifying magic models as we do. But its flaws are equally apparent: spell syllables are fixed, while the rule itself is alive. Your noticing this system’s special performance in Wind Rules shows you’ve observed carefully."

He stood from behind the desk, moved to a portable alchemy writing board by the wall, picked up a fluorescent pen, and began sketching.

He drew two lines: a straight line labeled as the spell syllable sequence, and a ceaselessly wavering line labeled as the Wind Rule Network.

"Among the six major elemental rules, Wind Rules is the most special. Its essence is not wind, not airflow, not any tangible matter. The essence of Wind Rules is movement. The flow of air itself is the most common manifestation of Wind Rules, but not the only one. Any form of movement—ripples on water, earth’s tremors, circulation of blood—contains the underlying logic of Wind Rules. This means the Wind Rule network is perpetually in dynamic transformation, its change frequency and amplitude far surpassing the other five rules."

He pointed the pen tip at the wavy line: "As for the spell system, serving as a tool to guide rules, its essence is fixed: fixed syllable, fixed magic resonance frequency, and fixed energy release path. Using a fixed form to guide constantly changing rules, deviation is inevitable."

Duke remained silent for a moment after listening, then asked: "Is there a solution?"

Cecil smiled faintly: "Yes, and more than one. The most direct method is to overlay a layer of adaptive adjustment on the perceptual level on spellcasting: not altering the spell itself, but using spiritual power to sense the trend of rule changes in real-time during casting, and making fine-tuning at the moment of magic release.

This requires extremely high precision of spiritual power manipulation, but since they are already Level 3 Mages capable of mobilizing rule power, there’s fair competence available."

Duke then engaged in a deeper discussion with Cecil, meticulously recording every detail of the two issues.

Several hours later.

"Thank you for your insights, Master Cecil," Duke said respectfully.

Cecil merely smiled slightly, saying little else, as it’s simply doing business for payment.

But if Duke were not a member of the Six-Ring Tower, even paying would not guarantee the opportunity to consult a mage of this caliber.

This too is the unique advantage of being part of a great force.

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