Chapter 811: Difference between Magecraft and Magic
He has to admit it, he didn't think a True Ancestor's compatibility with mana would be this great.
In just one hour, the magical ripples of mana started boiling around him, stirring the air around him.
He's a true ancestor who were born to use magic. With all honesty, a vampire's affinity with magic beats most any other lifeforms.
With Mana cultivation (Master), his mana already surged past Kaya and Sylphs, talented magicians who trained for decades. It took him almost no time to reach mana levels only devoted magicians can achieve at tier 9.
At this rate, his mana pool will be the greatest in Silvaria.
It's not just mana quantity, his mana's quality is also superb. Like dou qi, mana quality were affected by the mana cultivation technique of the practitioner. With poor technique, the cultivator can only experience so much growth, his/her mana will also be of crude quality. In order to effectively use spells, they would have to refine their mana, wasting more time. The higher the mana cultivation technique, the less time spent on refining mana as the mana gathered will be of higher quality.
With the best mana cultivation technique, every wisp of mana he gathered had the highest tier quality, as such, he doesn't need to refine the mana. Instead, he can focus purely on increase his mana pool. This is also the reason why an ability used to gather mana cost him 1,000 Ability points, a whooping 100,000 points pre-update.
As time ebbed on, the room is already on the verge of collapsing from the sheer force generated from his mana cultivation. The furnitures were haphazardly blown about while the mana storm looked like it's not stopping anytime soon.
At this rate, the room will surely be destroyed.
This mess was created by his mana cultivation, not an active spell. Certainly, his Mana Cultivation (Master) played a part. however, his identity as a True Ancestor also made this a positive-feedback loop that caused this scene. In Silvaria, he's probably the first person to generate a local storm by mana cultivation.
When the wind speed reached tornado-level, the magical ripples calmed down. The mana storm also retreated back into Wu Yan's body, reducing the wind velocity around him. When Wu Yan integrated the mana, this anomaly stopped, leaving a very messy room in its wake. This room is going to need a major renovation given the amount of damage.
Wu Yan slowly opened his eyes. His deep red eyes glinted with a golden glow. His brilliant eyes were now filled with a luster that made him look deeper than before.
It's like he's a beast who hid in the abyss, hiding its talons.
Wu Yan sensed the turbulent mana within him and he stretched his back with a satisfied sigh.
"Yeah, True Ancestors and mana matched so well. If I used another energy source, I don't think I can achieve a similar feat no matter how talented I am. At least, I would need half a year to do what I did in an hour, right?"
Wu Yan felt the soothing sensation of a job well-done.
It's not to say he laid around doing nothing in the past. Rather, his True Ancestor body of the past only had immortality, he can still feel hunger, thirst, and other needs of an average human. It felt like he's just a bit special.
Now, with mana suffusing his body, he can feel a great increase in his physical abilities, endurance, and a sense of power unlike anything before.
He turned his attention back towards the ability menu.
With mana checked, how is he going to use his giant mana pool?
Mana can be spent on various activities. For one, he can use it to boost his physical abilities. However, a better way to use mana would be to use spells or magic!
The magic in the System differed from what Silvaria natives called magic.
Magecraft is just an alternate method to do something humans can achieve with technology or advanced science.
For instance, a magician can use spells and magecraft to build a tower in 10 seconds. Humans would need days or years to do something similar, magecraft, in other words, is a more efficient method to do something humans can already do.
Humans can make fire, magicians can make fire too but humans can only use fire in specific ways and in controlled environments. Meanwhile, magicians can manipulate fire to a greater extent. Magecraft is just using mana to do what can be achieved with current or future technology and sciences.
In Silvaria, Sylph and Lulu are ice magicians while Kaya is a wind magician. However, by the System's definition, the magic they used can only be classified as magecraft.
True magic, or simply, magic is something greater than magecraft. Magic can realize miracles unachievable by technology or science even if given enough time and resources. Magecraft cannot realize miracles and that's why it's not magic.
Magic are miracles like time-manipulation, resurrecting the dead. Humans can never do something like that no matter how far science progress. That's the domain of magic.
That is the most crucial difference between magecraft and magic.
If humans can do the same thing using technology, it's magecraft when done with mana.
If humans cannot do the same thing with technology, but mana can be used to pull off miracles, that's magic.
Mana can also be used for purposes other than magecraft and magic. However, mana is inextricably linked to those two practices. Wu Yan chose to study these two mysterious paths as a result.
There are multiple spells (magecraft) in the System. Wu Yan can't buy them all so it would be best if he can buy a package or buy them all in one fell swoop.
In the Skills sub-page, there is one ability that fit this bill just right!
Index Librorum Prohibitorum (103,000 grimoires): An ability stemming from [A certain Magical Index], it's a collection of magecrafts, magic, and mystical arts gathered from all over the world. Regarded as a body of knowledge, the user will be able to freely access its content and use it at the cost of one's sanity. After conversion to an ability, this mind-corrupting effect will be nullified leaving only the knowledge of the 103,000 grimoires at the user's disposal.
Cost: 15,000 Ability points.
Wu Yan had two initial thoughts, the peculiarity and the sky-high cost of this skill caught his attention.
103,000 grimoires should be physical books, right? Classifying it in items or equipment would be more accurate than making it a skill, no?
As for price, well, after buying it, he will only be left with 1,000 points, isn't that just a massive pin to the behind?
Granted, it had a solid reason to justify the hefty price. Buying it grants the user access to the contents of all 103,000 grimoires. With magic, spells, and mystical arts gathered from all over the world, Wu Yan would need to worry about if he can use all the spells in here than the question of would he run out of magical options. If the 103,000 grimoires are treated as a body of knowledge that can be imprinted into him and used as skill, he can understand why it's sold here.
Wu Yan just wanted to gripe about the 15,000 ability points price tag.
"Screw it, the pool of knowledge is worth it..."
Wu Yan bit the bullet and he pressed "Buy".
Then, a deluge of memories and knowledge entered his mind...