Chapter 11 The Nature of Magic

After the conversation with William and Elena on Christmas night, Bell no longer cared about these things. He believed that his parents could do better than himself.

Bell focused on spending time with his sister at home. As for William's subsequent requests to take Bell to banquets, Bell basically rejected them. Only for some important banquets that he couldn't avoid, Bell would take Shanna with him.

Before I knew it, more than half a year had passed since the Christmas party. Although Bell is busy playing with his sister every day, during his free time, he will work hard to learn magic knowledge and practice casting spells.

After such a long period of study and thinking, Bell also had his own understanding of magic and spells.

Bell has seen a question in many magic books: 'What is the nature of magic? ’

Many powerful wizards have thought deeply about this question, but no one has ever come up with a clear answer.

Bell was very puzzled by this. It's obviously such a simple question, why do they think so complicated? What else could the essence of magic be?

Suppose someone asks you: 'What is the nature of human beings? ’

So of course the answer cannot be 'repeat machine', let alone 'really fragrant'.

To answer this question, just hand the other person a mirror and look at it for yourself. What? can't read? Then give up treatment. The brain is actually not a good thing. As long as you give it up, you can become very happy.

Therefore, the essence of magic is, of course, ‘magic power’! Or you can put it in a more detailed way: it’s a kind of... power called ‘magic’!

And wizards are humans who control this power.

In Bell's view, the so-called wizards are different from the general magicians introduced in the novels and animations he had read in his previous life. And magic power is different from the mana, spiritual power, elemental power or arcane power used by magicians in the general sense.

If we had to find a power with similar properties from Bell's memory, maybe we could say that magic is closer to...the Force?

When Bell uses magic, he does not need to build any magic model, nor does he need to communicate with external elements and other energy. He does not even need to consciously mobilize the magic power in his body.

All he needs to do is clarify his thoughts, strengthen his beliefs, and pass them on to the magic in his body. Then the magic will respond to his request and achieve it.

This is also the reason why many spells require the wizard to have corresponding strong emotions when casting them.

Take transfiguration, for example. It can be said that transfiguration is the earliest, simplest and most complex magic that wizards come into contact with. In the first chapter of the Transfiguration textbook for first-year students at Hogwarts, "The Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration," it talks about how to turn a match into a needle.

It is obviously unrealistic to expect a group of 11-year-old wizards to analyze the structure of wood, sulfur, metal, etc. and perform deformation. So how is the deformation achieved?

Bell didn't know either, but it had just changed.

Casting the transformation spell is actually very simple. As long as you have the concept of "needle" in your mind, and recall this concept while casting the transformation spell, you can transform the match.

However, there is no guarantee whether it will be successful or not. And even if the transformation is successful, the transformation speed will be very slow. As for the final transformed needle, there is no guarantee of its material. Even the needle transformed twice may have different shapes and materials.

If you want to increase the success rate of transformation and speed up the transformation, you must have a more detailed understanding of the concept of 'needle'.

Find a needle at random, touch it, lick it, look at it, and prick yourself twice.

As long as it is penetrated deep enough, the success rate and speed of deformation are guaranteed to be greatly improved. This is because the thoughts received by the magic power have become more accurate.

Of course, the best way to improve the transformation technique is to use magic power to analyze the structure and properties of the 'needle', and to firmly imprint the results of the analysis in your mind. In that case, it is guaranteed to be able to transform into an identical needle in an instant.

However this is not simple. At least at Bell's current level, even if it's just a small 'needle', he can't completely analyze it, and further rigorous training is needed.

In Bell's rough understanding: 'The learning of transfiguration is an analysis of the world; and the learning of magic spells is a reference to the experiences and lessons summed up by predecessors. ’ So if a wizard wants to become powerful, he must continue to use magic.

At the same time, Bell also discovered the reason why wizards must use wands to cast spells: 'The magic power can only receive the wizard's thoughts in the wizard's body.'

In order for magic power to fulfill the wizard's wishes, it must undergo changes in form and nature. For example, if a wizard wants to summon flames, the magic power must change in nature based on the wizard's understanding of the concept of 'fire'. And this process must be carried out in the wizard's body.

The wizard is not a fire dragon, and the consequences of having flames in his body will obviously not be wonderful. So wizards need wands to help cast spells.

The wand can be thought of as an extension of the wizard's body. The wizard can transfer the transformation process that should be carried out in the body to the wand, so that many magics can be successfully cast.

In order to perform wandless spellcasting, at least one of the following two conditions must be met.

First, powerful magic control.

Even if the magic power is transformed within the body, it can still avoid harming the body by relying on precise control of the magic power.

Second, a strong body.

The powerful here does not refer to strength, agility, etc., but to the tolerance and adaptability of magic.

As the wizard continues to use magic, the magic power will continue to flow within the body. The flowing magic passively strengthens the wizard's body. When this kind of enhancement accumulates to a certain level, even if the magic power is transformed in the body, it will no longer cause harm to the body.

Due to his experiences in the past few years, Bell's control over magic power has surpassed that of most wizards, and he only needs to continue training every day. So Bell set his goal on physical strengthening. Passive strengthening was too slow and too passive. He decided to actively promote magic to strengthen the body, and this will also be his main research direction in the future.

"Brother...brother..."

Bell's thoughts were interrupted by little Zannah's call.

The brother and sister were staying in Shanna's room. Bell sat on the ground reading a book, and Shanna leaned on Bell quietly and played with the doll obediently. This has become their daily routine, and everything looks so warm.

"What's wrong? Shanna?"

Bell rubbed Zannah's head lovingly, not minding that her thoughts were interrupted at all.

"The bear's head fell off."

Shanna pouted and handed the teddy bear to her brother.

Bell took the teddy bear. The teddy bear's head looked like it had been accidentally twisted off.

Picking up his wand, Belle used her silent spellcasting skills to cast a repair spell, put the teddy bear's head back on, and handed it back to Zannah.