Shades of the New World

Chapter 183: Logic vs Willpower

Evin looked back at Nasst, urging him to continue. The elder seemed to not mind the urging and sat into a more comfortable position. He then pulled out the pair of metal balls and then started to slowly spin them on his hands.

"Well, Let's start from the beginning. Mages can be widely divided into two categories: willpower-based and logic-based. Us logic-based ones would always try to cast our spells in accordance to natural rules, so it's extremely difficult for us to cast spells that don't really conform to natural rules. Obviously, we could cast them by substituting logic with willpower, or in your case, World Sprites, but the spell's fundamentals are always based on logic," Nasst said.

"But the things I can do with magic, they're pretty illogical in and of itself aren't they?" Evin questioned.

"Okay, I'll give you an example. You said that you have trouble with the World of Life, right? I'm guessing that you have to focus on the process a bit for you to heal yourself fully... or maybe it takes a little more mana to work properly. Why do you think it is so?"

"Because I feel that rapid regeneration of muscle and skin tissues; and the reattachment of bones and whatnot are too illogical."

"Great, you also know some biology as well. If so then you should also know that even if you don't do anything, you body will most likely heal itself. Very rarely your body will leave an injury of some sorts without healing it naturally, right?" Nasst asked smilingly.

"I suppose so."

"That's most likely the logical foundation that your subconscious creates to help cast your spell. You're just using some mana and your willpower to quicken this natural process a bit. Another example would be your Dark Room. I don't know the exact logical chain you create when you cast the spell, but the most likely one I can think of is the absence of light. Shadow in itself is the absence of light. That would be your logical foundation. So, if you want to make a dark spot bigger, you can simply imagine something invisible in the air, blocking out the sunlight thus creating a shadowy spot," Nasst said, his hands on his chin.

'Well, actually, I think of the absorption of light when I try to create a dark spot, since if I simply imagine something blocking the air, it would still be decently illuminated by the surrounding things reflecting light onto the spot that lacks sunlight' Evin retorted in his head. 

'Instead of something like that, I just imagine a thin layer of a material that absorbs light extremely well as the walls and the floor of the Dark Room This way I can move it around a bit easier as well'

After experimenting a bunch, this was the best method he came up with. If he tried to make the spell work without thinking about it like this, most of the time, he would end up failing horribly.

But thinking about the subject made him realize something else.

"Then what about willpower-based mages? You mean to say that they only use their willpower to fuel their spells?" Evin found it very hard to believe. 

"I know that it seems baffling to you, but you do realize that almost 80% of humanoid mages cast their spells like this, right?" Nasst shook his head.

"What?! Why?" Evin asked, unable to contain the confusion in his head. He really didn't know why this bothered him so much. He felt like someone told him that there are actual real people who would rather swim through a river since the bridge is only 99% safe.

"Ha-ha, I knew this would bother you very much. Aside from the Cosmics, who are practically all logical mages, most of the human mages don't really understand how science works," Nasst laughed loudly.

"But it's so inefficient" Evin muttered under his breath.

"This is why the spells of willpower-based mages are extremely weak in their earlier levels of magehood. You should understand that willpower is a quantifiable measurement for mages. If you have to use a lot of your willpower for too many things at one time, you're probably going to fail at your spell more often than not. This is also the reason willpower-based mages prefer to focus on only one or two Worlds. Any more than that, their willpower starts to become lacking. Which also leads to them lacking mana in general. After all, spells created with mostly willpower usually require a lot of mana. They can offset this disadvantage by implementing runes in their spells, but it really doesn't help too much." Nasst shrugged.

"Wait, wait, I need to think about this a bit," Evin waved his hands, still very pissed off for whatever reason.

'Wait, does this mean that Arza casts his magic like this? Is that why his every spell other than the World of Life are so shit? Now that I think about it, every mage that I fought against seemed to have pretty shitty spells, huh' Evin thought, once again reminded of his past fights. 

"But why is it like that? Surely it isn't that hard to teach mages about natural sciences from their young age so they can be more cost-effective with their spells?" Evin asked.

"Tell me, did anyone ever tell you how nature worked after you became a mage? Open up any book for beginner mages and you'll see that it just tells you to fill your mana-core with a World energy and then imagine the desired effect. None of them include anything concrete about how wind and flame works in reality."

"But it tells us to imagine something, right? Shouldn't mages imagine something believable so it's easier for them to create their desired effects?" Evin asked.

"The way you imagine things, and the way a willpower-based mage imagines a thing are completely different things. You imagine something logical with a hint of something magical, while what they imagine would be something completely magical," Nasst explained.

"But they could just go and ask a scientist of some sorts about how things work, right? Don't tell me the Four Countries ban anything related to natural science as well," Evin asked, sighing gloomily.

"Of course they don't. But they don't have to inform the mages and it's not like mages would think of doing that by themselves. After all, they're assuming that their willpower-based spells are working perfectly fine. Unless of course, they're naturally a logic-based mage and are really struggling with willpower-based spellcasting. But even in those cases, they would first think of asking their seniors or teachers, before thinking of searching for a commoner scientist."

"And since this process is beneficial for the Four Countries, who could give the required information by exchanging it for merits, so it's unlikely that they will change how it works," Evin realized and then wondered how he would end up if he didn't have access to the information he possessed.

"Exactly. The people on the top like clever underlings but they don't like it when they're too smart," Nasst sighed before continuing: "I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you this, but I encourage you to not spread this information too widely, yeah? It's probably fine to share it with your family and close friends, but any more than that, well"