Chapter 7: Genuine Knowledge Comes from Practice

Master Laurie kept clicking his tongue in wonder as he circled Alice. The female Swordsman stood with her sword in hand, looking rather awkward, while Xiahou Yan stood nearby with his arms crossed, his face written with impatience.

"So, what do you think is going on here?" Xiahou Yan asked, seeing Master Laurie stroking his beard in deep thought. "Why was Captain Alice resurrected into this state?"

Master Laurie raised his head, looked at his Lord seriously, and solemnly answered, "I don’t know."

What a punchable old face that was. Xiahou Yan felt a sudden surge of anger rising in his chest.

But before the Lord could lash out, Master Laurie pinched his chin, looked back at Alice, and mused, "Based on my judgment, there seems to have been some deviation in your Resurrection Technique, causing Captain Comstock to be in a liminal state between the living and the dead—look!"

The Elder Mage reached out a hand that resembled a withered branch and snapped his fingers with a crisp sound in front of Alice.

Under Xiahou Yan’s astonished gaze, a gray mist suddenly surged out of Alice’s facial features, then gathered into a floating sphere of mist around her cheek. The female Swordsman, who knew nothing about Magic, was initially a little afraid, but seeing that Lord Eliot made no move, she quickly calmed down.

"This is..." Xiahou Yan frowned as he looked at the sphere of gray mist.

"This is Magic Power with the Nether Attribute that I extracted from her body," Master Laurie said in a deep voice. "So-called Necromancy, just like any other Magic, is a method of manipulating Magic Power of a specific attribute. And the Resurrection Technique in Undead Magic is essentially infusing Netherworld Magic Power into a corpse, thereby transforming it into a ’zombie’ driven by Magic Power."

The Elder Mage paused and cautiously continued. "Lord Eliot, as you can see, Captain Alice has had no heartbeat since you resurrected her. This is impossible for a living person, as we always need the heart to pump blood and supply nutrients to support the body’s operations. If my guess is correct, Captain Alice’s body is currently not supported by blood pumped by the power of a heart like a living person; but rather, something else is driving her blood, muscles, and various bodily functions..."

"Netherworld Magic Power?" Xiahou Yan guessed the answer.

"Yes!" Master Laurie asserted. "At present, the reason why Captain Alice’s body can continue to function is that she was infused with Netherworld Magic Power by your Resurrection Technique! Her every movement now consumes Magic Power, not nutrients obtained from food! In this regard, her way of survival is no different from that of a zombie, so the Resurrection Technique still achieved its theoretical effect!"

After blurting out his conclusion in one breath, Master Laurie immediately frowned again. "But what I don’t understand is... why does Captain Alice still possess emotions, memories, and the ability to act independently like a normal human? When a person dies, their soul perishes completely. At best, the effect of Magic can only manipulate a human corpse to move, but it is impossible to restore a self-conscious soul..."

Master Laurie’s muttering made Alice dizzy. The female Captain of the Guard, who had spent her entire life practicing Swordsmanship, knew absolutely nothing about these Magic studies.

She looked at her Lord for help, only to find that Lord Eliot was lost in thought, just like the Master.

She rolled her eyes, silently complaining about these nerdy Mages.

"Furthermore, apart from this, I’ve discovered an even bigger anomaly!" Master Laurie suddenly turned to Xiahou Yan, glaring at the Lord with piercing eyes.

"Wh-What is it?" Xiahou Yan felt inexplicably guilty.

"When you were at the Mage Academy, what was your score on your final Magic Power test?"

His Magic Power test score? Xiahou Yan searched Eliot Igor’s memories and soon recalled a peculiar scene.

Eliot Igor was standing in the exact center of a circular hall, surrounded by Mages wearing pointed high hats and long Magic Robes. In front of Eliot was a blue crystal ball half the height of a person. The sphere was translucent, its smooth surface reflecting the countless candles in the hall, while its interior was filled with crisscrossing crystal threads.

Under the instruction of a white-bearded Mage, Eliot pressed his palm against the crystal ball; subsequently, the crystal threads inside began to flash incessantly.

When the flashing stopped, the vast majority of the crystal threads had dimmed, but a portion of them steadily displayed a bright light, resembling strands of silver hair.

"One thousand and twenty-four Pates!" the white-bearded Mage counted the crystal threads in the ball and announced loudly to everyone. "Tier Two!"

"I remember I’m a Tier Two Mage," Xiahou Yan said, snapping out of his memories to answer Master Laurie’s question.

"You see," Master Laurie said calmly. "The ranks of a Mage are divided into nine tiers. With every tier crossed, the amount of Magic Power in one’s body increases tenfold. You are now a Tier Two ’Novice Mage,’ while I am a Tier Five ’Junior Mage’—but do you know what minimum Mage tier is required for the level of Magic represented by the ’Ten Great Forbidden Spells,’ such as the Resurrection Technique?"

"Tier Two?" Xiahou Yan thought that since he could cast the Resurrection Technique himself, the requirements for this Spell couldn’t be too high, right?

"It’s Tier Seven! A Tier Seven ’Senior Mage’!" Master Laurie irritably held up seven fingers. "A Mage below Tier Seven could never possibly succeed in Casting a grandmaster-level Magic like the Resurrection Technique!"

A certain Tier Two Mage opened his mouth. "But... when I was at the academy, I successfully resurrected a cockroach!"

"Do you think resurrecting a bug is as difficult as resurrecting a human?" Master Laurie cast a sidelong glance at the Lord.

Xiahou Yan fell silent.

Indeed, according to Eliot Igor’s memories, his research into Forbidden Magic at school was mostly out of boredom, and he hadn’t expected to achieve anything in that field. One of the main reasons was that Casting Forbidden Magic often required the support of an immense amount of Magic Power, and Eliot, with only a Tier Two Magic Power level, obviously couldn’t meet this requirement.

Looking back now, when he resurrected the cockroach, the Magic Power in Eliot’s body had been completely drained...

And when he used the Resurrection Technique on Alice just now, he had been acting out of pure desperation, grasping at straws without remembering that this kind of Forbidden Spell seemed to have extreme requirements for Magic Power...

"Then..." He poked Master Laurie blankly. "How exactly did I, a Tier Two Novice Mage, resurrect Alice?"

Master Laurie stared at the Lord as if looking at a monster. It took a long time before he answered solemnly, "I don’t know!"

At that moment, Xiahou Yan really wanted to outright fire this Chief Mage who knew absolutely nothing when asked.

"However, I’ve already thought of a way to delve deeper into this mysterious phenomenon!" Master Laurie’s tone took a sharp turn.

Xiahou Yan and Alice exchanged a skeptical glance.

"What method?" Xiahou Yan asked.

"I’ve learned one thing from my long career as a Mage!" Master Laurie smiled slyly. "And that is, ’true knowledge comes from practice’! Only by witnessing your Casting process with my own eyes can I determine what exactly happened when you resurrected Captain Alice! My Lord, if I remember correctly—aren’t there a few corpses of other Guards still lying over at the camp?"

Alice stood to the side, utterly dumbfounded.

"You really are a talent for researching Forbidden Magic!" Xiahou Yan praised sincerely.

"Only a little... only a little..." Master Laurie’s old face flushed red.