Oath Of Iron And Fire

Chapter 5 The Third Hand and the Fifth Limb

Winters looked at Ike struggling, but he didn't comment. He felt that with the army's thirst for spellcasters, it was unlikely that they would miss out on a cadet with the potential to become a spellcaster.

But it is very immoral to arbitrarily deny other people's dreams, even if what they say is true.

Ike tried hard to "use magic". His face gradually got closer and closer to the stone bench. His expression gradually became ferocious, and his eyes seemed to be sticking to the water droplets.

However, Winters felt that with today's temperature, the water on the slate would definitely evaporate regardless of whether Ike had magical abilities or not.

"Do you feel anything special?" Winters asked Ike.

"My eyes feel really dry right now."

"I just love your sense of humor."

"Water cannot be used to test potential candidates, otherwise there would be no need for special equipment to screen spellcasters." Winters explained why water testing is not possible: "General Antoine Laurent once mentioned that the magic power required to vaporize a drop of water is more than the magic power consumed by accelerating an arrow with a 100-pound bow."

"But the general just mentioned it casually, without any detailed argumentation." Winters continued to add: "But I can feel from my usual training that water is the most difficult liquid to vaporize. Do you understand now why acceleration spells are recognized as the most lethal?"

"I don't see how vaporizing water would be useful, but accelerating an arrow could kill someone?" Axel thought for a moment and answered tentatively.

"That's right. The difficulty of a spell has nothing to do with its lethality." Winters thought about the awkward status of fire spells. "Magic was not created for combat. Humans just picked out magic that is suitable for killing people."

"Hey, what's there to say? After practicing swordsmanship for ten years, isn't it more aggrieved to be shot dead on the battlefield?" Ike accepted it quickly. He drew inferences from one example: "God didn't create steel and gunpowder just to kill people, did he? Aren't they used to deprive people of life?"

"The caster does not believe in gods, but I agree with your idea."

The water drops on the stone bench had disappeared, but Ike did not feel any magic. He said with some frustration: "It seems that I really have no talent for magic."

"Not necessarily, but anyway, it can't be tested with water." Winters said that no matter whether Ike had potential or not, it would not work with water. He comforted Ike: "If you really want to test it, I will take you to see Instructor Christian after the induction ceremony tomorrow. He should have a way."

"Which teacher Christian?" Ike asked. Christian means a believer, and there are many people with this name in the school.

"The director of the spellcaster teaching and research department is probably the most powerful spellcaster in the school." Winters patted his chest and assured Ike: "Don't worry, he has a good personality. It will be no problem to ask him for help."

"Forget it, I'm just trying it out, I don't think I'm really a spellcaster." Winters volunteered to help Ike find someone to test it, but Ike backed out. It's one thing for the two of them to just take a few drops of water and test it, but it's another to go to the head of the teaching and research department and use special equipment.

"Just tell me how it feels to use magic instead of talking about magic theory. It gives me a headache." Ike was very curious about what it felt like to be a magician.

"I can't describe it accurately with words." Winters said helplessly. No matter how he organized his words, he felt that he couldn't describe it properly: "Let me give you an example. Don't be angry. Can you describe colors to a person who is born blind?"

This question stumped Ike. He was stunned for a while, thinking of various ways to describe it, but finally admitted: "No, how can people who have never known what color is understand color?"

"It's the same with using magic. How do you describe the feeling of using magic to someone who has never experienced it?" Winters told the truth. He then quickly added: "I'm just making an analogy. I'm not saying you're disabled. Don't be angry."

"Of course I understand what you mean." Ike smiled gently and said, "It depends on the standard of normal people. If the caster is a normal person, then we are indeed all disabled."

"You are a normal person, spellcasters are the exception." Winters quickly stopped the topic: "I will try my best to describe the feeling of using magic, but it is not very accurate, and it is limited to my feelings."

"OK."

"Sometimes I feel a very strong squeezing sensation, as if the entire space is pressing down on me; sometimes I feel a very strong tingling sensation, like being stabbed by a knife; sometimes it's very cold, and sometimes it's very hot." Winters frowned as he recalled the feeling of using magic.

He continued: "The point is that these sensations are not coming from anywhere in my body. It's like someone else is getting hit but I'm in pain. You know phantom pain?"

"After an amputation, do soldiers feel that their severed limbs are still there and still feel pain?" Ike recalled what he had learned in health class.

“Yes, it’s like phantom pain.” Winters nodded, “But for me, it’s not like a part of my body has been cut off, it’s like a part of my body that I never had.

The part of the body that causes pain has no flesh and blood, but it feels real. It’s not accurate to say it’s a limb, but I don’t know how to describe it accurately. As I said just now, you can’t describe colors to a blind person. ”

"I kind of understand what you're saying." Ike replied thoughtfully.

"So the Alliance spellcasters call the magical talent the invisible 'third hand' and the 'fifth limb' in addition to the four limbs. The numbers three and five have important symbolic meanings to the Alliance spellcasters, so the Alliance Spellcasters Association is also called the Three-Five Association."

Winters dipped his hand in water and drew a symbol on the stone bench. He first drew a regular pentagon, then connected one vertex of the pentagon with the other two vertices to divide the pentagon into three triangles.

"This is the symbol of the Alliance spellcaster. Look at its shape, a regular pentagon divided into three triangles. It can represent the third hand, the fifth limb, and the three triangles can also represent the three major types of magic." Winters explained the meaning of the symbol to Ike while drawing it.

"So this is the symbol of a spellcaster? I was wondering why you wear this badge every day. I always thought it was the symbol of the Hailan Hometown Association!"

"Don't you know that this is the mark of a spellcaster?"

"You didn't tell me that either?"

"You didn't ask?"

This chicken/egg cycle continued endlessly. Ike explained why he hadn't asked: "The school doesn't allow us to ask about spellcasters. Besides, you all go to spellcaster classes on Sundays. We go to church and you go to class. We haven't audited them."

"This is really unnecessary. You'll know it sooner or later when you join the army. No wonder you misunderstand spellcasters." Winters quickly remembered something: "But didn't we take a tactical class on countering enemy magicians?"

"It was the instructor's description in the anti-magician tactics class that made me feel that the caster could kill me with just a snap of his fingers." Ike said with a wry smile: "The magic he talked about in class is different from what you told me."

"I think the anti-magic class is talking about Richard IV's personal thugs during the War of Sovereignty - the court wizards." Winters understood what was going on: "The number of court wizards is very small and they are extremely mysterious. The content of their training and the way they cast spells are unknown to outsiders."

Winters recalled what he had learned about the court wizard in the literature class: "Fremen scholars recorded that the emperor of the ancient Silk Country once summoned a meteor shower to destroy hundreds of thousands of rebels. This is simply unimaginable. A spellcaster like me who can only light a candle cannot understand how to achieve such a super spell."

"Summon a meteorite shower? If the court wizard is really that powerful, how could Mad Richard fail to conquer Guitu City?" Ike also found it incredible.

"So I think this part of the content in the ancient books is mostly bragging. Since it's all bragging, it must be exaggerated as much as possible," Winters said with a laugh.

————I am the dividing line of meteorite magic————

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Chronicle of Emperor Guangwu" records: At night a meteor fell into the camp, and during the day a cloud appeared like a collapsing mountain. It fell on the camp and dispersed before reaching the ground. All the officers and soldiers were fed up and lay down.

"Book of Jin: Chronicle of Emperor Xuan" states: "He met with Liang at Jishi and fought on the plain. Liang could not advance and returned to Wuzhangyuan. A long star fell on Liang's camp. The emperor knew that he would be defeated, so he sent a special force to attack Liang from behind. They killed more than 500 people, captured more than 1,000 prisoners, and more than 600 surrendered."

"Book of Jin: Chronicle of Emperor Xuan": At that time, a long star, white in color, with a mane, flowed from the southwest of Xiangping City to the northeast, and fell into the Liang River, shocking the people in the city. Wen Yi was very frightened, so he sent his appointed prime minister Wang Jian and Imperial Censor Liu Fu to beg for surrender and request to be released from the siege.