Chapter 24: Night Debate

"Mage Yija, your idea is quite good. Your future development in the military will be better, especially since both your parents are in the military," Shaoke agreed with Mage Yija's idea, not overlooking him due to Mage Kiya's interruption.

"Mage Kiya, I think your statement is incorrect. We are now Military Mages, having joined the military. Whether I leave here to work in a civilian post or go to the front lines in the future, these are not matters that small figures like us can influence or control. Moreover, since you are now a member of the military, you shouldn't even be talking about going to the Mage Guild. Even if you want to discuss it, it wouldn't be too late to say that after you've left the military." Shaoke's somewhat angry reply left Mage Kiya feeling quite embarrassed.

"I... I... Mage Xueye, I was just saying 'if'," Mage Kiya retorted, his face flushed, as he tried to find an excuse for himself.

"Mage Kiya, I believe that as a mage, we shouldn't casually use the word 'if'. We don't need 'ifs', especially on serious matters." At this point, Mage Kiya said no more, merely lowering his head and fidgeting with his legs to avoid Shaoke's gaze.

However, Shaoke did not stop because of the other's avoidance. "Mage Kiya, soldiers are brave. It doesn't matter which country they're from—they're all brave. To protect their country and their people, even if they kill many from opposing nations, there's nothing wrong with that. They are merely fulfilling the duties of a soldier."

"But Mage Xueye, is it still brave when they kill innocent civilians?" Mage Yija, dissatisfied with Shaoke's words, clenched his fists in anger. His eyes, which usually avoided others, now fixed firmly on Shaoke. "So many unarmed civilians, not even sparing infants. Are they still human?"

"Mage Yija, if you can't be protected by others, then you have to pick up a weapon and protect yourself!" After a moment of contemplation, Shaoke continued, "Our empire's soldiers also went back and killed many of them, didn't they? Although they only spared the young women and brought them back. That's not on the soldiers. They were merely fulfilling their duties. Everything they did was for the sake of victory in battle and to protect their own people. I'm sure the people in the countries we're fighting hate us just as much. Perhaps what we have done is not much less than what they have done, and probably even more brutal!"

Shaoke emphasized his tone, even waving his fist. "Mage Yija, don't forget, look at all the history books—which page isn't written with bloody ink? Slaughter! Endless slaughter! Even if humans and all intelligent beings were to disappear, the slaughter would not stop. Look, even low-level beasts are killing each other, merely to survive. If you are stronger than your opponent, you can take everything from them. Life isn't even worth a Blue Feather gold coin."

The tent fell silent. Shaoke calmed his agitated emotions and asked the mages if they were ready to eat. After everyone agreed, he had a soldier bring dinner.

Shaoke didn't have much of an appetite, unlike the other two mages who ate heartily despite their fatigue. He only ate a few pieces of meat and some bread.

After everything was finished, Mage Yija and the others did not write their spell records for the day but went to bed early to rest. Mage Kiya made an excuse for himself: "I'm really too tired today. My mind is a mess, and everything feels blurry."

Unlike his companions, Shaoke did not go to sleep. He quickly finished writing his spell record for the day and began his Meditation. Based on the experiences of his predecessors, he felt he was on the verge of a breakthrough, about to advance to become a Mage. A faint flow of energy appeared in his eyes, as mentioned earlier.

Just as he was about to advance, Shaoke hesitated. The experiences of his predecessors told him that this advancement was the most important one in a mage's life. Success meant truly becoming a noble and powerful mage, taking the first step into the hall of magic and being able to use more powerful Spells. Failure would require a long time to recover from the damage to his mental and mana spaces caused by the failure, and even longer to prepare for the next advancement. Moreover, he would remain stuck with the title of Junior Mage, wandering outside the hall of magic, pretending to be noble among ordinary ranks.

From what Shaoke understood, during advancement, the purity and quantity of mental power and mana would affect the size and sturdiness of the mental and mana spaces after advancement, as well as future growth and development. When the space solidified for the first time in a true sense, the larger the space, the faster the subsequent advancements would be, and the more mental power and mana could be stored for casting spells.

If the space was large enough, as long as no accidents occurred during cultivation or death, reaching the Magister rank would be absolutely possible. However, the subsequent Saint, Divine, and Legendary ranks still required considerable opportunity and insight. Nevertheless, those with larger spaces still had some advantages over those with smaller ones. As for why this happened, mages throughout the ages had studied it countless times but still hadn't found a reasonable explanation, attributing it merely to the wonders of the human body.

This time, Shaoke first meditated to enter his mental space, which had not yet fully formed. His mental space was slightly clearer than before. Countless light points representing mental power danced around, occasionally touching the surrounding dark areas and quickly merging into them, causing those dark areas to fade slightly.

Under the meditation technique, some of the mental power light points slowly gathered into a slightly complex three-pointed star pattern. The remaining light points continuously flowed into this pattern. After circulating within the pattern, they dispersed back into the mental space, though their number was slightly reduced and their brightness increased. This was mainly because Shaoke was using a technique to purify his mental power during this meditation. Each successful cycle represented a successful meditation. If the light points ran amok within the three-pointed star, causing the pattern to collapse, it would count as a failed meditation, consuming a large amount of mental power or mana and causing damage to the space.

In one magic hour, Shaoke could only perform about fifty meditations. This was because his meditation technique was too ordinary. If he had an advanced meditation technique, the three-pointed star pattern would be more complex, and each meditation would take longer, though with more practice, the speed would improve slightly. Since Shaoke began meditating nearly ten years ago, he had progressed from two meditations per magic hour to over fifty meditations per magic hour. This shows how difficult it is to use advanced meditation techniques. However, for the sake of several times the meditation efficiency, mages still yearn for more advanced techniques.

After one magic hour passed, Shaoke dispersed the initial three-pointed star pattern and switched to a meditation technique that increased mental power. Similarly, after each meditation cycle, his mental power would increase slightly, though the amount was pitifully small compared to his total mental power.

Prolonged meditation consumed a great deal of Shaoke's mental energy. Finally, he had to end his mental meditation and begin cultivating his mana. However, his mana cultivation lasted only one magic hour before he had to stop, as his exhausted body repeatedly protested against the strain.

Fortunately, Shaoke was now more interested in cultivating his mental power. He only hoped to solidify the foundation of his mental power. This wasn't just because he had always focused on mental power cultivation; more importantly, through reading books in this world, asking questions, and insights gained during Spellcasting, combined with his previous life's fantasies and conjectures about magic, he believed mental power was more important for mages. Therefore, he relegated mana cultivation to a secondary level.

For mana cultivation, Shaoke focused mainly on purification. After all, the purer the mana, the less it would consume when casting spells, effectively increasing the number of spells he could cast. Coupled with his strong mental power, Shaoke felt he could cast as many spells as mages of the same rank, though this had yet to be confirmed.

After finishing his meditation, Shaoke began writing his daily log. The quill pen with its silver nib flowed smoothly across the snow-white pages. Occasionally, he would pause to use fine white sand to absorb any smudges on the page, preventing them from staining the next page. The firewood in the hearth occasionally crackled softly, as if reminding its owner not to forget to add more wood.

By the time Shaoke was ready to rest, the timer showed it was already 2 a.m. In the past, even the two sleeping mages would have been busy at this hour, unlike now, where each was so exhausted they needed sleep to alleviate and recover from physical fatigue. After all, that special Meditation Method could only restore some consumed mental energy, not physical exhaustion.

Every time Shaoke slept, he followed a specific breathing method to fall asleep. This method was taught by his mentors when he first began studying magic theory. It allowed a person to recover physical fatigue and consumed mental energy to the greatest extent in the shortest time. Moreover, it had a certain effect on maintaining the body. Many older mages, unable to advance to Archmage, still relied on this method, combined with precious prescriptions, to maintain their physical vitality and appear youthful.

This made Female Mages particularly fond of the person who invented this sleep method. If that person were still alive, countless female mages would likely throw themselves at him. After all, treasures that can preserve one's appearance and slow aging are extremely expensive. Even using those medicines alone is something ordinary mages cannot afford.