Chapter 551: Persuader – Box of Books
Under Natalie’s guidance, I followed her as we descended further down.
Previously, I had foreseen that there was a space below, but I didn’t expect it to be an open testing area that Natalie had established herself!
In fact, the academy has designated places specifically for testing the power of weapons or spellbooks, and the Spell Testing Grounds also allow for the testing of alchemical item effectiveness. Furthermore, they provide many supplies for testing.
However, upon arriving at the testing ground Natalie had created underground, I immediately fell silent. The area was much larger than I had anticipated, with runes for space expansion and for reinforcing the space intertwined, and there were also runes for illumination on the ceiling.
Moreover, there were many rune combinations I had never seen before, but after a little deduction, I found myself feeling a sense of joy in learning.
“What’s wrong? Afraid that testing the weapon’s power in this enclosed underground space might be dangerous?”
“Oh, no, I can see the rune arrangement here; I’m just surprised. These rune combinations…”
“These are not the standard combination runes recorded in books but are combinations created through constant practice and a bit of luck. The quality is naturally unquestionable!” Seeing my amazement at her skills, Natalie directly introduced them to me.
However, we were here to test the weapon’s power, and Natalie wasted no time, getting straight to the point.
“Okay… then let’s get straight to the topic. This weapon, based on its original design ideas and some of your creative points, will be tested in three simple processes.”
“Three processes? Oh… well, okay.” I didn’t expect Natalie to be so formal; I was just thinking of testing its power.
“According to your requirements, the first test will be for the sturdiness of the Box of Books, followed by its amplification of spells as a spellbook-style weapon, although it doesn’t have any fixed spells applied, so we won’t have inherent power tests for now. Lastly, we’ll test its functionality.”
“Then let’s test the sturdiness first?” I held the Box of Books in my hand and felt eager, “Is there a target available for testing?”
“Of course there is.” With a snap of her fingers, a summoning ceremony materialized in the spacious testing area, and a massive figure exuding the heavy aura of earth and dust appeared.
“Using summoned creatures as test targets?” I widened my eyes, feeling quite novel about the idea.
“Of course, how convenient is that? If it were a one-time target, what a waste!” Natalie said as a matter of course.
“Well… but I remember there’s a technique for reshaping earth veins in the alchemy area, right?” I asked again.
“That technique…” Natalie was a bit surprised by my question, but when she thought of the effect of the Great Knowledge Seed, it seemed less unexpected. “That kind of technique can’t be used for such trivial matters! It’s meant for when the entire alchemy room is irreparably damaged and requires one-click restoration. If I was found activating it just to fix a few test targets, I would definitely become the talk of the afternoon! I won’t do such a thing!”
“I was just curious; it seems like the cost of using that ability is quite high?”
“Well, using it requires a registration application, which is somewhat troublesome. I applied for it once before… Don’t look at me like that. I’m an alchemist, and I can make mistakes. Occasionally blowing up the alchemy room is just a normal occurrence,” Natalie quickly defended herself upon seeing my surprised expression.
“I certainly understand that, so I’ll go try it out now~” I hastily ended that conversation and directed the focus back to the testing.
“Mm, go try it.”
With Natalie’s cooperation, the summoned earth elemental stood there dumbfounded.
I then weighed the book inside the Box of Books in my right hand. I could feel that the hardness of the outer book box was quite terrifying.
The Identification Technique didn’t have any information on such materials, and it seemed the materials stored by Principal Mei were indeed precious, as there were no records of such information in the earth veins of the Main World. The only available data was what Teacher Natalie recorded during the refining process, which I couldn’t even comprehend as it belonged to a unique method of an alchemy master.
As I approached the testing summon at a certain distance, I changed from walking to running, and then with a surge of force, I combined my body cultivation strength with some techniques I had learned.
With this combination, one corner of the book box slammed violently against the earth elemental.
A deafening crash immediately echoed, and contrary to expectations, the backlash from such a fierce strike didn’t occur, and I could sense that the book box had caused a terrifying counterattack at the point of impact!
The originally solid rock structure of the summon collapsed with that strike. From the point of impact to the area behind it, broken stones scattered everywhere, and numerous fragments hit the reinforced walls at high speed before being stopped by a cushioning force.
“What?!” I was taken aback by this strike.
Although I had indeed never tested how strong my body cultivation strength was, after all, I practiced body cultivation but hadn’t taken the path of brute strength…
But… if the energy level of this rock creature’s spell effect were to be compared… it would be on par with a typical summoning spellbook costing about a hundred mana!
“It seems not too bad,” Natalie remarked, seeming rather unfazed by it, “Doesn’t it feel like the damping effect is out of this world?”
“Mm, I can hardly feel the backlash force transmitted to my hand; it’s as if the interaction of forces is a joke.” I nodded, but I knew it was definitely more than that.
“After all, I’ve also made weapons for body cultivation witches. It’s a simple technique of force sealing, connecting with directional resonance recoil, effectively blocking the negative effects of collisions on the user.”
“Is this sealing technique again? Sister Natalie, you really have a deep love for sealing techniques,” I exclaimed.
“Of course, there are always understated spell techniques that can develop unexpected effects. I spent quite some time just focusing on studying sealing techniques. I admit that the breadth of knowledge and experience is important, but so is deep research in a specialized field,” Natalie said proudly.
“Then… last time when you and Lola Lucy…”
*Ahem* “Well, Xiao Han, concepts are static, witches are dynamic. The flexible limits and conceptual understanding depend entirely on how you use them, but don’t let them become something that restricts you,” Natalie coughed awkwardly and then spoke in an educational tone.
To relieve the awkwardness, she summoned another creature, even larger than the previous one.
“I’ve learned a lot! So… shall I continue?”
“Yes, go ahead, this is just the beginning. Try more, testing both the Box of Books and the book itself. I want to collect data,” Natalie quickly suggested while pulling out a display panel, which was functionally integrated with the Great Knowledge Tree.
She noticed that ever since acquiring the Earth Vein Identification Technique, collecting test data had become much easier for her. She felt that many alchemical instruments used for observation in the alchemy room were likely gathering dust now.
As long as she adapted to some of the peculiar characteristics of the Earth Vein Identification Technique, the ability was indeed somewhat addictive. As long as experimental data was recorded by the earth veins, she could directly use this feature to obtain observational data, even ignoring so-called instrument accuracy.
The only imperfection was that some content presented by the identification technique was somewhat lacking, but after supplementing her settings and concepts, it became increasingly convenient for her to use.
While she was still immersed in data collection, I began to initiate a fierce attack against the massive figure in front of me.
This giant rock creature was similar to the previous one, but it carried a level of intimidation—or energy level—that could rival Tan Han’s ancient ice transformation technique. The only difference was that this stone giant wouldn’t retaliate.
When I attacked with the same force as before, I indeed couldn’t defeat this figure in a single blow again; instead, I directly shattered a part of its body. However, those shattered pieces quickly reformed due to its strong recovery ability.
Afterward, I also tried various angles of attack with the Box of Books, such as points, lines, and planes, and the generated attack power exhibited different forms.
Also… it was only with Natalie’s reminder that I realized that such brute force attacks could only be considered regular attacks; the Box of Books had another way to enhance the user.
Natalie had made numerous amplification weapons for body cultivation practitioners, and she deliberately studied their strength because, due to body cultivation, many active triggering attack methods seemed unsuitable for the weapons held by such cultivators.
Thus, the amplification that complements body cultivation is called Qi. After the weapon is infused with Qi, it would be enhanced, unleashing far greater destructive power than sheer brute strength!
Of course, after taking out the books from the Box of Books, the books themselves contained enhancement spells, such as power amplification, weak point breaking, and multiple strikes. Because of the incompatibility between body cultivation weapons and magical tools, the modular design of the Box of Books effectively accommodated these two power systems.
However, simply holding the book wouldn’t allow one to enjoy the benefits of Qi amplification; as compensation, the book contained enhancement spells, breaking weak points, multiple strikes, and so forth.
Actually, that was about right.
After a round of testing, I handed the Box of Books to Natalie.
After confirming that the Box of Books had no issues, the sturdiness test was nearly sufficient.
In fact, most custom high-end alchemical weapons possess a certain degree of self-repair capability. However, this ability is quite limited; small cracks and such can often repair themselves, but significant breaches are rather awkward.
So… next time I need to hit someone with a book, I’d better put it in the book box first before striking; it wouldn’t delay anything.
The next test was to determine its capability as an auxiliary casting device like a magic wand.
These abilities belong to the basic capabilities of the book’s inner pages.
Although the Box of Books contains many inner pages, most of them are blank, which grants it extremely strong plasticity, as the raw materials used to forge these inner pages were provided by Principal Mei.
Additionally, on the first few pages, Natalie kindly created a directory using the inner pages to help organize too many items collected in the Box of Books. Having a directory saves a lot of trouble, allowing use without flipping to the corresponding page.
Following the preface section, it introduced the inherent capabilities of the Box of Books, as well as everything a magic wand can do.
For example… quick casting, quick chanting, quick ritual construction, elemental resonance, and so on—this series of capabilities represents the majority of a magic wand’s abilities, all contained within a single page of the Box of Books. It’s easy to imagine how terrifying the material of this inner page actually is, and the first half of this page contains almost useless preface information.
Thus, I naturally asked Natalie why so much space was wasted on writing a preface.
But she responded with this.
“The preface is a part of any book and serves as a hint for the user, reminding them of the positioning of this weapon.
After all, its plasticity is quite high; the more it is used, the more abilities it develops. With so many capabilities, it’s easy for users to lose themselves in it, blurring the lines between importance and theme. Therefore, the design of a one-page preface is quite necessary; if you don’t wish to heed my advice, you can remove it, and it won’t affect usage.”
And I… naturally accepted this design, as I felt it indeed necessary.
After conducting several spell tests and feeling the amplification it provided, it was much more formidable than the wand I had customized when first enrolled!
This amplification… even gave me the impression that it seemed to counteract the comprehensive weakening brought about by the Great Weaken spell.
However, this illusion of “counteracting” only manifested in terms of aggression; after all, a single weapon cannot negate the effects of a Great Spellbook.
As the results of the spell tests were completed, Natalie suddenly took out a sheathed longsword from her storage equipment.
“Mm? Sister Natalie… what is this…” I curiously looked at Natalie, unsure of what she was doing by pulling out a longsword.
“Of course, it’s to test the capabilities of the Box of Books in recording weapons. This sword… how should I put it? It’s sort of a test product from when I was forging weapons suited to the body cultivation strength system; I wouldn’t exactly classify it as a failed product. I’ve kept it here without knowing what to do, unable to sell it for money, and now it’ll just be a gift for you, along with testing its handling,” Natalie said, toying with the sword before casually tossing it to me.
I hurriedly caught the sword.
At this moment, I held the sword sheath and hilt in both hands, entirely different from the sense of sharpness the spellcasting weapon of the Box of Books brought. As I instinctively drew the blade, it gave me a tangible sense of sharpness.
“Thank you, Sister Natalie.”
“You’re welcome. Just don’t tell Mei Linde that I’ve been secretly processing her precious material scraps. I’ve already planned to use those scraps for a key component in another design idea of mine.”
“Ah? Oh! Alright, alright!” I nodded repeatedly, agreeing to keep that matter a secret for Natalie.
Though if the other party hadn’t mentioned it, I would have had no idea…
“Let’s begin the final functional test. Actually, the recording capabilities achieved through sealing techniques are not just limited to weapon recording. I mentioned this to you before, right? This material can also carry spellbooks for spell execution via commands, and it can record the effects of spells after they have been released.”
“Now, I’ll teach you how to perform the recording; as long as you learn this, even without me in the future, you can perform simple recordings of weapons or spells.”
“However, to learn this recording technique, you need to first grasp a certain level of sealing technique theoretical foundation. I heard that the Great Knowledge Seed can share knowledge with you. How does that work?”
“You just need to back up the knowledge you want to share into the Knowledge Tree,” I explained.
“Wow, how convenient. This makes things very simple,” Natalie chuckled lightly. “By the way, have you thought of a name for your weapon, or are we continuing with the name Box of Books?”
“Um… it seems I haven’t deliberately thought about it.” I flipped through the book in my hand, and an idea suddenly came to me, “How about… Persuader? Persuader – Box of Books.”
“Persuader…” Natalie, hearing this somewhat outlandish name, was momentarily taken aback, and after a moment, she connected the dots, “It indeed has a persuasive quality.”
Thinking of this, Natalie unconsciously felt like laughing, wondering how Mei Linde would react upon discovering she had lost so many precious materials, only to see Xiao Han using them to smash things.
