Dream Life Vol II Chapter 79.2: “Group Magic”

　That’s right, I’m talking about the Light God Church.

　The Light Gods Church is gathering together magicians of the light attribute. If this fact were known, the balance of power between the Lux Holy Kingdom and the Caelum Empire could change dramatically. If only that were the case, it would still be fine, but there is no guarantee that Lux, which is riddled with fanatics, would not embark on world domination.

　I whisper to the professor, “This fact is dangerous.”

　The professor, perhaps thinking my serious face suspicious, asks, “What do you mean?” But I felt I should break up the other students who kept staring at us first, so I said, “The experiment is over now. Then let’s go back to the lab and verify it,” I said, urging them to return to their rooms.

　The professor also responded to my words, “Thank you for your cooperation in the experiment. The results were close to what I expected. Then you may disperse,” he declared and returned to the laboratory.

　Behind us, the students exhaled in relief, and the lecturers were whispering about what the experiment was about.

　Back in the lab, I explained the dangers of the results of this experiment.

　The professor listened excitedly at first, but then frowned at the name “Light God Church”.

“I understood Mr. Lockhart’s concern, but shouldn’t this research be conducted?” (Ruspede)

“But then the Light God Church…” (Zack)

“I understand your concern. But there is a new theory in front of us. It is the researcher’s duty to explore it. Their people may already be aware of it.” (Ruspede)

　I was so surprised that I couldn’t help but exclaim, “What do you mean?!”

“There is evidence that they have used large-scale light magic to perform what they call ‘miracles’. Then there is a good chance that they are aware of this fact.” (Ruspede)

　This may be true, but there is no proof. The bigger problem is that Professor Ruspede’s inquisitive mind has been ignited.

(I was reckless. Whenever he does research, someone always sniffs it out. If you tell them that Professor Ruspede has started new research, every magician will be interested in it. But if I tell other professors about it, they probably won’t understand my concern. If I publish the results of my research, I will be promised a very high position as a court magician. If that happens, there is no way that the Light God Church will surely sniff it out. I will have no choice but to do my research and satisfy the professor’s intellectual curiosity. Professor isn’t interested in politics. As long as the truth is revealed, there should be no information going to be leaked…) (Zack)

　Professor Ruspede is mumbling and muttering, wondering if he should do the research himself or leave it to someone else.

　I say, “I’ve come up with a hypothesis. I will conduct this research,” and the professor immediately grabbed my hand and said, “That’s a wonderful idea.”

　In the end, I was to conduct the research, but this was quite a challenge. I couldn’t gather students like the professor, and it was quite difficult to prove the theory.

　So, I decided to build a theory first.

　My first thought was simply to concentrate on “firepower”.

　Just as with lenses, if you concentrate energy and increase its density, you can strengthen magic by that alone. The magic tactics we initially considered were based on this effect.

　However, as we continued to consider this, we realized that there was more to it than that. The magic that low-level students can produce is like the light of a match. Even if you gather thirty matches, you can’t produce the same high temperature as a gas burner. Clearly, the energy input was different.

　I conducted an experiment.

　In my case, I can accurately grasp my magic consumption (MP). I used that to verify the results.

　First, I invoked magic equivalent to the students’ [Fireball] at that time and checked the MP consumption. Then, I compared it to the magic that put in 30 times that amount of MP, the [Spear of Flame – Flame Lance].

　Since I do not know the average MP usage of the students, it is impossible to make an exact comparison, but the temperature and speed of the flames are as close as possible to their magic. So, while the accuracy is somewhat lacking, there shouldn’t be too much difference.

　And as a result, my [Flame Lance] was clearly less powerful. To achieve the same level of power, I had to invest more than twice as much magic power.

　Normally, a higher-level student would have been more efficient, but the 30 students were clearly more powerful.

　Then I came up with two hypotheses.

　To invoke magic means to gather the power of spirits and transform it into the form desired by the magician. The power of the spirits can be obtained by giving the magician’s magic power. Let us assume that “one” magic power is given and “ten” spirit powers are gathered. If the magic power of “one” is used to gather the power of “twenty” spirits instead of “ten,” the power of the magic is doubled.

　So, what does this have to do with this phenomenon?

　The convergence efficiency of the power of spirits depends on the amount of magical power given and the image of the magician. This is because a high-level magician with a strong image and a low-level magician with a weak image will obviously have different power even if they use the same magic power.

　Ordinary magicians have no way to confirm this, but in my case, I can check their status. Therefore, I can check the difference in power by activating magic while watching the amount of magic power MP consumption. As a result, I know for a fact that even with the same amount of magical power, the power is clearly different depending on the strength of the image.

　Why did the magic of students with low imaginative skills become more powerful this time? One possible explanation is that the efficiency of gathering the power of spirits has increased. In other words, if several casters, even those with low imaginative skill, invoke the same magic, their images may complement each other, making it easier for the spirits to understand them.

　In fact, the way I sensed the gathering of the spirits’ power was close to the concentration that a high-level magician gathers.

　This is my first hypothesis.

　Another hypothesis is that there may be a resonance or amplification effect when the same magic is invoked at the same time.

　For example, if multiple people invoke the same magic, each person’s magic will increase by 1.05 times, three people will increase by only about 15%, but thirty people will increase by more than four times. A simple gathering of thirty fireballs the size of a torch seen in the experiment would only be as powerful as a large bonfire, but since that large bonfire has quadrupled in size and is further focused in one place, it should be considerably more powerful.

　The apparent increase in the focused energy, and the fact that there was no discernible effect on the three of us, suggests that one or both of the above two effects may be at work.

　I put this together in a paper and submitted it to Professor Ruspede.

　The professor looked over my paper, thought about it for about five minutes, and then opened his mouth.

“The theory makes enough sense, but there is no proof. There is no way to measure magical power, but at the very least, it needs to be verified on multiple attributes.” (Ruspede)

　I nodded obediently at those words,

“I think what you say is true, but there is the matter of Light God Church. I think there is at least no error in the theory. Besides, I think the results would be more remarkable if the experiment was conducted by high-level court magician class magicians instead of the academy students.” (Zack)

　The professor still had some reservations, but he still thought that it would be more dangerous for the information to be passed on to Light God Church. “Let’s hope the time for verification will come,” he said, and put my paper away.

(As for me, I hope that such an opportunity will never arise. Of course, I wouldn’t be leading an army. Well, I might lead a vigilante group in the village of Rathmore, but at least I won’t be leading a squad of magicians. If that were the case, the only person who would have a chance to use this would be the professor. The professor is involved in the war. I don’t like to think about it, but my enemies, the gods’ enemies, are going to invade this area. At least I don’t want to see that happen…) (Zack)