High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1034: Chapter 96 What is a Spell

”What is a magic spell?”

Professor Yao stood at the podium and repeated this question once again.

Beneath the podium, students held feather pens, poised over their notebooks, looking eagerly at the professor, ready to copy down every word. This sight slightly disappointed Old Yao.

”This should have been the question you asked me in your first curse class,” he flipped through the lecture notes in his hands, the pages rustling as they moved: ”But unfortunately, over an entire semester, you learned a series of new spells but not a single person discussed this question with me, either in or out of class.”

”Not a single person!”

The students bowed their heads, showing shame—of course, this was just a gesture of apology. Not many were truly repentant; they were merely following the professor’s lead, as a formality.

Old Yao wouldn’t dwell on this issue for too long. Seeing no response, he went straight into explanation:

”A curse is a way to use a fixed arrangement of combinations and structural formulas to express ’Legal Book Expression’ of multidisciplinary knowledge such as talismans, magic script, divination, pharmacology, and so on. Of course, this is the definition after the popularity of Dimensionism.”

As he spoke, the chalk that had been floating behind his head began to dance on the blackboard, scratching away lively, fancy script was left on the board, complete with an asterisk in front to signify its importance.

In the room, the young wizards who had been bowing their heads in penitence seconds before now eagerly grasped their feather pens and copied with gusto.

”...Since it amalgamates various other magic studies, it means that a curse is not simply copying the spell formula or chanting the spells. We must look beyond the phenomena to see the essence of a curse.”

”What is the essence of a curse?”

”If we say that Talisman Studies is the wizards’ analysis of the World’s origin; Magic Script studies is the wizards’ analysis of intelligence and consciousness; Divination is the wizards’ analysis of dimensions and the river of time... then from these perspectives, curse studies is the applied method that integrates the aforementioned analyses.”

”In other words, behind every magic spell, behind every spell formula, lies the essence of various magic studies such as Talisman Studies, Magic Script studies, Divination, pharmacology, Alchemy, etc. It is conditioned by other disciplines and complements them.”

”Let’s take a familiar physical formula as an analogy—such as the calculation formula for friction, f =μN, right?”

At this point, Professor Yao paused for a moment, glancing over the many students in the classroom.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Zheng Qing was no exception.

Although mentioning the formula for calculating friction in a magic curse classroom at Wizard University seemed bizarre, to most learned wizards, this was not strange at all.

In fact, many explosive discoveries and inventions that have appeared in the modern mortal society have been selectively disseminated by the Mage Alliance. Physical formulas like the calculation of friction and the mass-energy equation are all part of Alchemy Study.

Professor Yao nodded in satisfaction and continued: ”To use a metaphor, the relationship between a curse and other disciplines, on a small scale, is like the relationship between the formula for friction and pulleys or bearings; on a large scale, it can be understood as the relationship between the mass-energy equation and nuclear weapons.”

”If disciplines such as talismans and pharmacology research basic physical formulas, then a curse is the convenient tool created based on these formulas, including but not limited to pulleys, repeating rifles, nuclear bombs, and timers.”

”It’s just that in the mortal world, there’s a long practice distance between ’principle’ and ’application’. In the wizards’ world, only a Law book lies between ’principle’ and ’application’... A little earlier, it was a magic wand.”

”That might just be the charm of magic.”

...

Throughout the entire class, Professor Yao had been explaining the basic principles of curses to the students.

The blackboard was filled with chalk writings again and again, and even the school worker elves responsible for cleaning the blackboard were busy. Usually, they would sit on the ledge at the top of the blackboard, smiling as they watched the students learn magic and occasionally handing a cup of tea to Old Yao. However, today, for most of the class, they were flying all over in front of the blackboard, cleaning it, dealing with the pieces of chalk that fell to the ground, and the chalk dust that filled the front of the classroom.

Zheng Qing’s wrists were sore from copying. Caught up in the busyness, he had unconsciously pushed last night’s ”Satoguya incident” to the back of his mind—he had planned to discuss this with his mates during lunchtime.

But even when the class bell rang and Old Yao left the classroom, he still didn’t remember it.

Just as Zheng Qing was packing up his books and frowning, deeply engrossed in trying to remember what important thing he might have forgotten, a pleasant voice rang in his ear:

”Are you recalling what the professor taught during the class?”

Elena, holding her textbook and tilting her head, appeared beside Zheng Qing, curiously sizing him up.

Zheng Qing took a deep breath, his mind, which had been racking his brains, suddenly went blank. In a flash of lightning, two wires in his brain must have crossed incorrectly, and he suddenly realized something else.

”I was thinking... I’ve felt something’s been off about you this term,” the young warlock observed the Gypsy witch carefully without answering her question, but instead asked, ”Did you change your perfume? It seems to smell different than before.”

Elena blinked her eyes, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly:

”How is it different?”

Zheng Qing’s face scrunched up.

”Hmm, before it was very fragrant... a rich floral scent.” His eyes unfocused as he tried to capture that lingering impression in his mind and slowly compared, ”But now it’s a light fragrance... yeah, a very faint scent.”

Elena’s eyes and brows curved as she looked at him, ”Which do you think smells better, the current me or the previous me?”

This was a question offering easy points.

”Equally fragrant,” Zheng Qing’s expression changed, speaking with conviction, ”Any perfume combined with you would smell just as wonderful.”

Elena laughed even more heartily.

Behind her, Xin Fat Man, who had packed up and was about to leave the classroom, turned his head upon hearing Zheng Qing’s answer, bared his teeth, stuck out his tongue, and made an exaggerated gagging gesture.

Zheng Qing pretended not to see Fat Man’s antics.

”Did you sleep well during class?” he changed the subject, teasing the Gypsy witch, ”Do you want me to draw a few Sleep symbols or Mute symbols for you? That way, you could perfectly block out the noise in class.”

Elena’s earlobes turned red all of a sudden.

”Swoosh!”

She tossed a note, which hit the warlock, ”Professor Montreya wants you in his lab by one o’clock on Saturday afternoon... This is from one of my seniors who asked me to pass it on to you.”