As the saying goes, "To restore the nation," one must first restore the ancestral laws.
To restore the ancestral laws, doesn't one first need to delve into archaeology?
All of us "people" together barely know a few proper Arcane Arts; how then can we pretend to be Neisserians in the future?
Makes sense!
David's words left Dragon Father Attilicia momentarily at a loss for a rebuttal.
After all, there is a marked distinction between Arcanists and Mages, especially in the eyes of experienced Spellcasters.
A Mage can only choose a certain number of spells from their spellbook to "prepare." These spells are all they can cast for the following day. The spellbook is typically a physical book, also known as a spell tome, containing detailed descriptions, diagrams, symbols, and casting methods of all the spells the Mage has learned. When casting spells, a Mage typically needs to use incantations, designated gestures, and related materials. These elements help the Mage shape and channel the power of the Magical Net to create spell effects. It is for this reason that the battle style of a Mage leans more towards ritualization and planning. In a pre-prepared battle versus a surprise encounter, a Mage's combat abilities often differ vastly.
Just from this aspect, Arcanists have something in common with naturally gifted Magicians like David and his kin—dragons are inherently magical. However, Magicians can only "awaken" spells by chance, while Arcanists can learn spells they are proficient in or interested in.
With the enhancement of the Mithril Energy Core of the Sky City, Arcanists can even draw Mana Energy from the core. As long as their mental strength doesn't run dry, they are almost like Mages with an infinite Mana Bar soaking in a spring. In some respects, this is quite extraordinary.
The only thing that might limit an Arcanist is the talent and wisdom of the learner of the Arcane Arts.
Simply put, it's a brain-burner: it requires not just hard work but also a bit of fate.
To give a simple example, to advance from an Arcane Apprentice to a full-fledged Arcanist, one must publish at least one widely recognized research report on magical studies in a public setting. On Blue Star, aside from a few elites, this basically starts at a doctoral level. This means that the capability to progress from the learning stage to the academic stage and generate original theoretical results is the core essence and characteristic of this rank.
Congratulations, you now qualify to become a formal Arcanist.
Just from this point, David admitted that with his own brain, he'd probably never become a true Arcanist in this lifetime.
Conversely, aside from him, the "transmigrator," Dragon Mother Pafila had enough intellect to derive powerful arcane knowledge even from the fragmented information he brought with him from his world. In Neisseria, she was certainly qualified to be nominated as a Great Arcanist.
The Dragon Father, who had advanced Alchemy to a master level and personally developed the Clarity Potion, had the foundation in Alchemy to become an Arcanist without much issue.
Tania, the Spellweaver Silver Dragon who had earned her title at Dewensen Academy in the New Continent, with a little study, should also possess this potential...
In comparison, it seemed like I was the only one in this family of academic elites who hadn't inherited any significant intellect...
However, David never felt discouraged. He might be unable to learn the fundamentals and underlying principles of the Arcane Arts.
But I can directly freeload them! As long as more and more citizens in the city "awaken" to the Arcane Arts, as long as I continue to harbor Jealousy, I can freeload endlessly. I, David, may never become a scholar recognized in history, but I can become a 'Spell Spewer,' an 'Arcane Artillery,' etched into the psychological shadows of my enemies! I might not be able to create an atomic bomb, but who wouldn't know how to press the 'nuclear launch button'? Really.
Embracing this delightful thought, David immediately drove the Bedouin Barbarians to the wreckage site of the Sky City. According to the desert Barbarians' description, the areas where one could excavate relics spread over at least a few hundred square kilometers. However, only a few shallow surface tunnels were relatively safe.
But this safety was relative to these commoners. They hadn't finished speaking when the impatient David, using Arrogance, "dove in."
This move was one he had used back at Dewensen Academy when a great Mage had sent him deep underground with a variant of the Imprisonment Spell, Burial.
As long as he, through Arrogance, perceived the sea of sand before him as an ocean, then for him, the desert became something he could freely swim through.
How to describe that feeling? It was almost like exploiting a bug and clipping out of bounds in a game, where he could even see the feet of Dragon Father and the others above him; everything in front suddenly became 'transparent and visible.'
At the same time, he also saw a large number of Sky City remnants, like icebergs beneath the earth's surface, but it was as expected.
These Sky Cities, fallen from tens of thousands of meters up in the troposphere, were shattered, and it was nearly impossible to find many relatively intact parts.
What filled David with Wrath was that at the core of these ruins, the components belonging to the Mithril Energy Core seemed to have already been plundered, leaving behind not even a relatively intact piece of the core for him.
This utterly dashed David's hope of "picking up an old engine to repair and use for a while."