However, Tawari was a battlemage and the two of them had vastly different perspectives on magic. It was just like the saying in his past life: when a scholar meets a soldier, they can't be reasoned with.
Tawari said that Banshee's Howl was an area-of-effect combat spell. Even though it didn't deal much damage, it prevented the enemy from getting close to the battlemage. The battlemage could also use Banshee's Howl to disrupt the enemy's formation. Even the most disciplined of enemies wouldn't be able to remain calm after being hit by it.
Once the enemy fell into chaos, it would be time for the battlemage to perform.
However, Landes wasn't a battlemage and didn't need to charge into enemy lines like a battlemage did.
All he wanted to do was solve the feeding problem of the wild beasts he encountered.
If the beasts could just obediently wait for him to put their food in and not roar at him or ram into the magical barrier between them, he would be more than satisfied.
From this point of view, Landes had simplified the group spell, Banshee's Howl, and copied it into a single spell, Mental Deterrence, which perfectly achieved his desired effect.
After that, he would be able to place the food into the feeding bowl unhurriedly. He would no longer have to worry about a wild beast suddenly evolving and breaking through the magical shackles to tear him apart …
The Spirit Awe spell that Landes modified based on Banshee's Howl could be considered a type of mental spell. It was used on the opponent's mind and not their body.
According to Landes, the beasts that were hit by the Spirit Awe spell would instantly go into a stupor. Their minds would go blank and they wouldn't be able to react in any way. It would be more accurate to say that they were frozen in place.
To put it simply, Wizard Landes' Mind Intimidate spell was like a stick to the head of the target. Although it was not enough to knock the target unconscious, it was not much worse.
He was very pleased with himself for using this mental spell to eliminate the threat posed by the wild beasts. He engraved it as the seventh and final support spell in the hexagram as a souvenir …
As for the ferocious beasts that were frequently subjected to Landes' Mind Intimidation spell, they didn't show any signs of evolving into magical beasts during the three years of alchemy experiments. Instead, they became a bit foolish and clumsy. They no longer had their original berserk and quick reactions.
This was actually a very normal situation. No matter who was frequently hit in the head with a big stick, even the smartest person would become a fool.
The master of the magic tower, Loenk, didn't know that there was a first-ring rune magus under him who often used his own mind spells to knock the beasts' heads.
He arrogantly believed that these wild beasts were most likely due to long-term confinement in a small space and being fed by humans, resulting in a change in their development towards domestication.
This proved that it was possible to turn wild beasts into livestock after a long period of feeding. Unfortunately, that wasn't the goal of the experiment, so Loenk could only helplessly announce the end of the three-year experiment to turn wild beasts into magic beasts.
Landes wrote about the relief he felt when Loenk announced the end of the failed alchemy experiment.
He didn't know that he played a crucial role in the alchemy experiment, or rather, half of Loenk's conclusions were due to him.
At that moment, he was only happy that he no longer had to go to the place where the beasts were kept every day and pour half of his mana into the alchemy formation. He was happy that he no longer had to work as a breeder for the beasts.
While Landes was relieved, he left Claude with some confusion in his diary.
Well, it wasn't quite right to say that he was confused.
For the first time in his life, Claude felt lost as to what path he should take. Thinking back to the battle spells Tawari used in the second diary, he realized that rune magi were extremely weak. They were practically the weakest of weaklings and didn't have much fighting power at all.
Looking at the five basic spells Tawari used as a battlemage, the first circle was Fireball, the second circle was Energy Barrier, the third circle was Blink, the fourth circle was Magic Imprisonment and the fifth circle was Soaring.
Just from the names alone, Claude could imagine how powerful those spells were. He couldn't help but salivate. That was the way a magus should use them.
No, that was how a magus should use them.
What pained Claude the most was that Landmaster only mentioned the names of the combat spells and didn't describe their magic formations in detail like he did in his alchemical spells.
In other words, Claude could only salivate to express his admiration for those spells and wasn't able to learn them.
Those who didn't think far ahead were bound to have immediate worries!
Claude closed the diary and closed his eyes to enter his mental meditative space.
In the gray and boundless sky, a black hexagram was slowly rotating in a clockwise direction.
In the space of the hexagram, there was a faint fiery red light flashing inside the hexagram.
Perhaps in a few months, the hexagram would be filled to the brim with mana converted from fire elemental essence. By then, Claude would become a first-rank rune magus.
So, what troubled him was whether he should cultivate according to Landes' diary and become a one-ring rune magus step by step. Or should he look for other ways to find those battle spells to turn himself into a battlemage?
Becoming a rune magus was the easiest thing to do. With Landes' diary in hand, he would be able to become a four-ring rune magus at the very least. That was because Landes himself was a four-ring rune magus before he stopped reading the diary.
But the problem was that rune magi didn't have much combat power. Landes was an expert in alchemy and magic formations. Even with Magic Missile, he was nothing more than a chicken among chickens. He would be nothing more than a chicken in the eyes of a chef.
However, there were two things that Claude had to worry about the most in becoming a rune magus. First, he would be too weak in combat. That wasn't much of a problem in the age of magic. Combat magi could do all the physical work for them and rune magi only had to stay in their magic towers and do their experiments.
But they weren't in the age of magic anymore. The countries of Freia were forbidden grounds for magi and it wasn't strange for people to kill magi if they ran into one.
Claude had already embarked on the path of magic. He had to consider what he would do if he was discovered.
As a rune magus, his ability to protect himself was too weak. If he was on the run, the alchemical spells he had wouldn't be of much help at all.
It didn't take much to figure it out. Could Precise Control, Decomposition, and Fusion be used in battle when they came to capture him?
That was a completely different story for battlemages. If Claude was a fifth-ring battlemage and had a combat spell like Tawari's, he was certain that he would be able to roam the world without having to worry about being captured.
As long as he didn't send out a large force to lock down the entire area, he would be safe.
Secondly, he had to worry about becoming a rune magus like Landes, who specialized in alchemy and magic formations.
That way, Landes could stay in the magic tower to conduct his alchemy experiments. Even if Claude didn't reveal his magic, where would he get his hands on the precious materials he needed for his experiments?
Would he have the ability or wealth to get his hands on those precious materials?
That was something Claude had to consider carefully. Landes was a member of a magic tower and the master of the tower, the seventh-ring archmagus Loenk, was his backer.
The magic tower paid for all the materials and magic resources for the alchemy experiments he did in the magic tower.
Even if he could become a rune magus, he wouldn't be able to do a simple alchemical experiment.
Honestly speaking, he hoped that he could become a combat magus. That way, he would be able to explore the world he came from.
For Claude, becoming a battlemage was akin to becoming a superpower user in his previous life. The rules of the world were no longer binding him and he could live a carefree life. That was the only way to live up to his transmigrated life.
The problem was that he didn't have anywhere to learn combat spells. The only thing he had was Magic Missile and Mental Shock, a simplified version of Banshee's Howl.
Perhaps he would be able to learn combat spells, but that was something he couldn't be sure of. Nobody could guarantee when he would succeed.
If he waited for another ten years, it would be too late for him. Landes had mentioned in his diary that he would only be able to cultivate a second hexagram after becoming a one-ring magus and become a level-two rune magus.
Rune magi's advancement was actually quite simple. From apprentice magus to level-one rune magus, one had to inscribe seven basic spells to become a one-ring magus or a combat magus.
Then, in the meditation spiritual space, he drew a hexagram pattern again, and then put this hexagram pattern on top of the hexagram that was full of magic power. Once again, he meditated to attract elemental photons to fill the new hexagram pattern and convert it into magic power.
Perhaps it was because the hexagram was interconnected that a magus' rank was represented by the number of rings.
It was worth noting that the elemental photons absorbed by this new hexagram could not be the same as those absorbed by the previous hexagram.
In other words, the hexagram in his mental domain absorbed fire elemental photons and converted them into mana. When he became a level-two rune magus, his second hexagram wouldn't be able to absorb fire elemental photons anymore. He would have to choose elemental photons of other attributes to fill up the second hexagram and convert them into mana.
When the second hexagram was filled up with mana from the new elemental photons, Claude would become a level-two rune magus.
When that happened, he would have to consider which seven level-one spells to inscribe in the second hexagram. Once he was done, he would officially become a two-ring rune magus or a two-ring combat magus.