Chapter 52
Chapter 52: Speculation
Seeing that the thread was about him, Roland clicked it curiously.
It was posted by one Alex, who introduced himself at the beginning.
“I studied math in college and graduated years ago. I’ve been working as a data scientist for eight years, and I’m a leader of my group. I can declare with confidence that I should be better at modeling than Roland is. Besides, I’ve noticed a tiny flaw in the model of Inferior Fireball that Roland uploaded to the forum earlier.
“If the spells in the game are purely about mathematical abilities, I should be stronger than Roland, but the problem is that I’ve only managed to pick up two spells. I cannot connect the nodes of Inferior Fireball, and my Hand of Magic can only be reshaped into tiny fists instead of long spears.
“THIS IS UNFAIR!!!”
The author of the thread thickened and capitalized his remark and expressed his confusion with three exclamation marks.
Then, the author proved the advantages as well as flaws of Inferior Fireball with a lot of data and the mathematical model of the spell.
He concluded his thread as followed:
“I’ve repetitively checked my data. They can’t be wrong. Yet, I cannot use any derivative spell, and I’m learning magic much more slowly than Roland is. He mentioned that he was already LV4, but I’m just LV2. How many players on this forum are above LV4? And how many Mages have grasped more than two spells? It’s obvious that Roland has a special talent which has been accelerating his magic studies. I hope that Roland can show us this talent.
“@Roland, can you tell us how you got your special talent and how it works to the players who are still persisting in the path of Mages?”
Roland was greatly impressed after he read the thread.
He majored in application of intelligent programs in college. Math was his compulsory course, and he was better at it than most students. However, he definitely couldn’t compare to a math major. Therefore, the author of this thread should be better at extrapolation than he was.
The data in the post was complicated, but after an hour, he managed to understand it. Just as the author stated, the articles that Roland posted were flawed and would’ve been better with his data.
Although he hadn’t experimented yet, he agreed with the guy’s data and theory with his current understanding on magic.
But he did find it odd. Were there few Mages who had grasped more than two spells?
He scrolled down and checked the replies.
Most of the Mage players said that they were only capable of one spell after playing the game for more than a month.
By “capable,” they meant that they could use the spell freely and confidently, and the spells that they could only occasionally cast were not counted.
Most Mage players were still around LV2.
So, Roland’s level and the number of spells he knew suggested that he was among the best players.
“I thought that I couldn’t study more spells because I was too stupid, but now I’m finally relieved. It’s not because I’m stupid, but because magic is too hard. Roland is truly good.”
This reply received the most likes.
Roland thought for a moment and took a photo of his talents, before he posted it as a reply.
In fact, he had been planning to post his talent, Magic Power Control, and ask other players if they had similar talents, but he never had the chance.
Now that other players asked him, he seized the opportunity and posted his question about special talents online.
Hardly had it been posted when a moderator pinned it and moved it to the general discussion section.
Then, a tremendous number of people replied to it.
“Damn it. I didn’t know that there were special talents. Are there hidden classes, too?”
“How did he get it?”
“There are indeed hidden classes. I know one called Divine Noble.”
“I know that, too. Its average attributes are seven and has two more talents than other people, but it’s too mediocre.”
“What about Roland’s ‘Magic Power Control’? Has anyone seen it?”
“I searched it up. It is not mentioned in the list of talents offered by the experts.”
“Does it require a special distribution of attributes, like Divine Noble?”
“I don’t think so. Didn’t Roland give a profile of his attributes? He has added most of the attributes to intelligence and spirit, like all the other Mage players do.”
“Is it a random talent given when a character is created?”
“That’s possible!”
Every time Roland refreshed it, he would see a bunch of new replies.
But few of the replies were worth reading. The experts must be calculating or searching for files on the talent.
His phone rang. He accepted the call, and Schuck said over the phone, “Come to our old spot. I saw your post on the forum. I have similar cases on my side.”
Roland hung up the phone and went to the cold drink bar on bike.
In the panda booth, Schuck was sitting by himself.
Schuck asked Roland to sit down and poured him a glass of juice. “You’re rather fast. Have some juice first… About special talents, I actually have one, too.”
Well… It seemed that he was not unique. Roland asked, “What’s yours?”
“Extraordinary Charm!” Schuck explained, “My basic charm growth is three by each level, and I can surpass the upper limit of the charm of my class.”
Briefly stunned, Roland asked in surprise, “So, other people’s charm grows by ten at most in each level, and yours is thirteen?”
Schuck nodded and said, “That’s right!”
“Seriously? How handsome must you be in the game?” Roland shook his head. He suddenly thought of something else. “No wonder you became a Saint Samurai so quickly. The Goddess of Light is probably into handsome guys.”
Schuck, however, said casually, “Actually, I think yours is better. Magic Power Control seems to be an ultimate talent of Mages. I’m told that you’re learning magic much faster than other people. Even the math majors cannot compare to you.”
Roland thought for a moment and said, “My advancement is only temporary. After all, there are too many people smarter than me in this world.”
“I don’t think so. The real significance of learning advanced mathematics is to establish a thorough, logical mindset. Don’t tell me that you don’t know that.” Schuck chuckled and said, “If math equals to magic, the mathematicians would all be great Mages. By my estimation, magic is highly dependent on talents, and math can only help you in the beginning phase. A good Mage needs both meticulousness and a very special talent, say, Magic Power Control. You happen to possess both.”