Throne of Magical Arcana

Looking at Heidi’s hopeful eyes, Lucien smiled and said, “It’s indeed a shabby and highly-impractical artificial intelligence…”

Huh? Heidi immediately pulled a long face after hearing her teacher’s remark. Chelly, Alfalia, Lowi, Blake and the other sorcerers who contributed to the creation were frustrated, too.

Sprint, however, did not hesitate to mock Heidi who always seemed carefree. “Do you see? Our teacher also thinks that this is basically a toy. A toy so clumsy and enormous that the ordinary people cannot use it at all, no less.”

In his eyes, the artificial intelligence had nothing worth complimenting at all except for the advantage that it could be powered with electricity without a sorcerer. Therefore, an ordinary person could complete the computations as long as he could understand the user manual. However, the problem was that the machine was too big, heavy, delicate and expensive to be promoted.

“My ancillary computation circles are only the level of middle-rank sorcerers. Your artificial intelligence would explode in embarrassment if it were the advanced computation circles or our teacher’s legendary ancillary circles in the laboratory. Hehe. Our teacher can beat it even by calculating with his brain…” Sprint did not intend to let Heidi go easily.

It was not because he was hostile towards Heidi. Instead, he felt that Annick, Heidi and the other classmates were his few real friends. He merely felt that the more he frustrated Heidi, the more momentum Heidi would have to improve the artificial intelligence. If it were himself, he would’ve been full of battle desire under the mockery and wouldn’t give in after all!

He had always been like this, but he sounded much less disobedient than before.

Heidi glared at him, swearing to herself that she would create a perfect artificial intelligence which would crush Sprint’s ancillary computation circles so hard that his mouth would never be closed and his jaw would hit the ground!

Iristine and Nodanielle intended to comfort Heidi, but they did not know what to say due to their lack of knowledge about artificial intelligence. Katrina and Layria, on the other hand, raised their thumb encouragingly, hinting to Heidi that it was already an incredible result for a first try!

Natasha, who was standing not far away, however, put on a meaningful smile. With her understanding about Lucien, straightforward criticism was usually the harbinger of praise, and if he complimented someone at the beginning, it would usually be followed by rebuttals and indirect accusations later. To quote himself, it was called ‘subtlety’.

“…Despite the many drawbacks of this artificial intelligence, the spirit and the direction that it presents deserves an Arcana Prize.” As she expected, Lucien went on.

Huh?

What?

Heidi rubbed her ears subconsciously, suspecting that she had hallucinations. The crude and impractical artificial intelligence deserved an Evans Prize in Arcana? Was it a joke?

Lucien chuckled. “This machine is undoubtedly primitive and impractical, but the original spells that our ancestors constructed based on the patterns on the magic creatures in the primeval age of magic were also primitive and impractical. In our eyes, they may be so hilarious and pitiful, and they had to perform a spell which has been simplified to the level of apprentices today with the spiritual power of the fifth circle, but can we deny their contribution just because of that?”

“No, we can’t…” Lazar replied cooperatively.

Sprint and Annick also nodded. Without the seemingly hilarious and impractical efforts of the sorcerers at the beginning, there wouldn’t have been the magic civilization today!

“All achievements in arcana and magic are made step by step. Heidi, Chelly, Lowi, Blake and Alfalia have built the first prototype from scratch without any knowledge in artificial intelligence. It’s not easy. Although it is shabby, huge and clumsy, its idea and direction are very valuable.” Said Lucien solemnly.

Heidi finally confirmed that her teacher was praising her. She raised her head proudly, before she somewhat blushed. “Master, we couldn’t have designed it without your guidance.”

“I offered little guidance except for the notion. Most of the details were completed by yourselves.” Lucien looked at Heidi and Chelly. “Without considering the size, weight and power supply, how much faster can the computation speed of this artificial intelligence be improved?”

“…Approximately five times. If the research on crystals have groundbreaking developments, it’s possible to improve the computation speed by dozens of times without increasing the size and the weight.” Heidi’s eyes became hazy when she described the prospect of artificial intelligence. “By then, it will be as powerful as the brain of senior-rank sorcerers and the middle-rank ancillary circles!”

Sprint was rather surprised. Could the performance be improved so greatly?

Lucien nodded and, looking at Natasha, Lazar, Katrina and the rest of them who were confused, said, “According to their design, the bottleneck of the artificial intelligence lies in materials and parts, and the development of materials and parts is highly dependent on arcana studies.”

“This is an age where different fields depend on and facilitate each other. Without great ancillary circles, many experiments in the microscopic domain cannot be fulfilled, and its development will be slowed.”

“Perhaps, when we apply the quantum superposition state to artificial intelligence, its computation speed will be higher than that of any sorcerer, including Mr. President and me.” Lucien depicted the future of artificial intelligence, before he added in silence, quantum computers are not needed, and the large artificial intelligence will be stronger than himself and the president in terms of computation when the integrated circuit grows mature.

However, in the world of magic, certain procedures could be skipped!

“The computation ability beyond legendary sorcerers…” Said Heidi, stunned. She had never thought that artificial intelligence could reach such an extent!

In their eyes, legendary sorcerers had the most terrifying mental arithmetic abilities even without the help of ancillary computation circles. They were almost ‘inhuman’!

Listening quietly, Iristine repeated the terms she heard. “Quantum superposition… artificial intelligence…”

Observing the flashing red and green lights, Natasha asked curiously, “This artificial intelligence seems controllable even for ordinary people… How can its size, weight and cost be reduced? How many years will it take for the machine to be promoted and popularized?”

Having lived with Lucien for a long time, she had contracted the quirk of popularization, too. After all, she felt proud to see good changes happening in her kingdom and her subjects enjoying a more and more convenient and civilized life.

“After crystal tubes are invented, it should be only the size of golems and ready for the use of major nobles. Further reduction will depend on the development of alchemical materials.” Heidi made a rough estimation. “Although the alchemical items and magic patterns in the artificial intelligence are simple enough to be completed by common sorcerers, the number of the parts is huge. Since the parts cannot be manufactured, their cost equals a level-five magic item.”

“It seems that many years are needed, and I don’t think the nobles and civilians really need an artificial intelligence which features the computational ability.” Natasha was not very disappointed.

Lucien smiled. He intended to list the ‘possible’ applications of a computer in daily life, but none of them, like TV, had been invented. So, it was inconvenient for him to speak it out aloud. He could only say, “After the computation ability is improved, many things will be doable, and the world will be more colorful!”

Huh? Natasha looked at Lucien curiously, and so did Heidi and Chelly, who hoped to get inspirations about artificial intelligence from their teacher.

“For example, we can draw cubic magic patterns with artificial intelligence, which will be more accurate and steady than us because it is entirely digitally made.” Lucien intentionally brought up a subject that would captivate the sorcerers. “Then, we can let the artificial intelligence construct a magic model with those patterns!”

“Then what? Can artificial intelligence cast spells?” Heidi was indeed interested.

Lucien smiled. “Magic models can only turn into spells with the irrigation of energy. We can use them with our own spiritual power, and artificial intelligence may use electricity. However, the problem is that if it’s magic models are the same as ours in our soul that do not have real entities, it can only interfere with the outside world with spiritual power. Since we haven’t grasped the special electromagnetic waves yet, we cannot give artificial intelligence spiritual power.”

“Without real entities…” Annick seemed to have recalled something. All the simplified alchemical items had real entities, which was why they could be powered by electricity to trigger corresponding spells.

“That’s right. So, we can print the magic models that the artificial intelligence constructs with corresponding materials or scrolls. If we design the modules well, alchemical items or magic scrolls will be created perfectly and accurately in the process. Then, we can activate the products with our spiritual power.” Lucien introduced the concept of 3D printing to the manufacture of magic scrolls and alchemical items.

As he spoke, a few bizarre pictures popped up in Lucien’s head. Perhaps, the future sorcerers could turn on their computers, search for the magic models they needed, download them, and create magic scrolls with the ‘3D printing’ of the artificial intelligence. It wouldn’t be half as troublesome and complicated as right now.

Casting spells is costless… That probably would be a slogan for artificial intelligence in the future. But of course, the prerequisites for 3D printing were not so easy to be met.

Heidi, Iristine and the rest of them were all shocked by the prospect that Lucien’s described. What a future that was! Could sorcerers be stopped at all? Wait, that did not seem to be limited to sorcerers. All creatures who were capable of activating scrolls and items would be able to perform magic with artificial intelligence! It didn’t seem to be a good thing for the sorcerers, did it?

Whether or not such a development would benefit the sorcerers, Heidi, Chelly and the rest of the team were even more enthusiastic about artificial intelligence. They were doing something incredible!

Layria, Sprint, Rock and the others had similar thoughts. If they weren’t occupied in their own arcana and magic studies, they probably would’ve joined Heidi’s research team.

Natasha looked at Lucien, full of interest. That world seemed to be a lot of fun. Magic was truly interesting!