Support me and be 30 chapters ahead of webnovel:
patreon.com/Draco_
******
As a wizard—a spellcaster with magic flowing through their veins—what is the true origin of magic, or rather, what is the essence of a spellcaster at their core?
Hogwarts never taught this, and you wouldn't find it in any bookstore either. It's not that people have forgotten—it's that they don't want to know.
Because, for the vast majority of ordinary folk, it's useless knowledge.
Yet sometimes, what appears useless can become a vital force in driving progress.
Harry had only a vague sense before that Grindelwald and his Pureblood Party launched a magical revolution fifteen years ago—reforming magic itself and overhauling magical education—but what that revolution truly entailed, or what changes it brought, Harry had no way of knowing.
Now, with the arrival of that letter, the veil of mystery was beginning to lift.
What Grindelwald pursued was simple: to seek out and return to the original essence of magic.
The world's first spellcasters were not "Awakened Ones." The Awakened were created as tools of war, born to combat the Abyssal Realm. Long before they existed, human wizards already walked the earth.
The first wizards might have been born with natural magic, or they might have been hybrids—children of humans and magical creatures. But no matter how they came to be, with the emergence of spellcasters came something else.
The medium of spellcasting.
Compared to other magical creatures, most human spellcasters were inferior in innate talent. But humans' greatest strength has always been their mastery of tools. The birth of the spellcasting medium was not only inevitable but a natural evolution.
A spellcasting medium is an extension of the caster's body—not merely a way to compensate for their lack of talent, but something that, through centuries of refinement, has become indispensable to human wizards.
Even the wizards of Uagadou, who are known for disliking wands, haven't abandoned the use of spellcasting mediums. Their barehanded casting isn't out of disdain for tools but rather a necessity for their transformative magic. Instead of wands, they use magical tattoos etched onto their skin, allowing spells to be stored and drawn upon at will.
Even the Awakened, who are stronger than human wizards and capable of raw, unaided casting, are no exception.
At first, Harry believed the Awakened had no need for wands—that barehanded casting was somehow more "advanced." But once he stepped into the world of the Awakened, he realized how wrong he was.
It wasn't that the Awakened rejected spellcasting mediums; rather, not all of them could find or create a suitable one. If the medium wasn't of sufficient quality, it was useless or even a hindrance. And acquiring a good one wasn't easy. Crafting one by hand was complex and laborious, so some Awakened simply chose to go without—it was "good enough" for their needs.
Harry recalled a memory projection he had seen on Paradise Island. It featured an unknown Awakened wizard extracting the core of a demon lord to enhance a longbow-style wand. At the time, Harry had thought him a reckless gambler seeking thrills, but now it seemed… that wand upgrade might have been genuinely effective.
If that was just speculation, Li Jiannan's sword case was solid proof. The Azure Lotus Sword Immortal used it until his death—a spellcasting medium tailored to him. While most Awakened fought in the Abyss and perished against the Sevenfold Gods, letting the demons invade the magical world was far more terrifying. Who knew if the endless Abyssal demons might return, drain the world's natural magic, and hatch a new god right then and there?
These beings, which feed on magic and grow stronger by absorbing it, cannot be allowed to act unchecked. Even someone as powerful as the Azure Lotus Sword Immortal fought to his last breath, defending the portal without retreat. Like ants overwhelming an elephant, the endless tide of demons would eventually wear down even the mightiest defender.
While European wizards had long taken this "origin" of magic for granted, failing to study it further, Grindelwald picked it back up. Honestly, Europe's magical community should have done this ages ago. Harry had already discovered during his time in the Primordial Celestial Empire that, although their wands resembled firearms, their spellcasting tools had gone through countless iterations, perfectly optimized for their magical system.
In fact, in terms of design, they had entered a "sci-fi" era. Their wands looked cooler than any Muggle railgun or laser rifle, and truthfully, compared to them, the gun-wand Harry now held felt fundamentally outdated.
However, in the magical world, outdated models don't necessarily mean guaranteed defeat. What truly matters is suitability. European wand-guns were originally designed and modified to fit the European spellcasting system. While they may now be outdated and incompatible with the spellcraft of the Primordial Celestial Empire, they are still well-suited for European spellcasting and don't feel obsolete in that context.
It's true that European wand-guns have gone through far fewer iterations over the centuries compared to those in the Celestial Empire. Even so, they have steadily improved. The current generation of European wand-guns can just about be called the ultimate answer for their spell system. There's still some room for improvement, but not much.
Don't be fooled by the Soviet wizards who've created a so-called "new wand system." This change hasn't fundamentally altered the nature of European wand-guns; it has simply emphasized caliber supremacy, better aligning with their brutal and aggressive style. Soviet wizards are heading toward a future where everyone's a hulking giant, and giants slinging 20 to 30 mm cannons over their shoulders... well, that's just perfect for their aesthetic.
For Grindelwald, redesigning a new type of wand or even deeply optimizing the current version wasn't worth the cost. Sure, he could do it, but the investment wouldn't yield enough return. Rather than struggle to squeeze results from an already narrow margin of improvement, it was better to pioneer a new direction entirely.
That direction was to research how to better utilize existing wands, teaching wizards how to effectively wield their "third hand"—their spellcasting medium as an extension of their body.
The ability to use tools effectively was the key to humanity's rise in the natural world. Now, learning to master their spellcasting mediums is one of the few viable paths for European wizards, whose systems are several versions behind other regions. It's also the most efficient and cost-effective path forward.
Alongside the acceptance letter came a slim book, which Harry had already read cover to cover. As he mulled over its contents, his gaze drifted to the window. On the black cover of the book, gold lettering gleamed brightly:
"A New Era Wizard's Guide: Customizing and Upgrading Firearms."
Grindelwald's first step in his reform was to completely discard the ancient term "wand." A gun is a gun. It's not a fire poker, nor a wooden rod for herding sheep. That outdated name belonged to the past—and it could stay buried in the dust of history.
(End of Chapter)