However, the ancient magical texts Allen found next poured cold water on him.
He had previously thought that the magical world's research on magical texts would be relatively poor, but he didn't expect it to be so bad; a magical text dictionary only had over two hundred ancient magical texts with completely confirmed meanings, while the others were merely speculative.
Moreover, when Allen compared the magical texts he had recorded with these two hundred, he found that the glyphs of many magical texts were very similar to his own records, but there were significant differences in the details.
Allen firmly believed that the glyphs of the magical texts he saw on the light screen were correct, which meant that many of the more than 200 ancient magical texts with confirmed meanings were written incorrectly, which somewhat discouraged him.
However, Allen's greatest strength was his patience; he gathered a pile of ancient magical texts and related books to cross-reference, and finally made some progress.
He chose the simplest ancient magical text for the Lumos Charm to analyze.
The ancient magical text key-value pairs for the Lumos Charm (hereinafter referred to as 'key' for the key and 'value' for the value) only had twenty-six entries, four of which had empty values. With Allen's efforts, the meanings of half of the ancient magical text key-value pairs were deciphered, including three key-value pairs with empty values.
He fell into deep thought as he looked at the deciphered key-value pairs.
The first three he noticed were the meanings of the keys of the key-value pairs with empty values, which were: "rotation speed," "trajectory," and "number of cycles."
The term "rotation speed" felt familiar to him, as if he had seen it somewhere before, giving him a strange sense of déjà vu.
The Lumos Charm was one of the spells Allen was most proficient in. When casting it, he could quickly clear his mind, envisioning a ball of light blooming from the tip of his wand, then performing the corresponding wand movement, and chanting the incantation with the correct intonation. This was the standard casting process for a Lumos Charm.
"Standard casting process..." Allen muttered unconsciously. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head, and he realized where he had seen the keyword "rotation."
He quickly found his "Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1," turned to the section on the Lumos Charm in the first chapter, and at the end of the first part of that chapter, he found what he was looking for:
Mr. Hobbes Black (1629-1721) improved the Lumos Charm in 1644. The improved Lumos Charm's light ball could rotate and flicker at the tip of the wand.
Allen stared intently at the word "rotation," but a storm raged in his heart.
The Lumos Charm was one of the simplest of all magical spells; beginners could master it with simple practice. Wizards had almost fully exploited the potential of this spell when they invented it, so there was only this one improvement record in the textbook. Although this improvement was included in the textbook, it was not mentioned at all in the standard casting process in the second part.
Allen recalled Professor Flitwick mentioning this part in class and briefly introducing a non-standard casting process—imagining the light ball rotating and flickering at the tip of one's wand when casting Lumos, and suggesting that students could try this non-standard casting process themselves after class. But Allen hadn't taken it seriously at the time.
Allen numbly drew out his wand and cast the Lumos Charm according to the non-standard process. Sure enough, a slowly rotating and flickering ball of light appeared at the tip of his wand.
"No wonder this thing didn't make it into the standard casting process; it's really flashy but impractical!" Allen thought, feeling a bit exasperated. "Anyone who thought of this must have had too much time on their hands!"
When he recorded the ancient magical text key-value pairs for the Lumos Charm, he must have cast it according to the standard process, so the value corresponding to the "rotation speed" key was empty, because he had no thought of "rotation" in his mind when casting. Allen thought with great certainty.
It seemed his previous conjecture was correct; indeed, his thoughts when casting magic were translated into key-value pairs composed of ancient magical texts and then sent out. Allen felt a little pleased.
Then the meaning of the last unparsed key with an empty value became very clear: "Is it flickering!"
Allen pondered this conclusion, and once again felt a sense of familiarity: the process of casting Lumos was so similar to calling a computer function, and it was a function with twenty-six input parameters, where the spell was the function name, the thoughts in his head were the various input parameters, and input parameters without corresponding thoughts in his head were passed as null.
A computer function refers to a segment of program or code that can be directly referenced by another segment of program or code. It sounds convoluted, but it's actually easy to understand. For example, if you create a function called "Addition within 10," this function has two input parameters, a and b. The function's implementation is c = a + b, and then the result of c is displayed in a pop-up window. When you call this function, you input a = 1 and b = 1, and the final result is a pop-up window on the screen with the content c = 2. This is the simplest type of function.
Similarly, the Lumos Charm is the same. When you call the Lumos Charm function, inputting the necessary parameters can summon a ball of light at the tip of your wand, but you can also input some pre-agreed, non-essential parameters to achieve different effects. Just like the "rotation speed" and "is it flickering" parameters, the Lumos Charm won't fail if you don't pass them, but if you do, you can achieve different effects.
To verify his idea, Allen cast the Lumos Charm once more. This time, when casting, he only imagined the light ball rotating at the tip of his wand, and indeed, he summoned a light ball rotating at the tip of his wand; then he only thought of the light ball flickering at the tip of his wand and cast Lumos, and indeed, he summoned a light ball flickering at the tip of his wand.
So, the improvements to spells in the textbooks were just discoveries of new ways to use them!
Allen then turned his attention to the translation of the keys of the remaining two key-value pairs with empty values: "trajectory" and "number of cycles."
Allen's heart suddenly pounded violently. He suddenly realized the purpose and practical significance of these two keys. If he could develop the functions of these two keys, it would mean another, and final, improvement to the Lumos Charm.
This was definitely going to be in textbooks! His discovery was clearly much more practical than Black's improvement! He wondered how much bonus the Ministry of Magic would give him! Allen thought gleefully.
However, the most urgent task was to uncover the functions of these two keys. It definitely wouldn't work in the crowded and watchful library. Allen thought to himself.
Then Allen returned all the borrowed books and rushed back to the abandoned girls' lavatory where he had been yesterday, without looking back.
"Girls' restroom! Your emperor has returned!"