After stopping Mana Protection, which he had maintained all along, Lin Yu opened his panel and changed his casting mode from Manual Casting to System-Assisted Casting.
With that done, Lin Yu prepared to cast Glimmer Illumination and see how System-Assisted Casting helped him cast spells.
The moment Lin Yu constructed the magic circle in his mental sea, he felt his mana flow with extraordinary ease.
In an instant, Lin Yu completed the ritual simulation by injecting mana into the magic circle, and the spell activated successfully.
Looking at the faintly glowing orb before him, Lin Yu casually dispelled the magic.
Then Lin Yu noticed a cooldown indicator had appeared after Glimmer Illumination on his panel.
Seeing the indicator, Lin Yu tried to cast the spell again. Unsurprisingly, the power that helped him control his mana did not appear this time. Without its help, Lin Yu's abysmal mana control caused the spell to fail outright, just as expected.
Once Glimmer Illumination's cooldown ended, Lin Yu cast it again. This time, the power that assisted his casting returned, and Lin Yu cast Glimmer Illumination with ease.
After those attempts, Lin Yu had a rough understanding of how System-Assisted Casting worked.
In this casting mode, as long as he knew how to construct the magic circle and direct the mana, he could cast a spell with ease. This method was more flexible than System Casting and had no Spell Slot restrictions. Its drawback was that skills still had cooldowns, and the system would not assist with casting a skill while it was on cooldown.
After figuring out System-Assisted Casting, Lin Yu began to ponder another question.
The system could clearly assist him directly with constructing a magic circle and directing his mana, so why did he still have to make hand seals to cast spells in System Casting mode?
Hand seals essentially helped beginners direct their mana. With the power the system had displayed, it could easily skip the hand seals and cast a skill when he silently recited its name. Why had the system imposed a restriction requiring the corresponding hand seals to cast a spell?
Could the system be forcing casters to rely on themselves to learn and master the ability to cast spells?
The more Lin Yu thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Otherwise, there was no explaining why System Casting had the hand-seal restriction.
Forget it. There's no point thinking about it so much. The most important thing now is to keep using Mana Protection and continue training my mana control.
Putting aside the question of why the system had imposed the hand-seal restriction, Lin Yu switched his casting mode back to Manual Casting and continued training his control over his mana.
It had been an hour. A whole hour. Watching Guan Canghai finally arrive, Lin Yu showed no expression, though he had already cursed the man's ancestors back eighteen generations in his heart.
"You're here? Hurry up, I'm in a rush," Lin Yu said as he watched Guan Canghai approach. All Lin Yu wanted now was to finish the transaction quickly so he could go to the library to read and look for a Breathing Technique while he was there.
"Sorry, sorry. The amount involved in this deal was too large. I needed some time to scrape together enough money." Seeing the impatience on Lin Yu's face, Guan Canghai apologized and explained why he was late.
After spending a little time on it, Lin Yu completed the transaction.
After putting the money away, Lin Yu took off from where he stood and flew toward the library.
He checked his backpack: 50,591 silver and 160 copper. He had made a huge profit this time and wouldn't have to worry about money for a long while.
Lin Yu soon arrived at the library. After checking the time, he decided that two hours of reading time would be enough.
At the counter, Lin Yu spent one silver coin for two hours of reading time, then flew straight to where the Basic Breathing Technique was kept.
Lin Yu picked up the Basic Breathing Technique and began reading it carefully.
"What do you mean, before I can cultivate qi, my physical strength has to be enough to wrestle a tiger? So forcibly refining qi when my body isn't strong enough can be life-threatening?" After reading the Basic Breathing Technique, Lin Yu fell into thought.
Fortunately, the Breathing Technique didn't just cover the use of qi. It also contained a set of breathing exercises for training the body.
Lin Yu checked the time and decided to try the Breathing Technique offline after finishing his meditation for the day.
As for why he didn't try it in the game, Lin Yu had just attempted to circulate the part of the Breathing Technique meant to train the body.
The world had spun around him, and his whole body had ached as though it had been run over by a truck. Blood had immediately begun flowing from all seven of his orifices, and a warning had popped up on his panel.
[Player's body detected below the minimum requirements for cultivating the Breathing Technique. Please stop cultivating the Breathing Technique immediately. Forcibly continuing may be life-threatening.]
Seeing the warning on his panel and the three health points he had already lost, Lin Yu chose to stop circulating the Breathing Technique.
After checking his remaining reading time, Lin Yu decided to keep reading and expand his knowledge.
Time slipped quietly by, and two hours passed in the blink of an eye. After putting the book in his hands back on the shelf, Lin Yu flew straight back to the inn.
After entering his room, Lin Yu hurried into the washroom and quickly took a bath.
He changed into a fresh robe, washed the old one and hung it up to dry, then went over to the bed and sat down.
Closing his eyes, Lin Yu entered meditation and began cultivating to strengthen his Magic Aperture.
"Phew." Lin Yu breathed out. Feeling that his Magic Aperture had grown stronger once again, he opened his panel to check the results of his cultivation.
His maximum mana had increased by 665 points this time, bringing it up to 1,592.
Then Lin Yu noticed a new [Breakthrough Pending] indicator after his experience points.
Lin Yu had already noticed the [Breakthrough Pending] indicator that morning, but he had been busy refining potions and hadn't had any time to look into it.
He had found time after finishing and going out to sell the potions, but he had been focused on studying System-Assisted Casting and training his mana control, so he had completely forgotten to investigate what Breakthrough Pending meant.
After selling the potions, he had gone to read, then returned to the inn. Apart from seeing the warning, he hadn't looked at his panel in the meantime.
Had Lin Yu not opened his panel to check the results of his cultivation, he would probably have forgotten to investigate Breakthrough Pending altogether.
Lin Yu selected Breakthrough Pending, ready to investigate it.
He opened Breakthrough Pending and looked into it briefly, gaining a rough understanding of what it meant.
Simply put, level 10 was the limit for an apprentice. To continue leveling up, he needed to advance to the formal rank.
He had read about advancement while studying. When advancing, he also had to decide on the cultivation path he would follow afterward, and the only one available to him was the Caster System.