Grinding

After his first practical magic lesson that morning, Suye had reached his limits physically, mentally, and even with his Magic Power Tree. He was more exhausted than yesterday.

Generally speaking, excessive fatigue was unsuitable for deep meditation, because deep meditation required concentration. When overly tired, it was easy to fall asleep during meditation—a state beginners often experienced.

So Suye prepared to enter shallow meditation. Its effects were similar to light sleep, but not quite the same.

After meditating, Suye entered the Magic Tower. He saw that nothing else in the Magic Tower had changed, yet the leaves of the Magic Power Tree had somehow changed from black to yellowish.

It was a sign that his magic power had been depleted.

What delighted Suye was that new young leaves had grown at the end of the same branch. It seemed they would become new leaves before long, eventually forming complete Magic Tree Leaves on which he could carve new Magic Array Diagrams.

During the morning lesson, Teacher Niedern had said that Magic Leaf growth had three basic methods. First, they grew as magic power increased. Second, they grew as one's mastery of spells improved. Third, they grew as one's magical knowledge expanded. Someone like Lake, who possessed a vast amount of magical knowledge, would give birth to at least five leaves upon advancing to Magic Apprentice.

Overjoyed, Suye entered the Divine Light and began meditating.

In less than ten minutes, Suye's physical strength, energy, and magic power had completely recovered.

After a while longer, Suye felt that his body had absorbed enough divine power. He did not become lost in that pleasant sensation and immediately returned to the Magic Tower.

Suye carefully examined the Magic Leaf and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it had not only regained its Black Crystal-like state, but that the Magic Array Diagram on it had also become noticeably more complete.

"Sure enough, the strength of magic doesn't lie in talent, but in constant effort—correct effort, and effort guided by the right methods!"

"Still, my meditation speed is a little fast. Normally, a person needs to meditate for an hour to recover all their magic power. It should be related to my years of practicing meditation."

While Suye was meditating, Niedern rushed into the vice dean's office.

"Get out! Knock first!" A stern voice rang out like a lion's roar.

The excitement on Niedern's face instantly collapsed. He obediently backed out, knocked three times, and only then pushed open the door.

"You haven't eaten, have you? Let's order something and talk while we eat."

Behind the broad desk, an old man in a purple robe was reading a Magic Book without looking up. He had a head of thick black curls, and his beard was even denser than his hair, practically like the canopy of a lush banyan tree hanging upside down from his chin.

"Yes, Teacher."

Niedern obediently opened the Magic Book and ordered food.

Thucydides slowly raised his head.

The instant Niedern saw Thucydides's eyes, his heart trembled.

Within those eyes, Wind and Cloud shifted and changed. At times, the earth shook; at others, tsunamis swept across the land, as if all the disasters in the world were hidden within them.

Thucydides blinked, and his eyes returned to calm. His brown irises seemed to possess Great Power capable of pacifying chaos, ending conflict, and soothing heaven and earth, quickly calming Niedern.

"There are very few things worth making you happy." Thucydides straightened his body, placed both hands on the desk, and looked at Niedern.

Behind Thucydides was a broad, transparent crystal window. Sunlight streamed in beneath a clear sky, but in Niedern's eyes, his teacher seemed like a divine pillar holding up the heavens.

At that moment, Niedern was like a piglet facing a lion. He nodded nervously and said, "I discovered a genius in both magic and combat." As he spoke, he offered the Magic Book with both hands.

Thucydides took Niedern's Magic Book. With a sweep of his right hand, Suye's process of learning magic began playing at ten times the speed.

He moved another finger, increasing the playback speed to one hundred times.

"Very good." Thucydides's deep voice echoed through the office.

Niedern desperately concealed his delight. For Thucydides to say "very good" meant that Suye unquestionably possessed immense potential—perhaps even more than Niedern himself.

Thucydides moved a finger again and transferred the contents of the Magic Book into his own book.

Niedern said, "After discovering that Suye had advanced to Magic Apprentice, I sent people to investigate him. I've already sent the investigation report to you, so I assume you've read it. What about that Lawrence? Should I deal with him?"

Thucydides did not look at Niedern. He turned his chair to face the window and lightly tapped the cover of the Magic Book with his index finger.

After a while, Thucydides said, "There's no need."

"What if Lawrence kills Suye?"

"Then he'll be buried with him, along with his Bandit Group and the nobles behind him." Thucydides's voice was utterly calm.

"Yes." Niedern's heart trembled. As expected, his teacher would never show mercy to an enemy.

Niedern continued, "According to tradition, tomorrow's Low Rank Magic Tournament will be held as scheduled. The Athenian Noble Academy has already submitted an official parchment notice. The academy's Bronze Rank and Iron Rank contestants have been finalized. As for the Magic Apprentices, none of them are ideal. Could we send Suye? Those fools wouldn't add up to even one Suye when facing a cheetah. I'm very optimistic about him and want to temper him."

"Very well." This time, Thucydides answered quickly.

"He's too clever right now, and he's only just mastered magic. He probably won't want to get hurt or lose face. I'll find a way to trick—cough, persuade him," Niedern said.

Thucydides nodded naturally.

Before long, two Bear Goblins, each only slightly shorter than an ordinary human, knocked and entered to deliver lunch.

After finishing his meal, Niedern was about to leave when he suddenly stopped. He cleared his throat and asked, "Teacher, may I ask you a question? You must answer within three seconds. If you can't, you'll be expelled from—cough, cough, you'll lose your student Niedern. You're taking a tiger, an eagle, a sheep, and a rabbit on a boat when you encounter a storm. Your magic power runs out, and all four animals are injured. An island happens to appear ahead, but you can take only one animal ashore. Which one will you choose? One... two... two... two... three!"

After Niedern finished counting to three in his maddeningly slow manner, several more seconds passed before Thucydides slowly gave his answer.

Niedern stood there in a daze for quite some time.

"Teacher really doesn't care about losing me?" Niedern let out a long sigh, rolled his eyes, clutched his left chest, and walked out.

Thucydides quietly pondered. After a moment, he reopened the Magic Book...

After eating, Suye did not waste any time. He previewed the afternoon lessons first, then reviewed the morning lessons.

During the first class in the afternoon, Suye finally returned to his familiar rhythm and listened attentively.

As he listened, Suye constantly compared and verified the teacher's material against the textbook. Whenever he encountered something questionable or incomprehensible, he immediately wrote it down instead of spending time thinking about it.

Suye continued to uphold the principle of training his brain. He did not take excessive notes, recording only a very small number of key words or questions.

After each class, Suye would stand up to ease the fatigue caused by sitting for a long time. Then he would hold his Magic Book and quickly draw a simplified Mind Map of the previous lesson to aid his memory.

After several consecutive afternoon classes, Suye felt quite good. He decided to continue studying according to his original plan: previewing, attending, reviewing, and doing homework for all his classes as normal, while using all his other free time to study the key courses he had previously selected.

The interval between classes was noisy and bustling. After finishing the Mind Map for the previous lesson, Suye began considering what to study during the final self-study period.