One Year and Three Months

The Augustine Family's arrival was only a minor interlude. Locke soon returned to his daily life of study and research.

Time passed quickly. Winter gave way to spring, and Locke had spent one year and three months at Aurelian Academy.

Inside Locke's dormitory, he had now finished reading all nine books on Vine Hand.

A pot of Mandrake on the windowsill had also grown from a single seed into a green-leafed vine roughly three meters long.

Under Locke's daily nourishment of Mental Power, this vine had developed some magical traits and could even express simple emotions.

For example, when it sensed the air turning cold, its leaves would curl up slightly, as though someone were hugging themselves tightly after catching a chill.

If it lacked water, the vine would gently tap against the window with its leaves to remind Locke to water it.

Today, Locke looked at the final page of the ninth book on Vine Hand.

It described the final step in completing Vine Hand: allowing the Mandrake vine to fully mature, leave the soil, and be grafted onto his Mental Power.

That way, the Mandrake vine could be carried with him at all times and activated by spells for use in battle.

Like a vine pet.

Locke arranged ten stones carved with Ancient Ogham Script runes around the Mandrake pot in two circles, then softly began chanting.

At the same time, the Mandrake vine that had been climbing the window seemed to react. Its leaves began trembling, while the vine itself slowly crawled across the glass.

Holding a flower in one hand, Locke quickly reviewed the usual dangers and possible side effects of the final step: Mental Power Grafting.

Locke said, "Mental Power Grafting is the final step of the Vine Hand spell. It removes the cultivated Mandrake from the soil and uses a ritual to connect it to my Mana. My Mana will sustain the Mandrake, allowing me to command it, improve it further, and use it to attack my enemies."

"According to the knowledge recorded in the books, Wizard Korr of Verdantia University, who invented Vine Hand, proposed a hypothesis—the Wood Element Particle Plant Genesis Hypothesis. Under this hypothesis, Wood Element Particles did not originally exist in this world. But after a certain plant was born, it rooted itself in water and soil, combining Water Element Particles and Earth Element Particles to form the composite Wood Element Particles."

So Wood Element Particles, the foundation of Plant Magic, did not originally exist in this world. Plants were born first, and then plants produced Wood Element Particles.

"Unfortunately, Wizard Korr seemed not to have found the plant from his hypothesis that produced the first Wood Element Particle, even as late as two hundred years ago. So the hypothesis remained only a hypothesis, without sufficient evidence to prove it."

"Yet this hypothesis is one of the foundations for every spell developed by the Vine Wizard, Wizard Korr. Therefore, to use Vine Hand, I need to transfer concentrated Wood Element Particles from elsewhere onto my Mandrake vine."

"And the place with the densest Wood Element Particles is the plants themselves."

"Therefore, this spell requires some kind of plant as its casting medium. Otherwise, if I cast it empty-handed, I will be the one paying the price in vitality. My own arm, my own muscles... will wither."

Locke swiftly went through all the critical points written in those nine books.

This was his first time truly casting a spell, his first time independently using magic.

Strangely, Locke was not as nervous as he had expected. Instead, he felt calm and composed, because he had reviewed and pondered today's casting day and night for nearly two years.

He was already extremely familiar with every step.

Headmaster Tungus had also warned the three of them that Corfu Island was unlike the Wizarding World. Magical resources were scarce there, which meant injuries caused by magic would be difficult to treat.

There had been Wizard Seedlings at the Academy before who had carelessly suffered backlash from their own spells and ultimately died.

Locke transferred the vitality and Wood Element Particles from the flower in his hand into the Mandrake vine. The flower rapidly withered, while the Mandrake swiftly sprouted new green leaves, rapidly growing more mature and approaching adulthood.

Holding a Ritual Dagger made of obsidian, Locke carefully carved Ogham Tree Runes beneath the Mandrake's stem.

Through these runes, his Mana would officially be grafted onto this Mandrake that his Mana had transformed, making it an existence like one of his own arms.

Ancient Ogham Script was the ancient magical rune system used in common Plant Magic.

That was precisely why students needed to take the prerequisite course, General Fundamentals of Plant Magic, before learning Vine Hand.

Because this Mandrake had been nourished and transformed by his Mana for so long, his Mana had strengthened its branches and leaves, reinforced its spiritual nature, and optimized its foundation. Thus, the Mandrake did not resist much.

But Locke still needed to focus all his attention on carving the Ogham Tree Runes. There were sixteen runes in total to carve.

Even the slightest mistake in carving would, in the best-case scenario, destroy the Mandrake. In the worst-case scenario, he would suffer spell backlash and be struck by a massive surge of Wood Element magic, turning every cell in his body into wood and transforming him into a wooden man.

When Wizard Apprentices researched Plant Magic, backlash turning them into wooden men was a relatively common laboratory accident.

But even stranger outcomes were possible. One book recorded how a Wizard Apprentice had written one symbol incorrectly while carving Ogham Tree Runes. What should have been a graft instead became a fusion between the wizard and the vine.

However, fusing magical plants with one's own body was a very advanced form of Plant Magic, a field that only a First-Ring Wizard could study.

As a result, that Third-Class Wizard Apprentice turned into a humanoid plant and lost his sense of self.

In the end, Wizard Korr even reclaimed him and conducted some research that the book had omitted.

About half an hour later, as Locke carefully carved the final Ogham rune, his body suddenly shuddered. At the same time, the Mandrake in the pot rapidly matured under the infusion of vitality. Then, with a sharp crack, its body broke away from the roots, and the three-meter vine split into two sections.

The roots, about half a meter long, remained standing in the soil at the bottom of the pot, but rapidly yellowed and lost all life.

Meanwhile, all sixteen Ogham Tree Runes on the two-and-a-half-meter Mandrake vine lit up one after another with enchanting green light. That was the sign of completed Plant Magic.

Locke softly recited an incantation.

Then the vine began writhing across the floor like a snake. It nimbly crawled up Locke's legs, then climbed his body, attempting to slip into his sleeve. But the cuff of the White Wool Shirt Academy uniform was too small. After several failed attempts, it gave up.

It wrapped itself around Locke's right arm, while the excess length coiled around the base of his shoulder and hung from his body.

Locke sensed that the Mandrake had fallen dormant. After all, unless one was a First-Ring Wizard, it was difficult to use Plant Magic to keep magical plants moving continuously.

That would consume a tremendous amount of Mana.

In severe cases, it could even backlash against the wizard, forcing them to sacrifice their own vitality and wither parts of their flesh.

Therefore, only when facing an enemy could he recite the incantation and sacrifice a plant to restore the Mandrake's vitality, allowing it to attack the enemy in the instant it revived.

Locke let out a long breath, then walked to the desk and used the handkerchief lying there to wipe the sweat from his forehead. Yet his face wore a happy smile. "It's finally complete."

He closed his eyes. The instant he completed the Vine Hand spell, he had become a Third-Class Wizard Apprentice.

With his eyes shut, he vaguely seemed to see illusory points of light before him. They revolved around the core of his Mental Power, and within those lights was a Cantrip Model formed from sixteen Ogham Tree Runes.

The books said that the tree runes used in First-Ring Plant Magic required at least hundreds of runes for a single use, with complexity rising dramatically. But this was only a cantrip, so sixteen Ogham Tree Runes were enough to create a decent spell.

Locke picked up a Daffodil from his desk and recited an incantation. The Daffodil in his left hand rapidly withered and died at an astonishing speed. At the same time, the Mandrake wrapped around his right arm reacted swiftly, extending five vine branches like a plant hand to attack. They pierced into the dormitory wall, leaving five holes behind.

Then the Mandrake suddenly exerted force. The five branches clenched like a human hand and pulled together, actually tearing a hole into the wall with Vine Hand and producing a tremendous crash.

After doing all that, the Mandrake listlessly shrank back around his right arm and lay still again.

Locke stared at the scene in disbelief. "This is more powerful than what the books described."

"First, written descriptions are limited. Actually using it myself gives me a more concrete understanding. Second, my Vine Hand is probably quite well completed, so its power has increased somewhat."

Locke looked at the Deep Blue Jade pieces piled throughout his room, along with those that had already been used up.

These Deep Blue Jade pieces could filter his Mental Power and stabilize its fluctuations. As a result, the precision with which he carved Ogham Tree Runes was about thirty percent higher than that of an ordinary Wizard Apprentice.

That was why his Vine Hand was so powerful.

This was the function of the Horadric Cube.

The Deep Blue Jade was so effective and also consumable. If he had been in the Wizarding World, buying such jade would probably not have been easy. It would require vast resources, resources a small wizard with no background like him would likely struggle even to access.

Looking over the many Deep Blue Jade pieces he had used up, then recalling Headmaster Tungus's reverence for scarce magical resources, Locke suddenly felt that he had been rather extravagant.

"Three more months, and Aurelian Academy's Wizard Ship will arrive." Locke pulled a black trench coat from his wardrobe and draped it over himself, concealing the Mandrake on his right arm, which resembled a pet vine snake. "Now that I'm a Third-Class Wizard Apprentice, I need to share this good news with Teacher Tungus, Kode, and Patti."

"There are still three months left. I'd better not waste them. I should ask Teacher Tungus what I'm still lacking."

After all, the more outstanding he became, the more room he would have to choose an Academy he truly liked once he boarded the Wizard Ship.