One-Star Spiritual Apprentice

The West Station was in the outer city, while the Spirit Tower was in the inner city.

Trams shuttled through every street, and all kinds of passengers came and went. Duke alone remained seated by the window, drinking in every sight until his eyes could hardly keep up.

"Like a European city in the era of the First Industrial Revolution described in textbooks..."

"And yet like a brand-new cyberpunk world..."

Chen Jiao City had more than billowing black smoke and sewage running through the streets. It also had flickering neon lights, streams of traffic, and the glittering allure of technology alongside the squalor of daily life. Though the two seemed cleaved apart, they fit together with astonishing harmony.

Once they reached the inner city, however, the dirty sights gradually became rarer.

Towering buildings stood packed together in orderly rows. Villas with gardens dotted the hillsides. Patrol knights astride flashy mounts maintained public order, flying shuttles skimmed close to the ground, and cars rolled slowly past.

Compared with the reckless chaos of the outer city, the inner city was orderly despite being just as crowded.

"We've arrived at the Spirit Tower Station!" the conductor shouted at the top of his lungs before the tram had even stopped.

Duke quickly rose and stood by the door. As soon as the tram came to a halt, he followed the momentum and stepped off. Several others got off at the same time, including a middle-aged man whose destination, like Duke's, was the Spirit Tower.

"From out of town?" the middle-aged man suddenly asked when he saw Duke looking around in all directions.

"Uh, yes."

"What brings you here?"

"To register as a Spiritual Apprentice."

"Hmm, did you take the Spirit Awakening Potion?"

"How did you guess?" Duke simply followed along behind the middle-aged man.

"No one would let a genius go to the Spirit Tower alone to register. Someone would have snatched him up already." The middle-aged man stopped before the Spirit Tower's main entrance, turned around, and said to the two guards standing watch, "He's with me."

"All right, Mr. Willgang." The guards stopped checking Duke's identity.

After Duke entered through the gate, he asked curiously, "Mr. Willgang, may I ask what you do?"

"I'm a Meditation Record Keeper, just an ordinary employee." Willgang waved his hand. "Go straight to the hall. A clerk there will guide you through registering as a Spiritual Apprentice. Once you've registered and come to collect a meditation method, we may meet again."

After saying that, Willgang hurried away with his briefcase in hand.

"Thank you."

Duke thanked him and decisively headed for the hall.

Many people had already gathered at the front desk to handle all kinds of business. Duke joined the queue and listened to what they were there for. Some were replacing qualification certificates, some exchanging Arcane Templates, some being assessed for apprentice rank, and others applying for private lessons. In short, the Spirit Tower handled an astonishingly broad range of matters.

"Next."

"Hello, I'm here to register as a Spiritual Apprentice."

"Do you have a recommendation letter?"

"Here."

"Tom, someone's here to register as a Spiritual Apprentice. Take him over." The clerk at the hall's front desk immediately called out.

Before long, a young man with a face full of pockmarks took the recommendation letter from the Spirit Society of Snakehead Town. He glanced at its contents, then shot Duke a look. "Come with me."

Perhaps the recommendation letter had noted that Duke had opened his Spirit Sea through drugs.

Or perhaps Tom was simply a man of few words.

The two said nothing along the way. They climbed one flight of stairs, turned a corner in the corridor, and arrived at a room bearing the sign "Spirit Sea Resonance Center."

Quite a few staff members were busy inside.

Tom waited with Duke for a while. As soon as he found an opening, he quickly handed over the recommendation letter. "Spirit Sea activation test. Please take care of it."

Someone soon came over and led Duke to a sophisticated machine. Its four sides were wrapped in materials with a nonmetallic finish, and a crystal ball sat in the center.

"Put your hands on it, then meditate on your Spirit Sea," said the old man operating the machine.

Duke did as instructed.

The moment his hands touched the crystal ball, his thoughts entered his own Spirit Sea.

As soon as he entered, Xiao Yi's thoughts reached him. "Master, it seems some force is imprinting your Spirit Sea."

Duke had already looked into this matter. "It's projecting an image of my Spirit Sea to test my Spiritual Arcana talent. Xiao Yi, can you hide yourself and Sandhawk?"

"Of course."

"Good. Hide yourselves. I want to know how high my Spiritual Arcana talent is, too." Duke made up his mind.

When he heard someone say, "All right, you can take your hands away," he opened his eyes and saw countless points of light reflected across the nonmetallic panels surrounding the machine. Their distribution resembled the starlight in Duke's Spirit Sea.

"Elemental affinity: low... Energy stability: medium... Spiritual absorption efficiency: low... Overall assessment: below-average talent." The old man announced the test results, then stamped the form.

"Uh..."

Duke felt a little regretful, but he was not particularly disappointed.

Most people who opened their Spirit Seas by taking drugs had very low talent. In fact, even among those who opened them naturally, the probability of having low talent was still quite high. But talent was only a parameter. According to Opening the Spiritual Arcane, talent could not determine the height of one's Spiritual Arcana. There were countless examples of Spiritual Apprentices with low talent becoming powerful Arcane Mages.

"Besides, I have Nine-Ring Xiao Yi. If I grind away at it, I'll reach the ninth ring sooner or later!"

Duke was not discouraged.

Yet in Tom's eyes, he saw a trace of poorly concealed contempt.

"Let's go, Duke. Your Spirit Sea has been tested. It's time to register officially." Tom called out and then said nothing more, merely helping Duke complete all the procedures step by step.

Finally,

Duke paid one silver dragon in processing and material fees.

He received his Spiritual Apprentice identification—a Spirit Card as thin as a bank card. It had a pale green background, but Duke's information was not visibly written on it. Instead, it displayed only a tall, magnificent tower-shaped building—the headquarters of the Spirit Tower in the capital of the Seven Towers Federation.

"Once you advance to the first ring, you can replace it with a blue Spirit Card. Though I doubt you'll need to..." Tom spoke casually. "Take good care of this Spirit Card. Replacing a lost one costs ten silver dragons."

"Spiritual Apprentices are divided into five ranks, from one star to five stars. You're a One-Star Spiritual Apprentice right now. Whenever you advance, you can come here to swipe your card and update your rank. All right, I'll take you to choose a meditation method."

Duke put away his Spirit Card and hurried after him.

When it was time to choose a meditation method, he saw Willgang again—the man who had brought him through the entrance. The other man showed no particular reaction, merely saying in an official tone, "Your talent is below average. Of the three basic attributes, both elemental affinity and spiritual absorption are poor. Only your energy stability is passable. We recommend that you choose the Bedrock Meditation for your cultivation."

Duke thought for a moment before replying, "Mr. Willgang, may I learn about the other meditation methods before choosing?"

"Certainly. Rixi, introduce the apprentice-level meditation methods to him."

Rixi was Willgang's female assistant. Her bosom was quite ample, her facial features somewhat coarse, and her voice was also rather husky. "After generations of improvements, the Spirit Tower has derived five meditation methods most suited to Spiritual Apprentices. They are the Colored Meditation, the Bedrock Meditation, the Vortex Meditation, the Blank Paper Meditation, and the Field Meditation..."