Meditation

Following a fleeting thought, Rhode quickly climbed a large tree beside the entrance to the tomb. Its branches were thick enough for him to stand on with ease.

Standing on a branch, Rhode found a spot that seemed leafy enough to conceal him while still offering a good angle to observe the ground.

From there, he could see everything within dozens of meters of the tomb. With his Eagle Eye, he could even make out the exact position of every fallen leaf. Farther away, the view was blocked by the foliage.

"This spot... looks like it'd be easy to spot me..."

That was right. When Rhode realized the Necromancer Apprentice was about to return, he hadn't planned to run. Instead, he intended to stay and find a way to assassinate him.

Undead Creatures, by their very nature, were little more than mindless cannon fodder once they lost the Necromancer's control. They could only fight on instinct.

In other words, if Rhode could successfully assassinate the Necromancer, the group of Undead Creatures he'd controlled would no longer pose a threat. Rhode could turn them all into experience points.

This was a good opportunity for Rhode to grow stronger, but it came with some risk: he had to successfully assassinate the returning Necromancer. Otherwise, under the Necromancer's control, a group of Undead Creatures using tactics and working together wouldn't be easy to deal with.

As Rhode saw it, there were only two suitable hiding places where he might find a chance to strike. One was inside the tomb. After realizing someone had been there, the Necromancer Apprentice would surely go inside, giving Rhode a chance to attack.

However, the Necromancer's vigilance would be at its peak when he entered the tomb, making an assassination attempt too risky. If Rhode was discovered inside, he wouldn't even be able to escape.

The other suitable hiding place was the tree Rhode was in now. Human vision was limited, and people tended to overlook places like leafy branches as long as nothing seemed amiss at first glance.

That was why Rhode had chosen the tree as his hiding place. But his current position wasn't particularly well concealed. The leaves couldn't hide his shape, and anyone looking up from the tomb's entrance would spot something unusual.

With the overlapping layers of foliage, the higher the chosen spot was, the harder it would be to see. But if Rhode climbed too high, he might break a leg if he had to leap down to assassinate the Necromancer and failed.

Without any special skills to help him, Rhode couldn't find the best hiding place in a short time.

He didn't hesitate for long. To improve his chances of a successful assassination, Rhode decided to spend a Skill Point and learn Novice Scout Technique.

(Novice Scout Technique: Through constant practice, your scouting ability has improved. You've learned to judge an enemy's movements from various traces they leave behind. You've also gained some insight into how to observe enemies safely without being detected. Detection Range +2, Perception +1.)

After learning Novice Scout Technique, Rhode felt that he'd improved in a way he couldn't quite describe. It wasn't as if knowledge had simply been injected into his mind. The improvement felt more like a collection of insights, like an instinct.

The spot he'd chosen earlier now seemed to have a glaring flaw. Not only could someone on the ground look up and see him at a glance, but he could even be spotted from a little farther away.

Rhode hurriedly moved to a different spot. It was higher than the last one and gave him a better view of all the directions he needed to watch. The surrounding branches were thick with leaves, and the tree's main trunk stood nearby, ready to shield him if necessary. Overall, it was much better concealed than his previous spot.

Perhaps it was the boost to his perception from learning Scout Technique. After settling into his chosen spot on the branch, Rhode didn't want to let the time pass idly. He decided to meditate while he waited for the Necromancer to return.

Meditation was the foundation of spellcasting and the first step every spellcaster took when learning magic.

Meditation could increase a spellcaster's mana. Whether they were conventional spellcasters, warlocks, or necromancers, casting spells consumed mana. Meditation was the way to increase it.

For players, the maximum mana meditation could provide was generally ten times their Knowledge attribute. Certain treasures and special skills could also increase their maximum mana.

Before meditating, an ordinary spellcaster's maximum mana was zero. Yet some beings had mana from birth, such as heroes specialized in magic and certain mutated monsters.

For monsters, casting magic was more like an innate talent, and they didn't need to increase their mana through meditation like spellcasters did.

Rhode sat cross-legged on the branch, preparing to meditate.

Meditation didn't require any particular setting or posture, but beginners needed certain external conditions to improve its quality. A quiet room, for instance, was sure to help focus more than a noisy environment, and sitting cross-legged helped concentrate the mind better than other postures.

Having meditated countless times in his previous life, Rhode wasn't unfamiliar with the practice. His improved perception would also let him end his meditation as soon as the Necromancer Apprentice returned.

Rhode closed his eyes and sat motionless in the tree. From a distance, the only thing that moved was his chest, rising and falling faintly with each breath. He made no other movements, as if his whole body had become still. Even when a few leaves drifted onto him, he didn't react.

Time passed slowly. Rhode focused his thoughts on sensing his own body. The wind and the calls of various creatures seemed to fade away, leaving only the center of his mind.

This wasn't the decline in awareness that came from a scattered mind when someone was drowsy. Rather, it was a natural result of focusing all his attention inward.

Even with the forest around him still noisy, Rhode quickly entered a meditative state.

For someone just beginning to meditate, his past-life experience was actually of little help. It was mostly about ways to improve the quality of meditation and tips for deeper meditation. Rhode entered the meditative state so quickly mainly because of his own willpower.

Once he entered the meditative state, he began to sense magical elements within his consciousness. The most important part of meditation was next: he had to use his mind to communicate with the magical elements until he could accept them.

As time passed, Rhode's brow gradually furrowed. His current body had little talent for magic and was insensitive to the magical elements around him, so he couldn't absorb them effectively. This made him increasingly frustrated.

Fortunately, this was where his past-life experience came in. The more difficult things became, the more important it was not to rush. Realizing that his mind wasn't calm, Rhode promptly eased his emotions. Even though he couldn't absorb the magical elements yet, he no longer grew impatient.

At last, thanks to Rhode's unremitting efforts, his mind began to connect with the magical elements around him, and they started to draw closer.

If Rhode could see his status screen at that moment, he would have noticed that his mana had changed from 0/0 to 1/1.