Showing Off Feels Great for a Moment

Lein: ???

This system of mine kept making everything so damn cryptic.

Still, a system was better than no system.

Lein took a closer look and felt more than a little embarrassed.

After patiently waiting ten minutes for the system upgrade progress bar to reach 100%, the next system prompt finally appeared.

[Because the host successfully taught a disciple through Physical Truth and enabled him to gain this world's initial recognition, Never Tire of Teaching Internal testing Version 0.1 is now online!]

[Downs Quijote has established a connection with you based on the laws of the world. As long as the disciple remains alive, the host may selectively share the disciple's strongest talent according to the disciple's fame level!]

Three talents immediately appeared before Lein's eyes for him to choose from.

[Evocation Magic Specialization: When using Evocation Magic, mana consumption is reduced by 30%, critical hit chance is increased by 10%, and casting speed is increased by 30%!]

[Advanced Wind Element Affinity: Allows one to sense Wind Element across realms. The range for gathering Wind Element is increased by 100%, and one is immune to Wind Element magic damage below Master Level.]

[Comprehension: ???]

At the sight of this, Lein was completely Sparta.

"God! What kind of monstrous disciple did I take in? And I actually tried to push Downs away..."

Was taking disciples great?

It was damn great!

With this master-and-disciple system, he, as the teacher, could share the heaven-defying talents of top-tier disciples without limit.

Lein checked: [System, is there a limit to how many disciples I can take?]

The system answered: [There is no limit to the number of disciples the host may take. However, a disciple must gain power through the host that surpasses the upper limit of their destiny in order to be included in the host's disciple roster. The stronger the disciple, the greater the shared bonus they provide to their master.]

Lein suddenly understood.

In a sense, this was also the relationship between a fine steed and Bo Le.

Fine steeds were common, but Bo Le was not.

Without Lein, a transmigrator from another world, discovering Downs's potential as a mage in this manner, Downs would most likely have remained a low-ranking knight for his entire life. He could never have made such a name for himself as he had now.

This was Downs changing his fate against the heavens, and it was also the two of them fulfilling each other.

Judging from the system's meaning, if Lein could cultivate a whole group of legendary big shots, he might even become a god through this...

That was a bit too outrageous.

Lein did not dare think that far ahead for now.

Then another thought struck him, and Lein became utterly miserable. "But I have no idea how to teach him next!"

Although proving that Earth's physical theories, combined with this world's laws, could likely produce a whole bunch of mages, who could say that every one of them would possess Downs's absurd Comprehension?

"Ugh! I hate deceiving people the most. But isn't this system forcing me to keep pretending to be some god-tier mentor and bluffing people?"

Lein's mindset shifted ever so slightly at that moment.

To be honest, pretending to be an expert in front of Downs felt pretty damn good.

As the saying went...

Showing off felt great for a moment; keep showing off, and it kept feeling great.

Once he had taught a whole group of legendary mages, he would go from merely showing off to being genuinely awesome. Who would be able to call him a fraud then?

Lein decided to keep walking down this irreversible road of Never Tire of Destruction until the very end.

After all, what he taught was physics! It was truth!

If you understood it, that meant your Comprehension was good enough.

If you did not understand it? Then your Comprehension simply was not good enough!

With Senior Brother Downs as his poster boy, this accumulated reputation... at least before Lein led a dozen new disciples astray, would be impossible to squander away.

All right, here was the problem.

"Can somebody tell me how to get the hell out of this Dragon Valley? I want to take disciples! I want to Never Tire of Destruction! I want to become the Dark Lamp of the industry!"

In the otherwise empty valley, the wails of the Present Age's foremost "Dark" master echoed endlessly.

After howling pointlessly for three minutes, Lein dejectedly returned to the choice before him. Although [Evocation Magic Specialization] and [Advanced Wind Element Affinity] both looked tempting, Lein decisively chose the third option.

That was right!

Only Downs's monstrous Comprehension was what Lein most desperately wanted to share.

Almost the instant Lein made his choice, countless things suddenly flooded into his mind.

This was not any sort of knowledge Lein already knew, but a massive collection of knight and magic stories from this world.

Then it suddenly dawned on him that these were the tales Downs had heard from bards in taverns.

They contained not only extensive artistic embellishment, but also deliberately concealed information, as well as content exaggerated for political purposes.

Worst of all, all that information flooded into Lein's mind simultaneously.

It was like using a computer to read more than ten novels at once on the same screen. Forget remembering the plots—being able to remember the names of the protagonists from all ten novels would already be a miracle.

"Damn it, this is Downs's [Comprehension]?"

Lein found it absurd beyond belief. That kid's thoughts were so wildly active that he had even dared to touch an electric switch, all because those tavern tales contained more bragging than truth?

Yet in reality, Downs had successfully advanced into one of the only mages in the world.

That was the most ridiculous part.

Once the sensation of his brain being stretched to bursting finally faded, Lein felt utterly drained, his entire body soaked in sweat.

He was dazed and unfocused, so much so that he did not even notice the system awarding him an [Intelligence +2] evaluation...

For some reason, Lein felt an intense urge to build a [Wardenclyffe Tower] modeled after the thing whose shape had surfaced in his mind...

At the same time, Ramanque City's lord's manor was overflowing with celebration.

It was not because of the lord's authority, but because everyone sincerely celebrated the reappearance of mages in the world—and the fact that this mage was one of their own Ramanque people.

Passionate music rang in his ears, voluptuous beauties surrounded him, freely displaying their proud curves, and the fragrance of fine wine filled his nostrils. Downs felt a dreamlike, unreal happiness.

"Downs! On behalf of all the citizens of Ramanque City, let me toast you once more!" The one raising his cup was none other than Earl of Ramanque.

With no social experience to speak of, Downs had no idea how to refuse. He could only follow along helplessly as cup after cup was poured down his throat.

The Earl's toast was certainly an honor for a commoner like Downs.

But the real finishing blow was the toast from Knight Perez, his former master.

"Ah! I once blamed you for not trying hard enough, for failing to complete even the most basic knight training. It turns out I was the one who misjudged you. Your talent did not lie in the Way of the Knight, but in magic. Downs, let this cup be my apology."

There had been confusion, grievance, and resentment, but all the indignation he had suffered in the past vanished into thin air at that moment.

Downs simply could not refuse the apology of his former knight mentor.

Before he knew it, he had drunk one cup after another.

Though he was on the verge of getting completely drunk, Downs still clung to his last shred of clarity—he believed that everything he had now was not because of himself, but because of his master, Lein.

Throughout the banquet, the Earl and even his former Knight Apprentice companions had openly or subtly asked who his mage master was.

Downs answered them all with a bitter face. "My talent isn't good enough! Master refused to accept me as his formal disciple. He only guided me for two weeks. I'm not even his disciple, so I have no right to speak his true name!"