Tomorrow, Come to My Runes Class!

The air in the basement seemed to freeze for an instant.

The scrutiny and suspicion in Makley's Crow eyes, burning with ghostly green flames, rapidly faded, replaced by barely concealed surprise and satisfaction.

"To grasp Introduction to Runes on your own merely by memorizing the textbook and doing basic exercises..."

"Magnus, it seems I had... underestimated your logical thinking ability."

In this Wizard Tower, saturated with theories of bloodlines and resources, an apprentice who broke through barriers purely through "comprehension" was rarer than a white dragon.

At that moment, Makley finally understood.

The dullness, sluggishness, and inflexibility this fellow had displayed before were not because he was stupid!

It was because he had "studied himself stupid"!

As a veteran Wizard of the soul school, Makley had seen far too many cases like this.

Those scholars who were truly obsessed with exploring truth became extraordinarily slow to perceive the outside world when they entered a state of deep thought.

Only after they snapped out of that world filled with logic and runes could they communicate normally again.

People like this were usually called "academic zealots."

And in the world of Wizards, that was a compliment.

At that moment, Makley looked at the youth before him, dressed in coarse hemp clothing and reeking of corpses, as though he had found an uncut jade stone in a stinking trash bin.

"Since you possess this talent, don't waste it."

Makley did not leave immediately. The Crow hopped twice across the tabletop, its sharp gaze sweeping over Tylen.

"Since you say you have already memorized Introduction to Runes, let me test you."

Tylen immediately straightened his back and answered respectfully, "Please give me your questions, Mentor."

"First question." Makley's voice turned stern.

"When constructing the basic defensive rune, Solid Shield, why must three counterclockwise Stagnation Corridors be added to the Mana circuit at the core node?"

Tylen barely needed to think. The knowledge stored in his mind instantly located the relevant pages, and he combined it with physics knowledge from his past life to give his answer.

"Mentor, the Stagnation Corridor functions much like a pressure-release valve in a water pipe system."

"When Mana erupts in an instant, it carries extremely high pressure. Without using counterclockwise circuits to buffer and divert it, the overloaded Mana will directly rupture the Runic Frame. The defense will not even activate before the rune explodes."

"The three corridors form a triangular steady state, balancing the internal pressure to the greatest extent possible."

The flames in Makley's eyes flickered.

"Not bad. You understand it thoroughly. You did not merely memorize it—you understand the principle."

"Second question. When drawing the Flame Attachment rune, why must fire lizard blood be mixed with mercury? Would blood alone not suffice?"

"No." Tylen's answer was firm.

"Although fire lizard blood contains fire elements, its Mana activity is extremely unstable and easily dissipates."

"Mercury possesses excellent Mana conductivity and physical weight. It serves as both a fixative and a conductor."

"It is like... putting reins on a wild horse, allowing the fire elements to adhere stably to the surface of the medium instead of burning out in an instant."

"Very good." Makley's tone carried a trace more approval.

"Final question. If the energy-gathering node and release node in a composite rune array experience a frequency conflict that causes Mana oscillation, how would you resolve it by breaking down the structure?"

This was an advanced question. The textbook contained only vague concepts and no standard answer.

Tylen pondered for a moment, the principle of wave interference surfacing in his mind.

"A frequency conflict is essentially a misalignment between wave crests and troughs."

"There are two solutions. First, add a resonance bridge between the two nodes and forcibly unify their frequencies."

"Second, and the superior solution, is to perform a phase inversion on the rune structure of the release node. By using the principle of destructive interference, the residual oscillations can be eliminated. Though it will reduce output by five percent, it ensures absolute structural stability."

The Crow stared fixedly at Tylen for a full three seconds.

"Phase inversion... resonance bridge..."

Makley murmured to himself. Though these two terms were novel, upon careful consideration, they precisely summarized the exceedingly complex process of Mana tuning in Runic Studies.

"Good! Good! Good!"

Makley said "good" three times in a row, unable to conceal the admiration in his eyes any longer.

"It seems you truly understand. Even those core apprentices may not possess such a solid theoretical foundation."

He flapped his wings, and his tone became exceptionally gentle.

"Tomorrow at eight in the morning, come to my private classroom on the seventeenth floor. I will be teaching those useless fools a practical rune class. Bring your textbook and sit in."

Sit in!

Tylen was overjoyed. This was treatment reserved for core disciples!

Yet his face remained respectfully composed, neither elated nor humiliated. He bowed deeply. "Thank you for your grace, Mentor!"

"Also," Makley said, glancing at the corpse rack beside them.

"Tomorrow's lesson requires demonstrating rune-based flesh stitching. Prepare two relatively sturdy corpses with missing limbs, and bring them up tomorrow morning."

"Yes, Mentor."

"Mm."

Makley nodded in satisfaction. After taking one last long look at the student who had surprised him, he beat his great wings and vanished.

After seeing off his Mentor, Tylen did not immediately begin celebrating.

He checked the time. It was seven thirty in the evening.

He was hungry.

He went to the public cafeteria in the Menial Worker District and got himself a serving of poor-quality stewed beans and two pieces of black bread.

Sitting in a corner, his gaze unconsciously drifted toward the window seat in the cafeteria.

At this hour in the past, Old Jack would always sit there, carefully picking the bits of meat out of his broth and wrapping them in oiled paper for his mad wife.

But today, that seat was empty.

Tylen silently chewed the hard black bread without saying a word.

He knew Old Jack would never return.

The old man had chosen to leave with his wife.

For Old Jack, perhaps that was the best release.

Travel well.

Tylen murmured the words in his heart, then stuffed the rest of his food into his mouth in large bites.

The dead were gone. The living still had to keep climbing in this world that devoured people.

After returning to the basement, he locked the door.

Tylen immediately got to work.

First, he neatly packed the hundred completed rune papers into waterproof oiled-paper bundles. They would be his offering to the Red Wine Gang tomorrow, a token of good faith for deeper cooperation.

Then, he looked at his status panel.

Mental Power: 3.3.

"Meditation has fully restored my Mental Power."

Tylen's gaze sharpened.

Since Magic Thorn Art could strengthen weapons, could it strengthen the human body?

If he could attach this layer of high-frequency vibrating Mana blade to his fingers, elbows, or even knees, then his entire body would become a lethal weapon.

"Let's try it."

Tylen extended his left index finger and mobilized his Mana.

"Magic Thorn Art."

Buzz!

A point of Mana surged through his meridians toward his fingertip.

However, the human body was far more complex than steel.

Skin, muscles, blood vessels, nerves... every type of tissue had different densities and Mana conductivity rates.

"Hiss!"

Tylen frowned sharply as a needle-like pain shot through his fingertip.

The Mana at his fingerprint had become chaotic, and the high-frequency vibration turned into disordered tearing.

The skin on his fingertip instantly split open, blood seeping out.

"It failed."

Tylen calmly examined the wound without the slightest discouragement.

"The frequency is wrong."

"Bones require high frequency, muscles require medium frequency, and skin requires low-frequency flexible attachment."

"To use Magic Thorn Art on the human body, I need to construct a triple composite model."

Though he had failed, he had found the direction.

He simply bandaged the wound and continued trying.

The second attempt failed.

The third attempt failed.

But under the thirtyfold efficiency boost of the Slacker Saint Body, every failure meant an enormous accumulation of experience.

He faintly felt that he had already touched the threshold of that "composite frequency."

"My Mental Power is exhausted."

As he watched his Mental Power fall to 0.5, a wave of dizziness washed over his mind.

Tylen immediately stopped the self-harming experiment.

"Meditation."

He sat cross-legged on the bed and drank five bottles of Meditation Essential Oil.

A faint fragrance spread through the room. Combined with the experience bonus granted by the Grand Monthly Card, his Mental Power began recovering at an astonishing rate.

Two hours later.

Tylen opened his eyes, looking full of energy.

Not only had his Mental Power fully recovered, but due to the intense depletion and replenishment, its upper limit had increased to 3.4.

"Now for the main event."

He looked at the 3,000 points of stored general experience on his status panel.

"Invest it all—spell calculation!"

Boom!

A storm seemed to erupt inside his mind.

The originally obscure model of the Spirit Summoning Control Method began to run wildly under the infusion of massive experience, breaking apart and reassembling.

Countless sparks of inspiration exploded.

Tylen seemed to see countless versions of himself practicing Magic Control day and night, searching for the optimal Mana circuits through repeated failures.

An hour later, Tylen slowly exhaled a breath of stale air and looked at the new panel.

[Name: Tylen Arthas Magnus]

[Rank: Level 0 Apprentice]

[Constitution: 1]

[Mental Power: 3.2 → 3.4]

[Magic Control: 1.456 → 4.558]

[Spell: Spirit Summoning Control Method (1456 → 4558/100,000)]

[Skill: Magic Thorn Art Lv.1 (42/100)]

[Knowledge: Runic Studies Level 0.1]

"Magic Control... 4.5!"

Tylen clenched his fist and felt the Mana within him flow as easily as an extension of his limbs.

If his Mana had previously been a wild horse, it was now a well-trained hunting hound.

A control level of 4.5 had already far surpassed the passing line for the Half-Year Assessment, 3.0, and was even close to the excellent line!

"So this is the power of spending money?"

Tylen's lips curled upward.

As long as he raised his Mental Power further, that so-called execution threshold would no longer threaten him.

After taking a short twenty-minute nap, equivalent to ten hours of rest for an ordinary person,

Tylen got out of bed, refreshed, and began handling the corpses needed for tomorrow's class.

The two mercenary corpses had each lost both legs and one arm.

Tylen skillfully cleaned away the filthy blood and removed the rotten flesh.

"Mentor said he needs to demonstrate rune stitching..."

Tylen looked at the bare cross-sections of the severed limbs, and an idea struck him.

"If I merely clean the corpses and send them up, that would be completing the task."

"But if I want to become Mentor's confidant, I need to think ahead of him."

He picked up a rune pen and prepared ink with preservative properties.

On the severed limb cross-sections of the two corpses, he did not stitch them directly. Instead, following the muscle fibers and bone edges, he precisely drew a Runic Frame of Ian Rune around them.

This was the foundation of stitching arts, something the Mentor would normally draw live in class.

But now, Tylen had completed it in advance.

Finally, he carefully applied a layer of fragrant essential oil around the wounds to conceal the stench of corpses.

"This is what professionalism means."

By the time he finished everything, it was already ten at night.

Tylen did not rest. Instead, he took out the most headache-inducing book of all: <Alchemy Basics: Material Processing and Solvent Ratios>.

This six-hundred-page tome contained over five hundred thousand words. It was practically the pinnacle of anti-humanity.

"Mercury is 3% more active on nights of the full moon than on nights of the new moon..."

"Mandrake roots must be severed within three seconds after the screaming stops..."

All kinds of mystical theories, complex chemical formulas, and baffling ritual requirements were mixed together.

Even Tylen read with a deep frown, his temples throbbing.

It was like asking him to study quantum mechanics and I Ching divination at the same time, then combine the two to calculate chemical reaction formulas.

The logic was as elegant as requiring spaghetti to be mixed with No. 42 concrete before eating it.

After gnawing through it all night, even with thirty times the efficiency, he had only barely memorized two hundred pages. And his level of comprehension was far worse than it had been for Runic Studies.

"Alchemy... really is a massive pit."

Tylen closed the book and rubbed his swollen brow.

But that only strengthened his resolve to conquer this subject.

The harder it was to learn, the fewer people would master it—and the more valuable it would be.

At dawn, the first ray of sunlight pierced through the thin mist.

After washing up, Tylen changed into a neatly pressed apprentice robe.

He loaded the two prepared corpses into sealed crates and carried them onto the Mana-powered three-wheeled motorcycle.

By the time he arrived on the seventeenth floor of the Wizard Tower, it was only seven thirty.

Those pampered noble apprentices had yet to arrive, and the classroom was empty.

Tylen laboriously dragged the two heavy crates into the classroom, placed them on either side of the lectern, then opened their lids and stood respectfully to one side as he waited.

Ten minutes later, Makley entered.

He glanced at Tylen, who had been waiting there early, then at the corpses inside the crates.

When he saw the pre-drawn, incomparably precise Ian Rune frameworks at the severed limbs, and caught the faint scent of essential oils in the air, Makley's previously tense face finally softened into a genuinely gentle smile.

"Excellent work, Magnus."

Those four words carried enormous weight coming from an Official Wizard.

They meant that Tylen was no longer an invisible expendable, but someone useful.

Just then.

The elegant click of high heels came from the corridor.

Accompanied by the scent of expensive violet perfume, the classroom door was pushed open.

"Mentor, I'm back."

A crisp yet slightly languid voice rang out.

Tylen instinctively looked up.

A tall young girl walked in.

She wore an exquisite purple pointed hat and a modified purple silk wizard robe, tailored as closely as an evening gown, perfectly outlining her proud curves.

Her skin was so fair it was nearly translucent. She had long, pointed elven ears, and pale violet eyes that seemed to contain some kind of Mana.

The girl did not look at Makley. Instead, she walked straight up to Tylen.

Her beautiful eyes sized Tylen up and down as though she were examining some unusual creature.

Then her gaze fell upon the runes at the corpses' severed limbs, and an amused smile curled her lips.

"So the rumors were true."

She turned to Makley, surprise and curiosity in her voice.

"Mentor, this Corpse Collector Apprentice of yours... really is as considerate as the rumors say... isn't he?"