Reading Intent Comes First, Doing Things Second

Tylen directed the tiny, pitiful bit of Mental Power he had just gained into the spell array.

Then Tylen felt as though his mind were straining with all its might to move an enormous millstone, hoping to glimpse the scraps of knowledge hidden beneath it.

The array trembled faintly, and the complex runes upon it were finally pushed forward a little.

His Mental Power continued to circulate and deplete.

At the same time, as he struggled onward, more transparent specks of light passed through the illuminated runic array and merged into Tylen's mind.

Like essence ground beneath a millstone, they became part of Tylen.

These specks of light were Mana!

The process of deducing a Spell Model was the process of deciphering the truths of the world.

And with a grasp of those truths came greater control over Mana.

In this world, Mana was not a blue bar stored within the body, but a ubiquitous, all-purpose energy that filled heaven and earth.

Wizards were not buckets, but pumps.

The level of [Mana Control] determined how much energy one could draw from the outside world—and whether one could command that energy without being blown to pieces.

"This Mana is somewhat like the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from the cultivation novels I read."

"In battle, Mana is a resource. Whoever can mobilize more Mana is stronger!"

As he pondered, the deeper deduction of the Spell Model gradually broke down and refined the immense stream of knowledge from the Experience Books. In the end, it transformed into pure Mana and merged into Tylen's frail soul.

"This feeling of fullness..."

Tylen could clearly feel that his once-stagnant Spirit Sea was expanding at a visible rate.

Although building the Spell Model was still slow, the exhaustion that had felt like carrying an immense weight had vanished.

"Wait!"

Tylen abruptly opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing through them.

"The thirtyfold efficiency bonus doesn't just affect my thinking speed. Even the consumption of the deduction process itself has been spread thinner?"

When the last trace of Mental Power was exhausted, he quickly pulled up the panel.

[Name: Tylen Arthas Magnus]

[Rank: Level 0 Apprentice]

[Constitution: 1]

[Mental Power: 3.2]

[Mana Control: 0.36 → 1.456]

[Spell: Spirit Summoning Control Method (1360 → 1456 / 100,000)]

Looking at the string of numbers precise to three decimal places, Tylen's mind raced.

"Normally, consuming 1 point of Mental Power yields 1 point of spell experience."

"And every 1,000 points of spell experience increases Mana Control by 1."

"Just now, I consumed 3.2 points of Mental Power, yet gained 96 points of experience."

"That means under the Slacker Saint Body's boost, my deduction efficiency is a full thirty times that of an ordinary person!"

"Over the past half year, the original Tylen had worked himself to the bone and only saved up 360 experience points, an average of a pitiful 2 points per day."

"Without this Big Monthly Card System, filling this hundred-thousand-experience pit would probably take until the next century."

"No wonder..." Tylen looked around the dark, damp basement and let out a complicated sigh.

"No wonder countless people exhaust their entire lives, only to fall before the threshold of Apprenticeship and become piles of dry bones."

This threshold had never been something one could cross through effort alone.

It was a layered test of resources, talent, and luck.

After confirming today's deduction results, Tylen looked toward the mission panel.

[Spell Deduction 1/1] (Completed)

[Current Grand Monthly Card Experience: 600/1000]

"Only 400 experience left until Level 1."

Tylen opened the Grand Monthly Card reward preview, his gaze burning.

[Lv. 1 Reward List]

Apprentice's Experience Book x4

Wizard Experience Book x1

Primary Alchemy Material Selection Pack x5

"Once I reach Level 1, I'll instantly gain 3,000 experience points."

"Level 4 gives another 3,000 points, Level 7 gives 4,000, and Level 11 gives a whopping 7,000!"

Tylen's fingers moved rapidly through the air, as though flicking an abacus of fate.

"If I can grind out the first fifteen levels this week, I'll gain a total of 17,000 experience points."

"By that logic, if I grind to Level 50 in four weeks, the Experience Books alone will conservatively yield more than 48,000 points!"

"Add in my daily self-deduction at thirty times efficiency, and my total experience for the month will surpass 50,000!"

"Fifty thousand experience..."

Tylen took a deep breath and suppressed the wild joy in his heart.

"That's enough to launch me straight to Level 5 Apprentice! Many veteran Apprentices might not reach that height even after ten years!"

In this hopeless beginning, he finally saw a golden road leading into the clouds.

After calming himself, Tylen stood and stretched his stiff joints.

He did not do any physical training. This body had suffered from malnutrition for a long time, and excessive exertion would only backfire.

"The Level 24 Grand Monthly Card reward includes two bottles of [Primary Life Dew]. It's a secret medicine of the Elf Race, perfect for making up for my deficiencies."

"Now, it's time to get to work."

Tylen picked up the parchment Makley had left behind and turned his gaze toward the cold iron racks.

Of the twelve corpses currently in stock, three were fresh arrivals collected today.

He walked over to the rack on the far left.

It held a boy of fourteen or fifteen. His face was still childish, but three claw wounds deep enough to expose bone crossed his chest, their edges an eerie purplish-black.

"Wraith claw marks. Dead for less than ten hours."

He had collected the body near the North City Mass Grave that afternoon.

The boy had gone to pick Ghostlight Mushrooms that could be sold for money, only to wander into a graveyard occupied by a Level 2 magical creature, a Wraith.

When Tylen arrived, the boy's parents were clutching his corpse and weeping bitterly.

To save on the costly funeral expenses and get some food for the children left at home, they had ultimately sold their son's body to Tylen for 250 Purple Gold Coins.

Selling corpses was extremely common in the Divine Eagle Empire these days, especially among the lower and middle classes, including Tylen's own family.

These families lived in severe hardship. To buy enough food to fill their stomachs, they had almost no savings left over.

When someone died, they would usually be thrown directly into the mass graves north of the city.

After all, funeral services were monopolized by The Church.

As long as one held a funeral, one had to invite priests and the accompanying funeral attendants.

It was no small expense. Even the cheapest option cost 400 Purple Gold Coins.

For most people at the bottom of society, 400 Purple Gold Coins was an enormous sum they simply could not produce.

Thus, Corpse Collectors became their final salvation.

They did not have to spend money, and they could even receive a compensation payment. Why not?

Tylen took out the brass pocket watch from his coat and checked the time.

"Nine o'clock at night. Plenty of time."

He turned and entered the small room next door, taking out a set of commonly used ritual materials from the tool cabinet:

A stick of white chalk, a bottle of corpse oil, a piece of black coal, a polished shard of glass, and a needle-and-thread kit.

Returning to the Morgue, he skillfully drew a circle two meters in diameter on the open floor.

Next, he precisely drew three smaller circles in a triangular arrangement within the large one.

He dripped two drops of corpse oil into the circle on the left, placed the glass shard in the one on the right, and set smokeless coal in the one at the top.

This was the [Soul Gathering Ritual].

In occult theory, corpse oil blocked the spirit world's pull on the dead soul, glass was a vessel for spirituality, and coal symbolized the "Source Fire," capable of dispelling the filth drifting through the air.

"Done."

Tylen straightened up and looked at the array on the floor with satisfaction.

Under the Slacker Saint Body's boost, the intricate array that normally took forty minutes to draw had taken less than two minutes, with every line smooth and perfectly precise.

But he did not rush to activate the ritual. Instead, he turned, lifted the boy's corpse, and carried it into the Cleaning Room.

The sound of running water filled the room.

He carefully washed away the mud and blood from the corpse, then changed the boy into a clean linen outfit.

They were old clothes from corpses that he had collected and washed before.

Then he picked up the needle and thread, his expression focused as though he were repairing an exquisite piece of porcelain.

Under the Slacker Saint Body's boost, work that should have taken at least an hour from start to finish was completed in two minutes.

"Building a good relationship with one's mentor isn't about licking boots in every possible way. It's about showing your value and consideration at every opportunity."

"From what I've learned over the past half year, Malik is an academic Wizard who likes cleanliness and dislikes the sight of blood."

"Since this corpse will undergo a Soul Returning Ritual tomorrow, it will definitely move."

"Cleaning it up properly will naturally earn me points."

Tylen had far too much experience when it came to pleasing his superiors.

The Classic of Power said: Reading intent comes first, doing things second.

When dealing with one's superior, doing the work was secondary. Understanding their wishes was what mattered most.

No matter how beautifully one did the job, if the higher-ups did not like it, it was all for nothing.

The previous Tylen had neither the time nor the inclination for this.

But the current Tylen not only had the time, he was exceptionally skilled at it!

After placing the corpse at the center of the array, Tylen knelt on one knee and softly chanted an ancient incantation:

"Mother of Night, Lord of Souls, the living linger within the Gap of Seven. May you lower the hand that gently caresses the coffin..."

As the final syllable fell, an icy breeze rose from nowhere.

Whoosh—

The coal at the top ignited without flame, emitting a faint blue glow.

"Source Fire ignited. Ritual successful."

As long as the coal did not go out, the corpse's spirituality would remain locked in place for seven days without dispersing, and the body would not decay.

Tylen dusted off his hands and turned his gaze toward another corpse.

"Next... comes the hard work."

"Bone stripping."