Freshman Research, "Corpse Dissolving Powder"

Complaining would not change anything. Ahab gathered himself and began studying the Meditation Method.

"Meditation is the beginning of all a wizard's extraordinary power."

"The first stage of meditation is to trace the Meditation Rune within the sea of consciousness, illuminating it..."

Following the book's instructions, Ahab closed his eyes, focused his mind, and gradually sensed his own sea of consciousness.

As he mobilized his mental power, an azure line took shape.

A complete Meditation Rune was composed of thousands of such lines, forming a complex three-dimensional structure.

After more than ten minutes, Ahab had only completed the seventeenth stroke before he could go no further.

His mental power had been exhausted.

After resting for nearly two hours, Ahab felt his mental power replenish itself.

He traced another dozen or so strokes, and his mental power was exhausted again.

"No wonder the diary said it took me five days to master the Meditation Method."

"At this rate, those so-called five days must have involved sleeping and tracing it in intervals."

Ahab understood the importance of talent.

"Someone like Tolia has 15 mental power, nearly three times mine. She can trace more than forty strokes in one go."

"And her meditation grade is three levels above mine. She can fully recover her mental power in less than an hour."

"I suppose filling out Wizardry Models later will produce similar results."

After stretching his body stiff from sitting, Ahab opened the window and took a deep breath of sea air.

Tracing the rune had consumed too much time. Night had fallen again.

"I wonder what kind of journey I went through in the future as I rose all the way to Eight-Ring."

"And what was controlling the future me, already an Eight-Ring Wizard, making me call out that word—Master..."

Ahab reached behind him, picked up a glass of water, and raised it toward his reflection in the window.

"Then let's see how many people I'll kill in this life, or else—"

"Who will kill me?"

With that, Ahab tipped back his head and drained the glass in one gulp.

Yet the Ahab reflected in the glass did not drink with him. Instead, it watched him with an amused expression, watching and watching.

"Though a cabin with an ocean view was nice, having a room of my own certainly feels more secure."

Ahab looked around his little room and nodded in satisfaction.

Honestly, the dormitory was not even as luxurious as the ship's cabin. The tiny ten-square-meter room did not even have a window for ventilation.

The walls and ceiling were painted entirely black, while the metal chandelier swayed overhead with a squeak.

Besides that, there was only a single wooden bed, an iron cabinet, a two-legged desk propped against the wall, and a full-length mirror.

But this was the beginning of the extraordinary!

Yesterday afternoon, the Ferry Ship had finally arrived at Mensis Wizard Academy.

After registration, dorm assignments, and other matters were settled, Ahab received a batch of apprentice supplies that belonged to him.

A third-grade Wizard Apprentice Metal Badge and a Wizard Robe with a permanent Cleaning Spell.

Finally, there were ten Magic Stones, his first month's stipend from the Academy for serving as a group leader.

Today was the first day of class.

He donned the standardized black Wizard Robe and tucked a notebook and two books beneath his arm.

Looking at himself in the mirror again, Ahab felt like a wolf draped in sheepskin.

Mensis Academy occupied an entire island, along with seventy-seven surrounding islands. Its buildings were mainly made of stone and wood.

Honestly, the Ferry Ship had such a strong mechanical aesthetic that Ahab had assumed the Wizard Academy would be high-tech as well.

In reality, though, the roads were dirt paths paved with stone, and strange plants grew everywhere in fields and greenhouses.

Other than the Wizard Tower at the island's center, rising into the clouds, the entire Mensis Academy resembled a rural school.

It was just a little larger and had a few more buildings.

Well, only about half the size of Shanghai, that was all.

"West District, Mick Building, Classroom 106... Here we are."

Pushing open the black-painted wooden door, Ahab entered the empty classroom.

Why was it so empty? Because the classroom had over a hundred seats, yet only three people occupied them.

As for why there were only three people?

Don't ask!

Instructor Gray arrived late. He swept his gaze over the classroom, then immediately turned an "affectionate" look toward Ahab Gul.

Dear customer, your Old Feng has flown away. We suggest that you hurry into the sky and retrieve him.

Ahab did not even raise his head. There were still three minutes until the Academy's designated class time, and he was reviewing the Future Diary.

[The first day of classes at the Academy.]

[Mensis Academy implemented the Mentor System. Formal Wizards taught high-level apprentices, who in turn guided lower-level apprentices.]

[Of course, the Academy rewarded those who produced results.]

[In the first class, Instructor Gray announced the Academy's arrangements for freshman apprentices:]

[Over the next six months, every freshman apprentice had to complete one research project.]

[The research results would be pitted against those of apprentices from the same cohort. The most useful project would receive additional Academy rewards, as well as Academy Contribution!]

Before arriving at the Academy, Instructor Gray had already explained its various rules, including the Academy Contribution system.

Not all materials and knowledge could be bought with Magic Stones.

Many precious items required sufficient Academy Contribution to purchase.

The higher one's contribution, the greater the discount. Some items could even only be exchanged for contribution and could not be bought at all.

Ahab's assessment of this was:

Those with high Academy Contribution got discounts when buying things.

But if your Academy Contribution was low enough, buying things was free.

[In the end, the Academy reward went to a research product called "Corpse Dissolving Powder." Its researcher was Vivian, a rather dashing female apprentice.]

[I heard Vivian only had 8 mental power and second-grade meditation talent, but she was very skilled at experiments. She probably has some secret.]

[Of course, from my current Eight-Ring perspective, this is nothing at all. I can even directly guess the formula, which is...]

With a thought from Ahab, the diary floated up to his shoulder.

Corpse Dissolving Powder? That was good stuff.

The future me really did understand me.

The first class mainly involved announcing the independent research projects and teaching some basics, so it ended quickly.

After class, Ahab deliberately asked Instructor Gray for the library's location, then went inside and stayed there for the entire morning.

That way, if he came up with something beyond the curriculum later, he would have an excuse.

That afternoon, Ahab arrived before a stone building that covered four to five hundred square meters.

This was the General Affairs Hall of the Academy's West District, the official place for purchasing materials.

The Future Diary stated that Corpse Dissolving Powder required two main ingredients: Three-Headed Hound's Fang and Vampire King's Nail.

Inside the stone building was a trading hall. One half held rows of seats, while the other contained transaction counters.

Further inside were many private rooms, used for trading certain rare materials.

Ahab chose the counter with the shortest queue. By the time the people at the other counters had already been replaced by a second wave, it was finally his turn.