I was just 100 experience points short of leveling up.
It was like downloading something and getting to 99%, only for the speed to suddenly drop to a few kilobytes per second—or even flatline at zero.
Stuck.
It was miserable.
Based on how my experience had been passively increasing with my growing influence lately, I'd probably gain that last hundred points in a week or two.
But I didn't really want to wait. I'd rather produce some small result and help myself "break through" right away.
A sense of occasion!
At the lectern, Jia Xiu finished explaining the enhanced mental spells for the Demonfolk that he'd developed during the trial. He was a little distracted.
The spells weren't complicated, nor were they particularly groundbreaking. There were high-circle human spells with similar effects, making those spells superior alternatives.
The only innovations in Jia Xiu's versions were that they were low-circle and easy to learn, and that they drew on the Demonfolk's spell system—some parts of which had already been proven usable by humans.
Still, they did have something new to offer. For most first-year students at Saint Dero, there was no chance their papers would contain any innovation.
Sometimes, you'd laugh out loud while reading your own paper.
You knew full well that what you'd written was a load of crap, and your advisor knew it too, but you still had to put on a show and defend it.
So Margaret was quite pleased with Jia Xiu's "minor innovation."
Especially compared with the few "shocking" results Juan and the others had produced, even Demonfolk spells seemed perfectly respectable.
"Very good research. But I have a question. Could these spells only be used to put pressure on a target and make them anxious? Is there any chance they could reduce these negative