An Initial Understanding: The Wizard's Path of Cultivation

Fifteen minutes later,

In District Seven, before Villa No. 66, Wright descended from the sky with Wayne.

"Junior Wayne, the freshman reception task ends here. As for anything else you want to know,

inside the villa,

you'll find everything a freshman needs to know. Just look through it yourself."

Wayne nodded slightly,

then bowed. "Thank you, Senior Wright."

Wright smiled.

"Then, Junior Wayne, until we meet again."

With that,

he floated into the air.

After watching Wright disappear, Wayne turned to look at the villa's front door.

There was a groove in the center of the door.

Wayne stepped forward and was about to remove his academy badge when a beam of light swept over it,

and the doors automatically retracted to either side.

"Damn, automatic sensors?

This place is that advanced?"

As he spoke, Wayne walked inside. Before him was a courtyard of roughly three mu in size,

the entire ground paved with white jade.

Wayne was no longer surprised. He headed toward the villa entrance. From the exterior,

it had a casual style,

and was three stories in total.

Fifteen minutes later,

Wayne sat on the sofa in the second-floor living room, having gained a general understanding of the villa.

The first floor was entirely a living room,

meant for gatherings. The second floor was the residential area, with a large living room, two bedrooms, a restroom, and a bathroom.

There was even a bathtub inside,

which pleased Wayne greatly. The third floor was a study, currently completely empty,

waiting to be furnished.

There were three items on the desk, which Wayne had brought downstairs and placed on the table in front of the second-floor sofa.

The three items

were two books and something resembling a tablet. He had only given them a quick look earlier.

Of the two books,

one was an introductory guide and rulebook for the Lord Wizard Academy, while the other was a cultivation manual called Basic Meditation,

an introductory book for Lord Wizards.

As for the tablet-like item, Wayne had briefly examined it. It was not much different from the tablets in his previous life,

but he did not use it recklessly. Instead, he planned to read the two thin booklets first.

Time passed.

An hour later, Wayne put down the introductory guide and academy rulebook, which he had read several times and memorized thoroughly.

He now had a more concrete understanding of the student life ahead.

Simply put,

the first three years of study consisted of mandatory courses. During those three years, he had to achieve two goals.

First, become a Level One official Lord Wizard.

Second, complete all compulsory courses.

And pass the minor examination after three years.

Only then would true freedom begin. Lord Wizards differed from Knights and Elemental Wizards,

both of whom had to undergo annual assessments and complete required courses every year.

Lord Wizards, on the other hand,

only needed to pass the minor examination after three years.

After that, everything depended on self-discipline. Even during the first three years, they could arrange

their study progress according to their own schedule.

In short, as long as you could pass the minor examination after three years, the academy did not care what you did.

But if you failed,

heh, the rulebook did not say what would happen, but the outcome probably would not be pleasant.

As for the tablet-like item,

there was an explanation for it as well.

Since they had not yet met the standards of a Level One official Wizard, their badges were currently little more than decorations.

Aside from opening doors,

they could not use them. They could only use the Sanctuary Network, created by Wizards through knowledge gained from other planes during thirty thousand years of warfare and then developed into practical applications,

to communicate within the academy. The tablets in their hands were connected to the intranet of the three major academies,

which was rather limited

and could not compare to the badges.

The badges were far more comprehensive. The Sanctuary Network they connected to

served the entire Sanctuary World.

In other words, the tablets in their hands were equivalent to internal academy versions of the badges,

allowing them to look up all relevant information within the academy.

With that thought,

Wayne stopped hesitating. He picked up the tablet from the table and tapped it against the badge on his chest.

The tablet instantly completed the binding and login.

Wayne opened it again.

The interface had changed. Previously, it had only contained instructions on how to use it. Now there were two additional app-like functions:

the Three Academy Forum and Messaging.

On the former, students from all three academies could post their opinions, and the academies would regularly publish announcements there.

It was basically a social network.

The latter, Messaging, was like QQ or WeChat from his previous life, meant for private contacts and friends.

"Heh, feels like life hasn't changed much.

Nice."

Then he suddenly remembered the investment Rose Marquis had given him.

He hurriedly took out

everything: a top-grade attributeless magic crystal, a supplementary gold card, and a circular metal item containing a messaging number.

As well as the keepsake he had kept close to his body.

After placing everything neatly on the table, Wayne grabbed the circular metal item,

opened the messaging app on the tablet,

and pressed it against the tablet. To his surprise,

a pop-up appeared.

[Hahaha, little Wayne, you already miss your big sister?

Heh,

looks like big sister's beauty really is that powerful!

But no, no!

This is the academy intranet. What kind of expression does little Wayne have after seeing this?

Tsk,

big sister is so scared now (terrified expression)!!]

Seeing that,

Wayne's little face darkened.

"Just you wait!"

After saying that, he shut off the tablet, turned around, and picked up the Basic Meditation manual,

beginning to read it.

Time reached six in the evening.

Wayne put down the Basic Meditation manual and rubbed his brow. The fatigue in his mind, caused by the enormous drain on his mental energy,

finally eased somewhat.

At the same time, he had gained a sufficient understanding of the introductory stage of Lord Wizard cultivation.

According to the book, meditation was still meditation,

but Elemental Wizards only needed to meditate on runes

and imprint them in their minds

to advance. By using mental power to imprint thirty-six runes in the mind—or rather, the sea of consciousness—

they could advance to high-level apprentices.

But Lord Wizards were different. Or, more precisely, they should be called Array Wizards.

They followed a new path opened by the Sanctuary Will.

From the very beginning, they differed from Elemental Wizards. The first step of Lord Wizard cultivation was to meditate a Wizard Array into existence,

or rather, imprint runes.

Ultimately, they had to combine those runes into a basic Wizard Array within their sea of consciousness. Only then could they advance to low-level apprentices.

The same applied to intermediate apprentices.

Once they became high-level apprentices, they could possess three instant-cast basic Wizard Arrays.

Only after learning this

did Wayne understand why Lord Wizards were called the protagonists of this era.

After all,

although Lord Wizards could not learn all kinds of spell models like Elemental Wizards,

with just three instant-cast Wizard Arrays, they could rival multiple Elemental Wizards

and would likely defeat them.

With such combat power, if they were not the protagonists of the era,

there would be no justice in the world.

Lord Wizards—or Array Wizards—their cultivation methods were diverse, but one underlying principle remained unchanged:

expand the sea of consciousness.

Even at the level of a Level Seven True Spirit Lord Wizard, this remained the same, because imprinting rune arrays within the sea of consciousness

required sufficient space within it.

Therefore, when Lord Wizards were still apprentices and chose which Wizard Arrays to imprint, they often selected

support-type Wizard Arrays,

such as attributeless Nurturing Arrays, the Golden Nurturing Array of the gold element, or the Fire Nurturing Array of the fire element. Wizards with corresponding elemental affinities

would choose similar Wizard Arrays.

The basic Wizard Arrays mentioned above

were all apprentice-level Wizard Arrays that nurtured mental power, or the sea of consciousness. Once their imprints were completed, they would operate continuously,

expanding the sea of consciousness.