Meditation

Li Ang returned to his room as he thought.

"Cough, cough cough."

As soon as he pushed open the rotten wooden door, a putrid, moldy stench flooded his nostrils once more.

He had just spent half the day breathing fresh air on deck, and his lung condition had improved a little; yet the moment he entered the dark, damp space below deck, he felt as though he were suffocating.

Sitting down and opening Basic Meditation Principles, Li Ang wanted to begin meditating at once.

Leaving aside whether his lung disease could endure the jolting journey back and forth if he failed to meditate successfully within half a month and was sent home—

Now that he had awakened his golden finger, how could he give up the chance to become a wizard?

Following the principles described in the book, Li Ang did his best to adjust his breathing into a particular rhythm of expansion and contraction.

His consciousness began to sink inward. Following the method described in the principles, he imagined a Mental Core floating in the void;

Then, he slowly guided the surrounding magic power into his Mental World, circling the Mental Core and forming a moving Astral Star...

Once the first Astral Star formed, he could learn to cast Level-0 Witchcraft and become a Level-0 Wizard—the level where Wizard Apprentices usually remained.

After that, meditation required no preliminary steps. He only needed to use his mental power to guide magic power into that Astral Star until it split into three, making him a Level-1 Wizard.

Just as the Astral Star was reaching its crucial stage of condensation, an urgent itch suddenly rose in his throat.

Li Ang, who was constructing his Mental Core, was dragged out of meditation by the sudden pain and began coughing violently.

"Cough, cough cough..."

With his meditation abruptly interrupted by an outside force, aside from the pain caused by coughing, Li Ang immediately felt as though his skull were about to explode.

He panted heavily, coughing several times in succession before finally calming down.

After resting for a while, Li Ang pulled himself together and prepared to try meditating again, to construct a mental-power Astral Star in his mind.

Yet whenever he had just entered his Mental World, the rotten air he inhaled with every breath would trigger a violent dry cough, causing his meditation to fail.

At the bottom of the damp, moldy cabin, his lungs felt as though someone were scrubbing them violently with a stiff brush. He simply could not focus his mind.

"The air here is already murky to an unbelievable extent..."

If it were only his lung disease, he could still force down the urge to cough through sheer willpower.

"If only there were some air circulation here..." Li Ang clutched his chest, his face somewhat pale.

Suddenly, the system panel appeared before his eyes once more.

[Barrier Planking: lv0]

[Status: Can be bound]

[Binding cost: 1 point of mental power]

Li Ang was startled. He had not expected that even the outer planks of this enormous four-deck wooden ship had been imbued with a witchcraft barrier.

Right, the system required "mental power" to bind facilities, but how much mental power did he have?

With a thought, Li Ang opened his complete panel.

[Name: Li Ang]

[Current mental power: 4 points, can be restored to the maximum through rest and other means]

[Current mental power limit: 5 points, can be increased through meditation]

[Bound facility: Gale-Sailing Canvas lv.0]

So that was it. The amount of mental power consumed by the system was essentially a simple rating of how much mental power he possessed.

In that case, as long as he kept meditating, he could raise his mental power limit and thereby upgrade facilities to higher levels.

After thinking it over, Li Ang decided not to bind it for now.

This ship was not where he would put down roots. Even if he gained complete control over the entire vessel, that did not necessarily mean he could escape beneath a wizard's very nose.

Turning his gaze to the bound-facility section, the only facility currently bound, [Gale-Sailing Canvas], stood out conspicuously.

[Gale-Sailing Canvas: lv0]

[Current effect: Can control the gathering and dispersal of air within the ship's range, creating a wind-element magic-power environment]

[Lv1 effect: Air gathering and dispersal ability +10%, wind-element magic-power environment concentration +10%]

[Upgrade requirements: Mental World Magic Starlet count reaches 1, consumes 5 points of mental power]

"Gathering and dispersing air?" Li Ang instantly seized upon the key point.

Right. He could use the functions of [Gale-Sailing Canvas] to control the ship's course, so naturally he could also control the airflow in and out of this cramped cabin!

With a thought from Li Ang, the Gale-Sailing Canvas hanging from the thick mast immediately began to function.

But this time, the gathered air was no longer pushing the ship forward. Instead, it slipped through cracks in places such as the deck and entered the lower levels, seeping into the room where Li Ang was.

Very quickly, the air in the small room began to circulate.

Through the effects of the Gale-Sailing Canvas, Li Ang automatically expelled the moldy dampness from the room, leaving behind fresh, natural air with just the right humidity—the kind best suited for breathing.

The original owner had died in depression after suffering a double blow to body and spirit. His lung disease was not actually fatal, at least not in the short term.

Now that he was breathing such clean, suitable air, Li Ang felt that his lung disease did not seem as severe as before.

He simply stopped wasting time and followed the instructions of Basic Meditation Principles to enter meditation once more.

He adjusted his breathing rhythm, sank inward, built his Mental Core, and guided magic power into his body...

It was the same process as before, but thanks to the clean air, it went far more smoothly this time.

"Hmm?"

While guiding magic power into his body, Li Ang noticed something different from before.

The magic power of this world had many different elemental types. Under normal circumstances, wizards meditating would accept any type of free magic power in nature without discrimination.

Yet now, Li Ang suddenly discovered that although he had an affinity for wind and water elements, and thus guided in more wind-element and water-element magic power—

The flow of magic power entering his Mental World now contained noticeably more wind-element magic power than before.

[Current effect: Can control the gathering and dispersal of air within the ship's range, creating a wind-element magic-power environment]

Right. Besides controlling air, [Gale-Sailing Canvas] could also create a wind-element magic-power environment through the structure of its Wind-Gathering Array.

In other words, he was now bathing in the dense wind-element magic-power environment created by the array, greatly increasing his meditation speed!

Li Ang was overjoyed.

Just then, he was suddenly kicked out of his Mental World.

"Ah."

His scattered thoughts and joyful emotions just now had affected the process of building the Astral Star during meditation, so he had been ejected.

"Setting everything else aside, simply clearing the mind of all distractions isn't easy to achieve..." Li Ang sighed.

At that moment, a burst of noisy voices suddenly rose outside the door.

Li Ang listened closely and discovered that someone had successfully constructed their first Astral Star through meditation—and that person was Matthew!

Did that guy really have talent in this area?

No wonder the supervising wizard had clearly shown Matthew favor the moment they boarded the ship. He had seen Matthew's talent all along!