Green kept a low profile aboard the ship. He rarely left his room, and even had the sailors bring him food. He spent nearly all his time meditating. But though Green kept to himself, there were almost no secrets on the little ship.
Only Lilian and Bru had better rooms than Green, so everyone paid attention to him. Whenever he left his room to relax on deck, discussion broke out.
Green had asked Bru whether George and the others had been recruited. According to Bru, none of them had much talent, and George had none at all. No White Wizard Organization was likely to take them.
Hearing this, Green could only silently pray that the other five would have good luck and that the Dark Wizard Organizations they joined would not be too cruel. George's lack of talent was a blessing in disguise: he could go home and inherit the family business.
"Almost there. I can solidify the twelfth rune soon." Green sat cross-legged on his bed and let out a deep breath. His powerful Grand Knight physique let him easily withstand the dizziness brought on by meditation. After so long indoors and out of the light, his skin had gradually grown fair. His strong constitution kept him healthy, but with his modest build and long robe, he looked like a pretty boy.
"Twelve solidified runes will make me a Second-Class Apprentice. That means the first small leap in Mental Power. With the Modified Extreme Meditation Method, my gains should be even greater." Green looked at the model projected by the Chip, his heart brimming with joy.
"I'm nearly a Second-Class Apprentice, and it hasn't even been four months since I became a Third-Class Apprentice. A Wizard's meditation only gets harder from here, but with the Chip, I can skip the struggle to understand a Meditation Method and save most of that time. Once I switch to the Extreme Meditation Method, my cultivation speed will double. I'll advance even faster." The thought lifted Green's spirits further.
"Chip, upload the Modified Extreme Meditation Method into my brain."
[Uploading: Modified Extreme Meditation Method]
Green took a deep breath and entered meditation again. This time, though, he wasn't meditating on runes. He was switching to another Meditation Method.
As knowledge poured into him, Green gradually began to understand.
"So that's how it works! No wonder the Extreme Meditation Method has such enormous potential."
Unlike an Ordinary Meditation Method, the Extreme Meditation Method had only one rune: a huge hollow sphere. Intricate patterns covered its surface, giving it a complex, dazzling beauty.
At the apprentice stage, practicing the Meditation Method meant constructing a sphere as large as one's entire Mental Space.
"So that's the principle. Constructing a sphere this enormous takes far longer than an Ordinary Meditation Method. If the creator of the Extreme Meditation Method hadn't ingeniously divided the sphere into sections that fit together like mortise-and-tenon joints, letting practitioners build them one by one and assemble them at the end, no one could ever have completed this spherical rune."
Green studied the diagram in his mind, marveling at the creator's imagination and genius.
But when he looked at the even more refined sphere structure in his own mind, a wild grin spread across his face.
"Chip, begin the first step."
Green stirred his Mental Power. With the Chip's assistance, it seeped into every corner of the runes, then battered them again and again. The runes he had already solidified began to break apart.
In the darkness, time passed. Green's Mental Power shattered every rune. Fragments of all kinds, lines of every shape, floated through his Mental Space.
[Beginning reconstruction]
At the Chip's prompt, Green began manipulating the rune fragments in his mind, building the spherical structure of the Extreme Meditation Method.
"No wonder the higher a Mage's level, the greater the cost of switching Meditation Methods. Even at the reconstruction stage, if the two methods are too incompatible—or outright conflict—more than half the rune fragments might have to be discarded. And after long-term meditation, a person's Mental Space starts taking on the properties of their runes. If those properties clash, the Mental Space might reject the solidified runes and cause serious mental injury." Green murmured as he watched the fragments floating in his Mental Space.
With the Chip's help, Green had no need to worry about stability. Following its instructions, he moved the fragments one after another, like stacking blocks. The sphere of the Extreme Meditation Method slowly took shape.
When the last usable fragment joined the sphere, a three-fifths-complete sphere appeared in Green's Mental Space.
Even so, a great many useless rune fragments remained.
"Good thing I switched early. At a higher level, it would have cost me even more. Still, watching the fruits of all that meditation go to waste hurts." Green looked regretfully at the discarded fragments.
He slowly dispersed them until they vanished from his Mental Space.
"Chip, activate Double Meditation." Green looked into his Mental Space and activated the Chip's function.
His vast Mental Space instantly split in two, one section large and the other small.
Two distinct fluctuations of Mental Power appeared around Green at once.
Meditation began. Under the influence of his Mental Power, runes slowly formed in both spaces, but their fluctuations were completely different. One belonged to the Extreme Meditation Method; the other, to the Ordinary Meditation Method.
As the rune fragments took shape, a connection opened between the two spaces that had been separate until now. Fragments produced by the Ordinary Meditation Method passed through it into the space holding the Extreme Meditation Method.
They slotted seamlessly into the spherical structure of the Extreme Meditation Method.
Green smiled at the sight. If he collected more compatible Meditation Methods, he could push his meditation speed even higher.
Leaving the Chip to its work, Green devoted himself wholly to meditation.
More and more rune fragments formed and slotted into the sphere. It grew until it was nearly two-thirds complete. Then Green felt meditation becoming harder and harder. The dizziness it caused intensified sharply.
"One last push." Green silently urged himself on and kept meditating.
A fragment shaped like a triangular pyramid slowly formed in his Mental Space. The dizziness grew so fierce he nearly slipped out of meditation.
The sphere was already warping before Green's eyes. He knew he couldn't delay; he was close to his limit. If his powerful body had not been able to replenish his Mental Power, an ordinary apprentice would have collapsed from dizziness this severe.
With great effort, Green guided the fragment toward the sphere. It slowly slid into place. The instant they joined completely, the sphere seemed to give off a faint glow. A cool sensation rose within him and swept through his entire Mental Space.
The violent dizziness vanished, replaced by a wave of comfort. It was like drinking cool water on a sweltering summer day; his whole body felt refreshed.
Green felt his Mental Power slowly expand outward. He could sense the energy in the air. He could even detect one enormous source of energy radiation aboard the ship, and another, smaller one.
"Those two energy sources must be Instructor Lilian and Bru." Apart from Green, the ship carried only one Wizard and one apprentice. It was easy to tell who they were.
Green slowly drew his awareness back.
"Chip, show me my attributes."
[Green] [Strength: 6.1] [Speed: 6.1] [Constitution: 6.1] [Mental Power: 16] (Second-Class Apprentice) [Talent: Life Barrier] (Grand Knight) [Sorcery: Wizard's Hand]
Looking at his attributes, Green broke into a grin. A sense of accomplishment welled up inside him.
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