Witchcraft Model

On the roads of White House Academy, Green walked with his head lowered toward his mentor Lilian's laboratory.

With the Chip, I don't need to care about the difficulty of constructing a Witchcraft Model. Choosing the right attributes is more important! Thinking of his own Elemental Affinity, Green felt somewhat helpless.

Generally speaking, the purer one's Elemental Affinity, the easier it was to cast a certain type of sorcery. Yet an overly pure talent also caused problems: casting other types of sorcery became difficult and unrewarding.

When Green cast life-type and nature-type sorcery, he was expected to consume less than half the energy of an ordinary apprentice, with minimal backlash. Likewise, when casting negative-energy or corrosion-type sorcery, the mental power he needed multiplied, and even if he successfully cast them, they would still harm him.

"There is no such thing as perfection in this world. The Way of Heaven diminishes the excessive to replenish the lacking; the Way of Man diminishes the lacking to replenish the excessive. No one can be without flaws. One should play to one's strengths and conceal one's weaknesses, rather than pursue perfection." After consoling himself, Green quickened his pace.

"Mentor! I have completed Spell Model Construction and would like to claim my free Witchcraft Models, as well as purchase a few more!"

"Mm! You came as soon as Spell Model Construction ended. Green, your talent really is astonishing!" Lilian set down the beaker in her hand and sighed.

Lilian looked at Green before her and felt the same sense of wonder. She had always kept track of his progress and knew that he was talented, but she had never imagined his talent would be so exaggerated. He learned any knowledge the moment he encountered it, grasping everything at a single hint. Nearly every major school in the academy had approached her, hoping she would give Green up, even willing to pay a price for him. If she had not been an alchemist, she probably would not have been able to keep him.

"I will not interfere with your other studies. I only want to know how your Alchemy is progressing." Lilian looked at Green and asked the question that concerned her most.

"I have completely mastered the content of Alchemy Fundamentals, and I basically understand the medicinal properties of various plants. Within a month at most, I will begin brewing beginner potions." Green answered calmly, his tone full of confidence.

Lilian was clearly very satisfied with Green's progress, and a smile appeared on her aged face.

"A Second-Class Apprentice can claim two models for free. Your Elemental Affinity mainly leans toward life and Fire Element, so I prepared these for you long ago. They are Treefolk Summoning and Lesser Energy Fireball. You are a Grand Knight, and Life Barrier allows you to withstand any apprentice-level attack, so there is no need to further strengthen your defenses." Lilian walked to a wooden shelf nearby, took two crystal balls from among a pile of them, and placed them on the table.

Hearing that Lilian had prepared Witchcraft Models for him so early, Green felt deeply flattered. It was rare in the academy to see a Formal Wizard care so much for an apprentice.

"Thank you for your concern, Mentor." Green hurriedly expressed his gratitude and accepted the two crystal balls from the table with both hands. One glowed green, the other red, symbolizing the attributes of the sorcery contained within.

"These two sorceries suit you very well, especially Treefolk Summoning. When other apprentices use it, it can only delay their enemies, but with your Life Force Affinity, the treefolk you summon will be far stronger. But remember, if you want to leave the academy to carry out missions, you must master at least five sorceries." Afraid that Green would become overconfident after learning sorcery, Lilian still gave him a reminder.

"Don't worry, Mentor. I definitely will not leave the academy without sufficient confidence."

Thinking of the ascetic lifestyle Green had maintained over the past three months, Lilian felt that her reminder had been somewhat unnecessary.

"Good that you understand!"

After bidding farewell to Mentor Lilian, Green hurried back to his dormitory and took out the crystal balls he had kept in his robes.

"I can finally learn Zero-Level Sorcery. Before this, I only had Wizard's Hand. Now I finally have more means to deal with all kinds of situations." Green looked at the two crystal balls before him, a flicker of joy passing through his eyes.

"Constructing Spell Models is a tedious matter for ordinary apprentices, and failure can even damage their mental power. But for me, it is not a problem at all. With the Chip's abilities, failure is practically impossible."

Green closed his eyes and entered a meditative state, extending his mental power into the crystal balls.

"Chip, extract the contents of the crystal balls."

[Extracting]

[Extraction complete: Treefolk Summoning. Lesser Energy Fireball]

[Beginning model construction]

[Optimizable structures detected. Optimize?]

The Chip's prompt left Green somewhat stunned.

"Chip, why was there no optimization option for Wizard's Hand before?" Green asked.

[Previous knowledge reserves were insufficient. This optimization is based on knowledge from books regarding sorcery principles, how to better facilitate energy flow, the origin and application of mental power, and so forth. Wizard's Hand can also undergo model optimization. Synchronize optimization?]

Upon hearing the Chip's answer, joy rose in Green's heart.

"Optimize immediately! Optimize everything!" Green said decisively.

As he watched the models continuously being optimized, the joy in Green's heart grew even stronger. Improving a model was no simple task. Even First-Class Apprentices rarely touched model improvement. Most publicly available models had already reached their limits, and few could continue optimizing them. Even if they could, the results would not improve much. No one would bother with such a thankless task.

"What effects can the optimization achieve? How long will it take?"

[The optimization process is expected to consume a cumulative total of 14 points of mental power. Estimated time: 3 hours 27 minutes.]

[Estimated optimization results: Wizard's Hand activation time reduced to 0.2 seconds; mental power consumption reduced from two units per hour to one unit per hour. Treefolk Summoning activation time reduced to 1 second; treefolk strength increased by 27.3%; Fire Element resistance increased by 32.1%; mental power consumption reduced by 13%. Lesser Energy Fireball activation time reduced to 0.1 seconds; continuous burning and explosion effects added; estimated direct damage increased by 72%; mental power consumption reduced by 15%.]

Seeing the Chip's optimization results, Green drew a sharp breath. To ordinary wizards, this level of improvement could not even be called optimization—it was reconstruction.

Watching the three sorceries being optimized, Green could clearly feel himself growing tired.

"Is this the mental power consumption caused by increasing the Chip's processing?" Green could still bear this amount of consumption.

"Check my status."

[Green, Strength 6.2, Speed: 6.2, Constitution: 6.2, Mental Power: 22 (continuously decreasing)]

[Talent: Life Barrier (All-Element Resistance)]

[Skill: Wizard's Hand (optimizing)]

"Strength, speed, and constitution have each increased by 0.1 compared to before. It should be due to the Extreme Meditation Method." Looking at his improved physical attributes, Green silently thought of the Extreme Meditation Method.

As for the All-Element Resistance of Life Barrier, Green had not paid much attention to it. This note had been added by the Chip after Green read a detailed explanation of a Grand Knight's barrier in a book. All-Element Resistance meant that Life Barrier could effectively block attacks of any elemental type, without having a resistance weakness against any particular element.