Mage Hand

Luo Lin focused completely, pouring all his attention into memorizing and understanding the spell model.

Time passed second by second.

An hour later, the crystal chip trembled slightly and dimmed.

The model information forcibly implanted in Luo Lin's mind began to blur and fade.

But he had already grasped the core!

He had memorized the main framework, over eighty percent of the nodes, and the energy circuits!

All that remained was practice and construction.

Leaving the library, Luo Lin hurried back to his wooden cabin.

He sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began trying to construct the spell model for [Mage Hand] within his sea of consciousness.

It was an extremely taxing process, consuming both mental focus and spiritual power.

He had to use his thoughts to guide his spiritual power, weaving it like threads and gradually building that complex three-dimensional structure according to the blueprint in his memory.

On his first attempt, before he had completed even one-tenth of it, a node proved insufficiently stable, and the entire structure instantly collapsed.

His spiritual power rippled slightly, bringing a faint wave of dizziness.

Luo Lin was not discouraged. After resting briefly and reviewing the cause of his failure, he began his second attempt.

The precise control over spiritual power granted by [Efficient Scholar] played a decisive role at this moment.

He constructed lines of spiritual power faster and judged the stability of each node more accurately.

On the second attempt, he reached one-third completion before failing again due to a slight deviation in the energy flow.

The third attempt passed the halfway point...

The fourth attempt...

The fifth attempt...

He had no idea how many times he failed. The drain on his spiritual power left Luo Lin pale, but his gaze remained focused.

Finally, on some unknown attempt, a complete miniature transparent palm model formed entirely of pure spiritual power steadily emerged in his sea of consciousness!

He had succeeded!

With a thought, Luo Lin followed the method for activating the model and guided mana into it.

The next moment, he felt his spiritual power and mana strangely extend outward through that model.

Half a meter in front of him, a palm-sized hand formed entirely from translucent energy slowly condensed in midair.

The energy hand still looked somewhat blurry, and its edges were not particularly stable.

But it truly existed, swaying slightly at Luo Lin's command.

[Spell: Mage Hand (Not Yet Initiated)]

A new entry appeared on the panel.

Luo Lin let out a long breath, unable to suppress the hint of a smile on his face.

Though this was only the first step of a long journey, and he still had a long way to go before he could use it proficiently, he had finally mastered his first supernatural power.

It meant that he was no longer that First-Rank Wizard Apprentice who could only be slaughtered by others, utterly unable to fight back.

He had gained the first claws with which to change his fate.

Looking at the blurry energy hand in the air, Luo Lin knew that from this moment onward, his path as a wizard had truly taken its firm first step.

The challenges ahead remained severe, and the assessment two months later still hung above his head like the Sword of Damocles, but he now had the confidence and resources to face it all.

He dispersed [Mage Hand] and began meditating to recover.

Likewise, after mastering the initial construction method for [Mage Hand], Luo Lin did not waste time feeling satisfied with himself.

He knew that an unstable zero-ring spell was far from enough to handle any crisis that might arise.

He needed to improve his proficiency as quickly as possible and continue strengthening his foundations.

Over the following days, Luo Lin's routine became even more packed and regular.

Before dawn each day, he awoke in the cold wind and performed his first meditation, taking advantage of the relatively quiet morning environment to improve his spiritual power.

After meditating, he immediately headed to the mission hall and accepted five Moonlight Moss processing tasks.

This had become a stable, low-risk source of contribution points for him. More importantly, it allowed him to keep acquiring Shadow Fungus.

In the material processing room, Luo Lin's movements became increasingly practiced.

The [Efficient Scholar] talent kept his efficiency at an extremely high level.

Processing five batches of materials, which had originally taken nearly half an hour, now took him only around twenty minutes, while the quality of the finished products remained perfect.

After submitting the tasks, he reliably received 10 contribution points and five portions of Shadow Fungus.

He divided his afternoons into two parts.

He used the first half to practice [Mage Hand].

Inside the wooden cabin, he constructed that complex model in his sea of consciousness again and again.

Failure, reflection, reconstruction.

The intense depletion of spiritual power often left him dizzy and lightheaded, but he persisted.

As his number of attempts increased, the model's construction speed noticeably improved, and its stability rose as well.

The energy hand, initially so blurry that it could only last a few seconds, gradually became more solid. Its duration extended to half a minute, and it could slowly move small, light objects at his command, such as a pen or an empty cup.

[Spell: Mage Hand (Initiated 12%)]

The panel's data clearly reflected his progress.

After practicing spells exhausted his spiritual power, he did not force himself to continue. Instead, he switched to physical training.

This body was simply too weak. His physique of 0.8 was an obvious shortcoming.

He did simple squats and push-ups in the wooden cabin, and when the weather was better, he jogged outside the apprentice district.

After exercising, he drank the cheap herbal tea directly to help ease his fatigue.

In the evening, he performed his second meditation to restore the spiritual power and mana he had expended during the afternoon.

At night, he worked on potion brewing.

With the experience from his previous attempts, his success rate in brewing [Lesser Mental Boiling Potion] remained at one hundred percent. The quality was also basically stable between good and ordinary, and he never failed again.

Every two or three days, he sold one or two potions through Black Rat.

He strictly controlled the quantity and frequency of his sales to avoid attracting too much attention.

The prices remained thirty-five contribution points for good-quality potions and thirty for ordinary-quality ones.

Though Black Rat was curious about his steady supply, he followed the rules and did not ask questions in the face of profit.

His contribution points accumulated steadily.

Luo Lin did not spend them lavishly on comfort. Instead, he planned every expense carefully.

Aside from necessary food and herbal tea, he began selectively purchasing a few items.

He spent 20 contribution points on a dagger polished from some kind of hard beast bone. It was sharper and easier to handle than the standard bone knife provided by the academy.

It was more useful both for processing materials and for self-defense.

Afterward, he spent another 50 contribution points to purchase <Structural Analysis of Common Zero-Ring Spell Models (Apprentice Edition)>.

Though this book did not directly provide any new spell models, it explained the general construction techniques for zero-ring spell models, common causes of failure, and methods of avoiding them in simple and accessible terms.

This was immensely beneficial to Luo Lin's practice of [Mage Hand] and his future study of other spells.

[Efficient Scholar] proved useful once more. He read and understood the book far faster than ordinary people, quickly absorbing its knowledge and applying it to his practical spell exercises.

The rate at which [Mage Hand] improved in proficiency noticeably accelerated.

And so, nearly three weeks passed in this tense yet fulfilling cycle.

One night, after completing a long meditation session, Luo Lin felt that both his spiritual power and mana were at full capacity.

He summoned the pale blue panel and reviewed the results of his efforts during this period:

[Subject: Luo Lin]

[Race: Human]

[Status: Healthy (Mild Fatigue)]

[Level: First-Rank Wizard Apprentice (Progress 71%)]

[Attributes:

Physique: 0.9

Spirit: 1.8

Mana: 16/18]

[Mastered Knowledge:

Basic Meditation Method (Initiated 89%)

Basic Rune Identification (Initiated 17%)

Basic Magical Botany (25%)

Basic Potion Material Processing (Professional 2%)

Structural Analysis of Common Zero-Ring Spell Models (Initiated 45%)]

[Spell: Mage Hand (Initiated 63%)]

[Talent: Efficient Scholar (Passive)]

The panel's data had changed significantly.

His apprentice-level progress had risen sharply, and he was not far from becoming a Second-Rank Apprentice.

His spiritual power and mana had both grown noticeably.

The most striking change was [Basic Potion Material Processing]. Through extensive high-success-rate practice, it had unexpectedly broken through to the professional level, representing an extremely high degree of proficiency in that field.

[Mage Hand] had also passed its most difficult initial stage and was steadily becoming more proficient.

With continued training and sufficient nutrition, his physique had increased by 0.1. Though it was not much, he had at least escaped his weakened state.

Luo Lin was satisfied with his current progress.

At this rate, reaching Second-Rank Apprentice before the assessment, or even making a push for Third-Rank Apprentice, was not impossible.

However, just as he was considering whether his next step should be continuing to accumulate contribution points or attempting to borrow a second spell, trouble quietly arrived.