Invitation, Earth-Fire Meditation Model Completed

Lohr's expression darkened slightly as he carefully tried to erase the stroke he had drawn wrong.

This time, nothing went wrong, and he smoothly erased the crooked portion.

"Phew."

Letting out a soft breath, Lohr did not stop. Instead, he began erasing the model he had previously drawn.

If low-talent wizard apprentices reached this stage, they might continue constructing the Meditation Model, because this would likely be their only chance in their entire lives.

As for the model being flawed and preventing them from advancing to become wizards, that drawback was practically irrelevant to them.

After all, they had little chance of advancing to Official Wizards in the first place. But Lohr obviously would not do something so foolish.

Erasing the Meditation Model took far longer than constructing it, because he had to be careful not to affect the cracked areas.

More than an hour passed before Lohr barely reduced the Meditation Model framework to forty percent.

"From here on, it'll be much easier."

The grave look on Lohr's face relaxed. Even if it collapsed now, it would not affect him much.

Then, he sped up, erasing the outer framework piece by piece around the points where cracks had appeared in the Meditation Method.

Thirty-five percent...

Twenty-five percent...

Rumble—

The familiar sound of collapse echoed through Lohr's Sea of Consciousness once more.

This time, the model's collapse did not cause Lohr any serious harm.

When he opened his eyes, he did not even see double. His head was simply still a little dizzy.

After sitting quietly for a while and waiting for the dizziness to subside, Lohr looked up at the mechanical clock.

It was already past six forty in the evening.

Rubbing his slightly hungry stomach, he decided to take a look around the hall downstairs.

After turning several corners, Lohr heard the clamor from below as he neared the stairs.

"Everyone, we were all wizard apprentices chosen by Wizard Mara. Once we reach the Wizard Tower, we should stick together."

"Vess is right. He's a genius with Fourth-Level Meditation Talent. If we follow him, no one will dare bully us."

"Alright, Vess, it's settled, then. I'll follow you from now on."

"Me too."

"I..."

"It's quite lively."

The corner of Lohr's mouth lifted. He did not pay it much attention as he rounded the corner and headed straight for the staircase. Just as he was about to go downstairs, however, he suddenly realized that the once-lively hall had fallen silent.

He swept his gaze around and found everyone looking at him.

"What are you looking at me for?" Lohr raised an eyebrow. Without stopping, he descended the stairs and said, "I only came down to get some dinner. Carry on. Don't mind me."

"Lord Lohr, I am Tekok Vess."

A blond youth with a sturdy build and luxurious clothes stepped forward several paces. Standing at the bottom of the stairs, he looked up and asked,

"Would you be interested in joining our group? I can offer you generous compensation."

Hearing the noble-born youth call out his name so readily, Lohr paused slightly.

He looked around the hall again, and only when he spotted the plainly dressed youth who had boarded the airship with him did he understand.

"The place I'm going is rather special. There's no point in joining you." He descended the stairs and spoke as he came to stand beside the noble youth.

Lohr was not deceiving this ambitious young man. Most of the people aboard Mara's vessel would eventually be sent to the Wizard Tower region where Mara himself was based.

Lohr, meanwhile, would be sent to another Wizard Tower with Earth-Fire School wizards.

"Lord Lohr, don't you intend to hear what compensation I'm offering?" A trace of unwillingness flashed through Vess's eyes as he tried to persuade him to stay.

Clearly, he believed Lohr was merely brushing him off.

"How about this, Lord Vess?"

A meaningful smile appeared at the corner of Lohr's lips. "If we really are assigned to the same Wizard Tower, then I'll agree to join you. How does that sound?"

He suddenly felt that teasing children could be rather amusing sometimes. He wondered how disappointed Vess would be when he did not see him disembark.

"Alright, then it's settled." Vess immediately beamed.

"Mm."

Lohr nodded, passed Vess and the others, and walked to a two-meter-tall puppet on the left side of the hall that appeared to be made entirely of stone.

"Hello, please give me a dinner."

The stone puppet knocked on an iron window behind it.

Soon, a tray containing bread, fruit, and vegetable soup was passed out through the iron window.

The stone puppet picked up the tray and handed it to Lohr.

"Thank you." Lohr took the tray, found a random seat in the hall, and quietly began eating.

No one, including Vess, came to disturb him again.

The others did not dare to, while Vess simply was not in a hurry.

Anything could wait until Lohr joined his organization.

After dinner, Lohr returned to his room. He lay spread-eagled on the bed, emptied his mind, left the elemental lamp off, and silently stared at the dark ceiling.

Only after spacing out for a full hour did he sit up again, turn on the elemental lamp, and read through the Meditation Method once.

"I'll succeed in one try."

After confirming there were no mistakes, Lohr took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and continued constructing the Meditation Model.

Perhaps because of his earlier relaxation, constructing the meditation rune went far more smoothly this time.

Thirty percent...

Seventy percent...

Ninety-nine percent.

Lohr carefully drew the final stroke. The meditation rune in his Sea of Consciousness, which had been so transparent it seemed nonexistent, suddenly began to tremble and release a faint yet peculiar pull.

The Earth and fire elements originally dispersed through the air, invisible to the naked eye, seemed to be drawn by it as they slowly surged toward Lohr's Sea of Consciousness.

Third floor of the airship.

Mara, who was meditating, sensed the disturbance in the elements and lowered his head toward the source of the fluctuations.

After discovering it came from Lohr's room, he looked up at the mechanical clock hanging on the wall.

"Eight and a half hours. Though he's a little worse than I was, that's still not bad."

Mara smiled. "The Fire-Earth School has gained another little genius. It wouldn't be right if they didn't give me a little more in return."

Ordinary people with Fifth-Level Meditation Talent generally needed three days to get started with a Meditation Method.

Yet Lohr had only taken eight and a half hours, placing him among the more talented group.

As for Mara, during his first meditation session, he had constructed a complete fire-element Meditation Model.

That was because his meditation talent was Level Seven!

A talent level that ordinary wizards could only dream of.

He only needed to memorize the meditation rune model and draw the first five percent within his Sea of Consciousness. The remaining portions would be drawn for him by the fire elements themselves.

Second floor of the airship, Cabin 5.

"It finally succeeded."

Looking at the incomparably complex three-dimensional rune in his Sea of Consciousness, which emitted red and yellow light, Lohr let out a breath of relief.

Only because he had personally experienced using Bloodline Runes in the game from his previous life could he successfully draw this meditation rune after merely three failures.

Outside the meditation rune was a small Elemental Domain.

The purpose of this domain was to house spell models.

As the Meditation Method advanced, this Elemental Domain would grow larger and larger.

"Right now, it can hold at most five spell models. Aside from the three basic spells, I'll have to choose the rest carefully once I reach the Wizard Tower," Lohr thought.

Once a spell was constructed, it became permanently fixed, making it difficult to change paths later.

Otherwise, wizards would not have so many different schools. They could simply be divided into the two major Bloodline and elemental branches, since they could switch between them anyway.