Complete Surrender, One-Fifth of the Slots

Lus set down the green card, picked up a pen, and looked at Lohr. "What improved spell do you want to test? What direction is the improvement taking?"

"Wall of Flame," Lohr replied. "As for the direction... it should be defensive."

His Wall of Flame had been upgraded using Charge Points, and he had never had a chance to cast it in actual combat. The only reason he could tell it had been improved in a defensive direction was because of his experience from his previous life.

"Fine."

Lus silently made a note on the parchment, then stood and said as he walked toward the door:

"Let's go outside and begin the test."

"Alright." Lohr nodded and followed.

The three of them came to the center of the sandy ground outside. Lus pointed at the open space ahead. "Cast Wall of Flame there."

Lohr stepped forward two paces, raised his right hand, and used his mental power to activate the Wall of Flame model in his Sea of Consciousness.

Crack, crack, crack—

In an instant, a towering wall wrapped in blazing flames rose from the sand three meters away.

The wall was five meters wide, three meters high, and half a meter thick. It was entirely made of white stone, with streams of crimson fire burning across its surface.

For defense and blocking enemies, it was a first-rate weapon.

After casting Wall of Flame, he immediately checked the elemental reserves in his Sea of Consciousness and found that more than half had vanished at once.

The consumption is really huge, Lohr thought. But that makes sense. This already counts as a Third-Level Apprentice spell. With my elemental reserves, being able to cast it once is already pretty good.

He then turned his gaze to Lus, curious why the man was not testing the strength of the Wall of Flame.

A blank, stunned expression entered his view.

"How is that possible?"

Lus muttered under his breath. After seeing the Wall of Flame Lohr had cast, he was completely dumbfounded.

A First-Level Apprentice had relied on intuition to improve a basic spell—and had actually succeeded.

He even wondered whether he was dreaming, but the heat radiating from the Wall of Flame told him every moment that it was real.

On the other side.

Kateya's breathing quickened, and a wave of delight nearly swept her away.

"If this is a dream, I hope I never wake up."

She had long prepared herself for Lohr to fail the test and had even thought of words to comfort him.

Yet the result was the complete opposite of what she had expected. Lohr had truly improved Wall of Flame through intuition alone.

And it was no ordinary improvement. The wall's height, width, and thickness were all more than double those of the original Wall of Flame.

If nothing unexpected happened, its defensive power could definitely withstand several spells from a Third-Level Apprentice.

Most importantly, Lohr was still only a First-Level Apprentice, and he had relied solely on his own intuition to improve Wall of Flame.

On the twenty-seventh floor of the Wizard Tower, inside the core laboratory.

"What exactly did I miss?"

Watching the Wall of Flame Lohr had cast on the light screen, Mara did not feel happy that his losses had been compensated. Instead, he felt hollow inside.

A First-Level Apprentice had spent twenty days relying on intuition to raise a basic Second-Level Apprentice spell to the third tier.

He had actually missed out on an apprentice like that.

"Alright, Mara. In accordance with the contract, I'll now transfer one-fifth of our school's apprentice slots on the Murphy Continent to you."

The old wizard Agular rose with a smile and handed over a piece of parchment. "Also, on my own behalf, thank you for bringing such a genius to our Fire-Earth Element School."

"Mara, thanks." Gulei also stood and spoke.

Behind them, every First-Circle Wizard of the Fire-Earth Element School was smiling broadly as they added their thanks.

"On my own behalf, I also thank Wizard Mara for his generosity."

"So do I."

"Same here."

A genius could truly change the circumstances of an entire Elemental School.

Judging from Lohr's current performance, his talent for improving spells was unmatched.

Once he became an Official Wizard, or even a Second-Circle or Third-Circle Wizard, he might keep some trump cards hidden.

But most of his improved spells would certainly be released in exchange for resources to support further research and experiments.

And those spells would become stepping stones for other Earth-Fire School wizards to grow stronger.

Mara took the parchment without saying a word, turned, and left.

He did not want to see the delighted faces of these Earth-Fire School Elemental Wizards any longer. The happier they were, the greater his own losses seemed.

The Fire-Earth School wizards watched Mara leave the laboratory. Agular looked around and said:

"Fray, go help Lohr handle his reward. Everyone else, disperse and get back to what you should be doing."

"Yes." The many First-Circle Wizards accepted the order and left the laboratory, while Fray headed toward the seventh floor of the Wizard Tower.

"Agular, let Lohr become my student." Once everyone had left, Gulei was the first to speak.

If he became Lohr's teacher, he could guide Lohr as much as possible toward the spell models he had already constructed.

As long as Lohr learned them, Gulei would benefit the most when those models were optimized in the future.

"Gulei, I do not have much time left to live. Breaking through to the Third Circle is far too difficult."

Rather than argue with Gulei, Agular wore a weathered expression and put on the air of a frail old man nearing the end of his life.

"Oh? When do you think you'll die?" Gulei asked expressionlessly. "Remember to tell me in advance when the time comes. I'll inherit your legacy, fulfill your last wish, and break through to the Third Circle in your place."

Agular: "..."

"Drop the act, Agular. As for Lohr, come up with a specific arrangement."

Gulei spoke bluntly. "Giving up apprentice slots means giving up experimental materials. Everyone has suffered losses, so you cannot keep all the benefits for yourself."

"How about this?" Seeing that he could not bluff his way through it, Agular pondered for a moment before slowly speaking.

"Once Lohr becomes an Official Wizard, we'll all present our core spell combinations for him to choose from, without interfering."

Apprentice-level spells were too weak, and their auxiliary effects were mediocre, so Official Wizards did not include them in their casting systems.

Starting from First-Circle spells, Elemental Wizards organized their own systems, building specialized spell systems around several core spells to adapt to different enemies.

Single-element spell systems were generally simple and direct. Greater power was all that mattered, and their overlap was high. One could follow a single path directly to the Fourth Circle or even Fifth Circle. They were the mainstream systems of the present era and had produced the most high-circle wizards.

Their drawback was that their methods were too limited, like stagnant water. They could not completely suppress deities.

This dissatisfied the single-element wizards at the pinnacle, who sought change. Thus, multi-element systems were born.

Beginning with dual elements, spell systems became far more complex—and far more powerful.

When the first Fifth-Circle Dual-Element Wizard appeared, the Death Knell of the Gods rang.

The core spell systems of Agular and Gulei, for example, had very little overlap.

Everyone was blazing a trail, trying to open a new path toward the Fourth Circle.

As for whose path was correct, no one dared make any guarantees before the first Fourth-Circle Fire-Earth Wizard appeared.