Test Completed

"That was the only way."

Gulei nodded, took out a sheet of parchment, and used his mental power to draft the contract before handing it to Agular. "Sign it, and Lohr is yours."

Agular took the contract and examined it. It contained only one clause: before Lohr became a First-Circle Wizard, he was not to interfere with Lohr's choice of First-Circle spell in any way.

"Fine." Agular signed the contract without hesitation.

"Alright, I'll continue my spell experiments. Teach Lohr well, and notify me once he becomes a First-Circle Wizard."

Gulei retrieved the contract, directly cast the Earthvein Traversal Spell, and vanished from the laboratory.

He only regarded Lohr as a supplementary possibility. It would be good if there were gains; if not, he would just have to work hard himself.

Agular stared at the spot where Gulei had disappeared. After a long while, he sighed. "Being young is wonderful."

Naturally, he understood what Gulei was thinking.

But he himself had long been stuck at a bottleneck and could only hope that Lohr would bring him fresh inspiration.

He turned around and cut off the magic array's mental power supply. Once the image within the light screen vanished, Agular disappeared from the laboratory as well.

Spell model optimization submission verification area.

More than a minute passed before the two people, stunned senseless by Lohr's Wall of Flame, finally accepted reality.

"I... can I first test whether the flames of the Wall of Flame have changed?" Lus looked at Lohr and asked in a dry voice.

"Go ahead." Lohr nodded and stepped back several paces to make room.

Lus drew a deep breath and took a crystal tube about ten centimeters long from his wizard robe. It bore nine markings. He placed its tip against the blazing Wall of Flame.

After waiting around ten seconds, he withdrew the crystal tube and checked its markings.

"Flame power: 4.5 degrees, an increase of 0.5 degrees over the basic model. Next is the second test: the defense test."

Lus stepped back, put away the crystal tube, then took out a yellow sphere roughly five centimeters in diameter and explained to Lohr:

"This is a standard Earth Element Orb. Each one contains enough earth elemental energy to cast one First-Circle spell, Earth Elemental Impact, and has an Earth Elemental Impact spell fixed within it with adjustable power."

"I'll first use a 0.6-degree Earth Elemental Impact. If the Wall of Flame withstands it, I'll increase it to 0.7 degrees."

"If the Wall of Flame can withstand three hits without being penetrated, it can be rated as a Third-Level Apprentice Spell."

If anyone else were being tested, he naturally would not have explained so much unnecessary information.

But Lohr... geniuses were ultimately different.

"Alright, please begin the test." Lohr wore an attentive, teachable expression.

In reality, not only did he know about antiques like Earth Element Orbs, he had used countless testing tools resembling firearms from later generations.

"Alright." Lus turned around, raised the Earth Element Orb, and aimed it at the Wall of Flame.

Sizzle—

A yellow beam struck the center of the Wall of Flame head-on, extinguishing some of the flames. It hit the wall and left only a shallow pit.

The next instant, surging flames rose once more. The Earth Elemental Impact had left behind nothing but that shallow pit.

"The 0.6-degree defense test passed. The effect was almost negligible. Beginning the 0.7-degree test."

Sizzle—crack crack—

The second Earth Elemental Impact was nearly twice as thick as the previous one and finally inflicted noticeable damage on the wall.

Lohr examined it carefully. The result was decent; the Earth Elemental Impact had only penetrated a little over ten centimeters into the wall.

Sizzle—sizzle—

Lus did not stop moving, firing two more Earth Elemental Impacts.

A pit roughly 3.5 meters wide and 0.5 meters deep had been blasted into the center of the Wall of Flame.

"Congratulations, Lohr." Lus put away the Earth Element Orb, turned around, and looked at Lohr with a broad smile. "After testing, the optimization of your Wall of Flame model has produced remarkable results. Its defensive strength has increased from 0.6 circles to 0.7 circles."

"Next, you need to record your Wall of Flame model. Then I'll submit an application to the wizard to check the model's overlap rate."

"If it does not completely overlap with the optimized Wall of Flame models in storage, every point of difference will increase your Contribution Points reward."

"Alright." Lohr readily agreed. He followed Lus into the small hut, accepted the paper and pen handed to him, and began tracing out the model from his mind.

The so-called model overlap check was, plainly put, a plagiarism check. The lower the overlap rate, the more Contribution Points he would receive.

Just as Lohr was tracing the optimized Wall of Flame model, a figure silently appeared at the entrance of the wooden hut.

The newcomer was Fray. He held a wizard robe in one hand and a white card in the other as he quietly walked to Lohr's side.

When Kateya and Lus saw Fray, they were about to bow, but he stopped them with a wave of his hand.

Fray lowered his head and carefully examined the Wall of Flame model Lohr was drawing. After watching for a while, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

Lohr truly deserved to be called a genius. This optimization plan had a very low overlap rate with the several methods Fray knew.

Although he had already seen some indication of that when Lohr cast the Wall of Flame, personally confirming it was always more reassuring, wasn't it?

A moment later, Lohr completed the remaining strokes of the model. Just as he was about to hand the parchment to Lus, he noticed a white card and a wizard robe being offered to him.

"Wizard."

Seeing that the person handing him the items was Kateya's mentor, Lohr immediately stood and bowed.

"Mm. These are your wizard robe and Contribution Card. Keep them safe; replacing them is rather troublesome." Fray nodded, stuffed the wizard robe and Contribution Card into Lohr's hands, then added, "Also, my name is Fray Ibet. You may call me Wizard Fray."

"Yes. Thank you, Wizard Fray, for bringing me my wizard robe and Contribution Card." Lohr smoothly followed his lead.

"No need to be so polite."

Fray waved his hand, picked up the parchment bearing the optimized Wall of Flame model, and said, "I'll take this first. Once it has been verified, I'll come settle your Contribution Points."

"Alright." Lohr nodded.

The next instant, Fray stomped his foot, cast the Earthvein Traversal Spell, and vanished before the three of them.

"Lus, is there anything else you need me to do? If not, I'll leave first." Lohr turned to Lus and asked.

He still needed to return and construct the Levitation Spell model, then try using meditation to absorb a small amount of Magic Crystal energy and increase his Charge Points.

Back on the airship, he had been constantly under Mara's watchful eye and had not dared make even the slightest move.

Now that he was at the Wizard Tower, he still did not dare directly drain a Magic Crystal dry.

However, he could use meditation as cover to absorb a small amount of Magic Crystal energy into his body, then let the panel draw upon the Magic Crystal energy flowing into him.

As for recklessly absorbing Magic Crystal energy and increasing his meditation talent level... he would have to find an opportunity.

For example, once he had his own private laboratory, it would absolutely protect a wizard's privacy. No one could enter without invitation or spy on him. There, he could naturally absorb Magic Crystal energy without restraint, though increasing his meditation talent would definitely still be impossible.

Or there was the Apprentices' Divine Kingdom Exploration Tournament of the Great Development Era, so celebrated by later generations. It was precisely the sort of opportunity with absolutely no supervision and abundant fortuitous encounters.

Unfortunately, Lohr had never learned the exact time when that tournament would begin. He could only hope it would arrive soon.