"All right."
Tia shrugged, pulled the microscope in front of her, looked it over, then raised her head in confusion and asked, "How do you use this thing?"
"First, place something here, then..." Lohr patiently explained it to her.
"Huh?!"
Following his instructions, Tia placed a sheet of parchment beneath the microscope, and fine structures and textures came into view.
"How amazing."
After marveling at it, she moved her finger beneath it, only to see a patch of darkness. She looked up at Lohr in confusion.
"Don't use your finger. You won't be able to see it." Lohr shook his head and explained,
"This microscope can only see certain translucent objects. If you scraped off a bit of skin and placed it under there, you could see it clearly."
"All right, I roughly understand what this item is used for."
Tia did not actually scrape off a piece of skin. Instead, she raised her head and looked at Lohr seriously.
"I have to admit, this is a very good item, especially for Bloodline Wizards below the Second Ring."
"I'll submit this... Does it have a name?"
"I named it the microscope," Lohr replied.
"Fine. I'll submit the information on this microscope to the Council Magical Artifact Data Center, where the reviewing wizards will evaluate it."
Tia said, "Once the evaluation is complete and the Contribution Points have been issued, I'll notify you to come collect them."
"All right, thank you." Lohr nodded.
"You're welcome, great genius. You're welcome to come again next time." Tia smiled.
Unlike her earlier teasing, this time she truly acknowledged Lohr's title as a genius.
She had already more or less grasped the principle of the microscope during the brief time she had handled it.
The thing looked simple, and elemental power merely served as illumination.
But anyone who could not think of it would never think of it.
After bidding Tia farewell, Lohr returned to the dormitory with Kateya, only to find Wizard Fray standing outside the door.
"Mentor."
"Wizard Fray."
The two immediately saluted him.
"Mm."
Fray nodded, took out a green card from his spatial ring, walked over to Lohr, and said,
"The duplicate-check results for yesterday's Wall of Flame optimized model are out. Your optimized model has a 65% overlap with the models in the Council Archive."
"The base reward for 35% Apprentice-level optimization innovation is 350 Contribution Points. With the doubled support for multi-element school optimizations, that comes to 700 Contribution Points."
"Take out your contribution card. I'll transfer them to you."
"Yes, Wizard Fray." Suppressing his excitement, Lohr took out his contribution card and connected it to Fray's.
He had only spent 15 Charge Points optimizing the Wall of Flame model, yet now he had received 700 Contribution Points in return.
The exchange rate between Contribution Points and Magic Stones was one to one. That was equivalent to 7,000 Charge Points.
He could not spend it all even if he tried!
An almost five-hundredfold return. The first batch of internal test players for Radiance of Truth really had it good. No wonder, barring accidents, even the weakest of them later became Fourth-Ring Wizards. Lohr secretly marveled.
After transferring the Contribution Points, Fray did not linger and simply vanished.
Lohr brought Kateya into the study and began seriously constructing the Consciousness-Sea Microscope model.
With Kateya helping him look up materials and handle miscellaneous tasks, Lohr's construction speed increased considerably.
The originally estimated month-long timeline had been shortened by at least a third.
If he ran into difficult problems, he could also use the microscope as an excuse to ask Agular questions, shortening the time even further.
Ten days later.
Lohr made the final stroke on the parchment and let out a soft breath.
"Kateya, go find an apprentice to try constructing this model."
Sitting behind his desk, his face was full of exhaustion, yet an unmistakable excitement still shone in his eyes.
In ten days, he had personally created the first step toward becoming a Space Wizard: the microscope model.
That sense of accomplishment was truly beyond words.
"All right, I'll go right away." Kateya nodded, her face equally full of excitement as she hurried out of Lohr's dormitory.
She had contributed to the creation of this spell model as well.
I hope everything goes smoothly.
Watching Kateya leave, Lohr silently thought to himself.
He then stood up, gathered all the discarded parchments scattered across the study, and carefully placed them into a small box in the bedroom.
Besides the drafts, the small box also contained 513 Magic Stones, nearly half of his savings.
Over the past ten days, the Contribution Points from the microscope had also arrived.
It was not much, only 500, but it was an extra gain.
"Once my laboratory application is approved, I can convert all these Magic Stones into Charge Points."
Lohr stroked the box and thought, Then I'll add some points to the Fireball Spell and Rock Wall Spell and see how much return I can get.
Actually, he did not have high hopes for the return rate of the Fireball Spell and Rock Wall Spell.
That was because single-element Elemental Wizards had long since developed to their limits, and their spells had naturally been optimized nearly as far as possible.
There was definitely not much room left for Lohr to optimize.
If he truly wanted to earn Contribution Points, he would have to rely on earth-fire dual-element spells.
Unfortunately, he could not delete his account now, and he only had so many spell slots.
Besides cultivating basic offensive, defensive, and escape spells, everything had to prepare him for becoming a Space Wizard. He could not squeeze out many Contribution Points that way.
"Actually, there's no need to rush. Once I become a Space Wizard in the future, would I still lack Charge Points?" Lohr closed the box, shook his head, and laughed.
Without thinking any further, he sat cross-legged on the bed and began meditating, hoping to recover some energy before Kateya brought someone back.
Two hours later.
Knock, knock, knock—
A knock came from outside the dormitory. Lohr woke from his meditation, got up, and went to open the door.
Besides Kateya, there was also an immature-looking boy outside.
He looked twelve or thirteen years old, yet he was a head shorter than Lohr.
After all, Lohr had added 2 points to his physique, and his body had already improved without him noticing.
"Lord Lohr, his name is Berk, and he's willing to sell a spell slot."
Kateya said somewhat helplessly, "His price is 300 Contribution Points. That's already the lowest asking price among the apprentices willing to sell spell slots privately."
Selling a spell slot to a laboratory would earn 200 Contribution Points.
Naturally, the price would be higher in a private sale.
Seeing that the person buying his spell slot was merely a First-Level Apprentice, while even a Third-Level Apprentice treated him with such respect, Berk could not help but feel startled.
But he said nothing. As long as he received enough Contribution Points, it did not matter who bought his spell slot.
"Fine."
Lohr nodded, led the two into the study, and handed the boy a contract. "Sign it, and I'll give you 300 Contribution Points."
"All right."
Berk picked up the parchment and examined it. Finding no problems, he decisively signed the contract before taking out a white crystal card.
Lohr also took out his crystal card, tapped it three times, connected it to the boy's card, and said, "It's transferred."
Berk checked the balance on his crystal card. Once he confirmed there was no problem, he immediately asked, "What spell do you want me to cultivate?"
"This spell." Lohr took another parchment from the desk, which naturally recorded the Microscope Spell Model.
"All right. I need an hour."
Berk nodded, accepted the parchment, looked around the room, and finally walked to the opposite side of the desk. He sat in the chair where Kateya usually rested and began memorizing the spell rune model on the parchment.
Lohr sat behind the desk, his eyes slightly closed as his fingers unconsciously traced his chin.
Even with his composure, he could not help feeling somewhat nervous now.
This was the culmination of ten days of his hard work, along with the cost of 300 Contribution Points.
If it failed, even if not all his effort went to waste, at least half of it would.
Before you continue