Goals and Dispute

"Sure enough, I could only see surface-level phenomena now. I couldn't even see elemental molecules."

Lohr smiled. "There's no rush. Once I gradually upgrade the microscope runes in the future, I'll be able to explore the microscopic Elemental Domain."

In just ten days, he was already very satisfied with his current progress.

Aside from the monthly reward of 500 Contribution Points for being a laboratory researcher, he could also absorb Magic Crystal energy without restraint and convert it into Charge Points.

With enough Charge Points, he could optimize several other spell models and fleece another batch of benefits.

"Unfortunately, mental power still has to improve gradually. There's no rushing it."

Lohr sighed. "I wonder when the Divine Kingdom Exploration Tournament will begin. Once it starts, even if I become a First-Circle Wizard directly inside it, no one would find it suspicious."

His mental power had now risen to 6.1. Once it reached 10 points, he would become a Second-Level Apprentice and gain two spell slots.

At his current rate of gaining 0.2 mental power every ten days, it would take more than half a year to become a Second-Level Apprentice.

At 30 points, he could advance to a Third-Level Apprentice and gain another two spell slots.

Becoming a Third-Level Apprentice would take more than three years.

And to reach the threshold for breaking through to become a wizard, he would need to raise his mental power to 100 points.

That was still a distant prospect.

As for using things like Potions to speed things up, they would leave aftereffects. There was no need for that yet.

"Becoming a Third-Level Apprentice within four years is still acceptable, but becoming an Official Wizard would be far too slow."

Lohr shook his head. "I hope the Divine Kingdom Exploration Tournament can be held at least once within eight years."

After creating the Microscope Spell, he now had three main goals. The first was to become an Official Wizard within eight years.

The second was to save enough Contribution Points during that time and find a Third-Circle Wizard to take him to another continent.

"I wonder whether I can use the laboratory to gain a way of contacting a Third-Circle Wizard, and how many Contribution Points it would cost to post such a task," Lohr thought.

Traveling to other continents, the greatest obstacle in this era was the strange beasts in the sea.

Among them were no shortage of terrifying existences.

Unlike the land, which had undergone round after round of cleansing until only a few insignificant creatures remained.

Only a Third-Circle Wizard could guarantee safety.

Unfortunately, Third-Circle Wizards were not people one could contact whenever one wished. The task hall on the seventh floor of the Wizard Tower could only post tasks for Third-Level Apprentices at most.

Higher-level tasks were probably handled on the upper floors.

As a result, even now, Lohr did not know how many Contribution Points it would take to hire a Third-Circle Wizard to bring him to another continent.

"If it comes to it, I can ask my mentor to help post a task. I just need to think carefully about the reason."

On the twenty-seventh floor of the Wizard Tower, inside an estate.

Gulei and Agular sat facing each other. On the long table before them lay only a single sheet of parchment, making it appear rather empty.

"Gulei, take a look at this spell."

Agular said solemnly, "Lohr developed this Microscope Spell in just ten days."

"Now I'm wondering whether having him walk our path and assist in optimizing spells for inspiration would be too wasteful."

His original plan had been for Lohr to choose one of the paths opened by either himself or Gulei.

With Lohr's talent for optimizing spell runes, he could at the very least provide them with some inspiration.

But after Lohr developed a rather useful spell in such a short time, Agular's thoughts gradually began to shift.

If Lohr were given more freedom to choose, might there be an even greater surprise?

Doing so might benefit him less, but if Lohr reached the Third Circle or even higher, it would absolutely bring significant changes to the situation of Earth-Fire School wizards on the Murphy Continent.

"I'll take a look first."

Gulei reached out, picked up the parchment from the table, and examined it carefully.

About ten minutes later, he set the parchment down, looked up at Agular, and said with a smile,

"Interesting. He probably created this spell because he couldn't find it in the library, right?"

"Because he couldn't find it, he chose to create it—and he created it in such a short time. Truly decisive and wise."

At this point, Gulei paused, and his expression turned serious. "I don't deny that he's a genius, but does that mean the path a genius chooses is necessarily right?"

"It isn't, Agular."

"Think carefully. Among the geniuses from your generation, how many chose their own paths, recklessly fused spells, and ultimately became useless?"

"During my apprenticeship, I personally saw at least five geniuses from other Elemental Schools become useless because of that. Even now, they are still First-Circle Wizards."

"At least two of them displayed talent nearly equal to Lohr's."

"After becoming a wizard, I saw even more genius apprentices become useless like that."

"Agular, don't tell me you've never seen it."

There was no denying that his words contained some selfish motives.

But more than that, he was genuinely worried about Lohr's future.

"I've seen more than you have." Agular shook his head and said softly, "But in the Earth-Fire School, I've only seen one Lohr. He is a true genius of our school."

"You only spoke of the geniuses who failed at fusing spells, but what about those who succeeded?"

"Those Fourth-Circle Dual-Element Wizards, beings capable of rivaling Fifth-Circle Single-Element Wizards—more than half of them came into being because of Fusion Spells."

"If Lohr truly..."

"Have you lost your mind?"

Gulei slammed his fist against the table, interrupting Agular with some displeasure.

"Among how many geniuses at Lohr's level can one such great existence emerge?"

"Saying fewer than three in a thousand would not be an exaggeration."

"In any case, I absolutely cannot watch Lohr be ruined. If you give up on having him choose your core spell system, I will force him to construct mine."

"Then let's wait and see for now. First, help him apply for a laboratory." Agular sighed.

After hearing Gulei out, he also felt that he had indeed been indulging in fantasy.

It was mainly because this was his first time teaching such a genius, and he had been influenced by Lohr's talent.

Without realizing it, he had become full of fantasies about Lohr's future and ignored the three-in-a-thousand chance of success.

"Fine. Handle the laboratory application yourself. I'm leaving first." Gulei nodded, cast the Earth-Vein Traversal Spell, and vanished from the spot.

"A three-in-a-thousand chance..." Agular looked at the long table, which Gulei had cracked with his fist, his thoughts tangled.

For Second-Circle Wizards like them who had not dared to fuse spells, the chance of reaching the Third Circle was only around five percent.

As for reaching the Fourth Circle, they would be fortunate to have even a one-in-ten-thousand chance, and at most they would only be slightly stronger than ordinary single-element Fourth-Ring Wizards.

In fact, there were Earth-Fire School wizards on other continents who had successfully optimized their advancement, and even advanced to the Third Circle through fused spells.

Unfortunately, those people were rather stingy and refused to make their spells public in the Wizard Alliance Database.

As for the Fourth Circle, there truly were none.

Lohr having a three-in-a-thousand chance of opening a path to the heavens was already very high.

"If I insist, Gulei will be difficult to deal with. Better to keep watching Lohr's future performance. If he continues to be this astonishing..."