Back in his private dormitory, Herad repeatedly formed and dismissed spell models until he had used up most of his mana.
Then he leaned back in his chair and entered a meditative state to recover his mana.
Meditation sounded mysterious, but it was really just a caster using their powerful mental strength to gather magical energy.
The more magical energy a caster absorbed, the faster their mana naturally recovered.
The concentration of magical energy was high throughout Quel'Thalas.
The Moon Temple, an important nexus through which magical energy flowed, had a concentration far greater than that of other areas.
Magical energy surged toward him like an incoming tide, quickly replenishing the mana he had spent.
The recovery process was far too fast, well beyond the normal standard!
Herad knew this was not a good thing.
Absorbing magical energy at such a rapid rate would cause a caster to develop a magical addiction.
But before his memories from another world had awakened, he had already grown used to training this way.
In other words, his magical addiction had long since taken hold.
Once the Sunwell was destroyed, the addiction alone would make his life worse than death!
Since things had already come to this, his only option was to train hard, become powerful, and kill every enemy who threatened the Sunwell.
As long as he ensured the Sunwell was not destroyed, his addiction would cease to be a problem.
Train hard. I have to train hard every day.
Training will make me stronger!
Herad kept repeating these things to himself, reinforcing his resolve.
His firm resolve and astonishing self-discipline made Herad the most diligent caster in all of Quel'Thalas.
Since he rarely went out and seldom practiced spells in public, neither his instructors nor his classmates knew how strong he was.
When others were training, he was training hard.
When others were indulging in pleasure, he was still training hard.
His strength soared in return for all that effort.
Unlike a typical transmigrator, Herad had no outrageously powerful cheat to help him.
But he was a High Elf Mage, with an excellent natural talent for spellcasting.
Combined with his tireless training day and night, the results were not much worse than having a cheat.
In just six months, he advanced from an Apprentice Mage to an Intermediate Mage.
At the normal training intensity of High Elves, advancing from Apprentice Mage to Intermediate Mage generally took five to ten years.
If word of his rapid advancement got out, it would certainly cause quite a stir.
However, the Moon Temple took a hands-off approach to teaching.
The instructors held classes at regular intervals to explain spellcraft to the students.
As for how strong the students were, the periodic spellcasting tests were enough to assess them.
If Herad skipped the tests or held back during them, there would still be no way to determine his actual strength.
Herad believed keeping a low profile was a virtue.
However, keeping a low profile sometimes came with side effects.
For instance, having to listen over and over to explanations of spellcraft he had already mastered.
Although the instructors were lax in their supervision, attendance at their classes was mandatory.
After all, classes were already so infrequent that skipping them would be going too far.
Unless Herad revealed his current Mage rank.
But he had already made up his mind to keep a low profile.
No matter how dull the instructor's lessons were, he had to pretend to listen.
As he listened, he felt himself getting drowsy, so he propped his spellbook upright and pretended to pay close attention.
Behind it, however, he was secretly tinkering with an Arcane Golem's Arcane Core.
Arcane Golems appeared fairly often in the game.
In the real Quel'Thalas, Arcane Golems could be seen in many places.
Making an Arcane Golem, however, was not so easy.
Only advanced Mages with extensive knowledge could meet the basic requirements for making one.
Herad would need at least another year to become an advanced Mage.
But besides training, he often visited the library to read, learning a good deal of spellcraft ahead of time.
Some of that knowledge concerned Arcane Golems.
An Arcane Golem's structure was simple: a crude body made from a few pieces of magical rock.
Their stone bodies had little to fear from attacks.
That was because the Arcane Core inside was the only truly important part.
In Silvermoon City, Arcane Golems were put to all kinds of uses.
Guarding homes was routine work for them.
Many Arcane Golems served as city guards, patrolling important locations.
Arcane Golems also made excellent public announcers.
They called out through the city's streets and alleys, relaying important messages from the royal court.
The High Elves had developed the uses of Arcane Golems to a very high level.
But to Herad's professional eye, Arcane Golems built with stone bodies were still inadequate.
Although magically reinforced rock was stronger than granite.
Stone was still only stone, and its strength could not compare to high-grade metals.
And such a crudely assembled structure was simply painful to look at!
Even a Gundam built from toy blocks by a kindergartner would look more refined than an Arcane Golem.
As Herad inwardly scorned the Arcane Golems' terrible design, he kept his hand pressed against the magic crystal in his pocket.
He was etching channels into the magic crystal to create an Arcane Core through which magical energy could flow along fixed routes.
It was somewhat similar to a technological microchip.
But thanks to the excellent properties of magical energy, an Arcane Core required neither nanometer-level precision nor hundreds of millions of magical energy nodes.
Just over ten thousand magical energy nodes were enough to give an Arcane Core a decent degree of intelligence.
The process of injecting mana into a magic crystal to etch channels was completely different from manufacturing a microchip.
A microchip's patterns were laid out with a photolithography machine, followed by etching and chemical treatment.
Every step had to be completed in a single pass. If any stage went wrong, the entire chip was ruined.
Etching channels into a magic crystal, on the other hand, was a very gentle process.
The procedure was closer to digging a tunnel by hand.
If a section turned out slightly crooked, it could be corrected, leaving plenty of room for error.
While Herad was diligently etching the magic crystal, the instructor at the front finished the lesson on spellcraft.
Before the instructor even dismissed them, the students were already rising lazily from their seats and discussing where to go for fun.
That made one secretly working student's pose of attentive listening seem rather out of place.
Students and instructor alike turned toward Herad, who was sitting perfectly upright with a spellbook still in one hand.
What was going on? Had he fallen asleep with his eyes open?
Realizing his cover had been blown, Herad hurriedly gathered his things, stood, and left.
The Moon Temple's academic rules were lax, so the instructor was not about to lose his temper over something so minor.
His classmates laughed and joked as they left the classroom in twos and threes.
"Haha, he definitely fell asleep in class!"
"Sleeping with your eyes open-that takes real skill!"
"I'll try it next time."
Watching Herad hurry away, the puzzled instructor approached his seat.
Sensing the faint traces of magical fluctuations, the experienced instructor quickly reached a conclusion.
The magical fluctuations had been weak, but the output had been continuous.
The instructor was an Archmage, and etching magic crystals was routine work for him.
Clearly, this student had been etching a magic crystal.
"He can already etch magic crystals? This student is rather impressive!"
Herad thought he had concealed himself well.
Little did he know that, in the face of such an overwhelming difference in strength, his attempts at concealment were meaningless.
The instructor quietly added Herad's name to his little notebook.
Then he glanced at the idle students, shook his head helplessly, and left.
These students were all slackers. Not one of them would amount to anything!
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