Chapter 111: Riverside (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Most of the people who went to the garden area just wanted to relax while observing different plants. The area also helped the air circulation underground. There was a small artificial lake in the middle of the garden, and several high-quality, white stone benches were built beside the river.
The lake was clean and the water was still.
Angele picked a white bench and sat down under the tree. He felt relaxed just by looking at the beautiful scenery.
A large, triangular golden crystal was inserted into the middle of the ceiling, rays of gentle light shining upon the lake. The light was simulating the sunlight, and it made the whole garden area bright.
Angele sat on the bench. He could feel the chill from the stone as he pressed the surface of the bench with his hands. It was strangely smooth, as though the surface was coated with a special translucent paint.
The wind blowing over Angele’s face was warm and smooth, tree leaves and grasses started shaking in the wind. The large, triangular crystal cast the reflection upon the surface of the water. It almost looked like there was another piece of a crystal inside the lake.
Angele rested for a while. As he was about to leave, he heard people talking from the other side of the lake. Several people walked out of the bush. They were wearing gray robes.
There were female wizard apprentices and three male wizard apprentices. They looked young. One of the girls had an attractive body and a charming face. She was talking to a male wizard apprentice on the side.
The five were walking toward the benches on the lakeside. They were here to relax, that was what Angele assumed. They were not too far from him. With the help of Zero, Angele could easily hear their conversation.
"For real?" The charming girl opened her eyes widely and asked admirably.
The male wizard apprentice by her side nodded. It looked like he was proud of himself, "Yes, I almost finished learning my first spell model. The basic courses are finally done. I spent a whole lot of time studying before I returned to the school."
"Come on, you spent most of the time eating and sleeping. You only learned the spell model because your talent level is high." The other male apprentice laughed, "I’m very close to finishing the first spell model as well. I spent a bunch of time studying as well."
"I’m so jealous of you two." The girl shook her hand with a depressed expression, "Lisa and I am still learning Spell Arrangement. For some reason, we just can’t get the hang of it. We probably still need one or two more years before we can learn our first spell models."
"Malfa is very close to the top level of rank 2, so we can rely on him after that. I think Malfa’s family will spend all the resources on him, right? My dearest Malfa?" the other girl mocked.
The five were having a good time around the bench. Most of their conversation topics revolved around the male wizard apprentice named Malfa. The other four asked him questions about courses from time to time. One of the girl wizard apprentices was cute and vibrant, while the other was quiet but sexy.
Angele sat on the bench and listened to their words and laughs. He had this thought on his mind that he was not the fresh apprentice anymore after all the time he spent learning and meditating. He had already reached the limit as a rank 3 wizard apprentice. Time really flew by.
Angele watched the young wizard apprentices on the other side of the lake. He knew he was already at a much higher level than them. He needed to set his goal higher. He sat there for several more minutes before he stood up and started heading back. There were still things he needed to take care of, so he did not want to waste time anymore.
He quickly disappeared at the corner of the only path behind the bench.
"Coco, what are you looking at?" Lisa saw her friend was looking at the other side of the river. It looked like she was attracted to something.
"You guys saw the man on the other side? He gives me a feeling that he…" Coco thought for a while, but she did not find the right word to describe her feeling.
The three male wizard apprentices raised their heads and saw the lonely shadow of the man who was heading to the exit of the garden.
"He must be a rank 3 wizard apprentice." Malfa sounded jealous.
"How do you know that?" His friends all stared at him.
"His mentality… is incredibly strong!" Malfa lowered his voice, "Much stronger than mine! I saw him looking at us when we were talking. His eyes were glowing."
"What?!" Someone yelled. All of them were shocked.
"His eyes were sharp, but I didn’t see them glowing."
"I could feel it. Being stared at by him wasn’t pleasing. It felt like there were needles stabbing into my skin." Lisa furrowed her eyebrows.
Malfa nodded, "That’s what my grandfather told me before. When a rank 3 wizard apprentice reaches the limit, it means his mentality is nearly to that of a formal wizard’s and his eyes will start glowing. My mentality is strong enough to observe the energy particles around his eyes. We should stay away from wizard apprentices like that man, and we should never provoke him!"
"So… his almost has the mentality of a formal wizard!? You’re kidding, right? Malfa, this man looked like he is at our age!"
"I’m not joking," Malfa spoke in a deep tone.
The five stopped talking. Their achievements were nothing compared to what the man had at his age. Malfa almost felt ashamed of talking about the first spell model he learned in front of the man.
"Well, there are geniuses in this world, and they’ll do anything better than us anyways." Malfa sighed, and he laughed.
"Yea, let’s continue with our earlier conversation." The other young man nodded.
They recovered from the shock and started talking again. It almost looked like nothing had happened.
However, the girl named Coco was still peeking at the direction the man headed toward from time to time.
‘I must move forward. I need to stop wasting my time…’ Coco thought. She put her hands behind her and clenched her fists.
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Angele walked down the tunnel. He had no idea that his strength gave a stranger motivation, but he would not care even if he knew what happened after he left.
There were many things he needed to do now. He needed to find the substitutes for the required materials of Potion of Tranquility, choose his Talent spell, and try to break the limit.
In order to become a wizard, Angele needed the Water of Asu and a suitable defensive spell. Zero could help him calculate his success rate on breaking the limit.
Zero could help Angele determine the success rate before he actually tried to break the limit. He would not attempt it if the success rate was low. He would try to keep increasing the success rate by collecting necessary resources. There was no point for him to simply rely on luck like other wizard apprentices.
This was why Angele believed that he could become a wizard. If he could obtain the formula of Nightmare Potion from Kelly, he could use it to increase the effectiveness of the Water of Asu. According to the information he collected, Nightmare Potion could increase his success rate of breaking the limit by 30%, which was an incredible figure.
However, Nightmare Potion was one of the five hardest potions to make in Potion Study, and it was also the most complex one in the mid-level potions. Only Potion Masters could concoct them, and the success rate was low. That was the reason why other rank 3 wizard apprentices were not interested in Kelly’s offer.
‘Spell enhancement requires mentality and energy particles. After this is done, I need to return to Lennon city with the formula and enhance the spells I use. Although things may not go as planned, I still need to try my best.’ Angele made up his mind.
Angele spent the next two days doing potion experiments. He used the stored information on materials and created multiple experiment plans. He then asked Zero to keep simulating the process and collect the results.
He also started learning the knowledge he recorded and the spell models he bought. There was so much information that he felt tired by just searching through the database. Angele had a hard time understanding all those spell models even with the help of Zero. He wondered how difficult it was for others to just learn one spell model.
Other wizard apprentices needed to memorize a huge amount of knowledge and information every day. Moreover, they needed to review the things they learned from the courses, so they would not forget. Angele could progress much faster than them because he had Zero’s help in making his learning pace more efficient.
After reading the explanations about Wizards on the book, Angele already knew Wizards generally had better memory ability than others due to the amount of knowledge required to learn spell models. However, the books did not mention about Wizards having a photographic memory, and the things they needed to memorize became more and more complex in the later stages.
No matter how fast one could learn, he would still slow down when there was too much information.
Also, with the help of Zero, Angele had a different learning curve than others. People usually had to keep reviewing the learned knowledge and convert it into long-term memory. However, Angele only needed to understand the things he wished to learn once, and Zero would take care of the storage of his memory.
Although his talent level was low and it seemed like he was unlikely to become a wizard, he still managed to speed up the process with the chip’s support. He could increase his success first and try to break the limit after finding the right timing. It would take him some time, but it was totally worth it.