After escaping from Leva and the others, Colin blended in with the apprentices, continuing his careful search along the staircase.
Thus, he made his way to the topmost floor of the ancient castle.
At this time, the end of class had passed and the apprentices in the hallway had once again disappeared without a trace.
Grey fog slowly enveloped the classrooms.
Colin approached the window, leaning on the square stone window frame, seemingly gazing into the distance, but if one could stand opposite him, they would notice that his eyes were slightly closed.
Under the effect of the Superbrain, countless clear images flashed through his mind one by one.
These were the images he had recorded along the way.
Such records were far clearer than cameras or image-retaining crystals, containing more, richer information.
Vision, smell, hearing, even touch, the Superbrain faithfully recorded all the information for him to meticulously review now.
Starting from the first floor.
Beneath his feet was a gray stone corridor; in some dark, damp corners, bright green plants stubbornly crawled out of crevices. Above him was a ceiling covered with a layer of rustic softwood in deep brown. To the left were classrooms, some shrouded in mist or covered with frosted protective shields, while to the right, stone archways occasionally flashed by, leading to the grassy lawns and gardens in front of the castle.
A breeze blew, lifting his forelocks and bringing with it the warm scent of the morning; an apprentice passed by him, carrying the aroma of toasted bread.
"Sir."
The apprentice greeted him respectfully, dressed in the standard wizard robe, with medium-length golden hair and a face with some freckles beneath.
He carefully examined his memory.
His leather boots tapped on the floor with a consistent sound.
The sounds were all consistent, the sensations almost the same; at least there was nothing unusual about the places he stepped on for now.
His spiritual power, extending about a foot out of his body, also informed him of the same results.
Next came the gray walls... also without any peculiarity, only some moss and some obscured, uncleaned scratch graffiti.
The deep brown ceiling... the classrooms on the left... the end of the hallway...
Colin carefully revisited each layer in his mind like this.
Until the apprentice patrolling the top floor had walked back and forth three times, his gaze resting on him eleven times.
Finally, Colin opened his eyes with some disappointment.
He shook his head, straightened up, and left from the square windowsill, heading downstairs. The disappointment on his face gradually faded, eventually disappearing.
Before casting Anando's Dice, he had not hoped to find anything... in the Tin Saint School, if there were any treasures, how could the school not know.
Although there were still many classrooms he had not explored, he was not planning to come again.
The main purpose this time was still to try this newly acquired exotic skill...
Now that his goal was accomplished, and he had also tested the ability of the Superbrain... he was already quite satisfied.
As for treasures... with Anando's Dice, treasures were everywhere, but life was only one, so it was best to be cautious.
The treasures hidden here in the castle's teaching building, judging from the abnormal patrolling apprentice, the School probably already knew... perhaps he could directly ask Atbolde.
While he was thinking, time always seemed to pass faster.
Taking a public coach, it was not long before he had returned to his place of residence.
After getting off the coach, Colin caught sight of a young wizard in the uniform of the Law Enforcement Team standing at his doorstep.
"Excuse me, are you Wizard Colin?" the young wizard from the Law Enforcement Team asked.
Colin nodded.
After the young wizard scrutinized him carefully once more, he handed him a wooden box.
"Master Wizard Mortilan asked me to give this to you."
Colin was startled, quickly catching on.
This must be the reward that the white-haired bigwig from the Law Enforcement Team had promised him last night.
He took the wooden box, went back to the Meditation Room, and sat down cross-legged.
Snap.
He opened the brass clasp on the brown-red wooden box, and a light red glow spilled out.
A red crystal lay inside, carefully cushioned by yellow silk fabric below it.
Colin took it out, held it in his hand, and after signing the included non-disclosure agreement, the content of a wizard spell emerged in his mind.
"First Rank Lower Magic—Summon Fire Element."
"Quality—Excellent!"
Colin was pleased, excellent quality was rare, second only to the best—outstanding!
Outside of rank, wizard spells were also divided into five different qualities: inferior, common, good, excellent, outstanding.
He hadn't expected the Law Enforcement Team to be so generous.
He had thought at most he would manage to acquire a common quality, first rank lower magic spell,
but it turned out to be Summon Fire Element...
Shush.
He cast the Cleaning Technique, sweeping clean the Summon Fire Element Witchcraft crystal that had turned into dust.
Colin began to carefully examine the wizard spell.
The so-called Summon Fire Element was actually a name inherited from ancient times.
Ever since the Elemental Realm fell into Tainted Babbling, there had been no Fire Element available for wizards to summon... Hence, this witchcraft was also sealed away.
However, fortunately, breakthroughs were later made in Puppetry Technique as well as research on the Fire Element, allowing wizards to regain the power to summon the Fire Element.
It was more akin to instantaneous cultivation than summoning,
By simply targeting a Fire Source and casting a spell, they were able to transform it into a Fire Element to be commanded by wizards.
Compared to the previous method of Summon Fire Element, the content of interdimensional transmission arrays was gone but included part of Puppetry Technique which assigns simple intelligence to puppets.
Such changes were both beneficial and disadvantageous. The advantage lay in not having to worry about the absence of a Fire Element responding, while the disadvantage was that not all the time could a suitable Fire Source be found, and the strength of the Fire Element might fluctuate significantly depending on the quality of the Fire Source.
However... the solution was simple for him, that is, to cast the Fireball Technique in advance.
Then use the Fireball Technique as the Fire Source, to perform Summon Fire Element!
In this way, the drawbacks of the new version of Summon Fire Element could be mitigated.
In fact, several typical methods of obtaining a Fire Source were detailed in the Summon Fire Element, including this one.
Such combinations between witchcrafts were quite common, and some powerful witchcrafts were even composed of several basic witchcrafts.
After briefly reviewing Summon Fire Element, Colin set it aside.
He had more important things to do, which was to practice the Tin Saint Meditation Method for the First Rank Wizard phase!
"From an Official Wizard onwards, the Spirit Sea is opened..."
Merely glancing over it once, with the aid of the Superbrain, Colin memorized all its contents, then slowly closed his eyes.
The Meditation Method for the First Rank Wizard phase was far more complex than during the Apprentice stage; if compared by content volume, one was a pond, while the other was a lake.
Therefore, even with the assistance of the Superbrain, he couldn't master it immediately...
It wasn't until the next day that he finally mastered it.
Golden dawn lit up the earth, awakening the slumbering creatures, and the sunlight seemed to penetrate the walls, shining into the enclosed Meditation Room, casting a similarly pale golden vintage Golden Paper in front of Colin.
At this moment, Colin was staring intently at the changes on the Golden Paper.
After he successfully mastered the Tin Saint Meditation Method for the First Rank Wizard phase, he had expected a new line of characters to appear on the Golden Paper.
But unexpectedly, the characters of the Tin Ring Meditation Method gradually became blurry and kept changing.
Just then, simultaneously, after running the Meditation Method containing the First Rank Wizard phase for the first time, the Magic Power inside his body had subtly transformed as well, becoming more solid.
If the previous Magic Power was a thin mist, sporadically visible, now it was like the densest fog of early morning.
For Colin, this was not a surprise; it was a normal phenomenon.
After advancing to a First Rank Wizard, aside from unlocking the Spirit Sea, the Magic Sea at his chest also expanded, and the quality of the Magic Power increased as well.
The only thing was, why did such an anomaly occur on the Golden Paper...
As he pondered, a familiar ↑ symbol suddenly appeared behind the blurry characters.
Colin paused for a moment.
'This is the symbol that appears during Limit Breaking...'
After a moment of thought, he took out the Magic Stone from his body to convert Limit Breaking Points,
When the characters after Limit Breaking jumped to 1000, the ↑ symbol behind the blurry characters finally revealed its glowing edges.
Without hesitation, Colin concentrated his mind on it and pressed it firmly!
Bang.
Moments later, the changing black characters gradually became clearer, finally resolving into—
[Unnamed Meditation Method (10/100)].
Subconsciously focusing on it,
A line of smaller, pale black characters immediately appeared below.
[A new Meditation Method formed by the fusion of the Tin Ring Meditation Method (Apprentice Stage) and the Tin Saint Meditation Method (First Rank Wizard Stage).]
'So that's it.'
Colin realized, then slightly closed his eyes, feeling the similarities and differences between this new Meditation Method and the previous ones.
Moments later, he opened his eyes, his face showing surprise.
This new Meditation Method was not merely a combination of Tin Ring Meditation Method and Tin Saint Meditation Method, but rather they mutually altered and integrated.
The alterations to the Tin Ring Meditation Method from the Apprentice Stage were minor, it should be the main blueprint.
The Golden Paper had made many changes to the Tin Saint Meditation Method from the First Rank Wizard stage, making it into a complete whole with the Apprentice stage Tin Ring Meditation Method.
This undoubtedly resolved a lingering concern for him.
Reaching the First Rank Wizard stage, it wasn't that every meditation practice only included parts of the First Rank Wizard in the Meditation Method.
If comparing meditation practice to building with blocks,
One would necessarily need to first build the Apprentice stage level before building the First Rank Wizard stage level.
Thus, although the Tin Ring Meditation Method was compatible with the subsequent Tin Saint Meditation Method, strictly speaking, it was not a complete whole.
Like a circular box fitting a smaller square box, there would inevitably be wasted space.
'Unnamed Meditation Method...'
Colin pondered for a moment, then with a thought,
The black characters on the Golden Paper slowly transformed from[Unnamed Meditation Method (10/100)]to[Holy Ring Meditation Method (10/100)]!