Time flowed like water, and a week quietly passed by.
After expressing his refusal to the Hidosh family that day, Colin successively turned down the other factions that came to him.
Many factions thought it was an excuse and continued to send people several times, only to accept his reasoning in astonishment after Colin's firm rejections.
Those who went against the mainstream always attracted attention, a fact well-known to Colin.
Therefore, he wasn't surprised by the factions' reactions; he simply kept to himself, proceeding methodically with his usual affairs... responding unchangingly to the myriad of changes.
However, to his surprise, there were no unusual movements from the factions; it seemed that this small tempest had blown over.
December 6th, the weather was clear.
Inside a first-level laboratory of the True Knowledge Society.
Rustling noises akin to the slithering of snakes and insects echoed, yet were securely isolated by the thick, windowless walls.
A faint black light glowed within, where a figure flickered in and out of visibility.
After a long while, the dark light shattered, the rustling noise suddenly dissipated, replaced by a sigh.
"It seems that to ascertain the real effect of Black Mist Net Witchcraft, one must use actual materials," Colin murmured softly.
The so-called actual materials were indeed living people. Knights were a priority, followed by wizards, with those dual-trained as both being the best.
Merely from this aspect, the Black Mist Net was indeed sinister.
But witchcraft knew no good or bad; a cleaver too could be a tool for saving lives.
Thus, Colin wasn't overly concerned, just slightly troubled about how to find suitable casting materials when the time came.
Fortunately, although sinister, the Black Mist Net was still a standard flesh-and-blood witchcraft, not the chaotic Black Witchcraft, containing chapters specifically discussing the substitution of animals for practice.
Although eventually, humans would still be needed as materials to truly unleash its potential, his current progress did not necessitate too much worry.
Lately, Colin's main focus had still been on two witchcraft techniques for disguising presences, obtained via the Golden Feather Token a few days ago.
One was called Spirit Fog and the other Hayden's Pseudo Ability, both top-tier first-rank techniques for hiding one's presence, just with different emphases.
Spirit Fog leaned towards concealing mental presence, while Hayden's Pseudo Ability mainly revolved around disguising the fluctuations of different Magic Power strengths.
Combining these two to offset their weaknesses, Colin felt that deceiving the detection of an ordinary second-rank wizard was surely a done deal.
As for eluding a third-rank wizard's inspection, he was confident, but it still remained to be seen until the time of Limit Breaking came.
If he could trick a third-rank wizard by then, that would suffice for most situations.
After all, he had seen only a handful of high-rank wizards by now.
Moreover, a high-rank wizard wouldn't casually deploy Detection Magic on him, a mere openly first-rank novice wizard...
Thinking this, Colin felt a surge of motivation, beginning to earnestly practice Spirit Fog and Hayden's Pseudo Ability alternately.
When these two witchcraft techniques broke the limit, it would be his time to advance to a second-rank wizard!
And so, when the pocket watch in his pocket pointed to 11:30, lunchtime, Colin finally stopped.
Taking out the lunch Renee had prepared from his Storage Ring, he slightly warmed it in his palm before setting it on the experimental table beside him, and began to eat heartily.
Logically, as a first-rank wizard, he could go without food for five to seven days without any issues—indeed, he had done so before.
But after advancing to a first-rank knight, things became somewhat different.
Although technically, after reaching a first-rank knight, his endurance to hunger was actually stronger than that of a typical first-rank wizard.
If he didn't engage in intense activities, going without food or drink for a month was not problematic.
After all, Fighting Aura was a sublimation of Blood Energy, Life Energy, more capable of sustaining the vitality of the body than Magic Power.
But this was under the condition of not undergoing intense training.
In reality, the daily intense knight training forced Colin to eat at least two meals a day to maintain the efficiency of his practice.
Just like building muscle in his previous life; without enough energy intake, strictly speaking, the growth of his Fighting Aura was impossible.
Although with Golden Paper, as long as he practiced, he could unreasonably increase his limit.
But Golden Paper only ensured a baseline.
To enhance quickly, he still had to adhere to natural laws.
After all, unlike Magic Power, which could be transformed from the omnipresent Magic Energy in the environment,
Fighting Aura was Life Energy, needed to be extracted from the body, and the way human bodies acquired energy was through eating.
This perhaps was also a major limiting factor in the development of knights.
While eating the roast chicken in his bowl, Colin subconsciously glanced at the door, silently counting down in his mind.
'Three, two, one.'
Hiss.
The red crystal above the door, indicating a visitor, suddenly and quietly lit up—this was a special design to avoid disturbing the wizards in the lab.
Colin, unsurprised, waved his hand and opened the wide door of the laboratory.
A calm witch with snow-white hair, clad in a black robe, entered.
She was not tall, but her proportions were extremely harmonious and natural, and the loose black robe could not conceal her graceful figure.
"Good afternoon, Shelley," Colin called out, not getting up from behind the experimental table.
"Good afternoon," Shelley replied softly.
Her face wasn't very expressive, but her naturally exquisite beauty was undeniable, delicate like a doll.
"Yesterday, we were discussing the unique fluctuating properties of spirit particles," Shelley said as soon as she sat down, cutting straight to the chase without any small talk or pleasantries.