The day after the quarterly evaluation meeting ended, Ron impatiently headed to the School Library.
As the fourteenth member in the sequence, he now had higher access rights, allowing him to reach more hidden knowledge.
This was precisely the purpose of his trip—to use the newly acquired privileges to explore the forbidden areas isolated from ordinary apprentices.
"The hidden room on the 3rd Floor?"
The gray-robed old man at the library entrance raised an eyebrow, carefully inspecting the badge on Ron’s chest, confirming the blue glow that indicated his rank within the top fifteen:
"Looks like you’re a beneficiary of yesterday’s sequence evaluation meeting."
Ron nodded humbly: "Yes, I’m hoping to take this opportunity to learn more knowledge."
A hint of seriousness flashed in the old man’s eyes: "Knowledge is a double-edged sword, young man. The further you go, the more you must watch out for the abyss beneath your feet."
"I will heed your warning." Ron responded politely.
The hidden room was even more obscure, with a translucent energy barrier quietly hovering at the end of the stairs.
Ron pressed his badge against the barrier, feeling a faint spiritual wave sweep over his body, as if confirming his identity and qualification.
Moments later, the barrier rippled away like water, revealing a pathway.
The space inside was much smaller than Ron had imagined, but the atmosphere was several times gloomier than before.
Ron walked straight to the reading room marked "Spiritual Issues and Contamination Research," gently pushing the door open.
An indescribable stifling sensation permeated the air inside, as if it hadn’t circulated for many years.
A dim blue magic crystal lamp provided feeble lighting, with walls lined with various ancient books and manuscripts, some of which were chained to the shelves, indicating the sensitivity of their contents.
Ron walked to the guiding stone in the center, recalling the abnormal symptoms he’d seen in Oliver, and gently placed his palm on it:
"Spiritual contamination, the path of the Black Wizard."
A faint red light flashed across the surface of the guiding stone, seemingly warning of the danger of these topics, but then it lit up with a blue glow, directing him to a specific bookshelf.
In front of a cabinet sealed with special energy, Ron presented his badge again.
The cabinet door slowly opened, revealing rows of long-dusted ancient books.
"Comprehensive Study of Spiritual Contamination," "Theory of Consciousness Distortion," "Pollution Transformation and Coexistence," "Path of Awakening for the Black Wizard"...
Ron’s gaze finally landed on the last one, a thick tome with a black cover, featuring a peculiar symbol of an eye intertwined with tentacles on its cover.
He carefully extracted the book, immediately feeling a cold energy seep out from it, attempting to penetrate his spiritual defenses.
Ron quickly mobilized his spiritual power, isolating the invasive energy, and soon eliminated it; it seemed to merely be a test of spiritual power.
On the book’s title page, a line of bright red warning text was written:
"This book is for Candidate Wizard high-sequence members’ research and reference only. Do not attempt any rituals or theories within, or face ’the highest penalty’ for violations."
Ron took a deep breath and opened the first Chapter.
"Spiritual contamination is the inevitable fate of every wizard.
As a wizard’s spiritual power level increases and knowledge of the abyss is explored, the accumulation of spiritual contamination will inevitably reach a critical point.
Orthodox wizards choose purification and suppression, while Black Wizards choose acceptance and transformation..."
The following content detailed the three stages of spiritual contamination: mild, moderate, and severe.
Mild spiritual contamination mainly manifests as slight emotional fluctuations, sleep disturbances, and perceptual anomalies, which most wizards can control through conventional means.
Moderate spiritual contamination, however, leads to personality changes:
"Those with moderate spiritual contamination will exhibit obvious emotional outbursts, with negative emotions being greatly amplified.
Anger turns into rage, worry turns into fear, jealousy turns into hatred.
Furthermore, hallucinations will become more frequent, and the contaminated will start to hear the ravings from the ’Great Abyss,’ gradually believing these voices."
In the detailed symptoms section, Ron saw characteristics that almost perfectly matched what he’d observed in Oliver:
Severe emotional fluctuations, excessive reactions to stress, special patterns appearing on the skin, and an irrational haze in the eyes.
"Typical moderate contamination, and it seems he doesn’t intend to suppress it..."
Ron confirmed in his mind: "It appears Oliver has indeed embarked on this path."
Continuing to read, Ron found records about the "Awakening":
"The Black Wizard’s path is essentially a deviant cultivation that coexists with pollution.
Ordinary wizards view contamination as an enemy, while Black Wizards see it as a potential source of power. Through special rituals and mental training, they convert contamination energy for their own use.
This conversion is called ’Awakening,’ which is the process of complete fusion between spirit and contamination.
The awakening level is the standard by which a Black Wizard’s control over contamination is measured; every 10% increase in the awakening level results in a qualitative leap in power and degree of distortion.
Moderate spiritual contamination can achieve about 10% awakening level through specific rituals.
At this stage, the Black Wizard’s body will begin to undergo beneficial distortions—the skin may become more resilient, senses will become unusually acute, and the most notable change is the enhancement of magic effects."
Ron paused, carefully contemplating this description.
A 10% awakening level can bring such significant changes in intensity, no wonder some are willing to take the risk to try this path.
He continued flipping through and discovered more in-depth content:
"The power of the Black Wizard comes from two main sources: extreme emotions of living beings and soul energy.
Extreme emotions, especially fear, despair, and pain, can produce a special energy fluctuation within organisms, which Black Wizards can collect through special rituals.
That’s why many Black Wizards conduct cruel live experiments: not only for research but also to gather these precious energies.
Soul energy is even rarer and more powerful, usually extracted through special rituals from creatures that are dying or have just died.
This energy has extremely high conversion efficiency and can significantly enhance the awakening level."
The book describes in detail how Black Wizards use special rituals to combine the collected energies with their own spiritual contamination, forming a symbiotic relationship.
This symbiosis makes contamination no longer chaotic erosion but a controllable source of power.
"The magic of Black Wizards carries a special ’erosion trait’ that can penetrate defenses and accelerate the target’s spiritual contamination process.
This gives Black Wizards an edge when facing Wizards of the same rank or even higher-ranking official Wizards."
Ron was particularly interested in this part: the erosion trait sounded extremely powerful, capable of bypassing normal defensive measures to directly attack the opponent’s spiritual foundation.
However, the book unabashedly pointed out the terrifying cost of the Black Wizard’s path:
"As the awakening level increases, a Black Wizard’s personality will gradually disintegrate.
All negative emotions are magnified several times, with rational thinking gradually being replaced by instinct.
At 30% awakening, most Black Wizards have completely lost normal social abilities, becoming extremely violent and antisocial.
At 50% awakening, Black Wizards are hardly human anymore, as their way of thinking differs entirely from that of normal humans.
They often become fully immersed in their own crazy worlds, driven only by the most primal desires and impulses.
An awakening level over 70% is extremely rare, and it’s recorded that only one in a hundred Black Wizards who reach this level can avoid complete loss of control.
Such beings have partially transcended various physical and spiritual limitations and can perceive and manipulate powers beyond reality.
As for 100% awakening—this is a realm that exists only in legends.
A fully awakened Black Wizard will transform into an ’Apostle,’ a terrifying entity on par with a Great Wizard."
Ron put down the book, feeling a chill run through him.
An Apostle on par with a Great Wizard?
He recalled a book he read earlier about talent tiers:
The top-tier Great Wizard known as the "Clock King," at the cost of himself, merely succeeded in banishing over a dozen "Apostles"...
It seems the power of a Black Wizard is indeed tempting, but the price to pay is complete self-annihilation:
Not the destruction of the body, but the total alienation of personality and soul.
He picked up another book, "Pollution Transformation and Coexistence," hoping to find more detailed descriptions of the awakening process.
This book was more technical, filled with complex ritual descriptions and theoretical deductions.
"The core of the awakening ritual is to guide the accumulated spiritual contamination to merge with externally collected energy, forming a special symbiotic circuit.
This process is extremely dangerous and any slight mistake can lead to spiritual collapse and irreversible distortion.
The ritual needs to be conducted in a specific environment, usually a high contamination area or a weak spatial node.
Black Wizards need to prepare special mediums—usually items or biological tissues filled with intense emotions, and a container capable of housing the fused energy."
The book only briefly described the entire ritual process, including some rune arrangements, spells, and spiritual power manipulation techniques.
But crucial parts were completely omitted, likely to deter any reckless attempts, as the allure of power is endless.
Ron noticed the ritual mentioned the use of "Sin Domain Black Crystal," a special material that seemed to be a key to guiding contamination energy.
"Sin Domain Black Crystal is an extremely rare material, said to be inspired by ancient Black Wizards in the deepest parts of the Abyss.
It has strong energy-attracting and converting abilities, making it an ideal medium for awakening rituals.
However, prolonged contact with Sin Domain Black Crystal itself can accelerate the accumulation of spiritual contamination, creating a vicious cycle."
This description reminded Ron of Marcus’ investigation report on Cynthia’s disappearance: they found "strange experiment records and alchemy tools" at her residence.
"So, Cynthia and Oliver might both be attempting this awakening ritual. Cynthia seems to have completed it and chosen to defect, while Oliver might be in the preparation phase."
Ron refocused on the book, continuing to read the detailed explanations about abilities after awakening:
"A Black Wizard with 10% awakening typically sees a thirty percent increase in magic power, along with a basic erosion effect, causing slight spiritual contamination to the target.
At the same time, the Black Wizard’s body begins to exhibit beneficial distortions, such as skin hardening, sensory enhancement, and so on.
At 30% awakening, a Black Wizard’s power can already rival that of an official Wizard, and due to the presence of the erosion trait, they may have an advantage in combat.
Their spells carry strong erosion effects that can quickly weaken the target’s spiritual defense, possibly causing hallucinations or brief mental confusion.
At 50% awakening, Black Wizards have reached the Moon Level Wizard category, and their spells are no longer limited by the rules of reality, capable of directly affecting the target’s soul and consciousness structure."
The book also recorded cases of famous Black Wizards and their special abilities.
Ron particularly noted a Black Wizard called the "Void Singer."
It was said that upon reaching about 35% awakening, he created a special spell called "Mind Devouring Curse," which could infinitely magnify the most feared thing in the target’s heart until their psychological defenses completely collapsed.
After hours of reading, Ron finally put down the last book, rubbing his sore eyes.
He had acquired a wealth of information about Black Wizards and the path of awakening, but also more questions.
One thought lingered in his mind: Would the professional panel consider the path of the Black Wizard as a viable career route?
If it were possible to integrate the Black Wizard’s erosion power into the professional system, could it circumvent those terrifying side effects, achieving a more controlled use of power?