Chapter 265 : Chapter 265
Chapter 265. Advancing to the Second Tier
Fulan returned to the house she had rented, the same place where she had previously kept her alchemical equipment. She had now deliberately cleared out an area to serve as the place for her advancement.
She placed a cushioned chair in the middle, then sat down on it and adjusted the lighting in the surrounding area to ensure the environment was comfortable.
At the same time, she had long since set up magical traps and warning signs throughout the house to prevent anyone from disturbing her.
Fulan took a deep breath, then pulled out a stack of papers. These were the mage advancement methods she had printed out through the Mana Communication System.
Only after checking them once more did she set the papers down, push everything else aside, and sit alone in the chair as she began her first attempt.
Turning one’s school mage profession into the corresponding second-tier elite mage profession was no easy matter.
Even if you had already joined one of the great societies, what you obtained within the society was only the qualification to exchange for the corresponding spells. You still did not possess the resources needed to exchange for them.
Even Nora, who had joined the Joberna Society, was herself rather short of resources within the Joberna Society when it came to exchanging for the corresponding spells.
This was the result of the mages’ belief that all knowledge ought to have a price.
So no matter how highly Elise thought of Fulan, the help she gave her was all indirect, such as convenience in status and procedures.
She had not given Fulan a large sum of Points or Battle Merits to let her spend freely. Even though she knew doing so would greatly shorten Fulan’s growth time, she still had not done it.
Even Habos, Fulan’s mentor, had only selectively given her some knowledge and spells that were difficult to obtain, rather than directly giving her money. That was because mages all agreed that every piece of knowledge should be exchanged for an equivalent.
No mage would directly give money to their disciple unless that disciple had some blood relation to them.
So for an ordinary mage, merely gathering three spells that matched their own specialization was already quite difficult, because it required an enormous amount of effort to accumulate the resources needed for exchange.
Then there was the need to practice the spells one had obtained and fully master them.
That point alone could stop countless people in their tracks, because not everyone had a panel like Fulan’s that could guarantee she would definitely master a given spell.
In many cases, quite a few mages would practice a spell for three years and still not reach the point of true mastery. They would only be able to cast it fluently.
At that point, the mage would begin practicing other spells instead. It was possible that under the same level of difficulty, another spell would be easier for them to master.
That depended entirely on one’s affinity with a spell. As long as the affinity matched, one could basically push that spell to the level of true mastery.
Unless you were one of the rare geniuses, by the time you had mastered three first-tier spells that matched your specialization well as a first-tier mage, you would generally already have seven or eight first-tier spells in hand.
At that point, the mage undergoing advancement could truly be called an elite.
Fulan’s situation, however, was somewhat special. Although she knew relatively few spells from the Elemental School, every one of them produced effects far beyond those of an ordinary first-tier mage when cast.
That was not only due to the proficiency bonuses brought by her panel, but also the effects of her powerful enhancement traits and exceptionally high mental power.
Because of these things, whenever she cast elemental spells, anyone who saw them would definitely think that this mage truly qualified as an elite.
Fulan memorized the spell structures of [Earth Uplift], [Howling Gale], and [Great Fireball], then let her thoughts sink into her mind.
She closed her eyes and slowly began constructing a structure with her mental power.
The moment she used her mental power to draw a square, she could feel the faint light that had been shining through her eyelids vanish abruptly.
In its place, a black curtain made of mental power now appeared before her eyes, and Fulan was able to write and draw upon it with mental power.
She did not waste time being surprised by it. The appearance of the black curtain and the need to draw upon it with mental power were details she had already known in advance.
But neither did she rush into drawing too quickly, because she also knew that doing so directly would be too hasty.
When she had researched information related to advancing to an elite mage, she had come across an experiment like this.
[On Exploring the Optimal Solution for Spell Structure Drawing Methods Used in Elite Mage Advancement]
Fulan had not bothered to read through all the strange experiments the author had performed, but she did rather agree with the conclusion.
“When drawing spell structures, the more standard the resulting structure is, the greater the enhancement obtained after advancement seems to be.”
Fulan remembered that conclusion and thought it was worth trying. So before beginning, she had already planned out how to draw a more standard spell structure.
A spell structure was, in truth, a rather abstract model that could be perceived through mental power, and every spell had a different structure.
Moreover, even the slightest modification would change the corresponding structure of the spell. Seen this way, every spell seemed to be unique, because spell structures could distinguish any two spells with different effects.
Now the spell structures Fulan had memorized earlier came into play. Not just her, but every mage who chose the path of advancing to elite mage had to memorize their spell structures.
And even after memorizing them, carving spell structures onto the black curtain still consumed mental power. Generally speaking, when many people advanced, they merely sketched out a rough outline.
Mages with stronger mental power, however, could use more of it at this step to refine the details and make the spell structure more complete.
This was a unique advantage that belonged to mages with great mental power, and it fit even better with the concept of the word elite in the profession they sought to advance into.
But Fulan was not satisfied with simply carving them after roughly drawing them out. In her eyes, that still was not standard enough.
She used a portion of her mental power to create several rulers within her mind.
Then she carefully used those rulers to measure the edges of the black curtain, marking several important nodes upon it.
She intended to use ruler-and-compass construction on this black curtain to draw a more standard model.
This was a small clever idea born from the experience of her previous life. She believed it would be more reliable than simply drawing by feel.
Perhaps the mages of this world had never thought of this because mental power was extremely precious during advancement, and they were unwilling to spend such valuable mental power on things they considered unimportant.
After all, merely constructing three spell models was already difficult enough. Countless people were stuck at this very point, unable to advance to elite mage because their mental power was insufficient.
Fulan, however, was not afraid, because her mental power had already surpassed that of an ordinary first-tier mage. This little bit of expenditure meant nothing to her.
She could even use this amount of mental power to complete the advancement twice over. There was no need to economize at all.
She employed the rulers, marked the distances, and began drawing on the designated points.
In little more than the blink of an eye, she had almost completely drawn the spell structures of the three spells onto the black curtain.
“My method might consume a little additional mental power, but in terms of standardization, it seems much better than all the methods mages have used before.”
After all, the power of tools was difficult to match by relying on human hands alone. Although a mage’s thinking speed would rise dramatically as their tier increased,
in an area that did not particularly emphasize thinking speed, mages found themselves at something of a disadvantage. That was when the usefulness of tools became clear.
Perhaps at higher tiers, when one’s life level had risen, one would become better than tools even in this regard. But this was only a first-tier to second-tier advancement.
Fulan erased all the auxiliary lines, converting them back into mental power, albeit with some loss. In the end, she still had more than half of her mental power remaining.
That made Fulan realize that perhaps she could publish a paper describing her method of advancement. As long as one’s mental power was slightly stronger, this method could be used.
That would make yet another achievement.
For the moment, Fulan pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind. After carefully inspecting everything and finding no omissions, she lightly erased the rulers as well.
Following the method described in that paper, she poured her mental power into the center of the three spell structures, the midpoint that linked all three spell structures together.
At this stage, only a tiny bit of mental power was needed to directly advance to elite mage, because by the time ordinary people reached this point, they usually had very little mental power left.
Fulan did not hesitate. She directly poured all of her remaining mental power into it.
And there did not seem to be any mechanism here where the more remaining mental power one had, the stronger one became after advancement. In any case, the moment she infused even a little mental power, the entire black curtain lit up.
The next second, she saw a faint ray of light through her eyelids in the real world.
By that point, she could already feel the changes brought by advancement.
Her body had become lighter. She could feel her mental power flowing through her body. That flowing mental power could reduce incoming damage, and it could also grant her resistance to many things.
More importantly, there was the change in her mental power itself. She could feel as though her mental power had broken through some sort of barrier, leaving her mind incomparably full and vigorous.
Fulan silently called up the panel.
【Name: Fulan
Profession: Elite Elemental Mage (Two Stars) ...... (omitted)
Attributes: Physique 10.5 Spirit 36.4
Skills: Earth Uplift (Mastery) (Proficiency: 4501/10000)
Howling Gale (Mastery) (Proficiency: 4631/10000)
Great Fireball (Mastery) (Proficiency: 4319/10000)
???? (Uninitiated) (Proficiency: 0/10): A spell that you have mastered, but currently have no way to cast normally.
....... (omitted)
Traits: Multi-Element Mastery (You possess a strong understanding of the three elements of fire, wind, and earth, which helps you strengthen your spells.)
Perfect Mage (Your advancement process was exceptionally perfect. When you mobilize mental power, you can enhance the effectiveness of that mental power.)
........ (omitted)】
When Fulan saw the panel, her first reaction was shock.
“Advancing gives proficiency too?!”
“And what is this skill full of question marks?”