Starting with Proficiency Panel

"Thank you, I've already eaten."

Luo Rui stared at Li Qing's face in surprise, "Brother Qing, when did you get so avant-garde? Even gave yourself a smoky eye makeup!"

Smoky eye makeup?

Li Qing instinctively touched his eye sockets, "Is it that bad? I didn't sleep well last night..."

"Stayed up all night last night?"

Luo Rui gave an ambiguous smile, "Was it..."

Li Qing chuckled helplessly, "What on earth are you thinking? Last night... Well, I was too absorbed in studying, and when I managed to snap out of it, it was already dawn."

Li Qing took out his phone to check, 9:15, still fifteen minutes left.

Luo Rui wrinkled her nose, "What the heck."

She thought there might be some gossip to hear. She's been at the company for half a year, and although Li Qing likes to joke with colleagues, he hasn't found a girlfriend yet.

Luo Rui kept chatting non-stop beside him about the problems she encountered at work yesterday, causing her to work overtime until seven, blah blah. Then she asked Li Qing to check her computer.

Li Qing agreed casually while recalling practicing according to the first step of the "Basic Meditation Technique" last night.

Once on the elevator and having clocked in at the company, Li Qing went straight to his workstation in the server room and slumped down.

Indeed, thanks to this company setting up a local server room, his workstation was moved to a small cubicle inside the server room, single occupancy. Although the server kept buzzing, the soundproofing was quite good, so he didn't hear much noise.

After completing the daily system maintenance, checking the server for no anomalies, and solving a few colleagues' computer issues, he lay on his desk and stared into a mirror.

At the first glance, he couldn't help but be somewhat dazed.

In the mirror, he wore glasses, looked terrifyingly pale, and his eye sockets were so darkly circled they resembled smoky makeup. He looked utterly exhausted.

So much so, that when he went out to solve problems earlier, many colleagues were laughing at him.

"Wearing out the spirit like this?"

Li Qing blinked, finally set the mirror aside, recuperated the whole morning, ate lunch, rested for two hours while goofing off, and only then replenished his spirit.

He spread out the paper rolls again, and as he opened "Magic Origin," he began to carefully read.

This book explained the basic structure of magic very clearly, Li Qing judged it was entirely tailored for a beginner.

Magic originated from the so-called God, as in those Western myths, where gods observed all things, turning their gleaned insights into books, thereby creating the mystical magic book "Primordial Magic." Consequently, humans like Adam and Eve, driven by greed, stole the book, and magic began to propagate within human society.

But according to those old mage scholars in archaeology, although this kind of legend remains rather unreliable, it could serve as part of the evidence.

There are many magic holy artifacts within the present reality in these myths.

Another legend is like Prometheus, who could not bear seeing humans struggle so hard on the barbaric land and hence spread fire out of compassion. Thus, after acquiring extraordinary Power, humans continued studying, creating an exceedingly prosperous magic era that has been inherited until now...

Li Qing read with great interest, and before he knew it, it was already six o'clock, time to get off work.

When he snapped out of it, Li Qing quickly tidied up and clocked out.

He left the company and randomly found a fast-food restaurant to eat before eagerly returning to his place, setting the alarm and lying straight on his bed.

"Basic Meditation Technique" has already explained that when spirit is overused, sleeping is the best Recovery method.

An already exhausted Li Qing fell asleep as soon as he hit the bed.

"Beep beep beep... beep beep beep..."

Li Qing instinctively pressed his phone's volume button, turned off the alarm, and fell back asleep.

This cycle repeated several times until nine thirty, when Li Qing groggily climbed out of bed, washed his face in the bathroom to wake up a bit, then lay back on the bed, closed his eyes for Meditation, and began tracing the lines.

Three minutes later, Li Qing opened his eyes with a slightly puzzled expression. Despite having fewer distractions today than yesterday, distractions still came flooding in, making it hard for him to stay focused.

No wonder Taoism emphasizes controlling the monkey mind; Meditation shares many similarities with Taoist meditation.

Li Qing instinctively touched his lower back, feeling he could still withstand a few rounds, then opened a hidden folder on his computer.

Nineteen minutes later...

Li Qing looked serene and satisfied, lying in bed in a state akin to a saint without desires, slowly tracing lines in the Meditation Image in a seemingly empty non-empty meditation state.

Once a line is completely traced out, it appears to fully settle and solidify.

If there were no obstacles, Li Qing estimated he could complete about thirty percent before the start of the Gray Magic Academy term.

But if the traced meditation lines could effectively strengthen his Spirit, then he would have more Spirit to speed up tracing.

"Basic Meditation Technique," as its name suggests, should be the simplest, most easy-to-understand magic entry Meditation method at the Gray Magic Academy.

The second line once again set out from the origin point, slowly tracing outward, bit by bit, emerging from the void in a highly precise manner...

Once the second line was traced completely and repeatedly visualized and solidified, Li Qing slowly opened his eyes, then closed them to rest for a while, confirming he didn't have any splitting headache; instead, he just felt a bit dizzy, causing him to show a faint smile.

It seemed his guess was correct, as the lines continually increased, his spirit grew noticeably stronger, marking a rather apparent process.

On the third day, Li Qing still couldn't meditate effectively and ultimately was forced to use a trump card.

Seventeen minutes later...

Li Qing traced out two lines completely, with encouraging progress.

On the fourth day, Li Qing again used the trump card.

Sixteen minutes later...

He swiftly entered the meditation state and traced out three lines.

The fifth day, Li Qing skillfully employed his trump card.

Fifteen minutes later...

On the sixth day, fourteen minutes later...

Until three days before the start of the term, true man Li Qing had completely traced the 365 white lines from the "Basic Meditation Technique," forming a very rounded sphere, identical to the pattern on the Meditation Image.

Sunken cheeks, deep eye sockets, and a thin figure made him look like he was about to collapse at any moment. However, surprisingly, his eyes were exceptionally bright, as if two light bulbs were hooked up, looking full of Spirit.