Chapter 65 - 63: The Benefits of Mental Metamorphosis
Mo Ning logically concluded that the sudden 0.04-point increase in his Spiritual Strength was likely the result of several combined factors.
First, there was the power of his expenditures.
The Spiritual Power within the Moonlight Potion and Calming Ointment had certainly contributed a large portion.
Second, and most critically, was the Divine Statue Technique.
There was a passage in the book explaining the Divine Statue Technique that Mo Ning had only glanced over at the time, not thinking much of it.
Looking back on it now, he finally appreciated its brilliance:
"Ordinary Meditation Techniques, whether you choose the most popular Starry Sky Faction or the Wave Faction which countless Wizards consider the strongest, all have only a single perspective for observing the Meditation World.
"Just as in the real world, you can only observe the world with your own eyes. This single perspective makes it easy to confuse reality with illusion.
"But the Divine Statue Technique is different.
"When your consciousness enters the Meditation World, the divine statue also projects a wisp of power into the Meditation World, forming the Divine Descent Shadow.
"And the Divine Descent Shadow is your ’second perspective.’"
"When you become completely lost in illusion, the second perspective acts as a reminder from an observer, helping you to notice abnormalities in time.
"Therefore, the second perspective is also called—the Illusion Breaker. To break illusions is to shatter falsehoods.
"The wondrous power of the Illusion Breaker can pull you out of that trance and allow you to stimulate the Power of the Soul to resist the temptations of the illusory world."
Mo Ning instantly understood—that elusive Phantom Carving was without a doubt the Illusion Breaker projected by the divine statue.
Back then, when he and Zhang Xiaoxiao were huddled in the bathroom, his heart had been filled with nothing but panic and fear.
At that very moment, he saw the Phantom Carving outside the window—or rather, the Phantom Carving saw him.
The magical power of the Illusion Breaker helped him stimulate the Power of the Soul and, in turn, break free from the temptation.
It was this crucial step that allowed him, a complete rookie, to unbelievably complete the first metamorphosis of his Spiritual World.
A smile touched Mo Ning’s lips. ’Choosing the path of the Divine Statue Technique was definitely the right decision.’
He then issued a command with his mind: ’What are my Spiritual Resilience stats?’
There are two main indicators for evaluating one’s talent in Spiritual Power.
The most important, of course, is Spiritual Strength. It determines how many Witchcraft Models you can accommodate and the power of the Witchcraft you can cast.
The other indicator is relatively less important but cannot be ignored—it’s called Spiritual Resilience.
"Spiritual Resilience" can be simply understood as the "quality" of one’s Spiritual Power.
A series of messages immediately appeared:
[Spiritual Resilience: 0.18.]
[Yesterday’s detected value was 0.14. Compared to yesterday, it has increased by 28.5%. 7.2% of this is natural growth, and 21.3% is the effect of the spiritual metamorphosis.]
Mo Ning immediately broke into a smile.
When Spiritual Strength increases, Spiritual Resilience increases in sync—this is called "natural growth."
His Spiritual Strength had shot up from 0.55 to 0.59, an increase of about 7.2%. The natural growth of his Spiritual Resilience was in roughly the same range.
Excluding this portion, the rest was the additional benefit brought by the spiritual metamorphosis.
The Eye of Truth then provided an even more exciting analysis:
[Prediction based on current values: Due to the increase in Spiritual Resilience, your Magic Pool Capacity will increase by 5.2% after you condense your first Spirit Ring in the future.]
[Assuming a calculation basis of condensing a Spirit Ring at 1.1 Spiritual Strength, the base Magic Pool Capacity would be 22 points. The extra bonus from Spiritual Resilience can increase the Magic Pool Capacity to 23.1 points.]
The smile on Mo Ning’s face deepened.
For a First Level Apprentice, a one-point difference in Magic Pool Capacity could be the difference between casting one more Witchcraft and being left helpless with no Magic Power.
But his smile quickly vanished.
Mo Ning had always considered Sitt, serial number 001, his first benchmark.
According to information circulating among the newcomers, Sitt’s Spiritual Strength was as high as 0.93, and his Spiritual Resilience was 0.23.
’My goal is far from being achieved. I don’t have the right to slack off.’
*****
「12:30 PM.」
Mo Ning and Anya walked into the cafeteria together.
The moment his feet crossed the invisible Boundary Line between the corridor and the cafeteria, a noisy wave of sound hit him like a wall.
"Five Black Tower Points is too much!"
"Yeah, and we have to pay it every three months. That’s too expensive! If it were once a year, it might be acceptable."
"Just because they’re Strong People, they can just collect protection fees? Why isn’t the academy stepping in to manage this?"
"Uma said it’s a voluntary transaction and that the Top Ten Squad won’t force anyone to pay. The academy won’t bother with something so trivial."
Mo Ning’s steps faltered slightly.
The conversation he’d just overheard was packed with information.
He subconsciously glanced around the cafeteria—there were far more people eating than he had expected.
After the huge mess during the random assessment this morning, where three newcomers died and more than forty were injured, he had thought the atmosphere in the cafeteria would be very somber.
But the scene before him was completely different from what he had imagined.
And from words like "protection fees" and "Top Ten Squad," it seemed some people were up to no good.
Mo Ning had just filled his tray with food and hadn’t even left the serving area when he heard Anya’s reminder: "Reina is waving at us."
He turned his head and immediately saw the familiar figure with a cowlick sticking up on her forehead.
Reina was sitting near their usual corner spot, waving vigorously at them. That tuft of hair bounced with her movements, like a small blade of grass swaying in the wind.
Out of ingrained politeness, Mo Ning gave her a slight nod.
The Dazed Girl smiled even more happily.
The two returned to their seats and sat down. Reina said, "Good afternoon," and then couldn’t wait to start talking:
"Just now, a guy named Uma announced something in the cafeteria.
"He said the ten strongest newcomer teams—including the twenty Strong People with the highest Spiritual Strength—have joined together to form a Battle Group.
"Sitt and Princess Phoebe are the Battle Group Leader and deputy leader.
"Anyone willing to pay five Black Tower Points will receive the Battle Group’s protection in any assessment for the next three months.
"As for those who don’t pay, they are not allowed to come within ten meters of the Battle Group during assessments, or else..."
The Dazed Girl cleared her throat and imitated Uma’s tone with a lifelike impression:
"Or else, don’t blame the Battle Group for targeting you... Hmph, like luring monsters to you, making you become the Battle Group’s... human shield."
She deliberately emphasized the phrase "human shield."
This was undoubtedly a blatant threat.
The corner of Mo Ning’s mouth twitched slightly as he listened.
’It was a big world, full of all kinds of freaks.’
He remembered Uma quite well.
Previously, during Meditation Class, he had just entered the Lecture Hall and was stunned by the spatial projection inside, pausing at the door for less than half a second.
Uma happened to be behind him. The path wasn’t narrow, and the guy could have gone around, but Uma had berated him, "Get out of the way!"
This person was extremely rude to the weak and had a boot-licking, fawning attitude towards the strong. His reputation among the newcomers was terrible.
He knew at once that with Uma announcing the protection fee in the cafeteria, he was most likely being pushed out to do the "dirty work."
Mo Ning commented in a low voice, "This is a scam."
Anya deeply agreed. "The academy’s assessments have always been extremely difficult. The Top Ten Squad sounds intimidating, but I don’t think they can pass the assessments with any certainty.
"If they encounter real danger, they might not even have the ability to protect themselves, let alone protect others."
Reina nodded repeatedly. "I think so too."
The Dazed Girl had witnessed the entire process of Mo Ning cracking the dense forest assessment and had a deep understanding of the difficulty of the assessments.
Therefore, she didn’t believe at all that there was a second person among this batch of newcomers who possessed wisdom like Mo Ning’s.
Mo Ning pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "If I’m not mistaken, the person who came up with this idea must be Remi, right?"
Remi, serial number 156, was now publicly acknowledged by the newcomers as the most knowledgeable among them—this person had answered sixteen questions from the Tree Spirit Wizard in one go during Meditation Class, and everyone remembered his name.
At that time, he had carefully observed Remi in the Lecture Hall and used a character analysis model to analyze him, confirming that this person was the deep-thinking, scheming type.
He personally speculated that this insidious idea most likely came from Remi.
Reina immediately gave him an admiring look. "It is Remi. I heard he joined Jiawa’s team yesterday."
Jiawa, serial number 003, was rumored to be the daughter of a Duke from the Dragon Shield Kingdom. Her family background was illustrious, and her talent was also exceptionally outstanding.
A team composed of these people would indeed easily give the impression of a "gathering of the strong."
Mo Ning began to explain slowly, "The newcomers were just attacked by the Dragon Lizardmen. They’re in a state of high panic and instinctively want to find something to rely on.
"Remi cleverly packaged the strongest group of people as the Top Ten Squad, creating the prestige of a Battle Group, which is enough to make the panicked newcomers feel that this is something they can rely on.
"If a hundred people are willing to pay the protection fee, that’s 500 Black Tower Points. Even if the thirty members of the Battle Group split it, each person could still get over ten points.
"It’s human nature to band together, especially for the weak. The weaker one is, the more they tend to group up, using the group’s strength to resist risks.
"And the more people who pay, the ones who were originally hesitant might also be swept up by the herd mentality and change their minds.
"Remi used profit as a lure to mold these powerful teams into a single entity, and also used it to gain Jiawa’s favor.
"In short, this guy has his methods."
This analysis broke down Remi’s strategy with perfect clarity.
The more the two girls listened, the more they admired him.
Mo Ning finally stated his opinion: "But this method is a bit unscrupulous. It shows that Remi is somewhat crooked. We’ll have to be wary of this person in the future."
The two girls nodded at the same time.
Reina, in particular, clearly expressed her dislike: "This Remi is so awful!"
She herself was among the ranks of the poorer students. Since Remi had scammed so many people at once, she naturally felt a strong aversion to him.
Mo Ning changed the subject. "Sitt being chosen as the leader by the Top Ten Squad probably isn’t just because he’s serial number 001. His strength must have improved again, right?"
The look in Reina’s eyes was one of pure astonishment:
"Yes, Uma also said that Sitt’s Spiritual Strength increased from 0.93 to 0.94, and that he could condense his first Spirit Ring within half a year at the earliest."
"That guy also made it clear that since entering the academy, Sitt is supposedly the first person to have increased their Spiritual Strength."
Anya, inspired by Mo Ning’s analysis, immediately understood the truth behind the news:
"This is very likely news that Remi deliberately released to get the hesitant newcomers to pay the protection fee."
Reina’s opinion of Remi worsened. "What a cunning bastard!"
Mo Ning was more focused on the other person. "Sitt really is impressive."
He said this with a sincere attitude, completely forgetting one thing—that in just a few short days, his Spiritual Strength had soared from 0.52 to 0.59.
This was progress by leaps and bounds.
Mo Ning was almost certain that Sitt, serial number 001, was undoubtedly the biggest winner in this farce.
As the Battle Group Leader, Sitt could get at least a one-tenth cut, which was at least 50 Black Tower Points.
But Mo Ning wasn’t the least bit tempted.
He could casually toss out a research topic and earn hundreds or even thousands of Black Tower Points. He simply looked down on this "dirty money."
Anya glanced at Mo Ning and thought to herself, ’I think you’re much stronger than Sitt.’
Reina, in order to join what she considered the strongest team, was particularly proactive: "Mr. Mo Ning, are there any other tasks for me?"
In the Dazed Girl’s heart, the Top Ten Squad had not a shred of appeal compared to Mr. Mo Ning.
Mo Ning thought for a moment and said, "Continue to keep an eye on news from the Top Ten Squad."
Reina immediately replied, "Understood!"
In Mo Ning’s mind, the Dazed Girl’s stock went up a bit.
’This girl might be a little useful after all.’