Chapter 77 - 73: A Big Stunt
As Mo Ning stepped into apartment 804, he was still mulling over the problem that had been nagging him—how could he utilize the Divination Models of Level Zero Witchcraft?
This was knowledge beyond the reach of a new apprentice.
It was like a sumptuous feast laid out before him, but an invisible hand was holding his chopsticks down firmly.
To be honest, he was a little bitter about it.
SLAM!
The main door shut.
Mo Ning’s gaze naturally drifted outside the floor-to-ceiling window.
Amidst the undulating waves of grass, the immense form of a Gray-Horned King Rhinoceros came into view.
He had only just discovered the King Rhino this morning while washing up, and the sight had left him completely stunned.
According to the books, this was a powerful Second Level Magic Creature, and the might of its Talent Witchcraft was terrifying, comparable to that of a Second Level Wizard.
It was just that the King Rhino’s Casting depended entirely on its bloodline, and the variety of Witchcraft it mastered was far inferior to that of human Wizards. Therefore, it couldn’t defeat one in actual combat.
Times had changed, after all.
Human Wizards in the Era of Secret Divination were no longer like the Ancient Casters who could only imitate Magic Creatures.
Just then, the Gray-Horned King Rhinoceros suddenly raised its head and opened its massive maw, which was filled with sharp teeth.
"AH-CHOO!"
A huge sneeze exploded from its massive body.
The sound, greatly muffled by the floor-to-ceiling window, still reached Mo Ning inside his apartment as a faint, deep rumble.
What was even more astonishing was the scene that followed.
In a radius of several dozen meters around the King Rhino, the blades of grass were instantly torn, cut, and pulverized by some invisible force, transforming into countless tiny green fragments that were swept up by a great gust of wind and sent scattering across the sky.
Mo Ning was dumbfounded.
He knew, of course, that the King Rhino’s sneeze had triggered a shockwave of Magic Power in the surrounding area.
This shockwave produced a terrifying Cutting effect, which had pulverized the surrounding grass into fine particles.
On the one hand, this demonstrated the terrifying Magic Power contained within the King Rhino—an uncontrolled, torrential force that surged from the depths of its bloodline.
On the other hand, it also showed its poor control over that Magic Power.
A Second Level Wizard proficient in Secret Divination and Divination would never let this happen.
Soon, some of the grass fragments were carried into the sky by the currents, where they danced in mid-air, tracing irregular arcs.
As Mo Ning watched this scene, a flash of insight suddenly struck him.
It was a flicker of Spiritual Light that had first appeared during his History of Witchcraft class, and now, he had finally grasped it.
A series of thoughts flashed rapidly through his mind:
’These past few days, I’ve been entering my plugin’s Simulation Space every day, fighting all sorts of monsters.’
’With my current Spiritual Strength, the best combat style is to be like an elusive assassin—strike once, and if I miss, vanish without a trace.’
’And the simulation results have confirmed this.’
’But the biggest problem right now is that I lack a powerful offensive technique, something that can deliver a decisive blow.’
’The strongest Sub-zero Level Trick I’ve mastered is [Scorching Stream]. It can create a high-temperature Heat Flow that can instantly carbonize a target’s skin.’
’But against thick-skinned, tough-hided monsters like Hard-Armored Ogres or Rock Shell Saliva Demons, it’s still a bit lacking.’
’The ’Pushing Spirit Seal’ that Stone Soul demonstrated in class... if I simplify its structure and then use it to optimize the Sub-zero Level Trick [Gale Needle]...’
’The modified new Trick would have a high probability of making a ’Right Angle Turn’ in mid-air, or something close to it.’
A Right Angle Turn meant the Flying Needle could suddenly change direction in mid-air, catching those monsters who thought they had already dodged completely off guard.
The more Mo Ning thought about it, the more excited he became. He plopped himself down at his desk.
He picked up his Ink Tube Pen, the tip beginning to furiously pour out Secret Spirit Text.
"I have another interesting new idea."
He quickly laid out the "Right Angle Turn" concept, but concealed the fact that it originated from a Level Zero Spirit Seal.
Instead, he summarized it in a simple sentence:
"Integrating several simplified Spirit Seals seems to allow one to suddenly apply a strong pushing force to an object."
To put it simply—a Thrusting Spirit Seal.
Given Mo Ning’s skill in Divination, it wasn’t out of the question that he could deduce it from scratch.
But it would take far too long.
The black script continued to flow:
"Furthermore, by coating the Flying Needle with a layer of [Scattering Powder] and utilizing its light-scattering effect, the needle will become blurry and difficult for the naked eye to track."
’Hmm... I could also consider coating the Flying Needle with a powerful poison, turning it into a fearsome Poison Needle.’
"When the time comes and I cast the new [Gale Needle], the Flying Needle will definitely become an elusive, ghostly killer."
[Gale Needle]—the Mysteries Hall had priced it at a steep 5 Black Tower Points, making it the most expensive Trick he had learned.
The name included the word "Gale" because it was as fast as one.
When Mo Ning practiced in the Simulation Space, he could control the Flying Needle to easily trace quite steep arcs, which made it harder to guard against than ordinary Throwing-type Tricks.
However, this still wasn’t enough.
Many monsters had extremely keen eyesight and astonishingly fast reflexes.
The instant they saw the Flying Needle, they could judge its flight path and guess that it could fly in an arc, so they would immediately protect vital spots like their eyes and throat.
Although an arc was harder to dodge than a straight line, for creatures that had survived for countless generations in the wilderness, this level of difficulty was not enough.
But against "minions" like Kobolds and Lizardmen, [Gale Needle] was more than enough.
Against those low-intelligence, brutish little things that didn’t even have Leather Armor, facing [Gale Needle] was practically a slaughter.
Mo Ning took a light breath, preparing to start modifying the Sub-zero Level Trick, [Gale Needle].
Since he had decided to improve a Witchcraft, of course he had to "package" it as a research project to rake in a large sum of Black Tower Points from the academy.
This was killing two birds with one stone.
Just as the tip of his pen touched the paper, he suddenly thought of another major problem.
’[Gale Needle]’s structure is quite complex, containing six simplified Spirit Seals.’
’If I break down the Thrusting Spirit Seal and select its key parts, that should be another three or four simplified Spirit Seals.’
’Adding them together makes roughly ten simplified Spirit Seals.’
’With my skill in Divination, completing the derivation probably won’t be much of a problem.’
’But the complexity of the model is directly proportional to the load on one’s Spiritual Strength. My Spiritual Strength is only 0.6. Can I smoothly activate the model?’
Mo Ning couldn’t give a definite answer.
For now, he could only think of one solution: ’If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just have to perform a deep optimization on the model.’
To put it bluntly, it meant cutting as many redundant structures that consumed Spiritual Power as possible, while ensuring the core functionality was preserved.
He immediately recited inwardly, ’Begin new Witchcraft optimization project.’
An illusory eyeball appeared in an instant. A nebula swirled within its pupil, exuding an ancient and mysterious aura.
A screen of light flashed, and the Thrusting Spirit Seal appeared on it.
Because he had been a bit "idle" in class, Mo Ning had already thoroughly studied the four Spirit Seals—Floating, Air Spin, Pushing, and Pulling.
It sounded unbelievable, but it was the truth.
Normally, there were three ways for an Apprentice to fully understand the principles of a Tier Zero Spirit Seal.
The first was to borrow a "Detailed Explanation" type of book about the Spirit Seal, which would explain the Spirit Seal’s structure, function, and applications from every possible angle.
The borrowing fee for this type of book was typically around 20 Black Tower Points.
The second was to borrow a "Brief Analysis" type of book, which only explained the key parts and omitted many details.
This was suitable for those with a good Divination Foundation, who only needed a little nudge to be able to deduce the rest themselves.
Their borrowing fees were much lower, around 5 to 8 Black Tower Points per book.
The third way was to rely on a sufficiently solid Divination Foundation to complete the entire deduction independently, without spending a single Black Tower Point.
This belonged to the domain of a "Strong Person."
Looking at all the First Level Apprentices in the entire academy, less than five percent could complete the deduction independently.
In short, it was up to the individual.
And Mo Ning just so happened to possess a "sufficiently solid" Divination Foundation.
Originally, he too had thought that he might find it difficult to understand the four Spirit Seals, since they were, after all, Level Zero Witchcraft.
But the truth took him completely by surprise.
Mo Ning had tried to derive one in class and had, to his surprise, successfully completed the derivation of the first Spirit Seal in just twenty minutes.
Figuring out all four Spirit Seals only took him an hour and a half, and the entire process was remarkably smooth.
Only then did he realize that the Knowledge of Divination he had accumulated back in the Royal Library had, without him noticing, already reached the level of Level Zero Witchcraft.
After a moment of contemplation, Mo Ning picked up his pen and wrote a line of elegant Secret Spiritual Text on the scale pattern paper:
"*On the Innovative Improvement of the Sub-zero Level Witchcraft [Gale Needle]—A Qualitative Leap Empowered by Magic Power Propulsion.*"
This wasn’t a research proposal, but—a formal paper.
He wasn’t short on Black Tower Points at the moment and couldn’t be bothered to go through the conventional process: first applying for a project, then writing the thesis, then submitting it, and finally getting the reward upon completion.
He planned to deduce the new Witchcraft today, then grind out the paper in one go. There was no need to jump through all those unnecessary hoops.
Mo Ning recited inwardly, ’Disassemble the Thrusting Spirit Seal and deduce a simplified mark with the lowest Magic Power consumption and the lowest Mental Load.’
On the Light Curtain, a torrent formed from Divination Formulas started up once again.
Mo Ning waved his Ink Tube Pen and began to write the paper’s abstract.
*****
「Deep within the Black Tower.」
「Inside the Observation Room.」
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice, Nasha, had her pair of long, pale legs propped up high as she stared up at the spheres of light floating in the void.
Within each sphere of light, a long-suffering young face was reflected.
The corners of her mouth unconsciously curved into a smile—the unique, schadenfreude-filled delight of a veteran.
This Female Apprentice liked—no, loved—to see such a sight.
When she had first entered the academy, she too had been tormented to the point of despair by the high difficulty of Secret Divination and Divination, driven to sleepless nights by the abstruse Divination Formulas, and suffocated by the intense curriculum.
Now, witnessing her "juniors" looking so overwhelmed, Nasha felt a subtle sense of balance from the bottom of her heart.
Haha!
’It’s finally your turn!’
The Female Apprentice murmured with a grin, "This is just the beginning. Your ’good days’ are still ahead of you!"
Her gaze jumped from one sphere of light to another, like a cat patrolling its territory.
A few seconds later, when Nasha’s gaze leaped to the sphere of light she was most familiar with, the smile on her fair, pretty face instantly vanished.
In its place was a look of unconcealable shock.
The word "Innovative" in the title pierced her eyes like a sharp sword.
The Female Apprentice jumped up like a rabbit and blurted out, "By the Mysteries! Is this kid trying to pull off something huge?"
Although innovation was a required element for every paper, that by no means meant that this specific word could be casually tossed into a title.
The academy’s *Guide to Writing Academic Papers* had a strict requirement—only when the level of innovation reached a "high" degree could that word be added to the title.
As for the standard for "high," Wizards had a set of evaluation criteria.
For papers on improving Magic Potions, the increase in efficacy must reach 10% or more.
For papers on improving Witchcraft, the standards were more varied.
It could be a significant increase in power, meeting at least the 8% baseline, or it could be a significant decrease in Magic Power consumption, for which the baseline would be lowered to 6%.
Therefore, when Nasha saw the word "Innovative" in the title at first glance, she naturally received quite a shock.
Moreover, [Gale Needle] was a high-difficulty Trick. She never expected this kid to have quietly mastered it, let alone plan to make a major improvement to it.
Her feelings were indescribable: ’It’s only been a few days, and this kid is already applying for such a difficult research project.’
As a senior Third Level Apprentice, Nasha still had the feeling of "being left in the dust."