Chapter 3

Over the next ten days, Salin repeatedly practiced the same magic, but he couldn't complete it once. No matter how perfect and skilled his incantations and gestures were, he just couldn't master this simple 0-level spell.

During this time, Mage Jason appeared only once, spending the rest of his time in the large living room transformed into a laboratory. He seemed to have no need for food, constantly conducting magical experiments in the house.

Salin grew anxious. However, learning magic was not something he could rush; he could only practice repeatedly. Finally, in the third set of ten days, Salin mastered the spell.

Excitedly, he went to Mage Jason's magic laboratory. Seeing Salin's excitement, Jason sighed, "It took you thirty days to learn a 0-level spell; your talent can be considered very poor. I suggest you stop here. Otherwise, you may only be an apprentice for the rest of your life."

Salin was stunned. "Teacher..."

"Not satisfied? Let's conduct an experiment," Jason said, taking out a crystal ball and placing it on the table. "Perform a magic spell on this."

Salin quickly cast a Reading spell, but the transparent crystal ball hardly changed.

Jason put away the crystal ball, saying, "Even worse than I expected. Your mental power is strong, but your elemental affinity is too low. According to the test results, you may not reach the first level of mage until you're a hundred years old. Salin, if you're willing, I'll give you some money to go to the city of Skotinya and find a swordsmanship academy. At your age, learning swordsmanship might still provide a path forward."

Salin felt like he had been drenched in cold water. If not for this opportunity, he might have accepted Jason's suggestion. However, thirty days of practice had immersed him in magic. When he completed his first 0-level spell, the feeling of mastering everything couldn't be erased from his bones.

Become a swordsman? Like those guards in Ceylon, collecting taxes at the city gates every day, or becoming a mercenary and never marrying until his thirties?

"Teacher, is there really no other way?" Salin asked, struggling internally.

"Not that I know of, but the cost, even I can't afford it. This isn't a problem that can be solved with gold coins. Unless a ninth-level mage is willing to help you transform your physique. Even then, your future achievements would likely only reach the level of a low-level mage, not even reaching the fourth level," Jason replied helplessly.

"Teacher, I still want to try. I'd rather be an apprentice at a hundred years old than be a swordsman. Please teach me the rules of meditation," Salin gritted his teeth. His impression of swordsmen was very poor. The guards in Ceylon weren't respectable, and with the gold coins from Jason, who knew what might happen if he went to learn swordsmanship? Having been deceived since childhood, Salin was somewhat disappointed in this world.

"If you insist, then fine. But after learning my rules of meditation, you can't leave unless you become a formal mage."

"I'm willing to continue."

"My rules of meditation are very valuable, even in the Qin Empire. If you reveal them to anyone else, I'll take your life. Do you understand?" Jason said flatly, sending a chill down Salin's spine. He knew his teacher wasn't making idle threats, and violating this requirement would have dire consequences.

"Where do we start?" Jason muttered to himself, feeling a bit lost as he taught his first student. When his own teachers taught him the rules of meditation, he was already a level 2 apprentice, with a wealth of foundational knowledge. Salin obviously knew nothing.

"The rules of meditation actually include meditation techniques, elemental absorption, hypnosis, and mental resonance. Generally, apprentices can only learn meditation techniques, while the complete set of rules can only be learned from a grand mage. Books usually only cover individual meditation techniques. Learning on your own will never make you a grand mage."

Jason patiently tutored Salin from scratch, and surprisingly, Salin completely absorbed everything in half an hour. Jason also marveled at Salin's intelligence but felt sorrow for him at the same time. Such a clever child, yet with such abnormally low elemental affinity.

"Alright, I've told you everything about the rules of meditation. You're very clever. Read the books upstairs in order, meditate at least once a day, it might benefit you. Remember to cook for me once a week, and if we run out of bread, go buy some in the city. I'll leave you a gold coin. After you fully grasp the rules of meditation, I have more tasks for you."

"Yes, teacher." Salin bowed his head and left the room. He was still young and didn't understand that he had chosen an incredibly difficult path. His heart was filled with excitement, as if another world's door had opened to him. What he didn't know was how much he would have to pay to enter that door.

Salin went straight to the first room where books were stored and began studying. The first bookshelf was about linguistics. Salin didn't even recognize a few characters, so he had to take it step by step. Learning magic was miraculous; it allowed him to self-learn languages. The only trouble was that he had to rest for half an hour after using the Reading spell once before he could cast it again.

In this way, Salin spent a month mastering the common language of the continent, which is the language he speaks now. He wanted to take a look at the books ahead, but he found that the content of the magical books in the house was vast and not all written in the common language. At least twenty different languages were represented on the shelves, so Salin had to finish learning all the books on the first shelf before moving on.

Mages were scholars; without the Reading spell, one couldn't complete magical studies.

Luckily, within half a year, Salin had mastered the rules of meditation. Now he could cast the Reading spell three times in a row, indicating that he had become a level 2 apprentice. Salin didn't know that this was because of his incredibly strong mental power, resulting in minimal consumption when controlling magic. Since he was only casting 0-level magic, the consumption was even lower, and in reality, the amount of magical elements stored in his body still only equated to that of a level 1 apprentice.

This speed was not unprecedented, but it was definitely unprecedented. If an ordinary person progressed at this rate, they would have been kicked out long ago. Salin had the best rules of meditation; within half a year, he had hardly improved the storage capacity of magical elements in his body. Jason wasn't just placating him; Salin really wasn't suitable for learning magic.

The next content was about magical knowledge, still one bookshelf with over a thousand books. The mysterious veil of the magical world was lifted, and Salin didn't know how much he could learn, but he believed that diligence would always pay off.

The origins of magic were unknown. It was generally believed that magic on the Melus Continent had a history of at least thirty thousand years, perfected during the Second Dynasty period over ten thousand years ago, dividing into six major branches: Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Light, and Darkness. Since then, the calendar of the Melus Continent had been established, with twelve months in a year, each with thirty days, and six days in a week. The sixth day of each week was Dark Day, a rest day for various industries. Even though the Melus Goddess (Goddess of Nature) had fallen, and the Holy See had risen, this habit had not been changed.

The Holy See's calendar was too cumbersome; the Holy See believed that a week should consist of seven days. After a hundred years of implementation, the entire continent still only used the new calendar within the Holy See's internal affairs, ultimately coming to nothing.

Apprentices could actually cast spells higher than 0-level magic before becoming a first-level mage. After advancing to a sixth-level apprentice, they could learn and complete a first-level magic spell. This was called transcending casting in the magic formula. Transcending casting only had one chance, and mages could perform transcending casting, which wasn't surprising.

However, after transcending casting, mages would become weak and almost unable to recover on their own, relying only on meditation to possibly replenish the consumed magic strings.

Magic strings were the cornerstone of magic. Without magic strings, apprentices could never advance to become formal mages. To form magic strings, one must have strong mental power and elemental affinity. Salin's elemental affinity was extremely low, so when Jason said it might take until he was a hundred years old to become a mage, it wasn't an exaggeration.

About what magic strings were, there were detailed descriptions in various books, but they couldn't be unified. What Salin could understand was that magic strings existed within a mage's body, providing the basic elemental power for casting spells. Apprentices accumulated magical elements in their bodies through continuous training, reaching a qualitative change from quantitative change, which was the process of forming magic strings and advancing from an apprentice to a formal mage.

What made Salin disheartened was that he never saw any mention in any book of another way to form magic strings. If it relied on accumulation, he really had no hope of becoming a mage.

After half a year, the kitchen's supplies had run out, and Salin knew he had to go into the city to restock. He went to Jason's laboratory and told him he was going to the city.

"How's your study going?" Jason asked.

"I can now complete the Reading spell three times in a row," Salin emphasized the word 'three,' hoping to catch his teacher's attention.

"Very well, then go," Jason said, not saying much, but giving Salin another five gold coins. Salin's progress was slightly faster than he had expected, but Jason knew it was because of Salin's powerful mental power. He judged that Salin still only had the strength of a level 1 apprentice, and casting an additional 0-level spell had little significance. At least it wouldn't help Salin accumulate enough magical elements, which meant he wouldn't be able to form magic strings in the end.