Above the mage!

Chapter 192 The Secret of Cultivation (Two in One)

As soon as he left the committee, Gao De went straight to the college library.

The college library is not open all day long. The opening hours are only from 9 am to 8 pm.

Especially the old wizard guarding the second floor. He is very old and it is good enough that he doesn’t be late or leave early. “Overtime” is impossible for him.

I went up to the second floor of the library and met the old wizard for the fourth time.

As soon as he saw Gao De coming in, the old wizard put down the teacup in his hand and asked curiously, "What's the matter this time?"

It's impossible that he's here to buy spell recipes again.

Gao De smiled shyly, "I have successfully been promoted to a first-level mage today, and I want to see the practice method of a formal mage."

The Apprentice Guidance Method and the Apprentice Meditation Technique are only applicable to the mage apprentice stage. Once you become a formal mage, you must change your practice method.

The old wizard looked at Gao De in surprise, "I didn't expect you to have such good talent."

"It's okay, it's okay." Gao De was too embarrassed to deny it directly, that would be too "bitch".

"Take a look for yourself first."

The old wizard took out a book from the pile of books on the table and threw it to Gao De.

Then he leisurely picked up the teacup and sipped it. "All the cultivation methods recorded in the academy are listed here, including the specific levels, effects, cultivation conditions, and credits required for exchange."

"If you don't understand anything, just ask me directly. I should be able to answer most of your questions."

Gao De hurriedly took the book and opened it to take a look.

The practice of cultivation is also divided into levels, but not as detailed as what he saw in novels in his previous life. There are four major levels of "Heaven, Earth, and Yellow", and each major level is divided into four minor levels: lower, middle, upper, and top.

The practice methods here, like spells, are divided into only two levels: "ordinary practice methods" and "rare practice methods".

Gao De opened the book.

The first few records are about common cultivation methods.

[Original Secret Art] (Ordinary Practice Method): Practicing this art can improve the mage's performance in spells related to animal taming, sports, intimidation, and nature.
In addition, you can gradually gain abilities such as "Danger Sense", "Extra Spells", "Fast Movement", "Wild Intuition", and "Mental Fortitude" depending on your own wizard level.

This technique requires the consumption of animal blood during practice.
The credits required for redemption are 25.

[Sound Weaving Secret Art] (Ordinary practice method): Practicing this art can improve the magician's performance in sound, hypnosis, and charm spells;
In addition, you can gradually gain abilities such as "Quick Recovery", "Battle Inspiration", and "Learning from Many People" depending on your own mage level;

The practice of this technique requires the mage to have sufficient understanding of music.
The credits required for redemption are 25.
[Elemental Spiritual Contract] (Ordinary Practice Method): Improves the performance of elemental spells.
The credits required for redemption are 25.
[New Moon Meditation] (Normal Practice): Improves spell performance and practice speed in dark and night environments
The credits required for redemption are 25.
[Breathing and Breathing] (common practice method): greatly increases the magic power of the mage.
Credits required for redemption: 25
After casually flipping through the introductions to a few cultivation methods, Gao De had a lot of questions popping up in his mind.

This is the sadness of being born into a common family. There are many things that you don’t realize you don’t understand until you encounter them.

"When you are an apprentice, you need to practice guidance and meditation separately. How come after you become a first-level wizard, you are only left with a single practice?"

This was his first question.

"Because after becoming a formal mage, meditation can no longer improve your mental strength."

Gao De's question was a very common one. The old wizard explained calmly, "It's like the training of soldiers in the army. In the early stages, you can improve your strength through some basic training, but once your strength reaches a certain level, those basic trainings will no longer have any effect."

"From the first ring of magic, the improvement of our spiritual power mostly comes from the soul sublimation brought by the breakthrough of the magician level, as well as some special expertise or the additional abilities of the practice method."

"So, official mages no longer differentiate between meditation and guidance. There is only one practice method."

Gao De suddenly realized what was going on.

"Is there no difference between strong and weak in common cultivation methods?"

"Also, are rare cultivation methods necessarily stronger than ordinary ones?" Gao De asked again.

These two questions are still the most frequently asked questions by most civilian mages who are new to the practice of Dharma, and the old mage is not surprised at all.

"First, let's talk about the first question. There is no obvious difference in strength between ordinary cultivation methods, but for individual mages, there is a difference."

“Different methods of practice are essentially moving in different directions.”

"For example, a wizard who has awakened the beast taming specialty and practices the [Original Secret Art], the combination of the two will definitely be stronger than practicing the [Weaving Sound Secret Art]."

"For him, the [Original Secret Art] is stronger than the [Sound Weaving Secret Art]."

"But this is only true for him. If there is another wizard who is good at hypnosis, then the [Sound Weaving Secret Art] will definitely be more powerful for him."

"That's all. What suits you is the best."

"As for the second question," the old wizard thought for a while before giving an answer: "Yes and no."

"What do you mean?" Gao De frowned slightly. Usually, "rare" should be stronger than "common". This "yes and no" confused Gao De.

"Rare practices are not necessarily always more powerful than common practices, but rare practices must have unique characteristics and abilities that are difficult to find in common practices."

"From this perspective, rare cultivation methods are indeed more powerful than ordinary ones."

“But at the same time, the conditions for practicing rare practices are often more stringent.”

"If you cannot meet these conditions and insist on choosing a rare practice method, it may not even be as powerful as an ordinary practice method."

"As for the ordinary cultivation methods, in most cases they are applicable to any mage, and there won't be too many thresholds and adaptability requirements."

Just like choosing a major, finance has a high ceiling, right? But if you don't have a family background, it will be difficult to find a job after graduating in four years, so it's better to go to a vocational school and learn a technical skill. The same goes for choosing a spiritual practice.

Gao De instantly understood the difference between ordinary cultivation methods and rare cultivation methods.

As he turned to the end of the book, ready to see if there was any rare practice method suitable for him, he asked:

"If I choose a practice now, and I encounter a more powerful practice that suits me in the future, do I have to give up the ability of the original practice and practice a new one? Or can I only continue to stick to the original practice?"

This is the question that Gao Degang thought of.

What we often see in novels is that the protagonist always obtains the most powerful cultivation techniques at the very beginning for various reasons, so he never has to worry about these problems.

But his current situation was that he could only choose from the cultivation methods collected by Seres Academy.

Although Seris College is the best magic school in the Principality of Sean, Goder, who has studied geography, knows very well that the Principality of Sean is actually just a very inconspicuous small principality on the Nolan continent.

It was conceivable that there was no powerful cultivation method hidden in the Ceres Academy. And he believed that he could not stay in the Principality of Sean for the rest of his life.

When my wizard level reaches a higher level in the future and I leave the Principality of Sean, I will definitely have better opportunities and encounter more advanced methods of practice. Will I have to give up then?
"What are you thinking about?" Unexpectedly, when the old wizard heard this question, he looked at Gao De with a strange look as if he was looking at a "savage".

"The so-called practice method, in the final analysis, is equivalent to a special training method."

"It's just that the general training method trains the physical fitness, while the practice method trains the magic power."

“Then let me ask you, you originally used a relatively crude exercise method, but later on, with the guidance of others, you learned a more efficient exercise method.

And if you immediately switch to this advanced training method, will the physical fitness you originally developed through the simple training method be lost because you abandon the old training method?"

"Not really." Gao De said embarrassedly.

The old master used a very vivid metaphor to make Gao De instantly understand the principle of changing the practice method.

"Of course, changing your cultivation method will not cause your cultivated mana to dissipate, but the abilities gained through the old cultivation method will disappear."

"However, if you are reluctant to give up your original cultivation ability and are greedy enough, you can choose to practice both cultivation methods at the same time."

"It's still the analogy of training methods. One training method focuses on improving strength, and the other training method focuses on improving agility. The abilities improved by these two methods belong to different areas."

"You can improve strength and agility at the same time by doing both exercises at the same time."

“The same is true for the practice of Dharma.”

"Then doesn't it mean that the more methods a person practices at the same time, the more powerful he will be?" Gao De asked doubtfully.

"Not really," the old wizard said calmly, "Practicing multiple methods at the same time can indeed allow a wizard to gain different abilities and improve the performance of spells in multiple directions. It can even create a powerful synergistic effect by combining different abilities."

“But the drawbacks are also obvious.”

"Let's not talk about the additional resources required to practice each practice, just talk about the progress of practice"

"Due to the limitation of your mental strength, your daily practice time is limited. In order to balance the practice of multiple practices, the time allocated to each practice will be greatly reduced."

"This will cause the mage's progress in each practice to be slower than that of other mages who only practice one practice."

“And often the ability to practice the Dharma becomes stronger as time goes by.”

“A mage who is practicing two different methods will most likely have stronger combat power than mages of the same level.

But there is a high probability that they will not be able to beat the magicians who started practicing at the same time and only chose one practice method. "

"The reason is very simple. You practiced two cultivation methods at the same time, and both of them have reached the late stage of the first ring. Naturally, you are stronger than a late stage mage who only practices one cultivation method."

"But I started practicing at the same time as you. Because I only chose one practice method, my progress was much faster than yours. I have already been promoted to a second-ring mage. With my mage level, I can easily crush you."

"Besides, upgrading a mage's level is a very time-consuming task."

"Although you gain more abilities by choosing multiple cultivation methods, you also waste twice as much time. It is very likely that you will not be able to upgrade your level before your lifespan runs out."

"So, first choose a practice that suits you best at the moment. If you come across a more advanced practice that suits you better in the future, you can simply discard the old practice as a resource for the new one and exchange it for the new level. This is the conventional route that suits most mages."

"Do you understand what I mean?" The old wizard said this with a dry mouth. He leisurely picked up the teacup and took a sip of the good tea to moisten his throat.

"I understand." Gao De said seriously.

As he spoke, he had already turned to the last few pages of the book, which introduced rare cultivation methods.

There are not many of them, only six rare cultivation methods in total.

[Golden Light] (Rare practice): Practicing this technique can improve the mage's performance in the areas of light, healing, fire, persuasion, and intimidation. It can also improve the mage's resistance to necromancy-related spells, allowing the mage's spells to cause extra damage to evil spirits and undead creatures. It can also improve the mage's resistance to mental spells such as charm and hypnosis.

In addition, you can gradually gain abilities such as "Divine Perception", "Guardian Aura", etc. depending on your own wizard level;
This technique is only for men to practice, and they need to remain pure; this technique must be practiced in daylight.

The credits required for redemption are 50.

*******
After browsing the first rare practice method that caught his eye, Gao De discovered how powerful rare practice methods were compared to ordinary practice methods.

——Rare practices can bring far greater improvements to the mage than ordinary practices.

Continue to look down:

[Dragon Breathing] (Rare training method): Practicing this technique can increase the total amount of mana and recovery speed of the mage...

To practice this technique one must have dragon blood.

[Shadow Meditation] (Rare practice method):
[Starlight Secret Pattern] (Rare practice method):
Gao De flipped through several pages and found that he either did not meet the requirements of these rare practices or that they did not suit his own wishes.

For example, [Golden Holy Light Technique], he is indeed still a "pure body", meets the conditions for practice, and the ability it can bring is indeed more powerful than ordinary practice methods.

The question is, what happens next?
Who can guarantee what will happen in the future?

He didn't dare put shackles on himself in advance.

As he was thinking this, Gao De had already turned to the last page of the book.

A particularly eye-catching name, with a completely different style from the previous ones, instantly attracted Gao De's attention.

[Aoki Changshengjing]!
What kind of intrusion is this?! This was Gaode's first reaction.

This classical name, which usually only appears in novels about cultivating immortals, instantly made him confused.

With curiosity and complaints, Gaode continued to read on.

[Aoki Changshengjing] (Rare practice method): Practicing this method can improve the mage's performance in spells related to animal taming, healing, nature, perception, and plants. It can also increase the mage's lifespan, increase the mage's practice speed, and additionally increase the mage's mental strength.

In addition, depending on your own mage level, you can gradually gain abilities such as "Immortal Body", "Earth Walker", "Natural Recovery", "Nature's Language", and "Nature's Protection".

To practice this method, one needs to choose a specific plant as a sacred object, so that one can increase one's lifespan through the plant. Once the sacred object dies, the increased lifespan will be completely dissipated.

To practice this method, one needs to absorb the essence of plants and trees. The more vigorous and the higher the quality of the essence of plants and trees, the faster the master can practice.

The credits required for redemption are 25.

(End of this chapter)