Wizard: My career panel has no upper limit

Inside the artisan's labyrinth, a puppet sat on a chair, a smile playing on its lips, looking on with amusement.

The wooden face didn't have many expressions to begin with, but the knot happened to be in a delicate spot.

No matter what expression it makes, it always gives the impression that there's a hint of ill intent hidden within.

Like a mischievous child who has some trick up their sleeve, waiting to see you make a fool of yourself.

Selna was the first to speak, her voice clear and crisp:

“Alexander, I need to take a look at your ethereal structure.”

Alexander did not speak, but silently unfolded his illusory form.

For most people, this is an organic structure that is uncomfortable.

It exists between the biological and the mechanical, with blurred boundaries.

The texture is somewhat worn, like the seal of a can, with a dull luster typical of old objects.

The petite red-haired, red-eyed witch beside him watched with shining eyes.

She glanced at the structure, her gaze quickly sweeping over a few key nodes.

He immediately began working, moving aside several tools piled up next to the low table to create enough space to operate:

"Who among you has any knowledge of neural signal coding?"

"I have some basic knowledge, senior," Elena said cautiously.
"However, I'm not sure if we're going in the same direction as you're suggesting."

"The materialization of emotional information." A brief introduction by the red-haired witch:
"The logicization of neural signals is essentially the two ends of the same path."

Starting from different directions, you'll arrive at the same intersection.

Elena was stunned for a moment.

She has always boasted that she has reached an unparalleled position in the study of the transformation between emotions and material things.

But the moment this statement came out of Selna's mouth, a piece of the puzzle that she had thought she had completely completed for years suddenly went missing.

“I have never thought about it that way.”

She said softly, her tone filled with admiration: "As expected of the Blood Lady, who is only one step away from becoming the Witch King."

"Stop praising those useless things. There's not a single living person here except for Ron."

Without looking up, Selna said, "Help me build the signal interface starting from the third node of that structure."

"it is good."

The two quickly entered a highly efficient collaborative state.

The amount of dialogue was quickly reduced to a minimum, leaving only the necessary terms and node numbers.

Lance remained silent throughout this period.

From the moment he entered, he kept his head down and worked, using a symbolic system to disassemble the Rubik's Cube's hierarchical structure layer by layer.

Selna completed the first interface verification, turned her head, and took a closer look at Lance's chart.

What symbol system is this?

"The notation system I invented is very efficient, but it is a little complicated."

Lance casually explained, "You don't need to understand everything; you just need to be able to decipher the key points."

Where should the key nodes be marked?

"Red."

Selna turned her gaze back to the chart.

The red nodes occupy approximately one-third of the entire chart.

Densely packed, like scorched areas carved out of a dark forest.

They are each connected by clear lines.

However, the logic behind those lines is another system that requires time to learn.

“…Okay.” She looked up from the chart. “I’ll give it a try.”

The last few people created a makeshift "computer" whose core components came from the unearthed remains of Alexander.

This process itself is a form of self-depletion.

Alexander himself naturally said nothing; he was used to bearing everything in silence.

But Ron noticed that the Void Corpse would become darker after each program was completed.

"Are you ok?"

Alexander glanced at him: "I don't care, continue."

He himself has never cared; he was used to it while he was alive, so why should he care now that he's dead?

Ron didn't ask any further questions.

The historical record's assessment of this "benevolent alchemist" is indeed accurate.

With kindness and selflessness, the recipient never feels that their own loss and suffering are anything to worry about.

Selna, who was in charge of leading the effort at the low table, had already completed the verification of the Rubik's Cube's encoding interface. She took a small step back to make room for the cube.

She stood there, examining the overall structure for a moment to make sure no details were missed:
"It's working now, let's try one layer first."

Ron inputs the first layer into the computation unit.

The feedback came faster than he expected.

The entire door opening process was shortened, and the complete deconstruction diagram for the first floor was provided in less than two minutes.

Lance checked the corresponding nodes on the chart, marked the confirmed locations, and then slowly looked up:
"There are too many floors; at this rate, it will still take several years."

The room fell silent for a moment.

Ron mentally went over the number.

It's been a few years, and who knows if things can hold out for another few years.

He sighed and reached into his spatial bag to take out the divination disc.

The jade divination plate landed on the table with a clear, melodious tinkling sound.

The puppet glanced at the divination board and then looked away nonchalantly, as if trying to cover something up.

Ron ignored the puppet and began adjusting the scale on the dial.

"What are you going to ask?" Elena stepped closer.

"First, let me ask if there's a way to speed this up."

"In that case, the problem framework needs to be defined first."

The Lady of Blood looked up from her work and winked at him:
"Asking too broadly leads to a scattered focus, and the result is the same as not asking at all."

"Understood, Senior Selna."

Ron stabilized the divination board in the center of the low table and adjusted it to the pathfinding mode.

This method differs from standard divination; it doesn't ask "what is the answer," but rather "where is the path to the answer?"

Shift the focus of divination from the destination back to the path itself; sometimes the path is more important than the destination.

Because the destination is just the result, while the path is what can be changed.

He placed the three divination mediums on the three nodes of the disc in turn.

The paradox die is placed on the left, representing the uncertainties that cannot be eliminated from the known conditions;
The original star map is laid out on the right, representing the overall trend of the external macroscopic pattern;
At that crucial juncture in the chart, he let his last drop of blood fall.

Blood represents the subject in the current state, representing "himself now, in this place, with the limitations and possibilities of this moment".

He closed his eyes, focused his mental energy into the divination board, and began to construct the framework of the problem within it:
"I am currently in a closed room, trying to solve a puzzle that is limited by time."

A solution is known to exist, but the speed is insufficient.

Is there an alternative path that would allow the puzzle to be solved in a shorter amount of time?

The divination disc began to spin.

The paradoxical die vibrated violently at its position, briefly and at an extremely high frequency.

The meaning of this signal in the divination system is quite direct:

The variable in the current situation is not the Rubik's Cube itself; the solution lies elsewhere.

The drop of blood was flattened by an invisible burden.

This represents "carrying a heavy burden," indicating that there is indeed a feasible path that requires paying a price.

The pointer on the dial then began to move.

It went beyond the eight directional symbols, beyond "the continuation of the current state", and beyond "the introduction of external resources".

He bypassed all the options that Ron had considered when devising a solution.

It eventually stopped in the very center of the chart, a position that would almost never be pointed to by a typical divination.

This indicates that everything needs to be started from scratch and redefined.

Inside the room, the blue light temporarily stopped flowing.

Elena, watching from the side, had a slight change in expression upon hearing this result.

Selna then shifted her gaze from the interface structure and checked the pointer's stopping position again:

"Oh, I see."

Lance didn't express any opinion, but he added a small mark in the blank corner of the chart.

In a redefining context, within the divination interpretation system, this means that the current interpretation has an assumption that can be replaced.

Ron opened his eyes, checked the position where the pointer had stopped, and confirmed that he had not misread it.

Elena has returned to the biocomputer and is dealing with the overheating problem of the Alexander Void.

Through her research findings in the field of emotion extraction, she guides and disperses excess energy in a relatively safe manner, preventing the structure from collapsing prematurely under operational pressure.

"The computer's central processing unit uses the remains of Alexander the Elder."

Ron offered his speculation: "What if we replace this central hub?"

He switched the divination board to the second round mode and began searching for the optimal replacement.

This time, the star chart stood still, and the paradoxical dice stopped vibrating.

The active signals were all focused on the blood droplet itself in an unambiguous manner.

This indicates that the object already existed within the inner room itself.

Ron looked away from the divination board.

Low table, tools, blueprints, the five of them / projector...

He has already come into contact with, used, or at least considered everything.

The only thing he hasn't touched yet is that puppet.

It sat in the chair, still maintaining that leisurely and contented posture.

Ron switched the divination board to the third round.

Just ask one question: Is this path feasible?

Seven stars appear on the chart, arranged in a line from the outer edge inwards towards the center.

Finally, it stopped in the center.

There is a small vacancy there, waiting to be filled.

Ron mentally translated the result:
The road is feasible, and there are indeed empty spaces that need to be filled.

"Senior Elena."

He picked up the divination board from the table and asked the person most skilled in "extraction" present:

"Are there any feasible methods for core extraction when the body is forcibly separated?"

Elena understood what he meant, and her gaze also turned to the puppet:

"You mean, dismantle its core and replace it with Alexander's?"

"Correct."

“Theoretically, yes.” She gestured with her chin towards the puppet.

"But that thing might not cooperate."

In the end, we still have to fight.

The puppet sat in the chair and nodded after hearing those words.

"Have you two reached an agreement?"

It turned its head to one side, and the knot followed this angle, turning towards the brightest direction of the light:

"Then I'll say a few words as a courtesy before the official start of the fight."

“You have the aura of the King of Absurdity. That Your Majesty also accompanied his friends through this place back then.”

Ron didn't say anything.

“Back then,” the puppet said, resting his hand on the back of the chair, “the system He used was far from mature.”

It raised its finger: "Cards, pigeons, scarves, hats, halos..."

"You mean to say that the King of Absurdity's clown tricks originated from you..." Elena realized what she meant.

“That’s right, I used this system a whole era before Him.”

"When my owner created me, he designed it in this direction."

"Absurd, paradoxical, structured by chaos, and made possible by the unexpected."

You who come after me, seeing Hector use this trick, think it's His style.

"I don't blame you." Its tone returned to its flippant tone:

"Who made Him the Witch King, far more famous than me?"

After the puppet finished its intimidation, it didn't wait for Ron to make a move.

It got up from the chair and stretched.

But at that very moment, the angle of the indoor light source shifted, and the shadow changed accordingly.

Where the puppet was originally located, now there is only light.

This is a trap, designed to make your gaze follow the changes in shadow and light.

"I'm here." The voice came from the left.

Ron habitually perceives his left side.

In that instant, his right arm was gently patted by a wooden hand.

The contact was brief and the force was weak; it wasn't a real attack.

A circle of light appeared on the floor of the inner room, with its center falling precisely in the spot where he was standing.

Aperture Trap

Jump away!

Selna issued a warning; she was the strongest person present and the first to notice something amiss.

Ron moved quickly, and the aperture was activated after he left.

A beam of light shot out from the inside of the floor and struck the ceiling.

The stone absorbs most of the energy, leaving behind scorch marks and a scorched smell in the air.

The puppet landed on the other side of the inner room, its knots facing upwards in the light, its hair perfectly styled.

"The response is good."

Ron didn't answer; his attention had already fallen on another detail:

The puppet landed no more than two meters away from the chair.

Lance was the first to give Ron a buff.

No increase in strength, no increase in speed, only increase in precision.

I gave him this already very accurate gun and recalibrated the sights.

At the same time, Lance reached out his hand toward the puppet, emitting a interference wave.

Every puppet trick relies on anticipating the opponent's movements: where they will be, what they will do, and what gaps they will leave.

That prediction is the starting point of its combat logic chain, the first bone.

Although it may only deflect by a tiny bit, in a battle at the level of a great wizard, that tiny bit can sometimes mean everything.

Alexander, on the other hand, added extensions to Ron's sensory system.

The cost was that for every second that it lasted, Alexander himself would be constantly pulled.

That was probably a feeling of "extreme pain".

But he didn't say anything, and his expression didn't change at all.

Elena's blessing landed on Ron's ethereal body, making its magical properties even purer.

The puppet rests one hand on its waist and casually flicks it.

—Playing Card Knife
The twelve playing cards flew out of that hand and disintegrated in a counterintuitive way.

The playing cards disintegrated, each one transforming into a throwing knife during its flight.

The throwing knife's trajectory twisted and turned in the air, weaving through various tricky paths.

Lance's interference caused the puppet's prediction to deviate by one point.

Of the twelve throwing knives, three showed visible tremors in their trajectories.

Using the senses extended from Alexander, Ron could predict the direction of each blade's bend in the half-breath before the blade touched his skin.

He stepped aside, letting nine of them pass.

The door of the [Threshold of Darkness] opened a narrow gap on his right, and with minimal effort, he caught two of the most tricky trajectories.

The last cut grazed the left shoulder of his outer robe, leaving a clean, shallow cut that was almost just a line.

He channeled his power in a reverse motion, and the pillar of chaos condensed.

The pulse struck the floor on the right side of the inner chamber, destroying the trigger point of the arranged aperture trap.

Once you reach the level of a Grand Wizard, you can do many things.

Raising your hand can distort space, and exerting force can cause planets to shift.

The higher the completion rate of the virtual body, the deeper the resonance between the individual and the rules.

Its power ceiling is so high that even an ordinary wizard, using all their imagination in a lifetime, often cannot reach its limit.

But the place at this moment is the inner chamber of the Craftsman's Labyrinth, where stone walls can absorb any form of energy overflow.

Any spell that attempts to be cast over a wide area will be consumed upon contact with the stone wall.

The feedback left to the caster can range from the disintegration of the spell to a backlash.

Ron had glanced at the stone wall as he entered and mentally assessed it:
This is a place deliberately designed to "return power to precision".

The Creator doesn't need anyone to demonstrate who is more powerful; He Himself is already the greatest.

Every bit of magic must be precise to the millimeter, and the battle returns to its most authentic form.

Seeing that his first attack hadn't hit hard enough, the puppet produced a hat from somewhere.

With a casual flick of the wrist, the hat flipped in the air, and three white doves flew out from the brim, looking completely harmless.

—Surprise White Dove

Just like that, the white dove suddenly exploded while it was flying.

Three consecutive explosions were triggered in a very short time interval.

The shockwave swept across the entire interior, overturning the low table and scattering tools.

Lance cursed under his breath as his draft paper flew through the air.

Taking advantage of the shockwave that lifted up a large amount of debris, the puppet mixed the thrown knife into the debris.

Ron turned to avoid it, his right hand already gathering lightning and fire.

This attack wasn't aimed at maximizing damage; it was merely intended to make the enemy retreat, thus validating my observations.

The puppet jumped backward and landed steadily.

It flicked the silk scarf in the air and it disappeared completely.

Shapeshifting, or a similar concealment technique.

Ron didn't spin around to look for the person; he stood still and extended the perception that Alexander had given him.

They quietly gathered from all sides, redirecting themselves downwards towards the floor.

Ground vibrations are harder to fake than air vibrations.

Air can be distorted, light can be deflected, and sound can be absorbed.

But the pressure to maintain quality is real, especially in a unique environment like the Craftsman's Labyrinth.

The vibration sent a clear signal over—to the left side of the inner room.

The puppet soon appeared.

It was attached to the left wall, with explosive spells being constructed in each of its two palms.

Before it could finish, Ron precisely emitted a jamming pulse using the Pillar of Chaos.

The puppet was blasted off balance by its own spell and fell off the wall.

“Excellent, you seem to have no weaknesses... You don’t seem like an alchemist who focuses on research at all.”

It quickly got up and clapped its hands: "But that's not enough."

——Mask Formation

The four masks were thrown out and hung in four different directions.

Hanging, activating, the square formation is complete.

In the center of the room, spatial perception begins to distort.

Selna frowned and cast a weakening spell towards the mask in the northwest corner.

Using this window, Ron and his team launched an attack on the westernmost target.

The three forces, originating from the Starlight Pillar, the Chaos Pillar, and the Thunderfire Pillar respectively, superimposed in a very short time interval.

The mask shattered.

For the first time, the puppet's offensive rhythm faltered.

It stood on one side of the inner room, its wooden face no longer showing any frivolity.

Ron did not immediately follow up with an attack.

During his brief pause, he brought all of Alexander's extended perceptions back to normal.

Focusing intently on the interior floor, a silent scan was performed.

He was looking for the center of the circle.

Since entering battle mode, the puppet has disappeared, landed, and retreated every time.

Even after each move, when he stood still again, he would silently record the landing point.

He mentally overlaid those landing points into a diagram.

The distribution on the diagram appears scattered at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that the objects always revolve around a central point.

It's that chair.

Ron figured out the key point, changed direction, and quickly moved towards the chair.

The puppet's reaction was noticeably faster, by about half a breath.

It immediately changed direction and darted out from the other side of the inner room, trying to intercept him.

This time, Ron didn't go around; he went straight at them.

The pillar of lightning and fire converged on his right arm, and the output power was adjusted to the highest level in this battle.

——Thunder and Fire Duet
With a deafening roar, the force slammed into the front of the puppet.

It was blasted back to the other end of the inner chamber, where the stone walls absorbed the shockwave.

Ron went to the chair and squatted down.

The puppet has charged back.

Lance added interference to the puppet's movement judgment, causing it to deviate by about half a step.

This half-step gave Ron enough space to open up.

His hand went down the chair leg and found an extremely narrow gap where the chair leg met the floor.

The puppet stopped a short distance away and had already pulled out a deck of cards.

But Ron had already opened the hidden compartment.

Inside was a core, the same color as the wood, with a surface material very similar to that of the chair legs.

Place it in that position, as if it were part of the chair itself.

Ron brought out the core.

The puppet was about to throw the playing card from its fingertip when it stopped completely.

That finely carved wooden face showed no signs of anger, fear, or resentment—the typical emotions of a loser.

Only a sense of relief.

With a crack, the puppet's body slowly shattered.

The last piece to shatter was that face; before it broke apart, the scar faced the brightest direction of the light.

The faint curve at the corner of her mouth lasted until the very end.

Then, it disappeared too.

The interior returned to quiet.

At this moment, all four projections also showed signs of dissipating.

The sustained damage output in the battle pushed their respective survival status to the brink.

Lance was the first to speak, his tone calm: "The core is in your hands; you can handle the rest."

The kind-faced middle-aged man nodded to Ron, completing his business trip, his features darkening.

Alexander didn't speak. He raised his hand and pointed to the biocomputer: "Use it well."

His projection vanished along with that movement.

The Blood Lady in her girl form shook her head and complained:

"Don't call me out to make computer parts next time. At least give me a more respectable job."

"If you're not busy, you can ask me out for a chat. Actually, I'm quite bored..."

Before she could finish speaking, her projection vanished.

Elena was the last one.

She glanced at Ron, then at the entrance to the inner room leading into the depths:
"Go and finish your task, don't waste time."

The witch's silhouette vanished into the light of the inner room with those words.

Now, only Ron and the log core in his hand remained in the inner room.

He walked back to the location of the biological computer and embedded the core into the structural hub left by Alexander.

The integration process experienced some lag, and the two systems, which use different languages, need to be transitioned.

In the following period, the operating frequency of the entire computing structure showed a significant increase.

Ron picked up the Rubik's Cube and entered the solution instructions.

The feedback speed is more than dozens of times faster than before the replacement.

He mentally estimated it, taking into account the current operating frequency and the number of remaining floors.

It can be done within a week.

He couldn't perceive any specific information about the outside world from inside this closed room.

All we know is that Eve is coordinating the defense, Cassandra is there too, and everyone outside is holding on in their own way.

A week is neither a long nor a short time.

He needs to be faster. (End of Chapter)