Dark Wizard: Rise! My undead army!

The Ghost Market at dawn was bathed in the eternal, dark purple light of the Evernight Graveyard, and the air was filled with a strange mix of negative energy, old magical materials, and herbs.

Lynn, with nothing but the black robes issued by the academy and a dark silver nameplate at his waist, stood at the entrance of the market.

At the entrance to the Ghost Market, apprentices had already gathered, queuing up one by one to prepare to enter.

At the very front were several familiar ghost guards, pointing bone pens at the apprentices' identity plaques.

Lynn found a shorter line and joined it; a moment later it was his turn.

The Ghost Guardian's bone pen lightly tapped the Dark Silver Nameplate, and the remaining 428 contribution points on the nameplate were now unusable.

The rule for the third stage is "starting with zero points," and these points will be restored after the assessment ends.

Furthermore, the nameplate can still be used normally during this period and can be traded for contribution points.

Lynn looked around and saw hundreds of equally penniless new apprentices flooding into the market, their faces filled with confusion and anxiety.

Some people, upon entering the market, wandered aimlessly among the stalls, trying to find a way to quickly earn those "five magic stones or fifty contribution points".

These people are clearly unprepared and inflexible, and can only rely on luck to find a way out.

After all, the college has high assessment requirements, but its supervision is extremely poor.

They only require you to complete the assessment; they don't care how you complete it.

Those who fail to meet the assessment criteria will only become "material" in the future, while those who do meet the criteria may become better "material".

The academy will never lose out.

Lynn observed for a while and found that many of the apprentices were clearly well-prepared.

They had a clear goal: they went straight to a few fixed stalls and started chatting, clearly shills who had been arranged in advance.

Some apprentices, on the other hand, looked relaxed and weren't worried at all about not being able to complete their tasks.

Within three days, someone will deliver magic stones or contribution points to them.

Well... there are risks too.

If someone they trust stands them up, the consequences could be extremely dire.

Lynn was extremely confident in his abilities, so he didn't arrange for any "plants" and was now ambitiously trying to start from scratch.

He walked to a crossroads on the east side of the market where people gathered. It was a noisy place, but a good spot to set up a stall.

Tear a strip of fabric from the lining of the sorcerer's robe and dye it a striking dark red using [Magic Trick].

He then used [Hand of Bones] to grab a handful of grayish-white bone powder from the ground and traced several clear universal runes on the ground:

Knowledge Advisory Office

Optimize the sorcery model + identification materials

Compensation: Contribution points will be determined based on the difficulty of the task, with preferential pricing!

...

A simple stall was set up just like that. There were no tables or chairs, and Lynn sat down cross-legged with an air of nonchalance.

My own face is the best advertisement!

The man selling materials at the stall next to him obviously didn't recognize Lynn. Seeing a second-class apprentice running such an "optimization appraisal" stall, he couldn't help but sneer.

"Hey bro, first day setting up a stall, huh? You don't look like you've been enrolled for very long, how dare you optimize someone's witchcraft model?"

"The apprentices in our academy aren't stupid. No one will believe such an obvious scam."

Clearly, the stall owner mistook him for a conman who used his eloquence to swindle people.

Lynn smiled slightly upon hearing this, but made no response.

Seeing this, the stall owner said no more. You can't reason with a damned devil; just wait and see.

But soon, the stall welcomed its first fool.

A pale-faced first-class apprentice was drawn to the red cloth fluttering in the wind. He paused for a moment when he saw Lynn's handsome face, then his face lit up with joy.

"My esteemed 'Solver,' I didn't expect to find you at the market. Could you help me with this? I bought the 'Glimmering Illusion' model at the market, but it crashes every time I build it up to the third node..."

Lynn took the animal skin book from the apprentice, pretended to flip through it, and instantly activated the [Analysis] function.

In just three breaths, he saw the problem, but he didn't point it out directly.

After all, even a magic trick model consists of thousands of runes, and it's easy to arouse suspicion if you spot the problem too quickly.

Thirty breaths later, Lynn put down the animal skin and spoke slowly.

"The seventh rune, rotated three degrees clockwise, reduces mental energy output by 20% during construction. Also, the runes here are in the wrong order..."

As he spoke, he used a magical trick to correct the errors on the animal hide.

The apprentice tried it with some skepticism, squatting next to the stall to reconstruct the witchcraft model.

Half an hour later, a barely formed static phantom appeared beside him.

"It's done! It really is done!"

His voice trembled with excitement as he hurriedly pulled a dull-colored, low-quality magic stone from his pocket.

"I...this is all I have..."

"Okay." Lynn took the magic stone.

Based on market prices, this magic stone is worth at most 5 contribution points, but it's enough as "your first pot of gold".

The stall owner next to them looked at the two of them with a slightly suspicious gaze.

Could this idiot be a shill hired by the stall owner? His acting is just too terrible!

Over the next two hourglasses, Lynn's stall gradually became busier, receiving seven customers in succession.

Their questions were varied: some people's [Skeleton Armor] lacked sufficient defense, some people's [Weak Negative Energy Impact] had too short a range, and some people were holding a "heat-generating black stone" and wanted to know if it was valuable.

These problems were no challenge for Lynn, who had an "external advantage." These minor difficulties were no problem at all.

A small queue gradually formed in front of his stall, which surprised the other stall owners.

He could only earn a few coins a day selling materials at his stall, but Lynn could make money from all directions with just a few words.

This made him very resentful.

Is the barrier to entry for "optimization appraisal" really that low now? Can any "junior student" make money like this?

What the hell am I supposed to sell then? I might as well set up a "knowledge consultation center"!

By noon, Lynn had a lot of things laid out in front of him.

Three inferior magic stones, five ordinary Nightshade Grasses, a bone sword, and 33 contribution points received through the temporary contract with the nameplate.

These findings are sufficient to complete the assessment.

Lynn then paused her consultation and used one contribution point to buy two loaves of white bread and some oatmeal with milk from a nearby college food truck. She ate while observing the market.

The mobile food trucks were set up by the school to cater to apprentices who were taking assessments, and they were much more expensive than those in the school cafeteria.

Many freshmen are so frugal with their contribution points that they'd rather split them in half, so naturally they wouldn't be so extravagant as to eat this stuff.

If you have friends, ask them for help; if you don't have friends, buy some from the stall owners, and the price will be much cheaper.

Some apprentices even went without food or water, enduring these three days by sheer willpower.

Lynn didn't buy from the stall owner; after all, it was something she would eat, and the academy's food cart was a safer bet.