Wizard: I devour the stars with swarms of insects.

"The difference between a third-class wizard apprentice and a second-class wizard apprentice lies in the level of their mental strength..."

According to the rules of the Wizarding Academy in the Black Forest City, as long as one can master one wizarding trick, regardless of the type, even the most basic one, one can enter the level of a third-class wizarding apprentice.

Then, if one's mental strength reaches 5.0, one is considered to have reached the level of a second-class wizard apprentice.

Similarly... once one's mental strength reaches 5.0, one can begin to learn and master more advanced, attribute-specific witchcraft tricks—such as the current biological modification type of witchcraft tricks.

So, Wayne took out a completely black incense stick from a drawer in the room.

This incense stick exudes a faint, chilly scent.

After being ignited with flint, although it was burning, the smoke it emitted had a somewhat eerie and cold feel to it.

This incense is made from a blend of dead soul grass that grows around cemeteries.

Once lit, the smoke it emits helps wizard apprentices enter a meditative state more quickly and stabilize their mental space.

Once you reach the level of a wizard apprentice, you can receive three sticks of Dead Soul Grass incense every month from the Academic Members' Association in the Black Forest City.

Of course, if you need more, you'll need to find the potion-making apprentices in the wizard shop and spend magic stones to buy them.

Next, Wayne sat on the bed, closed his eyes, calmed his breathing, and quieted his mind.

Gradually, I sank into my sea of ​​consciousness and began to meditate.

For wizard apprentices in the Black Forest City, the way to improve their mental strength is a basic meditation method called the "Five-Sphere Suspension Meditation Method".

During deep meditation, the apprentice constructs multiple black spheres of thought within his mental sea.

By continuously and precisely manipulating them to perform various complex movements, one forces their consciousness to engage in multi-threaded, high-precision control.

This allows one to forge, stretch, and purify their spiritual power, much like forging iron, and improve the precision of their control over it.

Next, Wayne meditated in his mind.

He conceived a black sphere with his mind, which floated in the vast, boundless ocean of consciousness.

During this process, the size, density, and black "purity" of the sphere need to remain constant, without becoming blurred, fluctuating, or disintegrating.

Many wizards below the third-class apprentice level get stuck at this stage, unable to form a stable image.

For a wizard apprentice, this means successfully visualizing the first stable black sphere.

And by quietly suspending it in the center of the "spiritual vision," it signifies that the spiritual strength has reached the level of a third-class wizard.

Next, Wayne tried to concentrate his mind and gradually visualize the second, third, fourth, and fifth spheres in his mind.

Five black spheres were arranged in a static circular array, floating silently in the ocean of consciousness, suspended in the void.

Maintaining the existence of five independent mental creations simultaneously is a tremendous test of mental strength and endurance.

Even the slightest fluctuation in any sphere can trigger a chain reaction of collapse.

For someone whose mental strength had reached the level of a third-class wizard for many days, constructing a black sphere in their mind was a relatively simple matter.

However, constructing five black spheres in one go in the mind is not an easy task.

Wayne's eyes were closed, his breathing was heavy, and fine beads of cold sweat had begun to appear on his forehead, which was covered by his hair.

His breathing became increasingly labored.

In the void of meditation, five black spheres were struggling to remain suspended in the ocean of consciousness, maintaining their shape and preventing them from collapsing.

However, to improve one's mental strength and advance towards becoming a second-class wizard apprentice, one still needs to control the five black spheres in one's mind, orbiting around a certain point.

Moving in circles with the same radius and speed... just like the orbits of five planets orbiting a star.

Next, when Wayne began to try to drive the five black spheres in his mind, attempting to control them to move in a circular motion.

pat~

Suddenly, one of the black spheres, without warning, disintegrated into nothingness.

Like a chain reaction, the second and third black spheres... also collapsed one after another.

"Whoa—!"

Wayne couldn't help but open his eyes and began to gag violently.

It felt like my brain had been hollowed out by a shovel, and I had a sharp, throbbing pain in the back of my head.

Wayne gritted his teeth and persevered, maintaining the basic shape of the remaining two black spheres within his own consciousness, preventing them from collapsing.

Cold sweat began to trickle down my forehead.

Simultaneously condensing and manipulating five black spheres in one's mind requires an exponentially increase in mental strength.

If you're not careful, after one black ball collapses, the rest of the black balls may follow suit and collapse one after another.

"This is definitely not an easy task..."

Wayne was now clutching the back of his head, which was throbbing with pain, and felt his mental energy being drained.

"Right now, I'm just trying to make five black spheres rotate around the stars in my mind. I really don't know that, according to the requirements of the Five Spheres Suspension Meditation Method, a first-class wizard's mental strength needs to maintain 30 black spheres rotating around simultaneously."

"And they also have to perform actions similar to the figure 8, or arcs, just like electrons dynamically orbiting the atomic nucleus. They can't collide with each other at all, and they have to run in parallel without conflict and smoothly... What kind of mental strength must that require?"

And this was only a first-class wizard apprentice.

For those formal wizards, when they are practicing the Five-Sphere Suspension Meditation Method...

It is possible to visualize thousands of black spheres in one's mind, which simultaneously rotate around a star in the mind.

Just like the countless stars in the universe, they need to maintain the same distance and speed of movement from one another...

Such mental fortitude must be terrifying!

Now, amidst wry smiles and shakes of his head in dismay, Wayne frowned. The mental strength required to reach the level of a second-tier wizard was truly not so easy to attain...

It was already a struggle for him to maintain the five black spheres in his sea of ​​consciousness, keeping them in their basic form without collapsing.

However, you still need to use your mind to control them, making them orbit the stars at a constant speed.

My own consciousness was completely a jumbled mess; I simply couldn't do it...

"Does this mean I can only improve slowly and painstakingly through meditation, day after day, at a snail's pace?"

Wayne couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

This is truly a long process.

Furthermore, even through long-term, accumulated meditation practice.

Ultimately, it doesn't necessarily mean one will reach the goal of becoming a second-class wizard apprentice.

Because the improvement of mental strength is extremely slow, and if you don't progress, you regress.

There are many third-rate wizard apprentices who, even if they spend their entire lives, continuously practice and meditate every day.

However, due to the upper limit of mental strength—that is, the limited mental aptitude—he was stuck at the third-level wizard rank sequence and could not make any further progress.

After all, the mental strength required to simultaneously meditate on five black spheres and control their operation is something not everyone can achieve.

As far as I know, some wizards concoct "magic potions" that can temporarily enhance mental strength and assist wizard apprentices in breaking through to higher realms.

However, those potions are made from very rare and special materials, and any bottle of potion that can be used to help improve mental strength is extremely expensive.

As a wizard apprentice... where would I find enough magic stones to buy them?

I can't afford to spend money on in-game medicine.

"Is this all I can do?"

Wayne couldn't help but feel somewhat frustrated.

However, after only a brief period of silence and melancholy, Wayne quickly regained his spirits, and fighting spirit reappeared in his eyes.

If you wallow in the shadow of failure, spending your days in despondency and melancholy, the ultimate outcome of failure will not change.

So Wayne rallied and continued trying.

Close your eyes, while the incense of the Dead Soul Grass is still burning.

Next, I began to meditate in my mind, visualizing five black spheres in succession. Then, I concentrated my mind and began to control the five black spheres to rotate around them.

Soon, as Wayne controlled several scattered black spheres, they began to rotate within his consciousness.

The five wobbly black spheres, as they circled around, followed chaotic trajectories, varying in speed and distance, and were on the verge of colliding.

Wayne gritted his teeth and persevered, trying his best to concentrate and control the five black spheres with his mental power, hoping to stabilize their trajectory as much as possible.

This process was not easy to do, and soon Wayne's eyebrows furrowed, and his hair was soaked with cold sweat.

However, the operation of the five black spheres in his mind was still precarious and on the verge of collapse.

At this moment, Wayne's mind was highly focused, and his mental energy was under extreme strain.

It seemed to have reached a certain critical point and could no longer hold on, so the five black spheres visualized in my mind began to tremble violently.

Uncontrollable, it wanders aimlessly in my mind, its trajectory chaotic and erratic, like a headless fly bumping around.

"Damn it, am I going to fail again...?"

Wayne thought to himself, feeling resentful.

However, now, I see the five black balls moving erratically in my mind.

"A headless fly... wait, a fly... a beehive?"

Thinking of this, Wayne suddenly had a flash of inspiration, recalling the honeycomb network he had constructed in his mind.

Since it requires using one's mind to simultaneously control 5 black spheres and perform a circling maneuver.

Given this multi-threaded operation, could I... try using a cellular network to assist myself with meditation?