Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 110 Rapid Progress

Once the Dark Element Shield reaches the Grandmaster level, Richard plans to focus all his efforts on improving his Rodrigo Meditation Technique.

Previously, the main problem was a lack of energy points. Even if Richard invested all his energy points into the extremely difficult Rodrigo Meditation Method, he couldn't guarantee that he would advance to the next level. Now, however, he has more than 10,000 energy points, so he can give it a try.

Secondly, having arrived in this unfamiliar place, Richard didn't know when he would be able to return to the Ignis School. If he stayed for a relatively long time, the necessity of improving his mastery of meditation techniques would increase significantly, making it his top priority.

Over time, advanced meditation techniques will bring Richard great benefits.

Bringing his thoughts back, Richard immediately decided to start upgrading the Dark Element Shield now.

[Host detected casting Level 0 Dark Element Shield. Do/Do you wish to consume energy to gain Inspiration for Level 0 Dark Element Shield?]

This time, looking at the value 17130 at the far right of the slider, Richard thought for a moment, then chose to drag the slider directly to 3130 and selected "Yes!"

In an instant, Richard's soul left his body and entered the dream. This time, the scene in the dream was still in a vast grassland, where the phantoms of three Swiftwind Wolves were watching him menacingly from dozens of meters away.

Good grief, they started with the highest difficulty level right from the start! Luckily, I already have experience dealing with three of them.

Before Richard could even catch his breath, the phantom of the Gale Wolves increased from three to five in the next second.

Holy crap! The quantity is actually increasing in jumps.

Soon, Richard, dressed in tattered clothes, was sweating profusely as he dodged and weaved across the grassland, trying to cast a dark element shield. His whole body was covered in wounds.

With the help of a wealth of inspiration, he has grasped a key point.

Finally, I broke through a boundary all at once, like the rising sun in the morning, shining brightly and sweeping away the fog, making the world in front of me clear!

Richard discovered that the Dark Element Shield, with its syllables compressed to the extreme, could now be released by him with just one mixed syllable, taking only 1/5 of a second. Compared to the original one second, the improvement was so great that it was hard for him to believe.

Moreover, Richard now realizes that he seems to have grasped the essence of the Dark Element Shield, such as why its sorcery model is structured this way, and why it consists of these five sorcery runes.

He even began to compare the differences between the Dark Element Shield and the Bone Armor sorcery runes, and started to consider the possibility of taking the best of both and combining them. However, he had a vague feeling that he needed to master the Bone Armor spell, and that his knowledge was still far from sufficient.

Richard had a premonition that if he knew more defensive level zero magic spells, the energy points consumed in the above process would decrease exponentially with reference to them. Conversely, if he only knew a few level zero magic spells, the above process would consume a huge amount of energy points.

A dizzying sensation followed, and the soul returned to its original form.

Richard immediately brought up the panel and began to examine it.

Dark Element Shield (Grandmaster 95%, Special Effects: Rapid Casting, Thickness/Thickness Switching)

[Rapid Casting: Dark Element Shield can be cast in just 1/5 of a second.]

The appearance of this effect on the Dark Element Shield was completely unexpected for Richard, but upon closer reflection, it made perfect sense.

Recalling the use of the Dark Element Shield, Richard had always hoped that the casting speed of this level-zero sorcery could be as fast as possible, and its defensive power as high as possible. Therefore, his dreams, or rather, his inspiration panel, kept triggering inspiration for him in these two aspects.

Therefore, Richard's Dark Element Shield now has these two special effects.

Seeing that he still had 14000 energy points left, Richard decided to strike while the iron was hot and use them directly to improve his Rodrigo Meditation Method.

Rodrigo Meditation (Mastery 11%, Special Effect: Basic Energy-Saving Casting, Arcane: Lesser Mental Shock)

[Host detected practicing Rodriguez meditation. Should energy be consumed to gain inspiration for practicing Rodriguez meditation?]

This time, Richard thought for a moment and decided to go all out, using his resources wisely. He immediately dragged the slider to 10000 and selected "Yes!"

In an instant, Richard's soul wandered into a dream. This time, the dream took place in the center of a spacious hall, where Richard possessed the body of a bald man sitting cross-legged and began to meditate.

Fueled by a surge of inspiration, Richard repeatedly tried to increase the proportion of his mental energy participating in all seven rune cycles!

After thousands of attempts, Richard finally increased his mental energy participating in the Great Cycle from 31% to 32%, then 33%, and gradually reached around 91% before stopping.

The pure spiritual energy in the center also became exceptionally condensed and solid because of this process. Richard had a feeling that if his total spiritual energy were not so small, the power of this exceptionally pure spiritual energy would be close to that of a first-level witchcraft spiritual impact.

After a dizzying spin, Richard returned to his original form!

Rodrigo Meditation (Master 91%, Special Effect: Intermediate Energy-Saving Casting, Arcane: Lesser Mental Shock)

[Intermediate Energy-Saving Spellcasting: Reduces the mental energy consumed when casting any spell by 20%.]

After practicing the master-level Rodriguez meditation technique once, that feeling of rapid improvement returned.

[Attributes]: Strength 4.6, Agility 4.8, Constitution 4.5, Spirit 13.7

My mental strength increased by 0.2 in one go, and other attributes also improved slightly!

Looking at the remaining 4000 energy points, Richard thought for a moment and had a preliminary plan, but he wasn't in a hurry. He decided to rest for the night and make a decision tomorrow.

The next day, when Richard woke up naturally, he found that it was still very dark outside the cave, but he was sure that according to the surface time, it should be daytime now.

Richard strode out of the cave entrance and discovered that it was indeed daytime outside, but in the dark region, daytime was roughly equivalent to five or six o'clock on the surface, hazy and dim, with visibility of only a few dozen meters.

The nights in the dark regions are even darker than on the surface. I remember last night, even with various luminous plants and insects, and star-like lights overhead, it was still much darker than the nights on the surface.

Richard strained his eyes to look around and found that the area he was in was lush with vegetation, similar to a rainforest.

But he had never seen most of the plants before, and only recognized a few ferns, such as tree ferns and staghorn ferns.

Moreover, there are many small animals and wild beasts here. Although Richard did not bring much food, he should not have much trouble getting food by hunting.

The most pressing issue now is how to get back.

Richard pondered intently, and after a while, he had a basic idea.

At first glance, there are two paths. One is to return the way we came, that is, to go back through the teleportation array in the fishman tribe.

The problem is finding high-level magic stones. The merfolk tribe must have mid-level magic stones, but high-level ones are uncertain. However, with the Soul-Eating Spider, we can find out by investigating.

The second option is to go back. Currently, the three major wizarding schools and the night elves are locked in a fierce battle.

Clearly, this murloc tribe is under the jurisdiction of the night elves, but the three major wizarding schools have already launched a counterattack into the night elves' stronghold. Presumably, the two places are not too far apart, but the risks are extremely high. Playing battlefield crossing in the midst of a formal wizarding war is suicidal!

Therefore, returning via a teleportation array would undoubtedly be the preferred option.

After making up his mind, Richard began hunting, intending to get some food and drink to replenish his strength and energy, and then find an opportunity later to explore the fishman tribe's camp.

"Pfft!" Something resembling a golden pheasant flapped its wings and flew out.

In the fern thicket near the cave, a monster with exposed muscles, no skin, and no head was driving a number of animals toward Richard's location.

Fearing that some monster might suddenly appear, Richard carefully arranged for three skeletons to guard him during this hunt, while he himself held a bow and arrow, aiming at the front.

Suddenly, an animal resembling a small deer with yellow and black stripes jumped out, followed by other unidentified animals such as wild boars and pheasants, which ran out of the bushes. This chaotic scene was caused by the brain-eating monster possessed by the Soul-Eating Spider, which was driving them away from behind.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!" Richard fired several heavy arrows, and immediately reaped a bountiful harvest. Many snakes, rats, deer, and insects were pinned to the ground by the sharp arrows, struggling incessantly.

Giant insect? Throw it away, I won't eat it, it's too disgusting.

Snake? Throw it away, don't eat it, afraid it's poisonous.

In the end, Richard chose the animal he named the striped deer, began skinning and cleaning it, and took out salt and a powdery mixture of cumin and chili from his bag for later use.

He planned to eat venison ribs, and after cutting off the ribs from the belly, he prepared to grill them.

For Richard, starting a fire was as easy as taking candy from a baby.

Although Richard's affinity for fire element is only low, with his current mental strength, he is already able to gather fire element and easily ignite it.

Then, Richard's hand was seen moving back and forth over several pieces of succulent venison steak, sprinkling seasonings and salt on them several times, and an enticing aroma wafted over.

This is Richard's homemade medium-rare roasted venison steak.

With one bite, the juicy, tender meat bursts with its unique freshness and aroma, filling Richard's mouth.

"Great! This tastes amazing! I haven't had anything this delicious in ages!" Richard muttered to himself as he devoured the food.

Indeed, it's been several months since I last ate on the second floor of the academy!

Richard wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but even though this was the Underdark, a completely unfamiliar environment, he felt quite comfortable. Even the number of free-floating dark element particles in the air seemed to be higher than on the surface.

Richard made a preliminary calculation and found that casting shadow magic here seemed to be more powerful than on the ground, with an increase of about 10%.

From this perspective, Richard seems to understand why the three major necromancer schools are not afraid of the underground races at all. After all, the Underdark is essentially their home turf.

(End of this chapter)