Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 32 Commonalities of Witchcraft (Please continue reading)

Richard felt that although it only cost 500 energy points this time, he felt that his control over Shadow Grip should have surpassed the beginner level.

Upon immediately opening the panel, sure enough, the sorcery section clearly displayed:

[Witchcraft]: Rodrigo Meditation (Basic 3%, Arcane: Lesser Mental Shock), Shadow Grip (Basic 42%), Manipulate Bones (Proficient 16%)

This surprised Richard greatly. He knew that Shadow Grip was one of the strongest level zero shadow magic spells. He had originally estimated that after consuming 500 energy points to trigger the inspiration, he would be able to successfully learn Shadow Grip. However, he did not expect that it would directly advance him to the rudimentary level.

In reality, achieving this effect would require at least six months of relentless, day-and-night practice! Moreover, failing to construct a magical model in a dream would not have any backlash, while in the real world, failing to construct a model would result in a slight mental backlash, requiring half a day of rest or meditation to alleviate the symptoms before attempting to construct it again.

The effect was so powerful it seemed unreasonable. Richard paced back and forth, his brow furrowed.

After racking his brains for a long time, Richard could only come up with one relatively reasonable explanation: the commonality of witchcraft.

If he hadn't practiced the Rodrigo Meditation Method before, and didn't have experience in drawing runes in his mind with his mental energy, then he would need to consume a lot more energy points when learning Shadow Grip this time!

This time, he had a high success rate in sketching runes in his dream, which was undoubtedly related to his prior practice of the Rodrigo Meditation Method!

Richard understood this and was overjoyed. If that were true, it would mean that triggering inspiration when learning other level zero magic would only consume very little energy, which would allow him to advance his subsequent magic learning plans significantly.

However, this is just speculation at the moment and needs to be verified!

Richard pondered for a long time, glanced at the last 500 energy points remaining on the panel, and had a preliminary idea for verification in mind. He then continued to cultivate.

[Host detected practicing the level 0 sorcery Shadow Grip. Do/Do you wish to consume energy to gain inspiration for practicing the level 0 sorcery Shadow Grip?]

This time, Richard didn't hesitate to move the slider to the far right, at number 500, and selected "Yes!"

This time, Richard seemed to transform into a figure once again, chanting incantations and casting the Shadow Grip spell day and night in the vast wilderness.

Because he had already thoroughly understood some of the sorcery details of Shadow Grip and grasped some of the tricks of the trade, he was now able to skillfully control the shadow hand in the dream, performing various maneuvers such as pausing, clenching, and delivering powerful punches.

As various insights surfaced in his mind, Richard finally understood why the Shadow Grip spell required a high level of skill in manipulating bones as a foundation.

For example, Richard is now able to freely separate his mental energy and extend five tentacles to connect with the Shadow Grip spell. In other words, he can freely control each finger of the Shadow Hand and can naturally change his palm into a fist and his fist into a grip at will.

After his soul returned to his body, Richard brought up the panel to take a look.

[Witchcraft]: Rodrigo Meditation (Basic 3%, Arcane: Lesser Mental Shock), Shadow Grip (Proficient 34%), Manipulate Bones (Proficient 24%)

"Wow, not bad! You've actually broken through the rudimentary level and directly entered the proficient level. I thought you'd stay at the rudimentary level!" Richard was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed.

Furthermore, the control over the skeletons is also slightly improved.

Unable to contain his excitement, Richard immediately and cautiously began casting the Shadow Grip spell in his dormitory, his goal being to grab the chair with a shadowy hand and take it away.

As Richard chanted his incantation, a black hand, about two meters in diameter, appeared out of thin air and swiftly grasped the wooden chair. In the instant it grabbed the chair, "crack!" the chair was crushed to pieces!

That's right, it's pulverized, not torn to pieces!

While marveling at its immense power, Richard also felt that he still couldn't quite control the strength of Shadow Grip. It seemed that to use it as a second hand, he would need to reach at least the mastery level.

Right now, he's at most at the stage of being able to hit whatever he's told.

Just as Richard was about to try again, a sharp pain shot through his head, and hot liquid started flowing from his nose. He touched it and hissed! It was a nosebleed! This was a sign that his mental energy was about to be exhausted!

Richard was horrified!

After a long while, Richard finally felt much better.

He pondered carefully and concluded that the problem likely stemmed from the total amount of his mental energy. It seemed that the Shadow Grip spell's multiple transformations during its execution would consume additional mental energy, which had nearly drained his already limited mental energy.

It seems the next step is to find a way to improve my mental strength!

After going around in circles, we've come back to the issue of innate mental talent.

In addition to practicing the Rodriguez meditation once a day, you must try to find some potions or rare herbs that can enhance your mental strength.

But obviously, even if these things are sold within the school, they would be extremely expensive!

Therefore, the problem actually turns into the problem of how to efficiently earn magic stones.

Earning magic stones during the first-level wizard apprentice stage is nothing more than either doing side jobs or going out to complete missions!

For Richard, the most worthwhile thing to do is definitely to hunt monsters, which earns him both magic stones and energy points.

The next morning, Richard took all the books he had borrowed and hurried to the library.

The librarian on duty today happened to be the same old man who had handled Richard's borrowing of the book two weeks ago. Seeing Richard return "Shadow Grip," he immediately recalled the scene and chuckled, saying, "How's it going, young man? Shadow Grip isn't easy to learn, is it? You've wasted your magic stones!"

Richard was taken aback, unsure how to respond.

Seeing Richard's stunned expression, the old man assumed Richard was a little embarrassed and comforted him, "It's alright, it's only a waste of half a month. There's still time to choose other witchcraft."

"Thank you for reminding me." The administrator meant well, so Richard didn't say much, only expressing his gratitude.

"Go on, young man!" The old man waved his hand, and Richard, familiar with the place, went up to the second floor.

To the old man's surprise, Richard didn't go to the second floor at all. Instead, he searched through the bookshelves on the first floor and then came out.

The old man was immediately surprised, because there were no witchcraft books on the first floor; the bookshelves on the first floor were full of common knowledge books.

After Richard came out, the old man took a closer look at the list of books Richard had borrowed. It turned out to be five common knowledge books, including "List of Common Herbs in Mud Swamps", "Illustrated Guide to Common Monsters in Mud Swamps", and "Wilderness Survival Guide".

The old man immediately shook his head, thinking, "Sigh! I thought he was a young man with perseverance, but I didn't expect him to give up as soon as he encountered a setback!" But after a while, the old man still couldn't help but advise, "Young man, why don't you choose other spellbooks? If you can't learn Shadow Grip, you can learn magic tricks first."

Thanks to D_poisonous tongue, book friend zero-yuan full subscription you didn't want to do, and summernight for the many recommendation votes!

(End of this chapter)