Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 58 Pre-Match Preparation (Please continue reading)

"Next, William Bannings!" This time, Professor Ivan, the black-robed wizard, called out William's name.

At this moment, the many freshmen who were enthusiastically discussing the green-haired girl's fighting strength gradually calmed down and began to watch the arena.

William walked calmly onto the arena, dressed in a black, tight-fitting leather armor and carrying two swords.

Prior to this, apprentices including Andrea and Davos, who possessed the strength of formal knights, all wore full knight armor.

The heavy knight's armor is theoretically the best equipment combination to deal with archers!

But since William dared to wear light armor, he must have something to rely on!

Richard's expression immediately darkened, and he focused intently on the situation.

In the first round, the freshmen's opponent was only a skeleton warrior.

This allowed some of the better freshmen to defeat their opponents in just a few moves, making it impossible to gauge their true strength.

This time, things are different with the opponents being the undead trio. The increased difficulty means that almost every freshman will reveal some of their information.

"Begin!" The black-robed wizard had barely finished speaking when William charged straight at the undead trio like a gust of wind!

Richard's pupils contracted, and he thought to himself, "That's fast!"

William charged at a speed at least twice as fast as Davos, who was fully armored!

A figure rushed toward the skeleton archers at lightning speed, leaving almost an afterimage. Although the skeleton warriors and skeleton guardians tried their best to block, William easily parried or dodged them.

With a clever turn, William arrived at the skeleton archer's flank, his right hand thrusting his steel sword straight at the soul fire in the archer's eye socket. The skeleton archer wasn't stupid; he quickly retreated to dodge.

But as the skeleton archer began to dodge backward, William drew a silver rapier with his left hand, and with lightning speed, pierced the skeleton archer's head in one blow!

Only then did the skeleton archer realize that it was William's other sword that had killed it!

The green soul fire in the skeleton archer's eye sockets gradually died down, and the entire skeleton scattered on the ground and gradually dissipated, seemingly returning to the realm of the dead!

The rest of the battle will just become garbage time!

In no time, William easily dealt with both the skeleton warriors and the skeleton guardians.

"William Bannings, approved!" Professor Evan glanced at William, seemingly lost in thought.

"Wow! As expected of William, who has already reserved the top spot! He took down the troublesome undead trio with ease!" A freshman, who seemed to be a die-hard fan of William, immediately started reserving the top spot for him.

"She's impressive, but whether she can definitely take the top spot is another matter! I think that green-haired girl, Ophelia, is no less capable than William," another boy argued. The green-haired girl was beautiful and strong, and it was easy for her to win the favor of the opposite sex in her age group.

"I also think William has the best chance, but Ophelia is also very strong! Currently, the strongest should be William and the green-haired girl in one group, and Andrea, Davos, and Richard in another!" a boy analyzed logically.

"Although Richard's archery skills are very good, he is also easy to target. As long as the opponent is wearing heavy knight armor, his archery skills are useless!"

Therefore, I think Richard is still not as good as Andrea and Davos.

"Richard would probably rank fifth at most!" a chubby boy said seriously.

"."

After the second round of assessments was completed, Professor Ivan, the black-robed wizard, announced on the spot that a total of thirty-one freshmen had qualified to participate in the ranking competition, which would begin tomorrow.

The qualifying rounds will still use an elimination format, with teams facing off in pairs after a draw!

Losing means disqualification, while winning means advancement. The tournament continues until the top four are determined, at which point a round-robin format will be used.

During the competition, the use of any potions, witchcraft items, alchemical products, and contracted creatures remains prohibited.

Back in his dormitory, Richard began to reflect on his experiences and observations from the day's battle!

Richard glanced through his list of combat spells:

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

Shadow Grip (Proficiency 34%)

Dark Element Shield (Proficiency 28%)

Bone Armor Technique (Proficient 47%)

Slow Spell (Mastery 9%)

Manipulating skeletons (Proficiency 16%)

Weakening Technique (Beginner 24%)

Spiritual guidance techniques (beginner level 33%)

That's right, Richard only learned the last two level zero spells in the past month or so.

Although he already had experience with many other forms of witchcraft, without using the Inspiration Panel, he could only barely master these two level-zero witchcrafts in more than a month.

Richard looked at his remaining 3200 energy points. Considering that William and the green-haired girl were quite strong, even somewhat troublesome, he decided to upgrade them again to give himself an extra advantage in tomorrow's ranking match.

Richard's current mental strength is only 8.9. Apart from forcibly retaining about 1 point of basic mental strength to prevent him from fainting, Richard can still freely use 7.9 standard units of mental strength.

In terms of combinations, Richard can relatively easily cast three level-0 spells, for example, by choosing the following spell combination in a battle: Dark Element Shield + Slow + Shadow Grip.

Without considering the extra mental energy required for spell transformations, it would roughly require 3+2+3, totaling about 8 points of mental energy. However, don't forget that Richard has the optimization effect of basic energy-saving spell casting, so only 7.2 standard units of mental energy are needed to complete the above three level zero spell castings.

If you use the spell combination of Dark Element Shield + Slow + Weakness in battle, it will be even easier, requiring only 3+2+2, a total of 7 points of spirit power. After optimization, it only requires 6.3 standard units of spirit power.

However, even with this, he still has 7.9-6.3 mental energy remaining, which is 1.6 standard units of mental energy, meaning he has not maximized his combat power.

Richard glanced again at the newly learned Mind Guidance spell (33% beginner level), a support-type level 0 sorcery.

[Mental Guidance Spell: Mentally guides the spell cast by the caster; the mental energy consumed is proportional to the degree of transformation and the distance.]

Don't underestimate this seemingly minor, level-zero auxiliary spell. Almost every wizard apprentice eventually learns it, even though it consumes more mental energy, because it ensures the spell's accuracy.

Without the guidance of spiritual power, the accuracy of witchcraft will be significantly reduced when encountering enemies that dodge or move extremely fast. Therefore, after reaching the second level of wizard apprenticeship, apprentices will generally begin to learn this auxiliary witchcraft.

A first-level wizard apprentice may not necessarily learn this spell, because at the first level, the total amount of mental energy is limited, and since they have just come into contact with spells, their concept of spell accuracy is not yet clear.

If Richard hadn't spent a lot of magic stones and points on several paid courses, he probably wouldn't have known about and actively learned this witchcraft until he was a second-level wizard apprentice!

Richard thought for a moment and decided to focus on improving his mastery of mental guidance and the Weakening Technique first. After all, the beginner, rudimentary, and proficient levels consume fewer energy points and offer significant improvements, making them the most cost-effective.

[The host is currently practicing Level 0 sorcery, Spirit Guidance. Spirit Guidance is an auxiliary sorcery; it is recommended that the host combine it with other sorcery techniques during practice.]

"Huh!" Richard was greatly surprised, but upon closer reflection, it made sense. He could only channel his mental energy after releasing an offensive spell.

So he silently recited the Weakness Technique in his mind.

[Host detected practicing level 0 witchcraft Weakening and Spiritual Guidance. Do/Do you wish to consume energy to gain inspiration for practicing these two witchcraft?]

Richard thought for a moment, then dragged the slider to 1200 points and selected "Yes!"

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(End of this chapter)