Wizards begin with Occlumency.

Chapter 105 The Reality of Humanity, The Reality of Humanity

"You little rascal."

Paro the wizard watched Link walk out of the office and muttered to himself.

However, the more cunning and shrewd Link Grand was, the more he admired him.

Even the most talented person cannot go far or achieve much if they are too honest.

That's just how the world is.

Honest people always suffer losses.

One, two, three, small losses accumulate until they completely overwhelm you.

The wizard Paro has been through many ups and downs over the decades and has seen too many naive geniuses perish along the way.

Picking up the smart device, the wizard Paro immediately sent a "video call" request to Peter Lionel.

"What is it?"

The screen went black, but the sounds of strenuous activity, panting, indescribable noises, and Peter Lionel's impatient voice could be heard: "I'm busy, hurry up and tell me!"

The wizard Paro cursed inwardly, then briefly said, "Just one thing: stop all your underhanded tactics against Link Grand, and don't push me to my limit."

"understood."

Peter Lionel's tone grew increasingly impatient. "You're bothering me with such trivial matters? Is he your son? Why are you keeping such a close eye on him?"

"Stop talking nonsense, that's it."

Paro the wizard was speechless as he listened to the increasingly loud female solo singing and hung up the call immediately.

"unlucky!"

Feeling his ears were getting a little dirty, the wizard Paro grumbled and then went to the "Rivesos Forum" to browse posts about witch rights in order to distract himself.

the other side.

Peter Lionel worked hard for a long time and finally reached a consensus with each other, achieving harmony and temporarily ending the transformation period, thus advancing to the realm of the sage.

With a few spells cast at will, all the water stains, sweat stains, and other marks on the two people disappeared.

Convenient, refreshing, and comfortable.

Peter Lionel, after having his female companion, whose eyes gleamed with contentment, change into her battle attire, contacted Soren Lucia.

"Sauron, your probing has yielded a response."

Peter Lionel skipped the pleasantries with Soren Lucia and went straight to the point, saying, "Paro just contacted me, demanding that we stop all our underhanded tactics against Link Grand."

"Okay. I understand."

On the screen, Soren Lucia remained expressionless and coldly said, "Now that we've ascertained Paro's attitude, let's just arrange for someone to kill him during the inter-regional competition."

"Okay, that's settled then. I have other things to do."

Peter Lionel watched as his female companion walked out of the dressing room, dressed as a goddess from the world of gods, and became excited, quickly hanging up the phone.

Another fierce battle is about to break out.

……

Link did not waste his time.

The four witchcraft spells purchased from the black market are still at the proficiency level and need to be improved.

Link spent the entire afternoon on the seventh floor of the laboratory building practicing witchcraft.

They practiced individual spells to improve their proficiency, while also constantly combining the 12 zero-ring spells they had already mastered.

Practice the spellcasting techniques developed based on pseudo-natal sorcery, including "continuous casting," "parallel casting," and "double/multiple casting," to deepen your understanding and improve your proficiency.

There are now less than two and a half months left until the major competition between the two districts.

From the scattered information disclosed by the academy, Link learned that the highest mortality rate was in one-on-one combat, while the most difficult situations were exploring secret realms and surviving desperate situations.

These three forms have one thing in common: they all require a very high level of mastery and application of witchcraft from the apprentices participating in the two-district competition, although each has its own emphasis.

One-on-one combat, emphasizing offensive and defensive magic, discourages but does not prohibit the use of rune items and magical artifacts.

The prerequisite is that the participants can provide a reasonable source of income to prove that the magic stones used to purchase rune items and witchcraft were earned through their own learning.

Exploring secret realms emphasizes detection-based witchcraft and various knowledge reserves.

Survival in dire circumstances tests the comprehensive abilities of the participating apprentices, with a slight emphasis on practice and a slight emphasis on theory.

Since Link has started preparing ahead of time, he must prioritize these three forms of preparation.

Besides practicing the 12 level 0 spells he has already mastered, Link plans to select a few more level 0 spells as reserves after the spring semester begins.

Even if you don't learn it perfectly, just mastering it might still be useful in certain situations, right?

Since I have a talent for spells, I can do whatever I want!

Link spent the afternoon practicing witchcraft, including several short meditations to restore his mental and magical energy, which greatly depleted his strength.

Despite his exhaustion, Link went to pick up Jasmine from get off work.

Nothing happened along the way.

Seeing the obvious weariness in Link's eyes, Jasmine, who had originally planned to ask a few questions about what had happened during his part-time job, lost interest.

I had dinner at the cafeteria.

Jasmine said, "I'm quite tired today, so I won't go to the library or the lab. I want to go back to my dorm to rest early."

Link realized that Jasmine was subtly showing concern for him.

"it is good."

Link responded with a smile, and then escorted Jasmine back to her dormitory.

He himself did not go to the library or laboratory alone.

They meant well, and since they didn't refuse on the spot, we shouldn't let their kindness go to waste.

My heart has been on edge lately, and I haven't had a chance to rest.

Link didn't do much else. He washed up, changed his clothes, meditated deeply, and then went to bed early.

I slept soundly until dawn, it was very pleasant.

Link even felt that his mental strength had increased significantly.

Upon checking the system panel, sure enough, my mental strength had increased by 2 points to 45!

A balance between tension and relaxation is the way of both civil and military affairs.

This statement makes a lot of sense and also applies to the practice of wizards.

After picking up Jasmine, the two took the subway train straight to the South District.

Yes, the South District.

Yesterday at noon, while having lunch at the shop's restaurant, Wizard Celine called on Wizards Link, Jasmine, and Tina to go together to a factory in the South District to help debug the new production line for the Li Xuancao series.

With the rise and development of the witch rights movement on the "Rivos Forum", the popularity of Link Grand gradually dissipated, while the popularity of the Li Xuan Cao series exploded.

The number of female wizards and wizarding apprentices coming to Celine Wizard's Apothecary to buy the Li Xuancao series, especially the fragrances and perfumes, almost broke down the shop's doors.

Celine the Wizard quickly added two more production lines.

The factory was already working overtime to meet production deadlines and lacked technical personnel to debug the new production line.

The sorceress Celine had no choice but to take matters into her own hands.

Tina was brought along because, as a potion dispensing assistant, she follows the conventional learning and growth path of a pharmacist. The next stage is to become a potion-making assistant, until she becomes a qualified pharmacist.

Unlike Link, who relied on his talents in botany and potion-making to grow wildly.

Bringing Link and Jasmine along is an unspoken rule of the academy.

That is, a company that hires apprentices for part-time work, and in addition to paying them, also trains the apprentices in relevant skills.

Mina Havček paid a high price for this incidental training.

Unfortunately, I'm not ambitious enough.

South section, the platform closest to the destination.

As soon as Link and Jasmine got off the train, they saw Celine the Wizard's bright red hovercar.

Good morning, Wizard Celine.

Link and Jasmine opened the car door, boarded the hovercar, and greeted each other in unison.

"Um."

Celine the Wizard casually responded, stepped on the gas, and the hovercar shot off in a flash.

Unlike the fully automated vehicles she had ridden in before, Celine's hovercar was a very retro, manually operated vehicle.

Link saw some parts that resembled those of cars from his previous life.

For example, a control lever similar to an F1 racing car steering wheel, manual gear shifting, and "accelerator," "clutch," and "brake."

A long-awaited shock.

The hovercar moves at an extremely high speed, like lightning.

Fortunately, the city of Rivos has separate pedestrian and vehicle traffic, and the hovercraft can be selected in four modes: ground-hugging, low-altitude, mid-altitude, and high-altitude, so there is not much to worry about hitting people or other vehicles.

Jasmine had never been to the South District before.

Previously, she couldn't see anything when she looked out the window of the rail transit train.

But now, no matter how fast the hovercar is going, and no matter how fast the buildings outside the window are receding, you can still see a very obvious contrast and difference in elevation.

Jasmine seemed to see the difference between her own castle and the slums.

It turns out that there's such a big difference just a few streets apart.

The hovercar stopped, and the three people got out.

Looking at the endless rows of factory buildings in front of her, which resembled matchboxes, Jasmine felt extremely oppressed even before entering.

"What are you standing there for?"

Link waved his hand, attracting the attention of Jasmine, who was staring blankly into space. He then beckoned her to join him, and they followed the wizard Celine into one of the many factories.

The factory area is very clean, and the layout of the factory buildings is very reasonable and standardized.

No one came out to greet them.

The wizard Celine led Link and Jasmine to the cleaning area.

The three of them went into the men's/women's changing room respectively, put on protective suits, and then entered the "workshop".

Inside the "workshop," apart from the noise of the machines running, almost no other sounds could be heard.

On the assembly line, workers wearing full protective gear perform monotonous and tedious tasks.

It may involve providing magic, casting spells, processing materials, or operating machinery...

The movements are precise, without the slightest redundancy, even more mechanical than a noisy machine.

Looking into the workers' eyes through the goggles, one would find them numb and lifeless.

It looks like withered vines and rotten wood.

"Link..."

Jasmine watched the scene before her. The seeds of the Li Xuan grass were accelerated, matured, pre-treated, refined, and then transported into the alchemy chamber, diluted, mixed, and bottled in a very short time using witchcraft and special potions. But none of this touched her heart as much as those numb eyes.

She tugged at Link's sleeve and whispered, "They're the Storm Sea's new blood who haven't advanced to full wizard status in four years?"

"No."

Link shook his head.

Upon hearing this, Jasmine's eyes suddenly revealed intense anticipation.

She wanted to hear the answer she wanted to hear.

Unfortunately, Link continued, "There are also some local wizard apprentices with low aptitude or special circumstances."

The light in Jasmine's eyes suddenly disappeared.

The truth was even crueler than Jasmine imagined.

Not only are the new blood of the Storm Sea subjected to extreme exploitation, but those born on the mainland are also unable to escape suffering and numbness.

This is the real world, the reality of the world.

Some people have herds of cattle and horses.

Some people are beasts of burden their entire lives.

(End of this chapter)