My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Xia Zuo agreed, saying, "Professor, I think you make a very good point. So, which school of thought would you recommend I choose?"

Beatrice snapped her fingers, and a book landed in front of the student:

A Beginner's Guide to the Curse Genre.

The pages flipped, stopping on one of them.

Xia Zuo leaned forward and quickly read it through.

The Curse school is dedicated to inflicting curses on enemies. In addition to needing elemental energy and curse signs, it also requires the caster to have sufficient knowledge of various negative effects.

This aligns perfectly with poison alchemy, allowing each expert poison alchemist to learn basic toxins and delve into compound toxins, ensuring they are fully aware of the negative effects of toxins and can easily learn corresponding spells.

"Professor Kulov chose the Curse School under my guidance, which enabled him to become a high-ranking mage within 40 years of leaving the academy."

Beatrice, seeing that some of the students were interested, continued:

"The Curse School and Poison Alchemists are closely linked. Of 10 high-ranking Curse School mages, at least 8 are expert-level or higher Poison Alchemists. This phenomenon is quite common among alchemy schools. For example, Colossus Creators choose the Protection School, Artifact Masters choose the Detection School, and Alchemists choose the Blessing School... all in order to become high-ranking mages as quickly as possible and prolong their lives."

“Professor, I choose the Curse school as my primary spellcasting school,” Xia Zuo said, closing the book.

Beatrice manipulated two other books to fall onto the table.

A Beginner's Guide to the Energy Shaping School

A Beginner's Guide to Protective Defense Techniques

"Learning the Evocation school of magic is for preparing for an elemental body."

Beatrice tapped the cover of another book. "Protective spells are essential for all mages. After all, only a living mage can be considered a mage."

Xia Zuo stacked the three books together, pondered for a moment, and asked, "Professor, approximately how many points would I need to advance to become a full-fledged mage?"

"Mastering the primary spellcasting school will allow you to advance to a full-fledged mage. Let me calculate the cost of learning the curses school for you."

Beatrice took out her points booklet and said as she calculated:

"First, accommodate 13 elements, ensuring that each trait has one corresponding 'well-behaved' element, for a total of 1300 points."

"The secret medicine for infusing the cursed seal costs 2000 points. The method of consumption is the same as the poison-infused medicine: after drinking it, enter deep meditation, and the medicine will complete the next steps."

"Simultaneously communicating with the four elements in the ocean of consciousness to stimulate attribute-free energy without elemental effects requires the use of intermediate basic meditation techniques, which costs 8000 points."

"5 essential curse spells, each spellbook costs 600 points, for a total of 3000 points."

"You need a protective amulet to cast curse spells, otherwise you will suffer the backlash of the curse spells when you are exhausted. You don't need to spend points to exchange for a protective amulet; as your mentor, I will give you one."

"The formal spell [Calm Mind], which helps you enter a deep meditation state, will also be given to you for free."

"So, you only need 14300 points."

With each sentence Beatrice spoke, a line of information from the cheat system appeared in Xia Zuo's mind, continuously updating the character template and fully presenting the conditions for advancing to a formal mage.

Beatrice handed the written slip of paper to the student, then took a large stack of orders from her drawer and placed them on the table.

"These are newly arrived orders for poisons. They were temporarily held up with me due to the plague. Now you can use them as a reference for refining."

"Thank you, Professor." Xia Zuo put away the piece of paper, looked at the drug order, and then at the three books in front of him. He sincerely felt that Beatrice was a very responsible mentor who had considered everything for her students.

Beatrice snapped her fingers, drawing the students' attention. "You still have two alchemy courses to learn. Functional Potion and Healing and Tonic Potion—which of these two branches of potion alchemy would you like to study?"

"Medicine and Tonics," Xia Zuo replied without hesitation.

Anru chose this course not only because she had chosen functional pharmacology.

The Medicine and Tonics program includes anatomy classes, and the anatomical materials are no longer limited to ordinary animals. This is a good opportunity to unlock the health of humanoid creatures and monsters, and incidentally reap a reward of perception attribute points.

Beatrice stretched her arm toward the bookshelf, and more than 20 alchemy textbooks and a small leather suitcase floated over.

"Take these books and study on your own. Once you've memorized them, we'll go to the alchemy lab for practical training."

"Yes, Professor."

Looking at the mountain of books in front of him, Xia Zuo felt that the coming year would be incredibly fulfilling.

Chapter 40 Citizenship Granting Instruments

a few days later.

Anru'er still hadn't come out of the dormitory...

All told, the total time she spent making her first elemental bottle exceeded three months, approaching the longest time limit for her first meditation practice—7 consecutive failures in taming the unruly elements, which took about 105 days.

That evening, as Xia Zuo finished tidying up the Grand Alchemy Chamber and was about to go for dinner, Beatrice's letter fell into his hands.

He glanced at the contents of the letter, ran quickly to the castle hall, and then pulled the bewildered Anru into his arms.

"Hmm..." Anru'er rested her head on her boyfriend's shoulder, her delicate eyebrows furrowed, her skin was somewhat loose and cracked, and several wrinkles were faintly visible on her forehead.

She looked around the hall with a puzzled expression, and said in a weak voice:

"I can't see any light at all...it feels like I'm blind..."

Xia Zuo touched her shoulders and back. She had lost a lot of weight, and her bones were protruding. Her eye sockets were sunken, and the flesh on her cheeks was also noticeably hollow.

He felt very sorry for her and comforted her gently:

"I used to be like that too. I couldn't see the elemental servants or the light of the elements. It's okay, it doesn't affect alchemy or daily life."

Xia Zuo affectionately ruffled her hair and noticed that her hair had thinned and wasn't as smooth as before. "Let's go have dinner first, have a good meal, and then you can go find your tutor."

"Mmm-hmm." Anru nodded repeatedly, her legs going weak, and she clung tightly to her boyfriend's arm as they walked toward the restaurant. "How were you doing while I was in the dorm?"

"Not bad," Xia Zuo said with a smile. "I gained a lot from this trip. I probably won't leave Starry Night City until you practice meditation for the first time."

"Hehe~ That's good." Anru smiled sweetly.

Xia Zuo sat down with her in a corner of the restaurant, ordered lunch, and then used his detection spell.

..

[Character Name] Anru

[Health Points] ? ? ? (Moderately Weak)

[Willpower] 7+2→9

[Mental State] 0.2

(Other data omitted)

..

The mental attribute value is only 0.2 points left!! Just a little bit away from 0 points!

What about the Willpower attribute? How did it suddenly increase by 2 points?!

My God, what happened in the dorm?! Xia Zuo put his hands behind his head, his expression trembling.

He hadn't studied elemental symbolism, so he wasn't sure what price he would have to pay to squeeze the ocean of the mind to this extent, nor did he know exactly how good the results would be...

But having lost so much weight all of a sudden, the process of making the elemental bottle must be incredibly difficult.

Sitting to the side, Anru'er propped her chin up on her arms on the table, watching curiously as bowls, spoons, and plates floated in the kitchen. She stared at the plates hovering in mid-air for a moment, then nudged her boyfriend with her thin, bony buttocks and said weakly:

"This is what the restaurant and kitchen looked like when you first enrolled... No wonder you were always staring at the plates back then. You didn't attend the welcome dinner for new students and couldn't see the elemental light, so it was really quite boring."

Xia Zuo snapped out of his daze, placed the food brought by the elemental servant in front of her, and then patted her thigh. "I'm going to get a drink. You eat first. Be sure to eat in small bites, or you'll get a stomachache."

"Mmm~" Anru smiled, picked up the knife with her left hand, and tried to cut the steak several times but couldn't.

Xia Zuo brought back the milk, helped her cut the pork chop into small cubes, and then tore the white bread into strips and soaked them in the mushroom soup until soft before enjoying her own cooking.

After dinner, Xia Zuo escorted An Ru'er into the oil alchemy area. The way she walked slowly while leaning against the wall once again stirred his pity for her.

That evening, Xia Zuo, as usual, came to his mentor to report on the day's progress in drug refining.

After reading her student's alchemy diary, Beatrice said:

“Xia Zuo, Anru’er has created a perfect quality flask, which is of great significance. Just like you created a perfect quality refined powder on your first day as a novice poison alchemist. This means that almost all the flasks she creates in the future will also be of perfect quality.”

Beatrice took a deep breath, raised her shoulders and then slowly lowered them, saying:

"Only with unwavering faith and immense courage can one squeeze the ocean of the spirit to the extent that Anjou did, and in this process, one will suffer the excruciating pain of having one's soul torn apart."

Xia Zuo lowered his head deeply.

When he practiced the [Poison Crystal] meditation method, he experienced the torment of soul pain and tearing... It's hard to imagine how Anruer faced such pain alone.

At this moment, he thought of An Ru'er when he saw her that afternoon. She looked thin and had prominent cheekbones. Complex thoughts welled up in his heart—An Ru'er had really gone all out to catch up with his progress.

Beatrice rubbed her temples, a surprised smile appearing on her face, and said:

"I didn't expect you all to have such good alchemical potential. No wonder you got together so soon after meeting."

"I discussed it with Professor Zhuolang and Professor Bethel. After she becomes a mage apprentice, she will stay in the academy to handle orders, just like you. At least until she becomes a full-fledged mage and has enough ability to protect herself, I will not let her leave the academy."

"Thank you, Professor."

"No, don't misunderstand. I didn't keep her here because of you."

Beatrice shook her head, smiling as she looked at the slightly bewildered and embarrassed students, and said:

"I handed over the alchemy pouch that Dim brought back to the Mage Temple. A few days ago, the Temple sent an official document pre-approving the Starry Night Kingdom's expansion of its territory. The preparation of supplies has been put on the agenda. I plan to deploy a batch of elemental servants to perform the most dangerous physical labor. This will require a lot of elemental bottles."

"So that's how it is..." Xia Zuo scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

“Go and rest. Come to me tomorrow to pick up the new poison order. You’ve caught a good time; the new order pays out more than before.” Beatrice continued working, manipulating her pen.

Xia Zuo tidied up his desk, said goodbye to his mentor, and left.

...

The next morning, Xia Zuo thoughtfully prepared breakfast for An Ru'er.

Anruer learned from her mentor that she would be staying at the academy, and she was all smiles all day. Xia Zuo also became more and more motivated when faced with a huge number of orders for drugs.

In the days that followed, Xia Zuo spent his days refining poisons to fulfill orders, and before going to bed at night, he would study alchemy textbooks on his own.

With all of Helmst's associates and bandits sent to the guillotine, the province of Sbreil enjoyed a long-awaited period of peace.

The four provinces are at peace, and the lives of ordinary people are improving day by day.

The kingdom's plan to expand its territory has been officially put on the agenda, and once everything is ready, it will receive formal approval from the Temple of Mages.