By the twentieth day of his studies, Ethan found that his learning speed had become even faster than before.
It was not the effect of a passive.
The change was in himself.
The primary knowledge automatically linked together in his mind, forming a massive network of knowledge.
Every time he learned a new subject, the network expanded outward by another layer.
As he progressed, he found that many concepts in the new subjects were things he had already encountered in his previous studies. He did not need to relearn them; he could simply slot them directly into the network.
The fortieth day.
The final knowledge crystal turned to powder in Ethan's hand.
Ethan stretched his stiff neck.
All seventy-eight subjects of primary knowledge were completely mastered.
He stood up and walked out of the cultivation room.
In the Logistics Hall, at the Rental Management Office.
Behind the counter sat a sparse-haired old man, dozing off over a thick ledger. Hearing footsteps, he lifted his eyelids.
“I want to rent a testing ground.”
The old man let out a yawn, pulled a crystal display from beneath the counter, and slid it in front of Ethan.
The crystal display densely listed dozens of testing ground specifications and prices.
From the lowest Apprentice-level testing grounds to the highest First-Tier testing grounds, the prices ranged from a few magic stones to several hundred magic stones.
Ethan's gaze fell directly on the bottommost row.
“Testing Ground 1. First-Tier defense standard, capable of withstanding the full-force impact of a First-Tier spell. Rent is 200 magic stones per day.”
“This one.”
The old man's yawn cut short.
He sized Ethan up and down, then glanced at the information on the identity plaque, his brow furrowing slightly.
However, he did not say much. He simply took the 200 magic stones, pulled a crystal key from a drawer, and placed it on the counter.
“Testing Ground 1 is at the foot of the back mountain. Just follow the main road to the end and you'll see it. Once the key is activated, the testing ground is yours to use. It will automatically deactivate when the time is up. You can mess with the targets and defensive arrays inside as much as you want; the academy will handle repairs if you break them. But if you injure yourself, the academy won't take responsibility.”
Ethan took the key, turned around, and walked out of the Logistics Hall.
Testing Ground 1, located at the foot of the back mountain, was an independent circular building.
The outer walls were built from dark grey stone, their surfaces carved with dense runic lines.
There were no guards at the entrance, only a heavy metal door.
Ethan pressed the crystal key into the groove on the door, and it slid open silently.
The interior of the testing ground was a circular space over a hundred meters in diameter.
The dome was thirty meters high, constructed of translucent crystals. Layers of defensive runes stacked within it, enveloping the entire space in a pale gold light membrane.
The ground was paved with dark blue-grey stone slabs, which were covered in scratches and scorch marks of varying depths.
Right in the center of the grounds stood three target pillars, each as thick as two men hugging together, with pale silver defensive runes flowing across their surfaces.
Over a dozen monitoring crystal displays were embedded around the walls, displaying the energy fluctuation data within the testing ground in real-time.
Ethan walked to the center of the grounds and retrieved World Eater from his storage ring.
The emerald-green staff felt slightly heavy in his hand. The two characters on the surface of the staff, woven naturally from wood fibers, bulged slightly under his fingertips, feeling warm to the touch.
He gripped the staff tightly and injected mana into it.
The moment his mana touched the surface of the staff, it was sucked inside.
The highly compressed wood fibers inside the staff lit up at the exact same moment. A deep blue-green glow surged from the core of the staff, spreading along the wooden grain toward the tip.
Countless layered emerald-green light patterns surfaced on the staff, extending all the way from the base to the top.
The surrounding wood-element energy particles began to gather frantically toward the staff.
Ethan raised his staff and released a Thorn Pierce toward the nearest target pillar.
No chanting, no gestures—just a single thought.
A wooden spike the thickness of a thumb condensed at the tip of the staff and shot out.
The spike pulled an emerald-green afterimage through the air, its speed so fast that the naked eye could barely track it.
It collided with the defensive runes on the surface of the target pillar, exploding into a blinding burst of green light.
Boom!
The numbers on the monitoring crystal display jumped frantically.
Ethan walked over to the crystal display and looked down.
With his passives disabled, Thorn Pierce had a base power of 2 degrees.
With his 91% wood-element affinity bonus, the power should have risen to 3.82 degrees. Yet, the final power displayed on the crystal display was 240 degrees.
Ethan raised his staff and released another Giant Wood Spike toward the target pillar.
Ethan cast cantrips one after another, the numbers on the crystal display continuously jumping.
After being amplified, the power of every single cantrip was multiplied by more than fifty times.
He stopped, walked to the crystal display, and read the recorded values from top to bottom.
Amplified by World Eater, the power of all his cantrips was multiplied by fifty times.
The amplification of a Third-Tier Wizardry Tool was indeed terrifying.
Holding the staff, he cast a few more cantrips. The defensive runes on the surface of the target pillar flickered erratically under the bombardment, and the numbers on the monitoring crystal display kept jumping.
But therein lay the problem.
Ethan could feel an invisible obstruction when his mana flowed into the staff.
It felt like using a thick hose to fill a water tank; the hose was wide enough, but the valve at the connection was only turned open by a third.
The mana could pass through and be amplified, but the flow rate and total volume were restricted by that connection.
However, this was not an issue with World Eater, but rather with him.
World Eater was a Third-Tier Wizardry Tool. The energy circuits and runic structures inside the staff were entirely designed for users at the Official Wizard level.
For a Third-Tier Apprentice like him to hold this staff was like a child swinging a giant warhammer.
The hammer itself could smash rocks, but his arms would grow sore after only a few swings.
He could barely use it, but he was far from being able to unleash its true power.
Ethan held the staff horizontally in front of him, his fingertips gently brushing across the two characters woven from wood fibers on the staff.
The characters for "World Eater" bulged slightly, feeling warm to the touch.
He closed his eyes, focused his mental power to the absolute limit, and once again injected mana into the staff.
This time, the mana output was greater than any of his previous attempts.
The wood fibers inside the staff all lit up at the exact same moment. The deep blue-green glow surged from the core of the staff, its speed spreading along the fiber patterns toward the tip noticeably faster.
The layered emerald-green light patterns on the surface of the staff lit up from the base to the top, and the entire staff trembled slightly in his hand.
A Thorn Pierce condensed at the tip of the staff and shot out.
The sound the spike made as it tore through the air was no longer a sharp whistle, but a dull sonic boom.
It collided with the defensive runes on the surface of the target pillar, and the exploding green light illuminated the entire testing ground like broad daylight.
The numbers on the monitoring crystal display jumped frantically.
1,210 degrees.
Ethan withdrew his mana, and the light patterns on the staff slowly dimmed.
He had managed to push the base value up slightly on his own.
He could increase it, but not by much.
With his current mental power strength and mana capacity, the absolute limit he could push the initial power of a cantrip was only this much.
Any further increase would cause the stability of his mana output to drop, which would instead lower the amplification efficiency.
Once he promoted to an Official Wizard and his mental sea underwent radiation-based transformation, both his mana output and stability would undergo a qualitative leap.
Only then would the true power of World Eater be slowly unlocked.
Of course, this was not even factoring in the power from passive amplifications and overlapping cantrips.
Rate on N.U.
