Beware the Scholar

While Euphy was enjoying the lap pillow, Mind Freya also used her ability to carefully browse through the main body's memories. She didn't find anything out of place or modified. Of course, it was also possible that someone had tampered with her memories, but their methods were too advanced for her current self to detect.

In short, this memory check ended in failure, yielding no information. However, after some thought, Freya decided to try again when Mind Freya reached Rank Four. After all, the gap between Rank Three and Rank Four was massive. If even a Rank Four couldn't find any issues by then, her memories were probably truly fine.

Afterward, Freya climbed off Mind Freya's lap and casually recalled the clone back into the system. However, she glanced at Euphy, who was resting on Life Freya's lap with a blissful expression, and decided not to interrupt her for now. She got up to wash her face and brush her teeth in the bathroom. Once she had finished everything and was ready to go to bed, Life Freya reached out and gently poked Euphy's cheek, saying, “Alright, alright, time to rest.”

“Mmh...” Euphy finally got up somewhat reluctantly. After a moment of thought, Life Freya casually took a white flower from her forehead and placed it on Euphy's head. “Here, a gift for you.”

With that said, Life Freya vanished into thin air. Freya declared, “Time to sleep!”

Time flew, and it was soon the next morning. Early in the day, Victor came over to knock on their door and invite them to breakfast.

Freya was still wearing her usual combination of a short skirt and black stockings. Ever since her first time trying them on, she had worn them every single day without fail. Black stockings had now become part of her regular attire; even if she didn't wear a skirt, she would pair shorts or other outfits with a pair of stockings.

After all, they looked great and were very comfortable.

Once Freya and Euphemia got dressed and went out, Victor asked on their way to breakfast, “So, Freya, what exactly is it that you want my help with?”

Freya replied, “No rush, let's wait a bit longer.”

Since they were in reality, it was definitely best to stay put and wait for her Future Simulation's cooldown to finish before making a move in the simulation.

“Sure.” Victor wasn't in a hurry either. After all, in his line of work, patience was an extremely important trait. But in the next second, Victor accidentally caught sight of the white flower-like hair ornament on Euphemia's head, and he couldn't help but freeze.

He said, “Miss Euphemia, where did you get that flower? Can I have a look at it?”

Euphemia took off the flower and asked in confusion, “Is there something wrong with this flower?”

Victor took it, narrowed his eyes, and examined it over and over before saying solemnly, “I don't know what this is—it's my first time seeing it either—but I can feel an incredibly dense amount of luck on this flower. To put it simply, just carrying it on your person can boost your luck. This is simply unbelievable.

“It's the first time I've ever seen anything like it.”

Hearing this, Freya was also stunned. This flower was the Companion Plant that Life Freya had obtained upon advancing to Rank Four. She had never figured out what use it had. It actually boosted luck?

No wonder she couldn't test any effects before, no matter what methods she used. After all, luck was a rather abstract and elusive concept.

Then, Freya realized something else. Her constant luck would disappear after she drank potions of other pathways, but the effect of the 'unique Companion Plant everyone gets' upon Life Freya's advancement was still related to luck. Good grief, was she really destined to be bound to the concept of luck forever?

Victor then asked, “Where did this flower come from? Is it difficult to obtain?”

Euphemia didn't say anything, but turned to look at Freya. Freya thought for a moment and said, “It belongs to a friend of mine. She can get a lot of them.”

After all, for Life Freya, she could summon a vast patch of them with a wave of her hand, consuming only a bit of spirituality at most. And when it came to the Earth Pathway's spirituality, well, those in the know knew.

Victor said, “Then...”

Freya said, “I can help you get some later.”

Victor immediately clasped his hands together above his head and bowed to Freya. “Thank you so much! Following you is indeed the best choice, Miss Freya!”

It was no exaggeration to say that the luck contained within this single flower was more than what Victor could accumulate by painstakingly losing for several days straight at a casino.

He just didn't know how many of these flowers Freya's friend could get. Honestly, he would be satisfied with just three or four.

Victor muttered silently to himself, I feel like I'm owing Freya more and more. I'll have to find a way to repay her properly later.

Although he still didn't know what Freya wanted him to do, Victor had already made up his mind that he would do his absolute best to accomplish it, no matter what it was!

Except dating another man.

Just like that, after eating breakfast, the three of them returned to the hotel to relax and idle away the time. In the afternoon, Euphemia's grandfather's reply arrived, bringing along the Rank Three Scholar potion.

It was a very cloudy potion. From the outside, it looked just like black sesame paste. When Euphy opened the bottle, Freya could even smell a very pungent odor of ink.

Euphemia drank it all in one gulp. She placed the empty bottle on the table, while she herself entered a state similar to being drunk, swaying unsteadily before falling face-first onto the bed.

It took more than half an hour for Euphemia to slowly crawl back up. During this time, she hadn't lost consciousness; she remained awake the entire time, eyes open, occasionally shifting her pupils, but she simply didn't move.

Freya had thought something had gone wrong with Euphemia, like a failed advancement. She summoned Life Freya to check on her using Heart Perception, only to find that her body was perfectly healthy and everything was normal. Euphemia wasn't moving simply because... she didn't want to.

Seeing Euphy get up, Freya immediately asked, “What was going on with you just now? Why were you lying there completely motionless?”

Euphemia held her head with her hands and said, “I was adapting and getting used to my new abilities. And these abilities are a bit... unique.”

Euphy then explained that she had obtained two new abilities after reaching Rank Three. The first was called 'Hyperdimensional Brain'. There was a saying about doing two things at once, meaning a person could focus on two tasks simultaneously. For instance, when Freya controlled multiple bodies at the same time, she was multitasking.

Euphy's ability could be simply understood as her permanently being in a 'triple-minded' state from now on. It was as if she now possessed three brains, allowing her to easily multitask six or even nine things at once.

One mind could be used to learn occult arrays related to 'inheriting memories', another to learn more occult arrays that protected against mind abilities, and the third to chat, play cards, or play games with Freya.

At the same time, Euphemia's brain had undergone an absurd level of enhancement. If a normal person's brain was like a book, then Euphemia's current brain had basically become three calculators.

Both her brain's capacity and processing speed had received an incredibly ridiculous boost. Vague memories of the past became exceptionally clear in an instant; Euphemia could now precisely recall the memory of her very first day after birth. From this moment on, everything she saw would be recorded with absolute precision.

In Freya's past life, there was a condition called hyperthymesia. Euphy's current state felt very similar to that, but she had a much more powerful version of it, completely free of any side effects.

Euphemia's motionless state earlier was essentially her adapting to this process.

It was no exaggeration to say that from now on, Euphemia would have an incredibly strong resistance to the Mind Pathway's memory-modification abilities because she had simply too much memory.

To use the previous analogy, when Mind Freya looked at someone's memory, it was like reading a book that she could easily flip through to the end. But if she tried to inspect Euphy's memories, she would feel as though she were looking at three calculators.

If Freya used Psychological Scalpel to modify an ordinary person's memories, she would only need to make some edits on that book. But facing Euphemia, she would have to disassemble those three calculators and alter the individual components inside.

It wasn't that her memories couldn't be modified, but the difficulty would skyrocket. Moreover, if there was even the slightest flaw, the probability of it being discovered after the 'psychological surgery' was over would be extremely high.

In addition to this ability, Euphemia's other new ability was called 'Observant Eye'. If Hyperdimensional Brain enhanced Euphy's information-processing capabilities, then Observant Eye improved her data-gathering capabilities.

Euphemia's observation skills would be vastly improved. Like a camera, she could firmly record everything she saw, seeing even a speck of dust in an inconspicuous corner with absolute clarity.

This meant that Psychological Invisibility—which worked by lowering one's presence to make others ignore them—would be completely useless before Observant Eye. After all, even the smallest pebble would be noticed.

In essence, these two abilities complemented each other, with the ultimate result of drastically improving her learning ability. However, the more Freya heard about them, the more she felt that both of these abilities seemed somewhat targeted at the Mind Pathway.

'Hyperdimensional Brain' countered Psychological Scalpel, 'Observant Eye' countered Psychological Invisibility, and even the Mind Pathway's 'Mind Piercing' would have a very poor effect on the current Euphy. Because of Hyperdimensional Brain, Euphy now had three layers of consciousness. Even if Mind Piercing paralyzed one of them, she still had the other two to think normally, which wouldn't affect her actions at all.

But on the flip side, a Scholar didn't have any direct, front-facing offensive capabilities either. In a sudden encounter, if a hostile Scholar and a Mind Pathway user met, Freya could already picture them pulling each other's hair and flailing wildly.

And if it wasn't a sudden encounter and the Scholar had prepared beforehand, she could draw occult arrays, which would definitely crush the Mind Pathway. But honestly, given the nature of the Mind Pathway, the probability of them falling into a trap wasn't very high.

In short, after completing her advancement, Euphemia's current learning capacity was more than three times greater than when she was at Rank Two. Combined with the Scholar Pathway's Rank One ability to 'learn conventional skills' and Rank Two ability to 'learn occult arrays', the Scholar Pathway was truly terrifying.

Freya asked curiously, “By the way, what are the three class advancements for the Scholar Pathway after this? Which one do you plan to take, Euphy?”

Euphemia said, “The first class advancement is Artisan, which allows one to craft all kinds of extraordinary items—you already know about that one, Fufu. As for the second, it's called Doctor. At just Rank Four, it grants an ability to acquire new extraordinary abilities by continuously studying and accumulating knowledge. I plan to take this class.”

To put it simply, as long as a Doctor understands an extraordinary ability well enough, she can mimic it. Of course, the power won't match the original, but this is still incredibly absurd. Coupled with the Rank Three enhanced learning ability, as long as she has enough time, her combat power can accumulate to an extremely high level.

Euphemia continued, “As for the third class advancement, it's called **.”

Hearing this, Freya tilted her head slightly, a look of confusion appearing on her face. “Huh? What did you just say, Euphy?”

Euphemia shrugged and said, “See? This is one of the characteristics of this class advancement—it cannot be discussed. Its ability even affects the class itself. To your ears, what I just said probably sounded like it was muted. But in reality, I spoke the name of the class normally, but the information went in one ear and out the other, slipping right out of your mind. You forgot it in an instant.”

“Actually, even my family knows very little about this class advancement, and we don't have its potion recipe. Otherwise, I would have really liked to try this class. After all, it seems extremely powerful, doesn't it?”

Freya smacked her lips and exclaimed, “Indeed. To think such a magical class exists... It won't even let people discuss it?”

...

Another day quickly passed. Today was Freya's third day in this city, and her Future Simulation cooldown was finally up.

After eating breakfast, she didn't hesitate to chant in her mind, Enter simulation, select Life Freya save slot.

Since Life Freya was her strongest save slot so far, and the goal of this simulation was to find a way to investigate the case of the out-of-control extraordinaries, the stronger she was, the better.

...