The two of them, happily eating breakfast, naturally had no idea what Jiang Lin was thinking.
The three of them soon began practicing their respective breathing techniques.
Anya’s family had provided her with the corresponding medicinal food, which she said would last her a month or two.
Once it was used up, she would return to her family to get more.
Aili was the same; before coming to find Jiang Lin, she had purchased enough medicinal food to last a long time.
After all, buying it in Boulder City was much cheaper than in Clearwater City.
When the two got tired of practicing, they would run out to practice their skills to relax.
Although the school's private training grounds required a student ID card to open, the public training grounds had no such restriction.
They could use those areas as they pleased.
As for Little Black, it seemed that because the gap between it and Jiang Lin was so vast, it had given up on its ideals and started lying flat as a mascot.
However, its level had already reached 10; it was currently just accumulating its foundation and was in no hurry to break through.
Jiang Lin mocked it, saying he might reach level 100 while it was still accumulating at level 10.
Little Black just scoffed, indicating that Jiang Lin didn't understand the concept of accumulating strength for a future breakthrough.
And so, time quietly passed.
By evening, while staying in the dormitory, Jiang Lin finally pushed his level up another notch, reaching level 11.
Accompanied by a comfortable warm current flowing through his body, Jiang Lin felt his various functions improve significantly.
Although his mental power and stamina hadn't changed much, the power he could unleash had increased considerably compared to before.
Jiang Lin was familiar with this feeling; he had felt it back at rank 0.
However, the improvement at rank 0 wasn't as obvious as it was now.
It seemed that the higher the level, the greater the enhancement each level brought.
The fluctuations from Jiang Lin naturally caught the attention of the other two in the room.
Aili’s eyes widened:
"You leveled up already?"
She had just barely initiated her new breathing technique, so how had this guy Jiang Lin already gained a level?!
Is this really a speed a human can reach?!!
Anya was also somewhat surprised—not because Jiang Lin had reached level 11, but because he had only just reached level 11.
Jiang Lin had kept 【Breath Concealment】 active, so she hadn't been clear on his situation.
But at the moment of breakthrough, Jiang Lin’s aura was exposed, allowing her to capture his current level.
She didn't know that Jiang Lin had only broken through to rank 1 five days ago; she thought he had completed the breakthrough right after entering the middle magic academy.
Jiang Lin wasn't conceited about it. He calmly explained:
"It's just my daily routine."
After saying that, he continued his training.
The next day, Jiang Lin went to the private training grounds again.
As the golden light beneath his feet dissolved, a blood-red figure floated up.
Jiang Lin keenly noticed that compared to yesterday's, this cursed blood bone doll seemed a bit stronger.
It seemed that his own level increase had also made the summoned Blood Demon stronger.
However, today's cursed blood bone doll didn't seem as calm and restrained as yesterday's.
In its hollow skull sockets, the desire for violence and corrosion was burning.
At the same time, Jiang Lin received a system prompt.
【Please select a target to attack】
【If there are no targets to attack or if all targets are dead, the cursed blood bone doll will lose its target and enter a berserk state after ten seconds, attacking all living beings within a hundred meters indiscriminately, including the summoner】
【Ten......】
【Nine......】
【Eight......】
"So yesterday it really was restrained because the Shadow of Blood was nearby?" Jiang Lin thought.
Then, he released the mount brand and summoned the Shadow of Blood from the mount space.
Just as Jiang Lin expected, when the golden-glowing Shadow of Blood appeared, the originally aggressive cursed blood bone doll instantly became docile.
Although its skull sockets were empty, Jiang Lin had a feeling its gaze had become much clearer.
Simultaneously, the system's countdown disappeared.
However, this cursed blood bone doll wouldn't be as lucky as the one from yesterday.
Because it was going to be Jiang Lin’s first experimental sacrifice.
Jiang Lin controlled the Shadow of Blood to walk up to the cursed blood bone doll and begin its devouring.
The holy-light-flickering Shadow of Blood shifted from Jiang Lin’s form into a blood-mist form and then surged toward the cursed blood bone doll.
It completely enveloped the other party in an instant.
The moment the Shadow of Blood struck, Jiang Lin felt intense resistance, rejection, and fear through the summoning connection with the cursed blood bone doll.
As the Shadow of Blood enveloped it, Jiang Lin could feel his connection with the cursed blood bone doll growing weaker.
At the same time, the cursed blood bone doll stopped listening to Jiang Lin’s command to stay still and began to struggle.
The bones ground together with an ear-piercing "clack-clack" sound. Jiang Lin could see the blood-colored runes on its surface flashing wildly through the Shadow of Blood, attempting to damage it.
However, it was all in vain.
A few minutes later, Jiang Lin received a notification that the Shadow of Blood had completed the devouring.
As Jiang Lin had expected, the Shadow of Blood's devouring of form and power were separate.
This devouring was to acquire the target's form, not to increase power.
The requirement for the Shadow of Blood to devour a biological form was that the target must be alive; if it was already dead and just a corpse, the Shadow of Blood could not obtain a new form.
The devouring time was determined by the difference in strength between the two sides.
If the target was far more powerful than the Shadow of Blood, even if it had completely lost its ability to fight or resist, the Shadow of Blood would still need a lot of time to complete the devouring process.
So if Jiang Lin wanted the Shadow of Blood to devour a dragon to gain its power, he would first have to beat that dragon until it couldn't fight back.
Of course, using drugs or something similar should also work.
But the amount of poison needed to knock out a dragon might be a bit exaggerated.
Additionally, if the Shadow of Blood had a strong suppressive advantage over the target, like today, it would only take a few minutes to complete the devouring.
The summoning connection was completely severed; the cursed blood bone doll was now dead.
With a thought, the Shadow of Blood before him began to change, turning into a small golden skeleton floating in the air.
Jiang Lin tried punching it.
Immediately after, he was struck by a curse that seemed to come out of nowhere.
As expected, after devouring, it mastered all of the target's abilities.
However, the strength of the form after devouring would not increase as the Shadow of Blood grew stronger.
Instead, it was permanently fixed at the strength it had when the devouring was completed.
So Jiang Lin felt that when the Shadow of Blood devoured other creatures to gain their forms, it was more like possessing them in a bizarre way.
Switching forms was like placing the possessed body into another space for temporary storage and bringing out a different body.
Jiang Lin had the Shadow of Blood change back to his own clone form.
Although the battle methods after transforming into a cursed blood bone doll could be annoying for opponents, overall, it wasn't as good as directly using his own clone form.
After all, since he could win through brute force with his own power, there was no need to resort to such convoluted methods.
With the experiment finished, Jiang Lin didn't rush back to his dormitory. Instead, he controlled his clone and began to fight against himself.
This was mainly to practice his ability to dual-task.
And although his clone was linked to his mind, the feeling of fighting it was completely different.
Fortunately, after the clone copied an ability, it could release it autonomously; he only needed to give the command to attack, and it would react.
Otherwise, if Jiang Lin had to do everything himself, he might as well just practice dual-tasking. Perhaps then he could manage a seven-colored longsword in his left hand and a holy light longsword in his right...
After trading blows with his clone for a few minutes, Jiang Lin frowned.
"This isn't working. I know exactly what attacks I want to use. Right now, fighting is like playing house; it has no practical combat reference value..."
"Should I go to the Tower of Trials?"
"But during the summer break, many staff members at the Tower of Trials are off duty, so the opening hours are shorter. Plus, it's mainly used to receive students for the entrance assessment, so it's a bit inconvenient..."
At that moment, Jiang Lin thought of a certain blonde-haired girl.
'It's time to use your body to pay the rent, Miss Anya!'
...
"Anya, do you want to spar with me?"
Anya opened her eyes, said nothing, and silently stood up. She then took a training iron sword from her spatial ring.
The meaning was clear—let's fight!
"I want to spar with you too!"
Seeing Jiang Lin and Anya walk out the door, Aili scurried after them.
Hearing this, Jiang Lin and Anya both cast glances at her as if looking at an idiot.
What's a priest doing joining in the fun?
However, there was no problem with her being on the side as the cheer squad.
Subsequently, Jiang Lin used his clone to spar with Anya in the training grounds.
Of course, Jiang Lin wouldn't let the clone go all out—what if he accidentally killed her?
He put Anya’s level-suppressing necklace on the clone, suppressing all its attributes to be roughly equal to Anya’s before starting the battle.
Without 【Chronowalker's Evil Eye】 to predict movements, he really wasn't used to fighting with the clone.
But now was the time to get familiar with clone combat.
The human and the clone fought there, while Aili acted as the mascot on the sidelines, cheering for Jiang Lin.
Until Anya was completely exhausted and sat down gasping for breath, only then did Jiang Lin stop.
So, he began to wait for Anya to recover her stamina.
Taking advantage of this interval, the three of them began practicing their breathing techniques.
Once Anya had practiced her breathing technique until her stamina was fully restored, she sparred with Jiang Lin’s clone again.
Time quietly passed in this cycle.
By evening, a weary Anya followed Jiang Lin back to his dormitory.
Anya cast a few simple spells on her body and clothes, instantly cleaning away the dust and sweat.
Almost everyone who had attended a junior magic academy knew a bit of these simple small spells.
Even ordinary people with levels of only two or three would learn some of these spells to make their daily lives more convenient.
So, Jiang Lin naturally wouldn't get to see a fragrant scene of Miss Anya showering and changing in his dormitory.
Back at the dormitory, the three continued practicing their breathing techniques.
The next day.
The summoning cooldown ended, and Jiang Lin once again went to the private training grounds alone.
A golden light flashed beneath his feet, and a blood-red creature darted out.
It was a demon-like crimson claw-wing.
Its bloodthirsty gaze swept around, seeing that Jiang Lin was the only living thing nearby.
So, its bloodthirsty gaze fixed on Jiang Lin.
The system's countdown prompt arrived, and the look in its eyes gradually lost reason, moving toward the madness of tearing everything apart.
Jiang Lin said nothing, but the space beside him fluctuated slightly as a golden figure stepped out.
This time, Jiang Lin saw it even more clearly.
The crimson claw-wing, which had been about to attack its own summoner, instantly had its eyes clear up the moment it saw the Shadow of Blood.
At the same time, the system's countdown disappeared.
Jiang Lin looked at the crimson claw-wing, which was now behaving like a good little baby, and felt somewhat emotional.
There really is always a bigger fish.
Just like how some people’s unattainable goddess is actually someone else’s simp behind the scenes.
Then, Jiang Lin controlled the Shadow of Blood to devour it.
But this time, the devouring was not for copying its form, but to enhance the Shadow of Blood's own strength.
Since Jiang Lin had subdued it, the Shadow of Blood had been at the peak of rank 0.
Therefore, it was essentially one step away from a breakthrough.
The Shadow of Blood's process of devouring the crimson claw-wing went even more smoothly than devouring the cursed blood bone doll.
Although this crimson claw-wing struggled with all its might, it ultimately couldn't escape the arrangements of fate and was completely devoured by the Shadow of Blood.
The summoning connection was severed.
And Jiang Lin also felt that the Shadow of Blood seemed to have undergone some changes.
Bursts of golden mist emanated from around its body.
Then, its aura began to soar rapidly, as if it had finally broken through a limit, shattering the bottleneck of rank 0.
In this way, its ability to utilize Jiang Lin’s copied powers increased slightly, and the level limit for devouring other creatures also increased.
It seemed it really had been just one step away from rank 1, only needing to devour a single crimson claw-wing to complete the breakthrough.
Yet it had never broken through while inside the Blood Realm.
Could it be that there were some restrictions on it within the Blood Realm?
Jiang Lin was somewhat puzzled.
But such a question was destined to have no answer.
After all, this Shadow of Blood was a mindless idiot; it was impossible to get an answer by asking it.
As for the Blood Realm, Jiang Lin had asked Little Black and searched through literature, but hadn't found a single shred of information.
He would have to see if the future quests regarding the Blood Realm could reveal more of its secrets.
After completing the first devouring, Jiang Lin already had an idea of how things worked.
Then he returned to the dormitory and continued to call Anya out to pay the rent.
Aili continued to follow along as the mascot.
As for Anya, she was quite willing to spar with Jiang Lin’s clone.
After all, Jiang Lin was also a paladin, and he was far more excellent than her in all aspects of being one.
So she could learn some things from him.
It was just that she was starting to feel a bit powerless regarding the speed of Jiang Lin’s growth.
How does this guy grow so fast?
Is this really a speed a human can reach?
However, after coming to Clearwater City for the assessment and learning that she might receive a special scholarship, Anya’s heart had also settled back into her chest.
It seemed it wasn't her problem, but Jiang Lin’s problem.
She was still very excellent.
If anyone was to blame, it was that Jiang Lin wasn't human.
Once she figured that out, Anya also began to train with peace of mind.
The following days passed slowly in such calm and repetitive times.
In the blink of an eye, 45 days had passed.
Rate on N.U.
