The Coral Crown was appraised with an equipment level of 63, boasting even better attributes than the ring. However, it had an additional equipment requirement: it needed a Rune Mark of an Acalan Lord. In other words, Charlie couldn't use this piece of equipment. The shop had the ability to modify equipment, but the costs were steep, and there was a risk of attribute downgrade, so it was better to sell it directly to the shop.
After some haggling, Charlie sold the Sea Lan Stone and the Coral Crown to the owner for 1,300 points, conveniently waiving the appraisal fee. With that, he had processed all the gains from the first-year activity season, accumulating over 2,100 points. He needed to think carefully about how to spend them, but for now, there was no rush—he would wait until he got the Golden Badge.
Before leaving, Charlie asked the owner for his name, which was Benjamin Constance. He was one of the store's owners, a senior jeweler and appraiser, who also taught a second-year course on magical rune construction.
If given the chance, Charlie wanted to ask him about the knowledge of runes, but he couldn't bring it up yet; he hadn't even enrolled in the course, so it would be pointless to mention it.
Benjamin's daughter was named Yuli, currently a second-year student and an agile combat practitioner, who often learned equipment appraisal from her father. It was clear her interests lay elsewhere, as she preferred interacting with people.
Yuli smiled and said, "Junior, if you ever need equipment or materials, come to our shop! You're a big client now!"
"Sure, I'll consider you guys first when I have something to gain."
With that, Charlie left the points market.
He now owned four superior-grade pieces of equipment: the Withered Wood Staff, the Tassel Boots, the Briz's Magic Cloak, and the Acalan Surge Ring. Coupled with his proficiency in multiple basic magic types, his strength had already subtly placed him among the top tier of new students.
However, Charlie still felt insecure. In the Sogo Marshlands, he had witnessed the merman lord's "Tracking Lightning Arrow" aimed at him, which nearly cost him his life; he had also seen Peter's instant kill of the merman lord with the "Blade of the Celestial Realm." These powers that transcended levels filled him with fear and helplessness, leaving him unable to resist. If Peter had directly used that scroll against him that day, Charlie's journey would have ended there.
Personal magic could be accumulated gradually, but there was no shortcut to instant success. He needed to master higher-level magic, at least break through the current bottleneck of level three magic, and understand the causes behind this troubling barrier.
Charlie thought of Master Narl, who wasn't teaching today, hoping to find him at the Mage Tower.
Like many instructors, a crowd of apprentices, both male and female, awaited outside Master Narl's tower. Judging by their badges, some were even second-year students.
This was a common phenomenon; the Arcane Circle had never lacked enterprising apprentices. Asking questions was a recognized low-cost "speculative method." If your questions were insightful, impressed the instructor, and highlighted your potential, you might gain more opportunities. Consequently, the practice of apprentices bothering instructors had gradually become a trend, especially common among lower-level students.
Charlie navigated through the crowd and placed his badge into the alchemical device. After it completed the identity recording, he briefly stated his intention to ask a question into the magic recorder.
A student beside Charlie, wearing glasses, chuckled and said loudly, "Iron badge apprentice, still a freshman; you've been here only a month and are already thinking of speculating. Isn't that a bit too early? Junior, you should focus on meditation first! Solidify your basics!"
This remark instantly attracted the attention of the surrounding apprentices.
"Yeah! How many spells have you memorized? Have you begun learning the Stonherls language? Is your magic power breaking into triple digits? Junior, focus on what really matters!"
"I feel so much pressure seeing even first-year juniors getting started! Back in my day, I only figured this out by the end of the first year!"
A senior with small eyes pulled Charlie aside with a smile and said, "Junior, your approach is all wrong. How could you expect to easily get a meeting with the instructor? Think about it! Masters are busy all day! Research topics, meditating, processing materials, preparing lessons—they would need to split their time in half! How could they possibly attend to all these requests from apprentices?
Especially someone like you, just saying you want to ask a question. Regardless of your attitude, do you think the instructor would pay you any mind? Your badge isn't even a crystal grade, right?"
Charlie nodded, "That makes sense."
"That's right; how you ask questions is very important! Let me give you an example: 'I've been researching the relationship between magic spells and the frequency of mental vibrations. I've made some small insights and have some questions I'd like to ask the instructor about.'" As he spoke, the small-eyed senior patted Charlie's shoulder and asked, "What do you think? Isn't this request for a meeting more likely to gain the instructor's attention than yours?"
Charlie listened with interest and gave a thumbs up, "You're right! Senior, you really know the ropes!"
"Of course! We all know that magic spells are closely related to the frequency of mental vibrations. I'm just using this as an example; it's called the 'Itch Scratch Method.' If you want to learn, there are even more sophisticated techniques within. Just learn a few of them, and I guarantee you'll win the instructor's favor within a week. This is the wisdom passed down by seniors through the ages."
Seeing him get into it, Charlie didn't want to interrupt and asked, "So how can I learn these techniques?"
"The 'Itch Scratch Method' only costs 5 points; the 'Advanced Five Questions' combined with it is worth 10 points. If you want to learn the entire set, it'll cost 25 points. You just finished the first-year activity season, so you should have some leftover points, right? Generally speaking, one activity hardly accumulates enough points to spend at the points market, right? You need to participate in more."
Noticing Charlie seemed envious yet hesitant, the small-eyed senior seized the moment and said, "Think of this as a long-term investment. Gaining the instructor's favor might save you hundreds of points on course fees. Don't let small gains lead to big losses!"
Just then, an arcane puppet floated out of the Mage Tower, calling out, "Charlie, come in!"
Immediately, the apprentices around the tower became agitated, wondering which lucky individual had successfully caught the instructor's interest, perhaps beginning a new mentor-student relationship. By tomorrow, this news would likely become a hot topic among many students! They needed to ingratiate themselves and extract his secrets; many were plotting this.
The students looked at each other, searching for the one called Charlie.
Feigning hesitation, Charlie said, "Oh! Is the instructor favoring the abstract flow right now?"
The small-eyed senior stared in disbelief and asked, "You're Charlie?"
Charlie nodded and replied, "Yep! Let's talk later; I'll go in and take a look."
After the arcane puppet verified Charlie's badge, it led him through the magical barrier, disappearing at the entrance of the Mage Tower, leaving behind a group of stupefied apprentices. They had watched Charlie go through the verification, and seeing it all unfold shocked them, making them question whether their studied flattery strategies had been a mistake.
Suddenly, a voice emerged from the crowd, "That name Charlie sounds familiar!"
"Oh! I remember now; isn't the current top first-year student named Charlie? I heard this guy took out 17 golden badge apprentices with a single slap!"
"Oh! No wonder! No wonder the instructor is willing to meet him; his strength speaks for itself!"
"Yeah! I got myself all worked up for nothing!"
Before long, the arcane puppet brought Charlie to Master Narl's workspace. Charlie casually glanced around and saw a layer of drafting paper spread across the master's desk, filled with various symbols and formulas, indicating he was calculating a difficult problem.
Narl put down his pen and said straightforwardly, "What do you wish to ask?"
Charlie then described the peculiar situation he faced while trying to comprehend level four magic, mentioning that he had hit a bottleneck and couldn't figure it out.
Upon hearing this, Narl chuckled self-deprecatingly, "I didn't expect you to hit a bottleneck so soon! Well, that makes sense! With your equipment being so advanced, it speeds up this process. When I was an apprentice, it took at least expanding my personal magic pool to 1,000 units to hit that bottleneck."
Charlie curiously asked, "When were you an apprentice, Master?"
"About two hundred years ago!"
Charlie couldn't help but be astonished; this was an experience no Earthling had ever had.
Narl's smile faded, and he said solemnly, "Let's get back to the topic at hand. Frankly, I'm quite disappointed that you asked about this bottleneck."
Charlie was taken aback and instinctively asked, "Why?"
"Because it's common knowledge. Didn't your enlightenment teacher tell you about it?"
Charlie smiled awkwardly and replied, "To be honest, I only started learning about magic three months ago. I first apprenticed about a month ago, and my teacher hadn't begun teaching me before recommending me to the Arcane Circle."
"If that's the case, it's understandable." Narl nodded slightly, but there was a glimmer of disbelief in his eyes. "However, it's hard to believe that you could master so much magic in just three months."
Charlie unabashedly replied, "My strengths lie in my exceptional mental power and memory."
"Alright! Then let me enlighten you with some common knowledge, not just about bottlenecks."
"Absolutely!" Charlie showed an excited expression, sitting upright and ready to listen.
"Wizards are categorized into ten levels, a tradition that has been passed down on the Vagrant Continent. Levels one to three are considered novice wizards, levels four to six are advanced wizards, levels seven to nine are grand wizards, while level ten is a master wizard. Those who exceed level ten are generally referred to as grand master wizards.
As magical civilization continues to advance, this classification system is becoming increasingly flawed. It's too simplistic; it fails to encompass emerging magical techniques and cannot explain the impact of extraordinary skills on magical tiers.
Thus, as the continent's magical sanctuary, the Arcane Circle has begun to experiment with new methods of rating..."
Unable to contain his curiosity, Charlie interjected, "Are you referring to the Stellar, Crescent, and Solar wizards?"
"No! No!! That's just a common classification method used within the Arcane Circle, widely circulated in the master-apprentice system. This classification is even less reliable than the ten-level system.
The new rating system is still under research, and what I'm working on is a part of that project. It will include factors like talent, lineage, personal attributes, magical ability, and true combat power. We may very well discard the nominal rankings and replace them with numerical values."
Isn't that just quantifying personal data?!
Compared to this, Charlie had already taken the lead. His chip, based on the Prinson rules, had initially established an evaluation system that was constantly being refined. If Charlie could participate in this plan, it would greatly supplement the chip's database, making the Prinson coefficient even more accurate.
Thinking about this, Charlie couldn't help but throw out some bait. He said earnestly, "Great! I think this direction is very meaningful—quantifying personal data will allow for a more accurate estimation of individual strength in the future.
So, can we first define a standard for an average person's data? For instance, what is their strength? What is their mental power? What are their elemental affinity values? Then we can test the power of their magic release, recording these basic data as a standard.
By doing so, we can compare and unify the numerical values for everyone…"
As he spoke, Narl suddenly halted, his gaze drifting. An intense wave of mental energy interrupted Charlie's explanation.
A smile crept onto Charlie's lips; he knew that his bait might have taken effect, and Master Narl was deep in thought over the issue. I'm just worried about whether you can get past Peter."
Master Narl's concern for Charlie was evident. That day, he had stood up to Master Felinand on his behalf, and while they might not have an official master-apprentice relationship now, he was already beginning to fulfill the obligations of a teacher.
Of course, Charlie felt he was worthy of Narl's favor.
In contrast, Anton had only offered a brief rebuttal and fallen silent.
Charlie didn't blame Anton; after all, he was merely a Crescent-level wizard, and the gap in their levels was significant. If Anton had said more, angering Felinand, his situation wouldn't have been much better than Charlie's.
Charlie took the books and sincerely bowed, saying, "Thank you, Master! You can rest assured! I won't lose to Peter!"
Narl smiled slightly, "Having confidence is a good thing. Go for it!"