To take down a wizard, you gotta size up their power first, ya know? Like they say, know thy enemy and know thyself, and you're set for a hundred victories.

So, for the next week, he's been crashing these lectures at the magic tower. Only the level 1 wizards let apprentices like him in on their lectures, but to rub elbows with the big shots, the level 2 wizards, and learn something more advanced, you gotta be a level 1 wizard and be a member of the tower.

The lectures hosted by these level 2 wizards are a pretty big deal at the lightning magic tower. They only happen once or twice a year, and these wizards are top dogs, usually heading up departments like battle tactics, alchemy, artifacts, and more.

It totally makes sense why they're not hosting lectures all the time – they're busy running their departments and handling all sorts of wizardry business. Heck, if the tower boss didn't give 'em the nudge, they might not hold any lectures at all.

Anyway, getting back to those lectures, he hit up a bunch and got a feel for how strong the average level 1 wizard is. Most of 'em had a bit more juice in their mana tanks than him, but not by a mile. I'd say somewhere between 300 to 500 mana points, give or take. But here's the kicker: those wizards were still kinda fresh, like greenhorns among the level 1 wizards..

So, he goes on a quest to find one of the lectures these seasoned wizard veterans hosted. He found one and It cost him a hefty 50 points just to get a seat at their lecture, but as soon as he walks in, he's hit with this crazy powerful aura, like five times stronger than his own.

Now, if that was the only thing setting them apart, he'd be feeling pretty confident about taking on the newbie wizards. But their mana? It felt different, ya know? More pure, more solid, like they were playing with a whole different deck of cards compared to him and the other apprentices.

So, even those newly advanced wizards gave off this faint vibe of danger to him. He couldn't find any mention of this phenomenon in the books he'd read so far. But luckily, he stumbled upon a mention from one of the wizards during a mana manipulation class.

Turns out, it's legit. Because of their purer mana, official wizards pack a serious punch and use less mana when casting spells. But because of the difference in mana quality, they gotta adjust before they can cast spells as smoothly as they did back in their apprentice days.

According to what he learned, once a newly advanced wizard gets the hang of mana manipulation, they can handle ten apprentice wizards all on their lonesome!

So, he figured, since a peak-level 3 apprentice wizard has about 100 mana, he'd need at least 1000 mana just to stay in the game.

But having a ton of mana alone ain't gonna cut it. He's gotta make sure he can take on ten apprentice wizards solo before he's even ready to tango with a level 1 wizard. Lucky for him, his fighting style is all about going one-on-one.

Now, he's on a mission to stock up enough mana. At the moment, he's rocking around 219 MP. But here's the snag: he's stuck at a pace of 2 MP a day for mana gathering. It's not a lack of proficiency – in fact, he's maxed that out. The hitch is, he's so darn quick at snatching up lightning mana from his surroundings that the natural mana recovery can't keep up with him. Tricky situation, right?

Thankfully, there's the practice room. Doubles up as a meditation spot, too. Boosts the mana concentration in there to double the usual levels. So, theoretically, he could double up his mana gathering speed there.

Actually, he could splurge a bit and rent an advanced practice room specialized for meditation with a whopping five times the usual mana concentration! But, of course, it comes with a hefty price tag of 16 tower points per hour!

Even the cheapest option, which is 1 point per hour, would set him back 8 points a day if he stuck to his usual meditation routine. That's more than he earns in a day!

So, he's come up with a plan to learn a formation and build his own mana-gathering formation. Plus, he figures learning formations now could come in handy down the line, broadening his skill set.

He converts all the tower points he's got, including those he earned from his recent mission, into books about formations.

Then, he dives headfirst into the world of formations.

…

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After two weeks of tinkering around, he finally pulls off building his own mana gathering formation. Luckily, it's one of the beginner formations mentioned in those level 0 formation books he snagged.

With some deft handiwork, he sets up the formation right in his own room. Building a formation's kinda like drawing a spell pattern, but with a twist. See, while level 0 spells are all 2D, these formations are already rocking 3D shapes, like the fancy stuff you see in more complex level 1 spells and up.

And it's not just about drawing the pattern either. You gotta be slick with your mana control to sketch it out and keep the whole thing stable while you're building it. Once you've anchored it to the right spots with some carefully arranged stones, the formation kicks into gear all on its own.

Most formations rely on these mana stones to keep the magic flowing. After sucking up some mana from the surroundings, the mana gathering formation feeds a chunk of it back into those stones, giving 'em a boost and making the formation last longer.

So, most formations include a smaller mana gathering setup specifically to juice up the mana stones and keep the formation going longer. But here's the kicker: those mana stones are gonna wear out eventually while the formation's running. So, they gotta be swapped out after a certain amount of time.

The formation he's got going needs about ten mana stones and can chug along for a whole week before it needs a stone swap.

…

Fast forward five months and two weeks. After those first two weeks of trial and error, he keeps trading in his book perks for more formation know-how and manages to beef up his mana gathering formation to triple its original juice.

But after that, he hits a bit of a wall with just the level 0 formation books. No more room to level up there. So, he switches gears, learns a bunch of other formations for offense, defense, illusions, you name it. But eventually, he puts a pause on the formation stuff and dives back into the nitty-gritty of spell patterns.

No surprises here: turns out, the knowledge he picked up about spell formations is pretty much interchangeable with what he's been learning about spell patterns. Score one for cross-disciplinary study!

Thanks to all that research on formations, he's managed to weave that knowledge together with what he already knew about spell patterns.

See, he's all about beefing up his current spell collection instead of diving into new ones. Tweaking what he's already got will make it a breeze to pick up similar spells in the future, setting him up nicely for when he's ready to tackle level 1 spells for real.

But let's get real here: those level 1 spells? They're mana hogs, take forever to cast, and cost a boatload of tower points. So, he crunches the numbers and realizes that sticking to casting level 0 spells fits better with his high-speed fighting style for now. Smart move, if you ask me!

Now, get this: he's sitting on a sweet 1011 mana points! Feels like his body's practically buzzing with mana. And get this: it's all thanks to a talent he's been ignoring until now: [Limitless Mana Well].

Dude learned from one of those books that everyone's got a cap on how much mana they can store in their mana heart. A gifted apprentice could maybe cram in up to 150 strands of mana. Each one's enough to cast a low-level, 0-cost spell.

So, a gifted apprentice could max out at 150 MP, while the average Joe's got around 100.

But here's the kicker: they can't stuff any more mana in there than that. Only way to get more is to level up to a level 1 wizard. The idea of an apprentice pulling off 1000 MP? That's like unheard of.

Feeling pretty darn grateful for those talents now. With [Limitless Mana Well], he's got the freedom to level up without being tied down to any organization.

Now that he's got enough mana and all his spells are souped up, he's feeling unstoppable. He's got this feeling like he could take on ten peak level 3 apprentices with no sweat. Now, he's itching to go wizard-hunting!

…

Heading over to the mission hall, he starts eyeing up the list of gigs. This time, he's in the mood for some magic beast extermination action. There are two flavors of these quests: one where you gotta hunt down a specific beast in an area, which takes a good chunk of time and needs at least a level 3 apprentice wizard. The other type is more about bagging proof of the kills – the more you take down, the more coin you rake in. The rewards for each kill aren't huge, and they don't need much muscle to pull off.

He settles on the horned rabbit extermination, one of the second type of missions. This one's coming from a big shot lord who borders the Forest of Death up north in the Fulminar Empire.

Seems like every year, these beasts spill out of the Forest of Death and go on a rampage, wrecking havoc on the surrounding areas. They call it the "Magical Beast Overflow," and it's always the border territories that get hit the hardest.

Usually, when this goes down, the territories call in the big guns – the imperial family – who then send reinforcements. And of course, the imperial fam usually calls in the lightning magic tower for backup. But this year’s overflow mess got taken care of months ago.

Now, this mission's just about cleaning up some of the small fries the overflow left behind. He's gotta bring back those rabbit horns as proof of the kill. The more he brings back, the fatter the reward.

He wastes no time and zips over to the teleportation hall, hopping on the closest circle that'll land him near his mission area.

His game plan? Bag a few rabbits to make it look good, then focus on hunting down some wizards for the rest of his time. Since there's no deadline on this mission, he's free to roam as long as he wants.

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Name: Zack

Age: 10/100 (150)

Occupation: Apprentice wizard

Mana: 60/60 (1011/1011)

Overt Talent: [Low Mana Manipulation Correction], [Low Mana Sensory Correction]

Hidden Talent: [Limitless Mana Well], [Advanced Mana Manipulation Correction], [Advanced Mana Sensory Correction], [Advanced Intelligence Correction]

Hidden Boss Abilities: [Hidden Strength]

HBP: 0

HB Progress Bar: 10/100%

Expand Hidden Boss abilities Store? yes/no

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