Grimm shuddered abruptly, snapping out of deep meditation. Sitting upright in bed, he gasped for breath, the remnants of his dream lingering vividly within him. Even the faint traces of searing pain were etched into his memory as if it had all been real.
Was it an illusion, a dream, or something else entirely?
A flicker of uncertainty clouded Grimm's mind. He had meditated countless times before, but never had he experienced such clarity and visceral sensations. It was as though the dream had been under his control.
"Chip, perform a self-diagnostic," Grimm commanded sharply, sensing something unusual.
Beep. Commencing body scan... Scan complete. Generating self-diagnostic report.
As the chip's monotone voice echoed in his mind, a new diagnostic report materialized.
Name: Grimm
Race: Human
Attributes: Strength: 4, Agility: 4, Constitution: 3, Spirit: 8.03
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Profession: Junior Wizard Apprentice
Health: 11/11
Experience: 566/1000
Status: Healthy
Class Skills: Scroll Inscription
Personal Skills: Burning Hands
As expected, there were slight anomalies in his baseline data. Without the chip's precise, cellular-level monitoring, Grimm would never have realized that his deep meditation had increased his spirit by 0.03 and granted him 2 points of experience.
This confirmed that the dreamlike vision wasn’t an illusion—it had been real, and it had indeed occurred. But what were those colorful specks of light?
The answer surfaced unbidden in his mind: Elemental Particles.
Every individual with wizarding talent possesses a unique affinity for certain elements. The glowing specks he had seen in meditation were elemental particles permeating the wizarding world. Being attuned to fire, Grimm’s affinity drew the red specks—fire element particles—toward him.
According to wizardly classifications, Grimm’s affinity for fire was the strongest, followed by green (plant) and earthy yellow (earth). The other elements were repelled, fading from sight. However, the white speck he had tried to capture represented dark element particles. Misaligned with Grimm’s core attributes, capturing these particles was exponentially more challenging. While they could marginally increase his spirit, they also subtly damaged his body.
Grimm recalled that apprentices attuned to dark elements in the tower often appeared frail and sickly—a likely consequence of prolonged exposure to harmful particles.
It was clear that an apprentice’s elemental affinity influenced their meditation efficiency, which in turn impacted the growth of their spirit. Reflecting on the meditation space he had just explored, Grimm’s brows furrowed. The white specks had outnumbered the red ones. In such an environment, apprentices attuned to dark elements would undoubtedly have a higher meditation efficiency than himself.
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Why was this so? Wasn’t the distribution of elemental particles supposed to be balanced in nature? Could this imbalance be the deliberate doing of the Tower Wizards?
Grimm’s expression darkened. He remembered that the master of the Swamp Tower, Wizard Anderson, was strongly attuned to dark and wind elements.
No wonder so many apprentices who entered the tower alongside Grimm had already mastered multiple spells and advanced to intermediate apprentices, while he remained stuck as a junior apprentice. His struggles weren’t just due to his innate talent—it was this wretched environment.
After some hesitation, Grimm decided against meditating again. For a junior apprentice like him, meditation might slightly increase his spirit, but it could never replace sleep. To recover his strength quickly and thoroughly, a peaceful sleep was still the best choice.
Glancing at his depleted spirit, Grimm shook his head with a wry smile and lay back down to rest.
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The next morning, the chip’s sudden alert jolted Grimm from his slumber. To his surprise, the mental model for the Burning Hands spell had been completed.
The spell's data flooded his mind. Burning Hands, a low-tier fire spell, was both offensive and defensive. Though not particularly powerful, it comprised a complex framework of 28 runes. Each rune carried unique pronunciations and specialized functions, seamlessly integrating to form the complete spell model.
For an ordinary person, memorizing 28 independent yet interconnected syllables, then chanting them in perfect sequence, would be nearly impossible. Grimm himself would have doubted his ability had it not been for the peculiar energies saturating this world.
Of course, his remarkable spirit score of 8 helped significantly. Previously, casting Burning Hands required him to chant all 28 syllables in 57 seconds. But now that the spell was solidified in his mental space, he could skip the chant and simply channel elemental energy into the preformed model. This reduced casting time to a mere 23 seconds, with room for further improvement as his mastery over fire deepened.
Moreover, the spell’s mental strain had been halved—from 2 spirit points to 1. This effectively doubled the number of spells he could cast, a discovery that thrilled Grimm.
Yet the chip’s voice interrupted his thoughts once more:
Beep. Detected potential for further optimization of the Burning Hands model. Optimization will consume 1 spirit point per day and require 100 experience points. Estimated completion time: 34 hours, 25 minutes.
Improve Burning Hands? It sounded promising, but the costs were steep. If every mental model operation required experience points, Grimm’s hard-earned resources would quickly be depleted.
Cool-headed as always, Grimm rejected the proposal. Burning Hands, being a close-range spell, held limited value in his long-term plans. It would eventually be replaced by more effective ranged spells. Moreover, his current mental space could hold no more than three spell models. Wasting such precious space on Burning Hands would be shortsighted.
Grimm’s true aspiration was to master a ranged attack spell—one he had been studying for months: Flame Arrow.
Flame Arrow, a low-tier fire spell, conjured a fiery arrow that dealt 7 points of physical damage and 18 points of explosive fire damage. With his frail constitution and limited health, such a spell could easily kill him in one strike. This made acquiring a ranged spell like Flame Arrow a top priority.
Unfortunately, despite months of effort and over 20 knowledge points invested, Grimm had yet to master its model. Its complexity, involving 34 runes, had kept him on the threshold of success.
Now, with the chip’s assistance, that barrier seemed surmountable. Eagerly, Grimm sat at his wooden desk, flipping through his spell notes. Every detail about Flame Arrow—its model, incantations, frequencies, and required materials—was meticulously recorded.
True spellcasting was far more intricate than most laypeople could imagine. Chanting the 34 syllables was only the surface. Each syllable required Grimm’s spirit to align with its unique frequency while his hands performed precise guiding gestures. Any mistake or delay risked a casting backlash, damaging his mental core and requiring a lengthy recovery.
With resolve, Grimm delved into his studies, determined to conquer Flame Arrow and take the next step in his journey as a wizard.