Chapter 136: I Woke Up in Silver!

Inside Katherine’s dream.

After the witch finished speaking to Katherine’s parents and saw them standing there, stunned and unresponsive, she suddenly let out a "bang" and transformed into a large hound, lunging at Katherine to bite her.

Terrified, Katherine scrambled to run, but her short legs were far too slow, so she hurriedly shifted into her cat form.

Then, the dog chased while the cat fled, the two of them circling endlessly around the courtyard of Katherine’s home.

One lap, two laps, three laps...

They lost count of how many times they had circled when Katherine finally stopped abruptly. She gave a mysterious smile toward the approaching witch, then tapped her small paw against the tracks they had worn into the ground...

Go to hell!

"Boom!" Katherine’s dream was suddenly flooded with a brilliant, silver-white light.

At the same time, Katherine awoke, surrounded by the silver-white defensive field unique to a Silver-rank wizard.

That’s right, Katherine had leveled up right after waking from her sleep!

Feeling the surging mana within her body, Katherine was slightly taken aback. How had she leveled up just by waking up? Her mental energy had indeed reached the level of a Silver wizard, but her 4th-rank spell model hadn’t even been finished yet! Katherine quickly entered a state of meditation, and to her surprise, she found the 4th-rank spell rune in her meditative space. It was a spell she had envisioned but never actually completed the simulation for; she hadn't expected it to be fully constructed while she was dreaming.

She wondered what expression Andy would wear if he knew she had advanced so quickly. Although Katherine thought his reaction would be quite amusing, she didn’t intend to tell him.

A senior student who studied wizardry arrays with her once said that men have fragile egos. If a woman constantly overshadows them and fails to nurture their self-esteem, they might start to keep their distance. Therefore, a woman should occasionally act a bit fragile to stir up their protective instincts.

Although Katherine felt that Andy would most likely spend an hour or two feeling dejected before his competitive spirit kicked in—driving him to accelerate his "pill-popping" leveling strategy—that senior was very popular among the female students, and her "Thirty-Six Stratagems for Taming Dogs" was widely circulated. Thus, her advice must have some merit.

Katherine decided it was better to be safe than sorry; she would keep her advancement a secret. Furthermore, she should try to reduce her meditation time in the future. Otherwise, if she accidentally reached the Gold rank in her sleep while Andy hadn't even reached Bronze, he might have a mental breakdown!

Katherine felt she should wait for Andy. Coincidentally, she decided to devote more of her energy to studying wizardry arrays during this time. She discovered that array studies were truly profound; the discipline seemed deeply connected to all other subjects, and even the construction of spell models involved some basic principles of arrays. If one mastered arrays, building spell models would become an effortless task.

Moreover, arrays could be combined with spells to produce incredible effects. Katherine was confident that once she attained a certain level of proficiency in arrays, her curse-based spells would reach a new height. The thought of being able to control more arrays now that she was a Silver-rank wizard filled her with excitement.

She spent a while reveling in her excitement before remembering that Andy should be returning soon. She quickly shifted back into her human form and tidied up the room, which had been left in disarray during her breakthrough. Then, she recalled the advice about acting fragile to stir up a man’s protective instincts!

Katherine decided she should act a bit delicate. She stood in front of the mirror and tried to conjure the right mood for a long time, but nothing came to her. Finally, in a fit of frustration, she ran to the kitchen, found a chili pepper, squeezed its juice out, and smeared it onto her eyes. She didn't believe she wouldn't cry after that.

It worked as expected. Katherine had applied too much chili juice, and her eyes burned with intense, searing pain! She burst into tears with a loud wail.

When Andy returned, he saw Katherine crying in the room, looking as pathetic as rain-drenched pear blossoms. Startled, Andy rushed over to hold her, comforting her gently and asking what was wrong, and why she was crying so heartbrokenly.

Katherine sobbed and said she had just had a nightmare in which an old witch was trying to burn her at the stake.

Andy was left speechless by the reason, but he continued to comfort her with soft words, promising to tell her a story if she would stop crying.

To his surprise, Katherine wanted to hear it right away, and specifically asked for a story about an old witch.

With no other choice, since he had already promised, he began to tell the story.

Katherine did not tell Andy about her promotion, but as Andy told the story to soothe her, he secretly resolved to accelerate his "pill-popping" plan.

Earlier that day, when Monica left, she had shouted, "Wangcai, let's go!" in a very loud voice, which Andy—who had his Listening Spell active—heard clearly. To make matters worse, the girl had made a face at him as she left!

That was the first time Andy learned the name of that magic wolf. Well, it was a name with "great taste," and it successfully dealt critical damage to Andy’s heart.

That magic wolf, which was his equal in throwing spells, actually bore such a name. Andy felt his own standing had been dragged down a notch.

What bothered Andy even more was that he had gone full speed today and still ended up eating the wolf's dust. Although it was a case of two legs chasing four, and the wolf might simply be gifted with speed, it still weighed on him. He couldn’t learn more speed-enhancing spells because he had already learned all the ones available from rank 0 to rank 2, and learning more of the same type wouldn't provide cumulative effects.

To learn new speed spells, he had to master 3rd-rank magic, which required him to increase his wizard rank!

Andy increasingly felt that his own wizard rank was the primary factor limiting his growth. And the only way he could think of to quickly improve his strength was his "pill-popping" strategy.

As for the funding for the next step of his plan, he already had a vague idea and intended to test its feasibility tomorrow!

As she listened to the story, Katherine felt a sense of bewilderment at Andy’s shifting expressions. She found it strange—she hadn't told him about her promotion, so why did he look so defeated yet determined to strive for self-improvement?