Chapter Twenty: The Teacher (Please Support!)

Boom! Lando abruptly opened his eyes, and the chaotic, disordered elements around him started to align in perfect order. Within his body, nine strange elemental nodes both attracted and repelled each other, achieving a balance and spinning in a rhythmic cadence.

"It's done!"

He reached out, drawing on the gravitational pull of those nodes within, and gathered a sphere of elements in his palm, tossing it casually at a target in his training chamber.

Boom—

It was neither fast nor powerful, yet Lando was elated.

"After all this time, I finally look a bit like a true mage."

He took a deep breath and opened the long-neglected system interface.

[Name: Lando]
[Soul: Blue (100%)]
[Profession: Grand Knight (1%), Arcanist (Arcane Furnace 15%)]
[Talent: Elemental Affinity (Blue), Primordial Dominant Body (Blue), Ancient Beast Physique (Blue), Eidetic Memory (Green)] (Condensable Quantity: 1)
[Loaded Souls: Primordial Great Ape (Blue), Scholar (Green)] (Loadable Quantity: 0)
[Possessed Souls: omitted]
[Recorded Talents: omitted]
[Soul Essence: 3350]
[Essence Crystals: 3 (Purple)]

"At last, the Arcanist profession has appeared."

Lando invested his soul essence directly into the Arcane Furnace. When it reached 16%, he glanced at the nodes within his body and saw one emit a brighter light, with faint threads of radiance extending out, as if seeking to connect with other nodes.

"As expected." The smile on Lando's face grew wider.

Elemental Affinity (Blue) was the first talent he condensed for himself, costing a full 9000 soul essence. Afterward, he derived a new conclusion—the talent could be decomposed.

Of course, he hadn’t been reckless enough to test decomposition immediately, but this was promising news for his future plans.

He stretched lazily, stepped out of the training chamber, and saw through the window that night had already fallen.

"Xiaobai, cancel seclusion mode."

"...Beep~ Silence state lifted, command received. Seclusion mode canceled. Dormitory temporary protective array deactivated. Training chamber elemental array deactivated. Mail auto-reply disabled. No new emails during this period."

"..."

Though Alice had reminded him upon enrollment to make more friends, all arcanists were reclusive by nature. Sometimes, even midday at the academy cafeteria, he could go without meeting a single soul—would you believe it? During open lectures, there would be plenty of people, but most came and went quickly. He’d lived here for so long, yet couldn’t even confirm if anyone occupied the adjacent dorms; every time he knocked to greet his neighbors, no one ever responded.

So to this day, the only person he could truly call a friend at the academy was Alice, and she seemed to be the restless sort who loved wandering. As soon as she had consolidated her elemental body and suppressed her anomalies, she set off to travel (play?).

Most of Lando’s energy lately had been devoted to the Arcane Furnace and meditation techniques. Now he fully understood every joint of the basic Arcane Furnace, and only needed to proceed methodically.

As for meditation, he could continue refining it further.

After all, ancient mages and sorcerers suffered from limited, narrow mindsets. Meditation elevated elements, body, and mind together, but it was like building a great ship: you craft the keel, sew the sails, forge the cannons, and forcibly push them to the same stage, demanding simultaneous completion for a whole vessel.

Arcanists were different—they forged cosmic warships. The intelligent core optimized operations and boosted efficiency; the Arcane Furnace freed them from elemental woes, laying the foundation for forging an elemental body; the powerful elemental body could sustain the construction of a more formidable mental world. When all three combined, the legendary arcanist who emerged far surpassed the legends of other disciplines.

Thus, though the path of the arcanist was far more demanding than that of mages and sorcerers, progress was even swifter.

Next, Lando would focus on forging the intelligent core and seeking more soul essence.

He had no clue where to find soul essence. Buried in study, he had never left the academy grounds.

"Maybe I should visit an antique market—perhaps I’ll find something," Lando mused.

He promptly instructed Xiaobai, "Draft a new study plan for the intelligent core."

"Understood. Plan in progress... You need to reread... Lecturer's open class times are..."

Ignoring Xiaobai, Lando wanted nothing more than... a good night's sleep.

"Ah~" Lando yawned, wished Xiaobai good night, returned to his room, and collapsed into bed.

The voice of Xiaobai, busy drafting plans, faded into silence, entering standby mode... continuing to work.

Lando slept soundly until the sun was high. After a quick wash, he headed straight for the academy cafeteria. Having completed his usual routine of boasting, bantering, and freeloading with Old Moore, he made his way toward his best-connected teacher, Moritz.

At the academy, relationships between teachers and students fell into two categories. One was the typical teacher-student bond: students could attend open lectures, and teachers would answer questions as they wished. The other was more like the mentor-disciple relationship—such as Carter and his teacher, Alice and hers—a tradition preserved through the evolution of academic factions.

But to establish such a bond, a prerequisite was required: the teacher must be at the third stage, and the student must at least have reached the first-stage initiation.

Teachers at the Silver Tower, the university faction, would never accept apprentices below the third stage, lest they ruin young talent.

As for students, without becoming an arcanist, one had no qualifications for apprenticeship.

Now, Lando was going to ask Moritz if he would accept him, this genius student.

When he found Moritz, the latter smiled warmly, as if expecting Lando's arrival.

Seeing this, Lando was delighted and respectfully stepped forward, saying, "Teacher, I have condensed the node of the Arcane Furnace and officially become an arcanist."

"Excellent. I can sense that the elements obediently swirl around you. It seems your mastery of the Arcane Furnace is quite impressive." Moritz looked at Lando with some surprise, quietly retracting a generic evaluation.

Lando knew that the tamed elements owed much to the Elemental Affinity talent. Humbly, he replied, "It’s all thanks to your guidance, Teacher."

Without further preamble, he went straight to the point: "Teacher Moritz, I wish to formally become your student. Please accept me!"

This matter had already been discussed between Moritz and Otto. Moritz replied, "No need to rush about formal mentorship. The Silver Tower has decided that once you ignite the Arcane Furnace, you will undergo the highest-level aptitude assessment. If you meet certain criteria, you’ll gain unexpected benefits."

Upon hearing this, Lando suddenly recalled the odd smiles of Carter and Mesut after his last assessment.