63: Daily Witchcraft Practice

As soon as Green got the sorcery crystal, he couldn't wait to return to his dorm to study it.

Learning always progresses from simple to difficult, step by step.

Green first studied and comprehended the simplest sorcery:

0-Ring Sorcery — Blessing of Plants.

His Spiritual Power delved into the sorcery crystal, and a clear sorcery structure appeared before his eyes.

Compared to the five low-level plant-based sorceries Green had learned before,

Intermediate sorcery had more than three times the number of runes, and also adopted multiple composite structures in its rune arrangement.

Green self-assessed the overall learning difficulty to have increased by about five times... Although the difficulty increased manyfold, Green was no longer a country bumpkin.

From May of the 10th year of his wizard's path, when he first transmigrated,

To July of the 16th year of his wizard's path now,

A full six years had passed.

Under his long-term diligent study and disciplined effort, coupled with a little help from his Golden Finger,

Green had already made rapid progress in runology and elemental studies, having basically mastered the learning content for the third and fourth five-year grand exams.

The content of these two five-year grand exams was mostly closely related to intermediate sorcery.

Now Green had the theoretical knowledge; all that was left was practical application.

When he first started learning these intermediate sorceries, Green found it smooth sailing, even though an 8 Intensity sorcery was twice as complex as a 5 Intensity one...

Green now had plenty of time each day to practice sorcery.

Every day, Green would spend four to five hours practicing sorcery.

Since intermediate sorceries were more powerful, Green's small room wasn't large enough to cast them.

Green went to inquire where he could practice intermediate sorcery.

In the communication hall, Green found out that

the Wizard Tower had dedicated sorcery practice rooms, which were spacious and had targets specifically for testing sorcery Intensity, making them excellent places to practice sorcery.

However, these were not free.

Upon hearing the price: 2 magic stones per hour.

Good heavens, if Green went to the sorcery practice room, he'd go bankrupt in minutes.

So,

Green simply ran to Mentor Jordan's training ground to use the space.

Anyway, there was a soundproof Wizard Array there, it was far from the Wizard Tower, and no one would disturb him, making it a good place to practice sorcery.

Except for mornings and evenings when apprentices practiced Knight Breathing Technique there, it was mostly empty at other times.

"Perfect, I can also help Mentor Jordan look after the place."

"Haha, I'm truly brilliant," Green thought to himself, then contentedly took on the role of training ground caretaker... Next came a long period of daily sorcery practice.

Behind every great person who achieved brilliant accomplishments lies a period of ordinary years.

Ordinary people,

are mostly those whose edges have been worn smooth by the trivialities of ordinary years, becoming content with mediocrity, thus becoming ordinary people.

Their past dreams are left as only distant thoughts, recalled only during occasional moments of melancholy, remembering that they once had naive and grand ambitions.

Those who achieve greatness,

persevere or endure hardship during their ordinary years.

Because we only know of their great achievements in history, and they could not foresee the future when they struggled.

They didn't know how much significance their efforts and sacrifices held for the dreams they pursued!

Nor were they clear how many years it would take for them to make a name for themselves and achieve even a little success, or even if they would succeed at all.

In their mundane and tedious lives, on the difficult and winding path of pursuing their dreams, filled with passion, when they fell on the path forward, the only thing they could rely on was their firm belief in their dreams...

wizard's path, Year 16.

August, 0-Ring Intermediate Sorcery — Blessing of Plants, 5 Intensity template, took over two months, from 入門 to bottleneck, stuck at segmented casting.

October, 0-Ring Intermediate Sorcery — Withering Silence of Deadwood, 8 Intensity template, took three and a half months, from 入門 to bottleneck, stuck at segmented casting. (With special deadwood, sorcery practice and comprehension can be accelerated.)

December, 0-Ring Intermediate Sorcery — Thorn Entanglement, 8 Intensity template, took nearly six months, from 入門 to bottleneck, stuck at segmented casting...

wizard's path, Year 17.

April, 0-Ring Intermediate Sorcery — Light Wind, 8 Intensity template, took over four and a half months, from 入門 to bottleneck, stuck at segmented casting.

May, Green used the Light of Origin to fully enhance his refinement of intermediate magic recovery potions to a good level. Next, he fully practiced the last intermediate potion — intermediate Spiritual Power sobriety potion.

June, 0-Ring Intermediate Sorcery — Blessing of Plants, 5 Intensity template, self-comprehended the mystery of segmented casting, broke through the segmented casting bottleneck, and can be applied in combat.

August, 0-Ring Intermediate Sorcery — Exploding Fireball, 8 Intensity template, took eight months, from 入門 to bottleneck, stuck at segmented casting.

December, 0-Ring Intermediate Sorcery — Withering Silence of Deadwood, 8 Intensity template, self-comprehended the mystery of segmented casting, broke through the segmented casting bottleneck, and can be applied in combat...

Over a year of sorcery practice yielded considerable achievements.

During this past year or so... Green insisted on relying solely on his own talent for sorcery comprehension and practice.

He hadn't used his Golden Finger once.

Green didn't want to rely too much on his Golden Finger; the Golden Finger should be an accelerator on Green's path forward, not something that replaces Green's legs and walks for him.

To solve some sorcery problems,

Green would also attend some sorcery seminars to broaden his horizons.

Or he would engage in friendly exchanges with apprentices practicing similar sorceries in the Demonized Plants cultivation hall.

Over this past year, Green had made quite a few friends.

Many Wizard Apprentices now knew about this formidable individual, Green.

After all, apprentices who dared to simultaneously choose four 8 Intensity intermediate sorceries were quite rare at Plant Heart Wizard Academy...

Most apprentices would build their combat sorcery system around one to two 8 Intensity intermediate sorceries.

Moreover,

to achieve maximum efficiency in teamwork, many apprentices would specialize in one powerful 8 Intensity sorcery, practicing it to the point of silent instant casting.

This approach had both pros and cons.

The advantage was that it saved a lot of time, as Intermediate Wizard Apprentices had limited energy.

Especially combat wizards whose talent wasn't exceptional and whose knowledge of runology and elemental studies wasn't deep enough.

So they could only choose to excel in one area.

To be a dedicated attacker, or a dedicated defender, or a dedicated healer in a team...

This approach had a major flaw.

That was, once the squad was scattered or crippled, the remaining apprentices would be unable to stand alone and would find it difficult to win against lone wolf Black Wizards.

Based on past experience, the main reasons for casualties among 外出 Wizard Apprentices were mostly falling into traps set by Black Wizards or being subjected to their divide-and-conquer tactics.

Without the support and help of teammates, White Wizard Apprentices stood no chance against Black Wizards, who favored individualism and lone wolf tactics.

But Green was destined to become a peak apprentice, so he naturally had to be a well-rounded warrior.

Coupled with Green's deep-seated insecurity, the idea that it's better to rely on oneself than on others was deeply ingrained.

Green was unwilling to put his life in the hands of others...