Chapter 123: Sorcery of the Mind

"One hundred and ten points already..."

Lin Wei took the military merit card handed to him by Sanil.

By a generous estimate, this was only Lin Wei's third day at the Segawi Lakeside battle camp. If these points were converted into magic stones, it would amount to over two thousand. One must remember that back in the Shadow Forest, when Lin Wei worked as an assistant to Mentor Celes, he only earned twenty magic stones a month.

"Indeed, war brings chaos, and only through chaos can the established order be shattered..." Lin Wei looked at the military merit card in his hand, its pitch-black surface cold to the touch. "Only in this way can one obtain opportunities and resources unimaginable in ordinary times..."

Lin Wei turned to Sanil and asked, "Sanil, can points be redeemed at any time?"

"Of course not." Sanil shook his head. "If the war ends within a year, you go to the academy to redeem your points once it's over. If it doesn't end by then, the academy will send a specialized team here around the one-year mark to handle the redemptions."

Lin Wei nodded; this result was well within his expectations. The redemption list contained many rare items. If these were decentralized to every battle camp, it would not only risk being raided by the enemy, but also create the possibility of internal personnel manipulating the distribution of rewards.

"The academy has certainly calculated this well, though..." Lin Wei sneered inwardly.

A one-year term is, under normal circumstances, a very short period for a wizard. But on the battlefield, everything is different. No one can guarantee they will survive, and once killed by the enemy, the points stored on the military merit card naturally become useless, and the academy, in turn, does not have to pay out those resources.

Furthermore, if too many students survive after a year, leading to a significant drain on the academy's resources, the academy might even use certain means to purge a portion of them. For instance, by manufacturing meaningless skirmishes with the Fanged Bloodshadows, turning the battlefield into a meat grinder to reduce the number of surviving students.

"Sanil!"

Ingram did not have Lin Wei's patience, his tone sharp: "Are there any good new missions today?"

The "good missions" Ingram spoke of were, naturally, those with the highest risk-to-reward ratio.

"No, Mentor Kibul hasn't assigned any new tasks." Sanil shook his head. "Do you really think high-difficulty missions are available every day? The ones left are all simple, time-consuming chores. Would you be willing to spend ten days just to earn two points? Besides, if you really want more points, you could always go into the Fanged Bloodshadows' territory and hunt them down!"

Sanil was purely trying to disgust Ingram. If Ingram were to actually do that, he might see some results for a day or two, but as time passed, the Fanged Bloodshadows would notice the anomaly and set an ambush, at which point his life would be far from guaranteed.

Ingram looked annoyed. "Forget it... remember to notify me when a suitable mission comes up."

"Alright." Sanil shrugged.

"By the way, Mr. Lin Wei," Sanil looked at Lin Wei, "I personally arranged the mission for Banseni; he will be guarding supplies at the logistics warehouse on the northwest defensive line."

Lin Wei was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected Sanil to be so thoughtful. Although Lin Wei didn't know the specific details or rewards of the mission, since Sanil had taken the initiative to tell him, it certainly wouldn't be anything trivial.

"Thank you."

Even though Banseni meant little to him, Lin Wei expressed his gratitude. In the eyes of both Lin Wei and Sanil, Banseni was merely a pawn to facilitate their communication.

...

Dormitory 31.

Lin Wei pushed the door open and entered.

The rising morning sun shone into the room, making the dancing dust motes clearly visible. Banseni had already been dispatched on his mission, leaving Lin Wei alone in the room.

Just after leaving the mission distribution center, Lin Wei had gone with Sherise to obtain the wizard model memory crystal for the psychic spell, Dream Halo.

*Creak.*

Lin Wei closed the door, sat cross-legged on the bed, and took out the memory crystal.

"Psychic spells... are essentially spells of mental power," Lin Wei muttered to himself.

The advantage of mental power spells is obvious: they are not restricted by elemental affinity. Lin Wei, with his shadow elemental affinity, could cultivate them, and Ingram, with his wind elemental affinity, could do the same. Moreover, their methods of execution are incredibly insidious, often causing enemies to fall into traps without realizing it, yielding unexpectedly effective results.

However, conversely, the shortcomings of psychic spells are even more apparent. They have particularly high requirements for a wizard's mental power, which must generally far exceed that of wizards of the same rank to be effective in combat. Otherwise, they can only be used as clumsy tricks to bully low-level wizards, rendering them worse than useless.

"Core, receive the contents of the memory crystal, organize, and transmit."

Lin Wei did not linger, immediately ordering the intelligent core.

"Analyzing wizard model... Analysis complete... Organizing and deducing... Estimated time for organization and deduction: 1 minute and 7 seconds."

The intelligent core not only analyzed the structure of Dream Halo thoroughly but also deduced the optimal path for Lin Wei to practice it. Not only would his cultivation speed be faster, but the abilities he unleashed would be more powerful.

Lin Wei was very much looking forward to the Dream Halo spell. During their mission, the bizarre and uncanny way Sherise had employed it had piqued his interest.

"Organization and deduction complete... Transmitting... Transmission complete."

Lin Wei's mind was suddenly flooded with knowledge he hadn't possessed before.

"It seems that after advancing to a Level 3 wizard apprentice, the intelligent core's efficiency has improved again..." During the recent analysis, deduction, and transmission, Lin Wei clearly felt it was much faster than the previous few times. Furthermore, after the transmission, he did not experience the usual bouts of dizziness.

Lin Wei closed his eyes, settling his mind to better digest the memory.

"So that's how it is..." Lin Wei whispered to himself. "So-called psychic spells are actually just a means of utilizing mental power. If two swordsmen duel, and one knows fencing while the other does not, the former will surely win. Psychic spells and fencing are fundamentally the same... If a wizard is compared to a swordsman, a psychic spell is the fencing."

"Utilizing mental power to achieve the best effect..." Lin Wei instantly grasped the essence of psychic spells. "My mental power is much stronger than those of the same rank; cultivating this Dream Halo seems quite advantageous for me..."

"The actual practice of psychic spells is essentially using mental power to construct the framework of an environmental space. In that case, I can fully construct this into a data model..."

Naturally, Lin Wei thought of the intelligent core.