5: Chapter 5 Advancement to Third-Level Wizard Apprentice

By the time Ross arrived in front of Evelyn's door, it had already opened on its own.

"Come in," Evelyn's voice came from inside the room.

Ross was momentarily stunned, then walked right in.

The furnishings inside were quite elegant, and in terms of size, they didn't seem much different from the room Ross lived in.

However, the arranged furniture and facilities were much better.

Evelyn was lying on a pure white sofa woven from unknown materials, softly half-leaning against the sofa cushions.

"Not bad, Wizard Apprentice Ross, I have remembered your name."

"Even in today's era, being able to step into the Wizard Apprentice field within a week can be called gifted."

"But don't be arrogant."

"Talent might still play a role before becoming an Official Wizard."

"After that, it is almost non-existent."

This was the second time Ross had heard about talent, so he spoke up:

"Respected Evelyn, can you satisfy my curiosity?"

"This is the second time I've heard that talent only plays a certain role before stepping into an Official Wizard."

"May I boldly ask, why is that?"

Evelyn slowly looked at Ross.

"There is nothing that cannot be said."

"It's just that saying it won't be of much use to you either."

"Most mortals need to cross three Wizard Apprentice thresholds before promoting to an Official Wizard."

"Their mental strength must break through the major milestones of 100, 1,000, and 10,000. Gifted people will find it a bit easier."

"However, the threshold of an Official Wizard is still very stubborn; the closer to the 10,000 mental strength threshold, the more difficult it becomes."

"On the contrary, after entering Official Wizard, there will be more ways to improve mental strength. The impact of differences in talent will also be reduced to a minimum."

"Of course, it can only shorten quite a bit; in fact, there are still some differences."

"It's just that wizards have other ways to improve themselves. In the eyes of wizards, apart from Official Wizard, the so-called peak level 1 apprentice is nothing more than the realm of mortals."

Evelyn looked at Ross, recalling his state five or six days ago.

"Judging by your talent, even in the savage era, you would be among the very top batch. If you were born in that era."

"Perhaps you would have gained more extra privileges. At that time, high talent made it easier to cross the Official Wizard threshold, and thus you would have received more cultivation."

"Of course, current wizard civilization is not that it doesn't care about those below Official Wizard, but rather it is fair and just in a certain sense."

"If you have high talent, you can take a step ahead. If you have low talent, you can also work hard to promote."

Evelyn slowly recovered from her memories.

"Therefore, the academy will not give you extra resource inclination; everyone needs to obtain corresponding points through competition and then exchange them for resources."

Thinking about this mode, Ross realized that although it seemed he had lost some privileges and some extra resource-inclined cultivation,

compared to a fair environment, this era was more suitable for him and even more precious.

After all, if high talent alone granted privileges, those with good family backgrounds would have boundless privileges.

At present, at least one could compete fairly.

Evelyn looked at Ross's calm gaze and found it quite interesting.

It was still rare for someone to maintain a rational mindset when hearing news unfavorable to themselves.

"Ross, since you passed the assessment, go to the Magic Plant Garden and tend to the sun-gathering flower in my magic field."

"The reward is ten magic stones per week."

"You only need to clear the bugs in the sun-gathering flower field and water it with an appropriate amount of clear water every day."

Evelyn handed over a copy of "sun-gathering flower Care Manual" for Ross to check.

"You can carry out the care work according to this manual. If you take good care of it, there will be extra magic stone rewards."

"Alright, Evelyn," Ross replied.

After taking the manual, under the signal of Evelyn, Ross stood up, left, and headed towards the Magic Plant Garden.

...

After Ross arrived at the Magic Plant Garden, he went straight to Evelyn's magic field.

That magic field full of sun-gathering flowers came into view.

Its flower shape was huge, capable of fully absorbing sunlight.

Faintly, water droplets condensed in the middle of the pistils could be seen.

Ross guessed that must be the solar essence condensed by the sun-gathering flower.

After observing the basic information within the magic field, Ross, based on the characteristics of the sun-gathering flower in the manual,

chose to carry out pest removal today.

If it were the newly enrolled Ross, it might be a bit difficult.

But for Ross who had learned Hand of Magic, the difficulty of catching bugs dropped significantly.

Ross consumed magic power and condensed a slender Hand of Magic.

This could minimize magic power consumption to the greatest extent.

He gently tapped the soil near the roots and stems of the sun-gathering flower.

Tapping according to a specific frequency of sound waves, before long, the bugs hidden in the soil crawled out.

Before they could recover their senses, Hand of Magic swept them all up in one net.

Repeating this process, the magic plants in the magic field were plowed through by Ross once.

Most of the pests in the soil were eliminated.

As for some extremely deeply hidden ones, or some insect eggs,

Ross currently had no way to eradicate them completely.

Or rather, in the Wizard World, even bugs possessed corresponding magic power.

Therefore, magic plants also required wizards to regularly clean up these magic bugs.

This was also the reason why Wizard Apprentices like Ross could earn rewards.

After all, Official Wizards had more important things to do.

If even trivial work like magic plant care required them to take over,

Official Wizards would probably find it difficult to progress further.

The Purification Spell obtained from card drawing also helped Ross a lot.

Purification Spell could be used after watering and irrigating the sun-gathering flowers.

Moreover, because it was cast by magic power, it was even more delicate and gentle.

In the following week, besides meditation and classes, Ross chose to perform pest removal and watering in the early morning.

Due to Hand of Magic and Purification Spell, the time spent caring for the sun-gathering flowers everyday was within an hour.

If it were a Ross who hadn't learned Hand of Magic, these jobs would probably take half a day.

This was also the reason why Evelyn chose to bluntly refuse before when she saw Ross hadn't even promoted to a Level 3 Wizard Apprentice.

The work efficiency of mortals and transcendent beings was incomparable.

These days, Ross discovered that he could accumulate card drawing shares.

He could choose to save the day's card drawing qualification.

Of course, this didn't have any special use.

It just allowed him to choose to draw once a day, or gather them up and draw all at once.

Ross had been quite busy these days.

So he chose the latter. After completing the task of caring for the sun-gathering flowers this week, he collected Evelyn's magic stone reward.

On top of the original 10 magic stones, 3 more were given.

The card drawing interface opened, and Ross's eyes lit up.

A full 7 cards leaped out from the card pool, floating suspended in mid-air.

[Material Card * 3] Elus "Earth Magic Stone" * 1 piece.

[Material Card * 2] sun-gathering flower seed * 3 grains.

[Material Card * 2] juanyang flower liquid * 3 drops.