19: Chapter 19 The Infinite Possibilities of the Panel

This is outrageous.

Could someone in this world really be this simple-minded?

Zhang Mu recalled a petite female colleague who sat at the desk next to him during his senior year internship.

She had jet-black, ear-length short hair, a round face, a rather cute appearance, and a soft, thin voice.

Searching through his memories, his expression turned strange: "The only interaction I had with her must have been that day it rained heavily, when I gave her my only umbrella after work, right?"

"But that was because one day I didn't have time to buy breakfast, and she shared half a pancake with me."

Zhang Mu's thought was: you gave me half a pancake, I gave you an umbrella—we were even.

But looking at it now, the young girl didn't seem to think they were even.

"This... she sent over 150,000 just for that little thing? I don't even know how much money is in the second card."

"Is it really worth it?"

If it were anyone else, they probably wouldn't be able to understand it either.

Zhang Mu felt the same way.

"I need to return the money to her quickly."

He pulled out his phone to call Song Lan, but even after scrolling to the bottom of his contacts, he didn't see her name. Then he remembered he had deleted all his colleagues' numbers after resigning.

Sitting on the sofa and thinking hard for a while, he remembered he had added the project team leader on Juxin.

He quickly found the contact and sent a message.

At the time, Zhang Mu worked very diligently and was quite capable. When he left, the team leader even told him to contact him if he ever wanted to come back.

The team leader wasn't just being polite; a few seconds after Zhang Mu sent the message, a reply arrived.

First, he asked what was going on. After getting a general idea of the situation, he sent Song Lan's phone number. At the end, he even asked if Zhang Mu wanted to return to work.

Zhang Mu politely declined. Could work possibly be as interesting as magic?

Having obtained the phone number, he dialed it directly. After a few rings, that familiar soft voice sounded.

"Hello?"

"It's me, Zhang Mu."

"Ah?" There was the sound of things falling over on the other end of the line. After a few seconds, Song Lan's voice came through, "Brother Mu, why did you change your number?"

"I changed it when I resigned. That's not important. Did you send the two bank cards in the mailbox at my door?"

Song Lan murmured softly, "You're sick and need money. I happened to have some spare cash on me, so..."

Her already soft and delicate voice grew quieter as she spoke. If his constitution hadn't improved significantly after mastering magic, he wouldn't have been able to hear her at all.

"How did you know I have Lung Cancer?"

Before she could answer, Zhang Mu guessed it himself: "My attending physician's surname is Song... is he your father?"

"Never mind." He cut off the topic himself. "Give me an address. I'll return the money to you tomorrow."

"I'm really not in a hurry for the money, Brother Mu. You take it and use it first. Return it to me when you're less tight on cash."

The two went back and forth for a while. Finally, under Zhang Mu's firm attitude, Song Lan eventually gave him an address.

He thought about it and had an impression of it; it seemed to be a shop on the same street where he sold the gold coins.

They agreed to meet tomorrow morning, and the call ended.

Having made contact, Zhang Mu breathed a sigh of relief and summoned the panel.

[Character: Zhang Mu]

[Race: Human]

[Class: None]

[Rank: None]

[Skills: Meditation Method—Mana Sensing (Level 1, 8%), Mana Absorption (Level 1, 8%), Mana Control (Level 1, 8%)]

[Fireball Spell (Level 1, 1%)—Releases a powerful fireball to attack the target.]

[Unlocked Functions: Inventory, Resurrect on Spot, Resurrect in Town (Not yet bound to a city)]

He stared at the panel.

The content in the parentheses for the three abilities undoubtedly indicated that the Meditation Method and Fireball Spell could still be upgraded, with an unknown upper limit.

After pondering for a moment, Zhang Mu raised his right hand as if gripping something. Mana surged, and a basketball-sized fireball instantly took shape.

Recalling the stream of information that had flooded his brain when the Fireball Spell leveled up, he mobilized his greatly increased Mental Energy to compress the fireball while continuing to pour in mana.

As the temperature of the flames rose, the color of the fire changed, shifting from the initial red to orange, yellow, and finally white before stopping.

It wasn't that he couldn't continue to raise the temperature, but rather that Zhang Mu's current Mental Energy could only achieve this much. If he forced it further, there was a risk of the fireball losing control and exploding.

As everyone knows...

The color of a flame represents its temperature. White is around 4,000 degrees, which can easily burn a human body until not even ashes remain.

Yet when Zhang Mu's left hand approached the pure white fireball, he didn't even feel a sensation of heat.

Furthermore, he felt a mysterious spiritual connection between his mind and the fireball, as if it were a brand-new limb that he could control at will.

He directed the mana to flow back into his body, and the fireball slowly shrank and extinguished accordingly.

He rubbed his palms together a couple of times; the skin was as it was before, completely unharmed.

Zhang Mu felt somewhat puzzled, yet also exhilarated.

This was far too different from the common knowledge of magic he had learned from Potter.

In Saul Continent, the Mental Energy from practicing the Meditation Method to completion was not enough to control magic.

One had to go to the church to receive a Magic Apprentice badge and study the magic books within the badge to further enhance their Mental Energy.

However, he could already control magic and even enhance it just after breaking through to Level 1.

What would happen if he reached the maximum level?

And what was the maximum level?

Or perhaps there was no maximum level at all?

The same applied to magic. Mastering a magic book would, at most, make the casting speed a bit faster.

High-level mages, relying on their massive amounts of mana and Mental Energy, could indeed make a fireball larger.

But that could only be considered an increase in quantity. Zhang Mu's compression of the fireball to increase its temperature was a qualitative change.

The gap between the two was not just a little bit.

It was like how no amount of charcoal could leave a single scratch on a steel surface, yet a diamond obtained by subjecting charcoal to high temperature and pressure could easily do so.

Zhang Mu realized that he had ultimately underestimated the panel.

Quickly learning magic was merely the panel's most insignificant function.

Breaking through the theoretical limits of magic—that was the truly terrifying ability.

While other mages faced the desperate situation of having no further path to progress, Zhang Mu could continue to move forward.

"This really is freaking awesome."

He scanned the panel, marveling aloud, "What changes will happen if the Fireball Spell levels up again? It shouldn't just be a simple temperature increase. Maybe it could carry radiation?"

That would be too frightening.

A shiver ran through his body, and he pulled back his straying thoughts. "I have to keep the ability to change the form of magic and enhance its power a secret. If anyone ever finds out,"

"I suspect every mage on the entire Saul Continent would come to hunt me down."

That was not an exaggeration at all.

For some mages who had lived for over a thousand years, their progress in strength had long since stagnated.

They were like a pool of stagnant water with no replenishment; their strength might even decline as time passed.

If these people learned that magic could undergo a qualitative change to bring them a breakthrough, one could imagine the extent of their madness.

He picked up his phone and checked the time; it was already past eight in the evening.

He had things to do tomorrow, so he temporarily put the matter aside and hurriedly got up to shower and sleep.

Before going to bed, Ye Ming suddenly called. After picking up, the other party told him in a calm voice that suppressed his excitement that the matter with the research project was settled.

A big-shot mentor was willing to help and take in both him and the female Classmate he had saved from Fu Xiyuan's hands.

The condition was that the first authorship of the project's paper would belong to the mentor.

Ye Ming didn't care about this; he only thought about staying far away from Fu Xiyuan.

Zhang Mu was very happy and offered a few words of congratulations.

Finally, Ye Ming said that in a few days, he and that female Classmate would treat Zhang Mu to a meal together, and then hung up the phone.

He nodded in agreement, thinking to himself that sparks were probably about to fly between these two.

He put away his phone and went to sleep.