65: Constant Magic and Academic Papers

After seeing off the despondent New Lord, Ronan immediately returned to his desk.

After reading that trashy book earlier, the book of magical knowledge hadn't changed at all.

Clearly, the Flesh-and-Blood Strengthening Scheme in the book was outside the optimization range of the book of magical knowledge.

He picked up another book, "The Past and Present of Necromancers."

The magic in this book was purely personal imagination and did not exist in reality.

After a quick read, Ronan looked at the book of magical knowledge; its pages didn't have a single word on them.

It seemed that the content for optimization needed to be based on reality.

He set the books he had read aside and pulled out another one, "The Roots of Fear."

This time, the book of magical knowledge changed.

The pages began to slowly record knowledge related to Spiritual Fear.

If these books were a bit more reliable, perhaps the optimized fear magic would have already emerged by now.

Ronan's expression grew increasingly excited as he began speed-reading one book after another.

Since the quality was lacking, he would make up for it with quantity.

Fortunately, among these books, the knowledge related to the mental aspect and fear was fairly comprehensive.

At this moment, on the pages of the book of magical knowledge...

A brand new magic, "Spiritual Fear," was gradually taking shape.

He had seen it in the exchange list of the Adventurers Guild before;

The effect of the Zero-Circle Magic "Fear" was that it was actively triggered by the caster, forcing the target into a state of fear and causing them to attempt to flee from the caster.

But his optimized magic, "Spiritual Fear," took a different path.

Passive trigger.

As long as the relevant conditions were met, it could similarly force a target into a state of fear.

At the same time, whether the target attempted to flee from the caster would be determined by the specific degree of fear.

Simply put, "Spiritual Fear" possessed the effects of the "Fear" spell but was more flexible and adjustable.

And the triggering method of "Spiritual Fear" was the other core of this magic.

By being nourished with Spiritual Power, "Spiritual Fear" could form a Secret Seal, which could then be attached to an external object as a triggering medium.

For example, Ronan could apply this magic to a book and set the trigger condition to turning to page 23.

Then, even if he wasn't nearby, as long as the Secret Seal nourished by Spiritual Power remained,

Once someone turned the book to page 23, "Spiritual Fear" would immediately trigger, and they would be attacked.

The advantage of using an external object as a triggering medium was twofold:

First, it was more secretive and versatile, and second, it reduced the caster's burden.

Ronan felt that this method of using a Secret Seal as a casting medium was, to some extent, influenced by New Lord's paper.

However, if the Secret Seal was to remain constant on an external object for a long time, it required not only regular nourishment with Spiritual Power but also the addition of some special materials,

To achieve long-lasting stability—that is, to reach the effect of Constant Magic.

After thinking for a long time, Ronan finally decided to use the mask of truth as the triggering medium for "Spiritual Fear."

He planned to fix the Secret Seal in the eye socket area of the mask;

As long as a malicious gaze met his for three seconds, it would trigger directly.

However, the malice here was a bit hard to control... He felt he needed to go to the Second Floor Area again to stock up on more goods from the Sea of Filth.

Ronan believed that even without counting the core triggering method, the spell "Spiritual Fear" alone,

Was enough to write a paper to raise his academic rank.

Thus, he immediately castrated the "Spiritual Fear" spell, creating only a simplified version of the Secret Seal that could not exist for long.

Finally, he completed a paper.

After looking up information, he learned that student papers needed to be submitted to Mayer at the Second Floor Area Registration Desk.

It worked out perfectly; a trip to the Second Floor Area would allow him to submit the paper and restock from the Sea of Filth at the same time.

"You're going to the Second Floor Area?"

Just as he stepped out, he ran into his neighbor.

"Yes, I want to borrow some more books and submit an Academic Paper while I'm at it," Ronan nodded.

"You wrote a paper so quickly?"

New Lord looked surprised and then advised, "Shouldn't you polish it a bit more?"

Ronan thought about it carefully.

He felt the paper was already castrated enough, with none of the core technology included... So he shook his head and said, "Let it be. We'll see after it's published."

"How about... publishing it in a few days?"

"Let me be clear, it's not that I don't want you to write about the Spiritual Force Seed; you can use it as much as you want, and I won't publish mine, it's just..."

New Lord looked hesitant, as if he had some unspeakable difficulty.

"I didn't write about the Spiritual Force Seed; I wrote about something else," Ronan said.

"Ah?"

New Lord was stunned; this answer was beyond his expectations.

They had just finished discussing the application of the Spiritual Force Seed, so how was there another new paper?

Even for a genius, shouldn't there be some basic logic to it?

He followed behind Ronan in a daze, muttering things like 'how is it possible' and 'there's no time' as they walked toward the Second Floor Area.

Walking along the path, Ronan clearly felt that there were much fewer people.

The further they went toward the Second Floor Area, the more advanced the collar colors on the student robes became.

Ronan even saw a group of students with orange collars walking past him in unison.

As they passed, the leader of the group didn't forget to scan the two of them up and down with a scrutinizing gaze.

White, green, blue, purple, orange, corresponding to levels 1 through 5; this group of people were all level 5 students.

Level 5 students were the backbone of the Arcane Arts Society, the Arcane Apprentices.

"The atmosphere isn't quite right, is it?" Ronan asked New Lord behind him.

"No, surely not..." New Lord's eyes flickered away.

When they entered the Second Floor Area, Ronan found a circle of people standing near the Registration Desk,

Muttering about something, sometimes responding enthusiastically and sometimes arguing incessantly.

As Ronan approached and listened, cold sweat instantly began to flow down his forehead.

"The Abnormal Soul Entity could appear at any time, stay sharp..."

"Such good research material should be left to me; I've captured several similar spiritual entities..."

"Watch the property here, or Mayer will skin us all alive..."

"The Arcane Apprentices have already investigated; didn't they come up empty?"

"What do you know! They're just level 5 students. After I promote twice more, I'll be just as good as them..."

...No one noticed that the 'Abnormal Soul Entity' they were looking for was standing right behind them.

Ronan kept nodding behind the crowd, occasionally giving a thumbs-up and chatting happily with the strangers next to him.

He blended in perfectly as a passerby.

He turned back to New Lord and asked in a low voice that only the two of them could hear:

"Didn't you say everything was explained clearly?"

New Lord's face flushed red, and he didn't dare look him in the eye,

"Darsi explained it clearly to me, but about the soul entity thing, I didn't dare tell the Arcane Apprentices..."

"I thought if they couldn't find any clues, they would just act as if nothing happened..."

"Is there anyone as treacherous as you?" Ronan's voice unconsciously rose a bit.

"Keep your voice down..."

New Lord hurriedly reminded him, then smiled at a student who had turned around and gave a thumbs-up.

"Ahem, this time you have to help me carry the books." Ronan straightened his expression and left the crowd to walk toward the Registration Desk.

"Sir, this is the Academic Paper I want to publish. Please take it." He placed the paper in front of Mayer.

"..."

Seeing that the old man was ignoring him again, he didn't care and headed into the sea of books to start prospecting.

New Lord hurriedly followed with eager service, taking the books he selected at any moment.

Ronan remembered that if he wanted to fix "Spiritual Fear" onto the mask of truth, he would need to consume some magical materials, so he asked,

"Where can I get magical materials in the Academy?"

"There's a material exchange list in the task area, but it requires points."

New Lord suggested, "You just joined, so you can only get points through tasks."

"Of course, if you also have a massive family estate to inherit like I do, you can also exchange Gold Dragons for them..."

"I'll choose to do tasks, of course."

Ronan said in a flat tone, "Believe it or not, I actually have extensive experience with tasks..."

...Registration Desk.

Mayer put down the pink-covered book in his hand and picked up the Academic Paper Ronan had submitted, his tone somewhat impatient,

"What is this kid up to? He's only been here for how long, and he wants to use trash to disgust an old man like me..."

He flipped open the paper with a look of indignation...