Chapter 5 Magic Rebound

"Ali, what time is it now?"

"Eight o'clock, breakfast will be soon."

It was eight o'clock, and Richard had started his meditation around five o'clock. This meant that although Richard felt he had only been in the Sea of Souls for a short while, he had actually meditated for three hours.

"It seems meditation distorts my sense of time."

Richard thought to himself, as his stomach rumbled again.

"Richard, aren't you scared?"

Ali's voice came from the lower bunk, her tone now steady.

"Scared?"

Richard was lying on his bed, curling up to alleviate his hunger, and his experiences over the past month began to replay in his mind.

Each day of that month had been spent in fear: his frail body, meager food supplies, and temperamental drunkards around. Every morning Richard woke up hoping it was all just a dream.

The current situation was countless times better than the previous month.

"I've been through worse, there's nothing to be scared of."

...

The room fell silent.

Before being chosen, Ali was a merchant's daughter, where survival pressure was like a cloud in the sky to her.

Visible, but almost untouchable.

She could hardly imagine what Richard had endured to stay so calm facing a skirmish.

He was so frail a gust of wind could blow him over.

"So what do you plan to do? We can't beat those nobles."

Ali remembered the knights she had seen, those armored monsters on the battlefield who, with just a few knight attendants, could break through armies of hundreds.

She couldn't imagine how she would deal with such people.

"Ali, who do you think is stronger, a Wizard Apprentice or a Knight?"

"Of course..."

Ali instinctively wanted to answer Wizard Apprentice, for even as apprentices, wizards wielded wondrous magic that knights couldn't possibly withstand.

But before she could speak, she thought of the book in her bag—"How to Become a Wizard Apprentice."

Blinded by fear, she had forgotten that the Academy had already given them means to resist.

"Richard, you're a genius!"

Excited, Ali jumped out of bed, grabbed the Wizard Language Dictionary and "How to Become a Wizard Apprentice," and ran to the desk.

Although she hadn't trained in combat like those nobles from childhood, she surpassed them in her reading.

Richard ignored Ali's reaction; all he wanted was to hurry up and have breakfast.

After a while, someone knocked on the door.

Hearing this, Richard immediately rolled out of bed.

Breakfast was here!

Opening the door, Richard saw a puppet-like creature pushing a cart filled with neatly arranged breakfasts.

"Room 225, breakfast for two."

A strange, shrill voice emanated from the puppet's body.

Richard took two plates into the room, then handed the previous night's plates to the puppet.

The puppet took the plates and then shakily moved on to the next room.

"That's magic."

Richard watched the puppet, a spark of excitement in his eyes.

Inside the room, Ali was tirelessly translating with one hand on the dictionary and the other on the book.

"Ali, your breakfast."

"Keep it."

Ali replied without lifting her head, now immersed in the sea of knowledge with no thought for food.

Richard scratched his head, thinking it must be nice to be young, full of energy even without eating.

But then, his body wasn't much older than Ali's at the moment.

...

Richard sat cross-legged on the bed, his eyes tightly closed.

In this moment, his spiritual power was replacing his eyes to observe the world.

This was his seventh day linked to the Sea of Souls.

Over these seven days, the airship had been stable.

Richard, following the process outlined in the book, methodically built his Magic Rebound. Although this process wasn't as swift as linking to the Sea of Souls, it was almost effortless.

During these seven days, Ali, who shared a room with Richard, was immersed in translating "How to Become a Wizard Apprentice". Her dedication was so profound that it even surprised Richard.

Indeed, in life-threatening crises, everyone can unleash their inner potential.

Linking to the Sea of Souls liberated the spiritual power from the souls of Wizard Apprentices, allowing them to sense the magic power that floated freely in the world by means of their spiritual power.

In Richard's perception, the magic power drifting between heaven and earth appeared like fireflies, flickering with bright yet faint light.

Richard's spiritual power transformed into tendrils, which attracted every point of magic power they touched.

Then the tendrils withdrew, and all the points of magic power were absorbed into Richard's body.

If linking to the Sea of Souls was the foundation for becoming a Wizard Apprentice, building the Magic Rebound was like building the walls and roof.

Wizards needed spiritual power to manipulate magic power, and using spiritual power to temporarily control the magic power freely available in the world was not only time-consuming and strenuous, but also very inefficient.

However, the Magic Rebound stored magic power in advance within a wizard's body and stabilized it with spiritual power so that the wizard didn't need to rely on the external world's magic power at critical moments.

Yet, the magic power stored in the Magic Rebound wasn't infinite. A wizard's capacity depended on his limit of spiritual power. If a spell required more magic power than the Magic Rebound's limit, a wizard had no choice but to revert to the basics or find another solution.

With the entry of the last magic power point, the long-accumulated magic power inside Richard finally triggered a qualitative change and transformed into a stream that started at his heart, flowed through his organs, and returned to his heart, forming a complete circulation.

"I did it."

Richard opened his eyes, his face brimming with excitement.

The construction of the Magic Rebound meant he could now quickly unleash the Zero Ring Spells recorded in the book.

Zero Ring Spells referred to those lower-level spells that didn't need the establishment of Magic Marks in the soul and could be used directly.

Some wizards didn't even consider them true magic, just techniques of magic power application.

At the end of "How to Become a Wizard Apprentice," the author considerately prepared four Zero Ring Spells for Apprentices who had completed the Magic Rebound. These were: Magic Missile, Force Field Barrier, Light Body Skill, and Silence Technique.

These four Zero Ring Spells covered offense, defense, escape, and stealth, making them extremely versatile.

And now, Richard was no longer powerless!

While Richard was reveling in joy, Ali, who had been tirelessly translating these past days, suddenly slammed the dictionary down.

"Tired of translating again?" Richard thought.

"Ha-ha, Richard, come down and see. I've finished translating!"

Ali stood up and stretched, her body making cracking sounds.

After seven days of relentless work, she had finally finished translating "How to Become a Wizard Apprentice". In the process, she had also nearly mastered the Wizard Language.

"Congratulations, congratulations. It looks like you've practically passed the exam already."

Richard rolled out of bed and congratulated her with a bow.

"Hehe."

Ali walked over to Richard and gave him a solid pat on the back.

Over these days, Ali and Richard had become much closer. Richard knew that Ali was the cherished daughter of a wealthy merchant. Ali knew that Richard was a farmer with a deceased alcoholic father.

Their attitudes toward the future were vastly different.

Richard's calm and longing for the future fascinated Ali. Whenever she thought of giving up, Richard always managed to dissuade her with a few words.

Now it was her turn to repay the favor.

"In the next few days, learn some Wizard Language with me, so you can also become a Wizard Apprentice."

"Hmm?" Richard was taken aback, but then he felt a warmth in his heart.

"Don't worry, Wizard Language is easy to learn. Many of its words are very similar to our own. If you study diligently, you can understand 'How to Become a Wizard Apprentice' during this period…"

"Ali." Richard cut her off, his expression a mix of amusement and seriousness.

"Have you ever considered that if I become a Wizard Apprentice, you'll have one more competitor in the exams?

One more competitor means more danger. Aren't you afraid I might stab you in the back?"

Richard's voice was calm, but his words made Ali a bit fearful.

More Wizard Apprentices meant more competitors in this deadly exam. Every competitor was a lethal threat.

Was she really going to teach Richard?

"Well…"

Ali's voice grew from soft to firm, as if she had found a flaw in Richard's words.

"Richard, you wouldn't do that. If you were, you wouldn't be telling me about it now."

Richard stroked his chin,

"Generally speaking, I wouldn't stab someone in the back. But there's always that one chance…"

"But besides that one chance, there are also 9,999 out of 10,000 where I wouldn't."

Ali then suddenly punched Richard hard with her left hand.

"You're such a strange person. I'm trying to help you, and you're still making excuses. If you keep this up, watch out, I might really stop teaching you."