Unfathomable.
Unbelievable.
After urging Annan to demonstrate the four spells he already possessed, Salvatore sat in his seat, wordlessly staring at Annan in a daze.
How did he... do it?
An unranked wizard apprentice had learned four spells in two days without anyone teaching him.
The teacher said Tan Juan was very talented, and at that ti, Salvatore still didn't believe it...
Now, is this the extent of being "very" talented?!
What the hell are you doing, teacher? Didn't you teach him a single spell?
Salvatore could tell that the traces of the casting of these four spells were very faint. This ant that their lord had almost never used them after learning the four spells.
This could only be because Annan had indeed just learned these four spells.
With the repeated casting of a spell, the corresponding curse would gradually coexist with the caster, and the power of the spell would grow increasingly stronger. Until it completely beca instinctive, not requiring casting or the expense of mana to use.
This is why, in most cases, old wizards are stronger.
Although this does not guarantee that an old wizard is necessarily powerful—after all, he might have learned his first spell at the age of forty or fifty—but young wizards are definitely not powerful enough.
Damn it.
Could it be that Tan Juan is the illegitimate child of the Mysterious Lady?
Such a blasphemous thought suddenly erged in Salvatore's mind.
He almost doubted his past thirty years of life.
He rembered that when he learned his first spell and successfully beca a wizard apprentice, it took him three weeks. When he solidified the fla on the candle into a red gemstone, his instructor in the School of Transmutation praised his talent and recomnded him to Benjamin.
Under Benjamin's tutelage, it took him ten days to learn his second spell—exploding gemstones into iron shards. Benjamin then watched over him until he transford the large pieces of iron shards into nurous fine steel needles before allowing him to learn the next spell.
It was a guiding class spell, "Magnetization". It allowed control over the flight of steel needles through the air.
His next spell was the more difficult "Thunderstorm Field". He spent two months mastering this spell.
It allowed for the summoning of high voltage lightning that connected two steel needles using pairs of magnetized tal items as materials. With prepared gemstones as materials, he could summon steel needles and imdiately call forth vast amounts of electricity.
Only after possessing a complete imdiate tactical cycle was Salvatore allowed to advance to bronze and beco a wizard of the School of Transmutation.
Every transcendent at the bronze tier must possess a considerable degree of combat power. This is to prevent them from being easily killed by ordinary people.
This is a responsibility to one's own life and to others—
Because a transcendent's body must be dealt with as quickly as possible.
The specific thod of disposal is for another transcendent to perform a ritual, absorbing the forr's curse and inheriting their curse binding—it's one of the shortcuts to gaining power quickly and is usually evidence of having killed another.
And if a transcendent's curse is not absorbed by soone for a long ti... nightmares will be born from it.
rely the nightmares spawned by a bronze-tier transcendent are enough to easily kill ordinary people—after all, before becoming transcendent, humans cannot maintain a clear self-awareness in dreams. If they continuously die in nightmares, they will gradually be infected by the curse, slowly turning into twisted monsters... or luckily die.
Even after becoming transcendent, they can barely maintain clarity of mind, aware that they are in a dream, and may not even be able to recall their original identity.
Only those with the divine arts gift can stay lucid in dreams.
Even for those holy n, the nightmare owner's malice, despair, pain, and anger will constantly infiltrate them, disturb their decisions, and lead them to make choices "they couldn't possibly make".
It's not that by obtaining transcendent power, one can surpass ordinary people... it's that if one cannot independently defeat an ordinary person, no matter how high their talent is, they will not be allowed to advance to transcendent.
With every advancent, one must share their curse binding with the world in the presence of another transcendent. And this person is their secret-keeper, usually their instructor, parents, or an upperclassman or upperclasswoman.
In other words, if one does not gain the trust and affirmation of at least one transcendent, an ordinary person can never advance to transcendent.
"Can I advance now?"
Ann asked Salvatore earnestly.
"Yes..."
Salvatore felt his throat a little dry.
No, no, no, this must be because of being roasted by the fire outside...
He tried hard to suppress the jealousy and despair in his heart. As a transcendent, every negative emotion is a ti bomb.
"Since Tan Juan is willing to trust and chose instead of the teacher to be his secret-keeper, I must not do anything immoral to him."
Salvatore admonished himself in his heart.
Because every transcendent needs a trustworthy secret-keeper.
The reason it must be trustworthy is that once a secret-keeper receives their curse binding, they can easily kill them.
If one's own curse binding is unknown to anyone, then the curse will not be bound, and each use of transcendent power will erode oneself. Conversely, the more secret-keepers one has, the stronger the power of this oath becos.
This curse binding is both the rope that restrains the master's actions and the armor that protects the master from being corroded by the curse.
Oaths and curses, these are the binaries of this world.
"So when can we hold the ritual?"
Ann asked with a slight frown, urgently asking, "Viscount Roth Fort is trying to harm , and I must gain enough power to protect myself as soon as possible."
"Don't worry, since I chose to be your secret-keeper, I can be considered half your instructor. I will surely settle all your problems before I leave."
Salvatore thus promised, "As long as I live, you shall not suffer."
Speaking of which, he explained to Annan the concept of a Secret Keeper, as well as the relationship and obligations between a Secret Keeper and the Curse Bound.
One such obligation was that the Curse Bound were duty-bound to retrieve the Secret Keeper's corpse. Naturally, Salvatore had many under his Curse Binding, and it might not necessarily fall to Annan. Nevertheless, as a matter of inheritance, this was sothing that he needed to make clear.
After listening, Annan nodded.
"Can do."
Annan readily answered, "I trust you."
Not that he had much choice in the matter.
In his heart, Annan couldn't help but feel helpless. At least until his identity was exposed, Salvatore was bound to be trustworthy.
So far, he had t only this one Transcendent who might be considered an ally... and he must possess a certain degree of power and impressiveness as the players arrive.
Otherwise, it would be hard for him to keep them in check.
If his identity were exposed, the worst-case scenario would be to switch Secret Keepers... No, better not.
Annan narrowed his eyes slightly, pondered for a mont, and then rejected the idea.
Better to be more straightforward and choose a Curse Binding that was truly hard to break. The most crucial part was to avoid any contradictions. For example, Benjamin's first Curse Binding was actually quite difficult to defy.
Of course, the main thing was to see what kind of Curse Binding he would receive.
According to Salvatore's earlier introduction, the permanent Curse Binding received upon advancent was not chosen by oneself, nor was it imposed by others against their will. Instead, it was chosen from several targeted Curse Bindings based on one's actions within the advancent nightmares.
The better the nightmare was completed, the more powerful the Curse Binding bestowed and the broader the Curse Binding itself. Conversely, if the nightmare was completed poorly, the Curse Binding would be very specific, and the power gained would be lacking.
"Since you're eager to advance, I'll pull an all-nighter tonight," Salvatore sighed.
With sowhat groggy eyes, he murmured lowly, "Tan Juan, bring the cold-resistant gear. I'm going to analyze the black fire samples in the basent to see who sold this stuff to Viscount Roth Fort. This stuff requires soundproofing and cooling, or there is a risk of explosion..."
"How long will it take?"
"Quite soon, roughly seven or eight hours. Anyway, it'll still be before my usual bedti."
The young mayor, resembling Gaara with dark circles under his eyes, took the cold-resistant gear, sighed again, and said irritably, "Don't bother ! I'm off to work — and don't disturb later either. If sothing cos up, we can talk about it tomorrow morning!"
Soon, Salvatore entered the soundproofed and temperature-controlled basent.
Annan looked at his watch, and it wasn't even seven o'clock yet. Therefore, he had dinner first and then returned to continue reading.
He planned to stay up tonight, just to see what would happen at midnight.
At eleven o'clock in the night, so notifications suddenly flashed before him.
[00:59:59 until the start of closed beta]
[Player Forum opened]
[NPC Template opened]
[Affection Adjustnt Feature opened]
[According to the current template "Rare Elite (Gold)," corresponding powers acquired]
[Sub-mission Issuing Rights opened]
[Personal Mission Issuing Rights opened]
[Fragnts of Truth detected — Book of the Celestial Chariot]
[Current holders of the Book of the Celestial Chariot: 1]
[Temporary Powers Granted: Main Mission Issuing Rights, Player Forum Moderator Identity, Creator's Perspective (Map Function)]
[Please write the initial storyline]
[Please confirm the character creation rules]
[Please confirm the player selection rules]
[Please specify the players' place of arrival]
[Please confirm the player system permissions]
[Please design the player system interface]
Overwheld with such a barrage of prompts, Annan was utterly dumbfounded.
...What's this all about?
I've already traveled to another world, and I still have to play ga designer?
Could it be that I'm destined to be The Designer?
Moreover, the ga is launching in an hour... And you haven't even started on the copywriting? The UI isn't even done?
What kind of a godly ga developer does this?
Can you, at the very least, be a tad more professional?
I... Can I postpone the release?
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