Grinding EXP From Fireball Skill-Chapter 76: Crystal Meditation Method

Li Wei sat in his study, holding a blue crystal to his forehead.

He closed his eyes and sank into contemplation.

He absorbed and processed the information within the blue crystal.

Li Wei now understood why the Mage Tower stipulated that only Tier One Mages could purchase the Crystal Meditation Method.

Learning the Crystal Meditation Method was a threshold in itself.

If one’s Spiritual Power wasn’t strong enough, it was simply impossible to process the information within the blue crystal.

Instead, their minds might even be damaged by the overwhelming flood of information.

To be safe, it was most secure for Tier One Mages to learn the Crystal Meditation Method.

If one cultivated the Basic Meditation Method to the Great Success stage, their Spiritual Power could also reach the threshold for learning the Crystal Meditation Method.

However, very few Apprentice Mages could cultivate the Basic Meditation Method to Great Success.

So they just made a clean cut—it saved trouble.

Li Wei slowly opened his eyes and set down the blue crystal. An image of a human-shaped Visualization Crystal remained in his mind.

The blue crystal’s luster faded, turning it into an ordinary crystal.

The Shadow Attendant came over, bringing him lunch.

After lunch and a short rest, Li Wei attempted to cultivate the Crystal Meditation Method for the first time.

He lit a stick of Calming Incense.

This was part of his May stipend he had just collected from the Magic Butler—ten sticks of Calming Incense.

"Shadow Attendant, extinguish the Calming Incense in ten minutes."

Breathing in the familiar scent, Li Wei’s thoughts gradually settled, and his mind grew calm.

’Visualize the crystal. See myself as a crystal, constantly removing the impurities within to increase its purity.’

It took him several tries before he successfully created the visualization.

In his visualization, he became a red crystal, with fine impurities scattered throughout.

The red crystal pulsed with his breathing.

As he inhaled, his Spiritual Power absorbed the free-floating Magic Elements from his surroundings into the crystal.

As he exhaled, his Spiritual Power expelled the fine impurities from the crystal, purifying his Mana.

With each breath, his Mana grew deeper and purer.

Three hours passed without him realizing it.

His Spiritual Power depleted, Li Wei opened his eyes.

He saw his shadow on the wall form into words.

[Crystal Meditation Method (Tier One)] 33/10000

He glanced at the time and saw that he had only been cultivating for three hours.

A look of satisfaction appeared in Li Wei’s eyes.

The results of his first cultivation session were significant.

He felt his Mana had increased considerably.

The cultivation efficiency of the Crystal Meditation Method was two to three times that of the Basic Meditation Method.

After three hours, the human-shaped Visualization Crystal in his mind began to blur. It would completely disappear in four or five days at most.

’Two hundred Gold Coins buys a four-to-five-day window to learn.’

’If I failed to learn it, I would have to spend another two hundred Gold Coins to buy the visualization image for the Crystal Meditation Method again.’

Since Li Wei had already learned it, he didn’t have to worry about that.

’With normal cultivation, it would still take over three hundred days to reach Tier Two.’

Li Wei did a quick mental calculation and found the timeframe acceptable.

If he could become a Tier Two Mage next year, he would only be seventeen. He still had plenty of time ahead of him.

’Reina became a Tier Two Knight at seventeen and is considered a once-in-a-century genius. If I become a Tier Two Mage at seventeen, wouldn’t that make me even more impressive than her?’

Li Wei smiled.

’On second thought, it’s better to keep a low profile.’

’Being a genius means you’ll attract unwanted attention.’

’Trouble would flock to me, and I wouldn’t even be able to peacefully grind for experience.’

That night, Li Wei slipped into a dream to grind his Invisibility Armor Spell, striving to reach the Perfection Level as soon as possible.

There were no Magic Elements in the dream, so he couldn’t cultivate Mana.

Late at night, when his mind grew tired, Li Wei went out for a stroll.

He opened the door to a wall of fog.

When he stepped out, the fog receded to about eleven or twelve meters away.

He took a few steps before returning to his safe house.

The dreamscape of Maple City was quite stable, with no large-scale dream coalescence occurring.

Most of the Mages in the Mage Tower had left again, so for a time, Li Wei found it difficult to even find a single Dream Bubble.

He couldn’t be bothered to venture deep into the fog to search for Dream Bubbles farther away.

He returned to his room, manipulated the dream for a bit of fun to relax, and then resumed grinding his spell.

For several days straight, Li Wei remained holed up in the Mage Tower, cultivating.

This continued until the Magic Butler sent him a message.

Magic Butler: "Apprentice Mage Li Wei, Mage Gu Ze has sent you a message."

"Li Wei, are you okay?"

Only then did Li Wei remember that he had forgotten to report his safety to Gu Ze.

For all he knew, Gu Ze might think he was missing.

He quickly sent a message to Gu Ze through the Magic Butler.

"Teacher, I’m fine. I’ve returned safely to the Maple City Mage Tower."

Gazing at the Magic Badge in his hand, Li Wei fell into thought.

Suddenly, he asked, "Magic Butler, can you connect to the Magic Net?"

Magic Butler: "Insufficient authority. Unable to answer."

Li Wei smiled. He understood.

After a moment, the Magic Badge vibrated.

Gu Ze: "Good to know you’re safe. Stay in the Mage Tower and focus on your cultivation. Don’t come out."

Li Wei: "Okay. Teacher, you be careful too."

Gu Ze: "Don’t worry about me. We currently have the upper hand and a high chance of victory."

Gu Ze: "By the way, why did you return to Maple City? Weren’t you escorting the City Lord to Liu Feng City?"

Li Wei: "The City Lord is fine. He pretended to be injured to lure the Beastmen into an ambush. It was all Orn’s plan."

Gu Ze: "That’s strange. If the City Lord is fine, why did the City Lord of Cold Sand City die at the hands of an assassin?"

Li Wei looked at his Magic Badge and fell silent for a moment.

’Did the City Lord of Cold Sand City really die at the hands of an assassin?’

He didn’t know.

Li Wei: "Has the City Lord returned?"

Gu Ze: "He has. Two days ago, Commander Orn led the main army to attack the Beastman Race’s main camp. The City Lord led a troop of soldiers to launch a pincer attack from behind, catching the Beastman Race’s army completely off guard. Their forces were routed. Victory is in sight!"

Li Wei thought for a moment but decided not to tell Gu Ze about Otz’s plan to establish a Kingdom.

It might not be a good thing for Gu Ze to know.

However, Li Wei still gave him an indirect hint.

Li Wei: "Lord City Lord is a man of great foresight. To crush a major army of the Beastman Race in one fell swoop is an outstanding military achievement. Perhaps he’ll have the chance to be ennobled as a marquis."

Seeing the message, Gu Ze paused for a moment.

He found it a little strange.

He thought about how the soldiers led by Otz seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

He couldn’t help but suspect that Otz had been preparing for this all along.

Otherwise, Maple City only had a total force of just over five thousand soldiers.

Three thousand had already been taken to join the war. Where did the soldiers Otz was leading come from?

The number of soldiers in that troop was no less than the army led by Orn.

Even if they scraped together every last soldier in Maple City, they couldn’t muster such a force.

Moreover, it was impossible for Otz to leave Maple City undefended and deploy his entire force.

Realizing that Otz had secretly trained a batch of soldiers, a guess had already formed in Gu Ze’s mind.

Seeing that Li Wei hadn’t spelled it out, he didn’t ask about it on the Magic Text Scroll either.

Gu Ze: "Mm, I understand."

Seeing this, Li Wei smiled.

’It seems Teacher Gu Ze has caught on to something as well.’

’In any case, as long as he isn’t completely in the dark, there will be ways to deal with it.’

By now, Li Wei had a good idea where the grain that disappeared in the winter had gone.

The rotten grain sold by the City Lord’s Mansion was only part of it. The other part was used to secretly raise an army.

The money earned from selling the rotten grain was most likely also used to purchase weapons and equipment for this hidden army.

Otherwise, where would a troop of soldiers have appeared from out of thin air?

He didn’t need Gu Ze to tell him; Li Wei could guess that the soldiers Otz led had definitely been brought from Maple City.

That was the purpose of Otz’s return to Maple City.

Li Wei gazed out the window at the azure sky.

Otz’s plan had only just begun. Defeating a major army of the Beastman Race wasn’t the end; on the contrary, it was just the beginning.

His ambition to forge a new Kingdom would be no small feat.

If the Macher Kingdom were to become aware of his scheme, they would certainly do everything in their power to stop him.

They might even ignore the invading Beastmen.

The Beastman Race’s invasion of the Macher Kingdom would, at worst, result in the loss of a few cities and some territory.

But if Otz succeeded in founding a new nation, the Macher Kingdom would face the threat of a new kingdom right on its doorstep. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Then, they would be caught between a wolf and a tiger.

Sandwiched between the Beastman Race’s kingdom and the new kingdom, the Macher Kingdom would be in a very passive position.

The Macher Kingdom would absolutely not allow such a thing to happen.