The vacation in Branuir came to an end. During these past few days, the apprentices had not only witnessed many architectural wonders from the past but also encountered systems and concepts rarely seen within the mainstream circles of the Mage Alliance, all quite novel.

Carrying their luggage as they reboarded the airship, Sylutia sat by the window, watching the yellow sandy landscape below grow increasingly distant until finally, the entire outline of Branuir came into view. The numerous remaining buildings here had weathered significantly, the ancient river channels outside the city had dried up, and on the exposed riverbed, the remains of past vessels could still be seen.

Gradually, the airship ascended into the higher altitudes, entering the thin layers of clouds, while the scenery below became blurry and disappeared from view.

Withdrawing her gaze, the young woman leaned back in her seat, her eyelids lightly closing as she drifted into sleep.

Meanwhile, some of the other apprentices walked onto the deck to enjoy the wind and scenery, while others sat at the dining tables in the front hall, chatting, with an occasional person coming over to greet them, joke around, or laugh.

"Hedra Chief has fallen asleep," said an apprentice who had just walked out of the rear passenger compartment.

"The Chief's sleeping expression is really adorable," a female student said, propping her chin as she recalled the scene just now.

"But the Chief is terrifying when she fights."

"Especially yesterday evening. When I saw the Chief's hair whipping in the wind under the night sky, I was startled too."

"Scenes like that really are frightening. But later on, I found out what that was all about," an apprentice said with great interest.

"It wasn't actually a real mutation of the hair growing; it was just the Chief using Thread to simulate it, to scare those people."

"The effect was indeed excellent. Even quite a few of us got scared, hehe."

"According to legend, among the ancient witch factions, there really were those who used hair as a special weapon. But that secret art is quite eerie, not many people studied it, and it seems to have been lost by now."

"Seeing so many things briefly mentioned in books during this trip to Branuir, and studying them closely, I realized that the major schools popular in the Mage Alliance a few hundred years ago had secret art systems completely different from what we have now."

"Although from today's perspective, these doctrines and schools have fallen behind and are obsolete, the thought processes embedded within them still provide quite a bit of inspiration."

"When we get back to Tetis College, I'm also going to prepare for my advancement. Among the current new students, about a third have completed their advancement and stepped into the Third Tier."

Time passed leisurely. By the time Sylutia woke again, the airship was not far from its destination.

Under the distant sky, the numerous towers of the Tetis District appeared on the horizon, scattered throughout the city like swords pointing toward the heavens. If one were to look down from a higher vantage point, they would discover that these towers together formed massive Magic Array nodes, covering the entire city.

Sylutia walked out of the inner hall and came out onto the deck outside.

Bathed in the bright afternoon sunlight and breeze, the airship tilted slightly as it flew toward the city below.

The hustle and bustle of the city slowly drew nearer. The bustling, flowing crowds and street views gradually came into focus. The dilapidated, damaged scenes of the past week faded like a dream, while the clean, polished shops and signs made one feel as though they were stepping into another world.

The airship came to a steady halt. Sylutia carried a simple suitcase, lightly pressing down on her black Sun Hat, and descended the airship.

In the following months, Sylutia didn't go running around everywhere. She stayed at the academy the entire time, absorbing and consolidating various pieces of knowledge and secret arts.

The educational resources at Tetis College were exceptionally rich, and as the Chief, Sylutia could also receive additional guidance, allowing her to individually ask instructors and professors about content and secret arts not taught in class.

During this period, Sylutia further solidified her theoretical knowledge of runes. Not only did she finish learning all of the Quicksilver Rune, but she also studied most of the intermediate course, Dense Runes, which should only have been accessible to second-year students. Once she finished learning Dense Runes, the only thing left would be the Mark of Time, which could only be mastered at the Sixth Tier. That was also the most essential content of the Mithril Clock, granting access to spells that interfered with time.

Aside from content related to enchantments, Sylutia also mastered all the alchemy-related testing methods, such as the Flame Gold Method, the Material Penetration Method, the Light Analysis Method, and the Stone Acid Method, which elevated her craftsmanship in alchemical creation to the next level.

Due to Sylutia's outstanding performance across various subjects and the gentle yet commanding image she maintained among her peers, more and more apprentices came to seek her advice and discuss topics as the semester progressed. Among them were Marg, who favored spells related to the alien star; Xavier, regarding techniques from the Summoning course; Stuka, concerning the Construct spell system; and Og, on the Battle God Possession spell, and so on.

While helping these classmates resolve their doubts, discuss details, and share inspiration, Sylutia also absorbed knowledge through osmosis, indirectly learning many things. By the end of the semester, even Spencer came to ask her thoughts on matters related to the Sovereign Spell.

Compared to other apprentices, Spencer still retained some pride and arrogance. If it wasn't something he found challenging or worthy of discussion, he wouldn't come to ask Sylutia for her opinion.

Thus, time passed by without notice. When the final exams were over and summer vacation arrived, many apprentices boarded trains to return to their hometowns or visit relatives in faraway places for holidays, while the academy grew quiet.

One afternoon, Sylutia was watering the flowers in the Black Rose Palace with a watering can, trimming branches and leaves, and pulling out weeds.

After finishing these chores, she washed her hands and feet, then sat down on a wicker chair behind the house. The sun couldn't reach here, making it quite cool and shaded. The summer breeze passed through the back garden, brushing past her side, lifting the hem of her white skirt, revealing her delicate, tender toes.

Leaning back against the chair, Sylutia let the wind dry her washed feet before stepping into her comfortable slippers.

The summer sunlight was very bright, easily causing dizziness and drowsiness if one stared at it too long. After sitting here for a while, she returned inside, lay down on the wide bed for a short nap, and then sat back up.

Come to think of it, this summer vacation was still very long. Should she stay at the academy the whole time? Sylutia wondered if she should go somewhere.

For apprentices at Tetis College, to participate in expeditions into the Shadow World, one needed to be at least in the second year. For now, she still couldn't go there.

As for other places, several names floated into the young woman's mind: Rorik College, Aurora, Lovier, the Asra District, Meteorite Lake, the Hidden Grove Alliance...

She had almost forgotten. Since entering Tetis College, she hadn't gone to see Carmilla yet. She wondered how she was doing over at the Origin Hourglass school.

Sylutia went to the study, searched through some things, and found the letters she had exchanged with Carmilla earlier, locating her current address.

She wondered if Carmilla was still there, or if she had already returned to her hometown. It seemed Carmilla had never mentioned anything about her hometown or her past, Sylutia realized belatedly.

She decided to go there and take a look. Come to think of it, she was quite curious about the Origin Hourglass, one of the three major schools of the Mage Alliance.