This wizard only wishes to be a teacher

After a brief roar, Lucien’s consciousness gradually stabilized.

Surrounding the star constituted by spiritual power, 108 stars had already been manipulated by Lucien’s consciousness, altering their original trajectories. These 108 stars were subtly connected to each other and combined into a dynamic shadow.

This was a serpentiform creature made of skeletons, which could be called a Bone Snake.

As the 108 stars rotated, the phantom of the Bone Snake constantly changed its posture, and it also opened its mouth to begin "breathing in and out" the energy tides in the dark space.

The energy ingested by the Bone Snake was then filtered and compressed before rhythmically hammering against the star of mental power housing Lucien’s consciousness.

It was like someone was taking a small hammer and continually striking Lucien’s mental power, making it purer and more concentrated.

"My witchcraft foundation is more than three times that of other Formal Wizards... Just manipulating 108 stars to temper my mental power, although much more efficient than before when directly confronting the energy tides, still hasn’t fully tapped into my potential," Lucien contemplated.

His consciousness pondered briefly, and then he quickly embarked on a new experiment.

Rumble...

One star after another began to move under the influence of Lucien’s consciousness, and following the description in the Meditation Method, two new Bone Snakes were constructed outside the original one.

"Coalesce!" Lucien’s consciousness shook slightly as he forcibly split his consciousness into three, each controlling one Bone Snake.

This wasn’t simply addition; the three Bone Snakes were not an integrated whole capable of interacting with one another but three separate entities forced together by Lucien. As they revolved around the star of mental power, they experienced mutual interference and even repulsion.

It was only because Lucien’s consciousness was much more formidable than that of other Formal Wizards that he was able to forcefully conjure three Bone Snakes.

However, the three Bone Snakes influenced each other, and the stars maintaining their orbit also interfered with each other. Soon, two stars changed their original trajectories due to mutual attraction, making two of the Bone Snake shadows suddenly become illusory and unstable.

Like a chain reaction with dominoes, after the first pair of interfering stars appeared, swiftly followed a second pair, a third pair...

These stars, which deviated from their original trajectories due to mutual attraction, gradually affected the other normally functioning stars, causing an increasing number of stars to be impacted, and even gradually influencing the overall Bone Snake shadow.

"No good, the interference between the three Bone Snakes is simply too strong; if this continues, a collision will certainly occur," Lucien’s consciousness received a slight backlash, manifesting symptoms of dizziness.

Whoosh—

Lucien quickly withdrew his consciousness, and instantly one of the Bone Snakes on the outermost layer of the star collapsed. Some of the 108 stars sank, while others, under Lucien’s manipulation, aligned themselves between the other two Bone Snakes, forming a thin "middle zone" to separate the trajectories of the remaining two Bone Snakes.

Thump thump thump...

Despite the protection of the isolation zone, the orbit of the two Bone Snakes still easily affected each other, and sometimes they interfered with the stars acting as the isolation zone.

Nevertheless, Lucien was patient, maneuvering these stars over and over again to make minute adjustments.

"There’s still a slight impact between the two Bone Snakes, and the tempering effect of a single Bone Snake has decreased by about 5% compared to before, but it’s still within an acceptable range. I wonder how much the effectiveness will increase after the Meditation Method has been systematically improved..."

After returning from the dark space, Lucien opened his eyes and let out a light breath.

With continuous adjustments, he had barely found the balancing point to maintain the two Bone Snakes, allowing this set of Meditation Method, slightly improved by him, to exert a relatively good effect.

Meanwhile, referencing the information in the Greybone Meditation Method, Lucien also gained a preliminary understanding of the methods of a Formal Wizard.

If the accumulation of mental power marks the Wizard Apprentice stage, then the promotion from Apprentice to Formal Wizard signifies a process where quantitative change triggers a qualitative transformation.

After ascending to Formal Wizard, the mental power experiences a marked metamorphosis compared to the Apprentice stage, with the most distinct feature being the partial materialization of mental power.

During the Wizard Apprentice stage, mental power exists in a rather ethereal state, capable of leaving the Spirit Sea for short durations to probe and perceive or to construct witchcraft models, but unable to directly affect objects with mental power.

But at the level of a Formal Wizard, after enduring the scouring and baptism by the energy tides within the dark space, the strength of mental power undergoes a qualitative leap.

Formal Wizards not only could directly manipulate spiritual power to control objects but also unleash a mental oppression with a substantial sense of suppression, or even actual lethality.

The most important change, however, was that at the Formal Wizard stage, a wizard could split a portion of their spiritual power without injury, dividing part of their essence and separating it from their body, causing this spiritual essence to attach to other creatures or special vessels to form a unique split entity.

These special split entities could act simultaneously with the main body, and even if the main body fell, these entities would not be greatly affected. If combined with certain special secretive methods, it was even possible to revive the main body using the spiritual essence of the split entity.

For example, the Magic Pets of Formal Wizards are actually a mainstream method of forming split entities.

Although Magic Pets retain their own consciousness, they also host the spiritual essence of the Formal Wizard. Even as the primary controllers of their bodies are the Formal Wizards, at any time they wished, they could control the Magic Pet’s body and even easily use all of the Magic Pet’s abilities.

In battle, Formal Wizards could cooperate with their Magic Pets with whom they were in complete accord, sometimes achieving an effect greater than the sum of their parts. Some wizards even deliberately researched combination maneuvers to release powerful witchcraft or other techniques supported by their Magic Pets’ abilities.

Some unique schools, like the Puppet Masters, even put more importance on their split entities than their original bodies. At higher levels, they would even transform the split entity into the main body, achieving a fundamental transfer of the core.

"It’s just a pity... The level of the Greybone Meditation Method is too weak after all, only explaining how to temper spiritual power, and even hiding how to advance to Second-level Wizard, merely hinting at it vaguely..."

Lucien gently clenched his fist, then slowly opened it again.

...

"Wandering witchcraft organizations have appeared in the Northern Mensa Kingdom. There’s been trouble with the investigating squad... There’s a Third-level Wizard Apprentice within the wandering organization..."

"Clovey Castle reports that a Wizard Apprentice has defected and fled to our academy’s jurisdiction..."

Sitting in his seat within the Greybone Academy committee, Lucien quietly listened to matters concerning the academy. However, these trivial incidents were of no concern to him, as those wizards who were involved in their own interests had already been engaging in fierce verbal sparring.

But soon, Lucien became aware of a gaze focused on him.

He couldn’t help but turn his head, and then he saw a delicate girl hugging a doll, observing him with big clear eyes full of curiosity.

She was a cute girl in a Western dress, appearing to be only around eight or nine years old, even more exquisite in appearance than her doll. However, Lucien wouldn’t naively assume she was some ignorant child, as anyone who could sit in here and observe was definitely a Formal Wizard.

The girl seemed to notice Lucien’s gaze as well, hugging her doll tightly and even playfully blinking at him.

"Doll..." Lucien couldn’t help but heighten his caution internally. He quickly thought of the nightmare creature "Adeline" who from time to time demanded Lilia’s body, whose body before fully unlocking, was also that of a doll.

"Heeheehee..." Wizard Loren gently covered her mouth and let out a series of clear, delightful laughter.

In the solemn meeting room, this string of childlike laughter was quite jarring.

The few Formal Wizards who were "crossing swords with their words" couldn’t help but pause and turned their attention to Wizard Loren, who was still giggling nonstop.

"Sorry, sorry..." Wizard Loren continued to laugh while apologizing. However, there was no sign of remorse in her eyes, and her tiny feet shook as if she was very lively.

Lucien clearly noticed that many Formal Wizards looking at Loren appeared to harbor some apprehension.

"Lucien, it’s best you don’t get involved with that old witch Loren. She’s definitely one of the craziest around here..." Wizard Hawson’s voice whispered in Lucien’s ear.

"The craziest one?" Lucien frowned slightly.

It seemed as if Wizard Loren had been observing Lucien all along, and now she smiled, with her mouth hidden behind a doll, silently mouthing a name.

Adeline.

Lucien’s pupils dilated slightly, but by then, Wizard Loren had already looked away, holding the doll and seemingly busy tending her beautiful rose-colored nails.

Lucien took a deep breath, understanding that the scene he least wanted to occur had ultimately happened.

This Wizard Loren must have already made contact with or found Adeline through the contingency left on her, and almost certainly had become aware of the news concerning Cloud Country. Similarly, she also belonged to those among the Formal Wizards laying out plans for Kosai Island, though it was unclear whether she and Wizard Heli had a collaborative or competitive relationship.