After more than a month of unremitting efforts, several new skills that Carter Beale had learned had improved significantly.
[Elementary Magical Plant Modification Lv1: 88/1000]
[Basic Transcendental Cultivation Lv1: 82/300]
[Shadow Touch Lv1: 28/1000]
[Meditation Lv0: 382/1000]
Except for Meditation, all the other skills had broken through to Lv1 and reached the introductory stage. Although Meditation hadn't yet entered the introductory level, his mental power had still increased by 0.2.
Mental Power: 1.5
The total proficiency he had grind through added up to over a thousand, and he had accomplished this all within more than a month. It would have seemed incredible to anyone else—after all, in such a short time, an ordinary apprentice would consider it a great achievement to master just one of these skills to the introductory level, but Carter Beale had mastered three!
Of course, the cost was that for more than a month, Carter had barely stopped working. He spent his days reading, conducting experiments, and meditating, from dawn till dusk and even through the night without a break.
Whenever his mental power was completely exhausted, he would eat the Awakening Magic Beans mentioned in Chapter 2. When he was too sleepy to go on, he would splash water on his face from the Morning Dew Pool in the Shadow Square. He truly lived up to the saying "forgetting to eat and sleep."
Over the course of more than a month, the total time he spent resting and sleeping was probably less than 36 hours.
"Yawn～"
Carter let out a big yawn, rubbed his eyes, and his gaze fell on a teapot placed on the other side of the table.
Inside was tea made from powder ground from Scream Fruits. After drinking it, a shrill scream would ring in one's ears, which had a certain stimulating effect on mental power.
With a thought from Carter, something strange happened.
The shadows flickering under the firelight suddenly transformed into a long tentacle, stretching toward the teapot. It coiled around the teapot and slowly pulled it toward Carter.
Spell: Shadow Touch.
After more than a month of hard work, Carter had finally completed the spell model for Shadow Touch a week ago and mastered this spell.
This was the first real spell he had mastered since embarking on his journey as a wizard.
The ability of this spell was to control shadows to form tentacles that could help him do things. After testing, Carter found that the maximum strength of the tentacles was about 100 kilograms.
Converted into the energy unit "degrees" commonly used by wizards, that was approximately 3 degrees.
The tentacle, wrapped around the teapot, quickly moved across the table to Carter. Before he could fully savor the joy of wielding transcendental power, a wave of dizziness swept over his mind, and his already meager mental power became even more depleted.
Although transcendental power was powerful, it consumed a lot of energy. Using it for daily tasks like this was relatively less draining, but if he cast it with full force, his current mental power would only be enough for three uses of Shadow Touch.
[Shadow Touch Proficiency +2]
Carter quickly poured himself a cup of the "scream tea" and drank it down. Along with the sudden, ear-piercing scream of "Ah!!!" that rang out next to his ears, a tingling sensation spread throughout his body, as if his soul had been jolted awake.
His drowsy mind cleared instantly, and Carter felt like he could go back to grinding proficiency again.
Glancing at the time, it was already 3:30 in the morning. Carter rubbed his two dark panda eyes, then took a bowl of minced frog legs and rat tails, mixed in some Fire Juice Fruit peels, and carried it over to Parker's cage.
Transcendental Cultivation had taught Carter many skills. For example, he knew that this time of night was when the Fire Dragon Lizard's body underwent its fastest self-evolution and growth, requiring a massive amount of energy to sustain itself.
However, many people often overlooked this, causing the Fire Dragon Lizard's self-evolution to be forced to stop due to energy depletion.
Therefore, more professional wizards would give their Fire Dragon Lizards an extra meal at this time to ensure they had enough energy to maximize their self-evolution and growth.
"Hiss hiss!～"
Catching the scent of the delicious food, the little creature groggily opened its eyes and crawled out of its "dragon nest." It was clearly still half-asleep, but driven by its instinctive hunger, it stretched its neck and plunged headfirst into the pile of food.
After more than a month of Transcendental Cultivation, Parker had also improved noticeably. The most obvious change was in its claws—they had become sharp and shiny, like steel.
This was a clear transcendental effect: Steel Claws.
Now, its claws were no less sharp than a fine sword. When flying at high speed, a single slash could really chop off a person's head.
[Basic Transcendental Cultivation Proficiency +3]
After feeding Parker, Carter returned to the table. First, he glanced out the window.
Outside, the night was deep. The predators in the forest had finished their hunts and returned to their dens. The whole world was quiet, with only the rustle of the night wind blowing through the trees echoing in the air.
All was still and silent.
No noise, no distractions—as if the entire world was his to command alone.
"What a perfect time to grind experience!"
Muttering in admiration, Carter mustered his energy, picked up a new Devouring Magic Flower, and started a new round of magical plant modification...
...
At the same time, somewhere in the Red Mushroom Forest.
"Tap tap tap!"
Hasty footsteps sounded 格外 clear in the quiet woods. Chris was running frantically through the trees.
At this moment, no one knew what he had encountered, but he looked extremely disheveled. His cloak was tattered like rags, revealing deep, bone-deep wounds underneath, from which blood gushed continuously.
His face was filled with terror, and his three eyes kept glancing back, as if something terrifying was chasing him from behind.
"Whoosh!"
Suddenly, a sharp sound of something cutting through the air rang out. A black shadow struck Chris from behind.
Chris, who was running, was sent flying. He crashed heavily to the ground and rolled more than ten times before coming to a stop.
"Ah!!!"
Chris let out a shrill scream and quickly covered his stomach with both hands.
A huge gash had been torn open in his abdomen, and his intestines and internal organs spilled out onto the ground in a messy heap.
Chris's face turned as pale as paper, and he was filled with extreme fear. He seemed to have lost the ability to think, and only instinctively used his hands to scoop up his intestines and organs from the ground, trying to stuff them back into his stomach—as if doing so would make everything return to normal.
"Tsk, you sure can run!" At that moment, a cold laugh came from behind.
Two figures stepped out from the bushes ahead.
One was a young man wrapped in a cloak, around the same age as Chris. His eyes were gloomy, and his aura was cold and menacing.
The other was an extraordinarily terrifying man.
He was about three meters tall, with two unusually long arms that hung down to his knees.
Such long arms were clearly not natural; they had been synthesized using machinery and some unknown biological alchemy. Various weapons were embedded in his arms, and it seemed that a blade attached to one of them was what had cut open Chris's stomach.
His chest was exposed, and there were no internal organs, including a heart, inside. Instead, it was filled with jars and vials containing green liquid, connected by several tubes that bubbled with each of his breaths.
This could no longer be called a human being—it was some kind of distorted alchemical life form. The only part of his body that still looked human was his head, which appeared to be around thirty years old, with a cold, expressionless face.
Chris was both shocked and furious. He yelled at the young man, "Richard, you bastard! How dare you betray the Tower and join the dark wizards!!!"