A subtle glint flashed in Silas’s eyes, followed by a playful, knowing smirk. "It is nothing. I merely recognized an old acquaintance."
"An acquaintance?" One of his companions paused, following Silas’s gaze toward Pierce’s retreating figure. "A member of your Valerius family?"
"He was once," Silas replied with a hollow, cryptic inflection. "But he is so no longer."
The group exchanged glances, failing to immediately grasp the weight of the underlying familial history. Silas added tonelessly, "His name is Pierce. He is an Unblooded."
At those words, a collective realization dawned upon the group. The curiosity in their eyes was instantly replaced by a thinly veiled contempt. In wizarding families that prided themselves on bloodline inheritance, to be "Unblooded" was synonymous with ignominy and mediocrity. Such individuals were viewed as defective remnants of their lineage; it was not uncommon for them to be discarded entirely.
"Pierce... the name sounds vaguely familiar," one student mused aloud. A moment later, he struck his forehead and turned to his companion. "I remember now! Kaelen, Pierce is in your Class $3$, isn't he? I recall several instructors praising his theoretical knowledge quite highly."
Kaelen, the student addressed, curled his lip in disdain. "He is merely slightly better at rote memorization than the others. In terms of actual aptitude, he is utterly beneath notice. Though we are in the same class, I assure you, we are not acquainted!"
As he spoke, Kaelen stole a furtive glance at Silas. He had no desire to let this illustrious genius suspect that he associated with a cast-off from a noble house.
Silas withdrew his gaze with an elegant indifference, resuming his stride. "Let us move on. There is no reason to waste our breath on a vermin like him."
The group let out a low, mocking chuckle and followed him like acolytes toward the deeper sections of the Logistics Department.
Pierce, however, was oblivious to the derision behind his back. Having secured the spell models for Ray of Fatigue and Acid Splash, he immersed himself, as always, into his grueling yet empowering cultivation.
By mid-October, the fruits of his labor began to manifest. With the analytical acceleration of the Omniscient Eye, Pierce successfully completed the profound optimizations for Luminescence of Flora and Mage Hand.
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During this period, through meticulous research in the library’s restricted herbals, he discovered a botanical seed that paired perfectly with his improved Luminescence of Flora: the Strangling Creeper.
The lethality of this plant was as fierce as its name suggested. It was accustomed to camouflaging itself as a common vine, lying in wait for prey to pass before striking with iron-tough tendrils, constricting its victim to death and siphoning their essence through barbs. With the new "Precision Control" trait, Pierce only needed to trigger its growth during combat; the predatory instincts of the creeper would handle the rest. This effectively elevated Luminescence of Flora from a mere agricultural utility to a formidable combat tool.
On another front, the results of the improved Mage Hand were equally startling. The original spell had a range of 10 meters and a palm width of no more than $0.5$ meters. Now, its reach had skyrocketed to 20 meters, and its volume had expanded to the point where it could fully envelop a grown man. To be struck by such a manifestation of arcane pressure was a daunting prospect.
"Mage Hand combined with Acid Splash—I now possess two distinct, systematic offensive options," Pierce mused with a satisfied smile. In addition to these improvements, he had mastered the two new cantrips within days. With his current spiritual strength, a single acceleration allowed him to parse a basic spell in 1 to 2 days. This pace would leave any "prodigy" breathless.
"Omniscience, status check," he whispered in his mind.
Host: Pierce
Spirit: 16.05
Physique: 5.64
Task 1: Optimizing the Acid Splash spell model. Estimated remaining: 38 days, 2 hours, 33 minutes.
Task 2: Optimizing the Ray of Fatigue spell model. Estimated remaining: 34 days, 4 hours, 56 minutes.
Task 3: Parsing Will Rune No. 7. Estimated remaining: 13 days, 3 hours, 23 minutes.
Looking at the data, Pierce nodded with satisfaction. There were $1.5$ months left until the annual freshman practical trial. At this rate, his ascension to $Rank 2$ was a certainty. With several over-specified, optimized spells at his disposal, he held a profound confidence regardless of the trial’s nature.
As his strength grew, the pangs of financial scarcity returned. He relied almost entirely on the modest stipend from the medicinal garden, leaving him with a mere $50$ contribution points. While this seemed a fortune to commoners, for Pierce, it was not enough to purchase even a single Spirit-Spring Potion—which cost 200 credits—to break through his spiritual limits.
The next morning, after a meager breakfast in his apartment, Pierce donned his cloak and headed for the academy. The streets were bustling, the cries of hawkers filling the air. Pierce carefully navigated around the black puddles on the pavement when the sharp call of a newsie caught his ear.
"Fresh off the press! The Aurora Daily! Two copper pieces!"
Pierce beckoned to the boy, handing over a copper coin and taking the paper. As he unfurled it, a headline on the front page immediately seized his attention:
Spatial Rift Discovered: Will Aurora City Welcome a New Private Plane?
