Chapter 314 - 027: Talent

Chapter 314: 027: Talent

Annie cautiously stepped into the study, the wide wizard robe trailing behind her, the pointed hat nearly covering most of her face. She raised her head, revealing a pair of timid eyes, her voice as faint as a mosquito’s: “Mentor, I… I have a question I want to ask you.”

Lynch put down the magic book in his hands and smiled slightly: “Go ahead, Annie. What’s your question?”

Annie pulled a thick magic book out from her robe, its cover titled Introduction to the Spiritual Power Guiding Technique.

She opened the book, pointing to a section of complex runes, her voice tinged with confusion: “Mentor, I don’t quite understand this part here. The book says to use spiritual power to guide thoughts into a unique space sensed within the Sea of Consciousness, but I’ve tried several times and always failed.”

Lynch took the book, glanced at the runes, and nodded: “This is the foundational step for opening the Spiritual Sea. It requires linking your spiritual power with your five senses, which indeed requires some technique. Here, let me demonstrate for you.”

He stood up and moved to the center of the study, lightly tracing his fingers through the air. Before long, a faint blue shimmer appeared at his fingertips.

Lynch explained: “What you see right now is spiritual power. What I’m doing now is using the basic Spiritual Power Guiding Technique. Concentrate your thoughts, follow my movements, and keep practicing—eventually, you’ll sense its presence. This process has no shortcuts; it’s all about repetition.”

“Once you sense it, you can try to control it and connect it with your five senses, like I’m doing now.”

The blue shimmer gradually spread from his fingertip, slowly permeating his eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and eventually the surface of his body. Within moments, Lynch was completely enveloped by the faint blue glow.

Annie widened her eyes, studying Lynch’s every movement carefully. Her fingers began tracing through the air unconsciously, attempting to mimic Lynch’s technique.

Dissipating the spiritual power, Lynch turned to Annie: “Your turn to try.”

Annie took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and focused. Her fingers continued mimicking Lynch’s movements, tracing the air repeatedly, but nothing changed—her gestures failed to summon anything.

Lynch smiled: “Don’t rush. This isn’t something achieved overnight. When I first tried, it took me…”

Before finishing his sentence, his voice abruptly stopped, and his eyes widened.

Up ahead, a faint blue glow silently emerged at Annie’s fingertips. Though clearly dimmer than Lynch’s, it was undeniably visible to the naked eye—a clear hint of blue.

What the…?

Lynch involuntarily twitched in disbelief. To think it had taken him weeks to sense spiritual power using the guiding technique, and yet this little girl managed to summon it on her first attempt—this was simply absurd!

Before Lynch could process the situation, the faint blue shimmer at Annie’s fingertips began spreading outward, weak wisps of blue light forming around her head.

Lynch’s expression shifted, and he shouted urgently: “Annie, stop immediately!”

But he was a step too late.

Annie’s accumulated blue glow was far too weak to cover her body entirely. When maintained at her fingertips, it was barely visible, but as Annie attempted to spread it outward, it shattered instantly, like smoke blown apart by a gust of wind.

“Ah!”

Annie’s face turned pale, her body swayed heavily, and she collapsed to the ground clutching her head.

Lynch hurried to support her.

“It hurts… My head hurts so much.” She held her head tightly, biting down hard on her teeth.

Spiritual power collapse—how could it not hurt?

To link spiritual power with the five senses, the prerequisite was adequate spiritual power. Annie was far too young; her innate spiritual power was still extremely weak, far from sufficient to bridge her five senses and open her Sea of Consciousness.

Normally, spiritual power is something everyone is born with, but aside from a few extraordinarily gifted individuals, most people only possess very meager amounts initially, which gradually increase with age.

Typically, by the age of ten, spiritual power reaches a level between 0.5 and 0.8, meeting the minimum threshold for opening the Spiritual Sea. Hence, wizards usually recruit apprentices starting from the age of ten.

Lynch took out a bottle of magic potion to restore spiritual power and handed it to Annie: “Feeling better?”

Annie’s face regained some color: “Yes… I’m fine now, mentor.”

Lynch spoke sternly: “Do not attempt anything like that again. Spiritual power collapse can be extremely dangerous. What you just did, if more severe, could permanently impair your ability to gather spiritual power—or worse, render you mentally incapacitated.”

Annie’s face turned even paler than before.

Her small hands clenched tightly together in unease, and she quickly apologized: “Sorry… I’m sorry, mentor. Annie… Annie understands her mistake. Please give Annie another chance. Annie promises never to do it again.”

Lynch paused momentarily: “What are you doing?”

He spoke gently: “I’m only telling you what you did wrong and asking you not to repeat it next time—there’s no need to be so nervous.”

“Besides, this wasn’t entirely your fault. The real mistake was mine. You’re still too young, and your spiritual power is clearly insufficient. I shouldn’t have introduced you to the Spiritual Power Guiding Technique so early—or demonstrated it to you…”

He hadn’t expected Annie to sense spiritual power so quickly, let alone learn to control it. He didn’t know whether to praise her genius or blame her rashness.

Still, Annie’s face remained tense: “Understood, mentor. Annie will remember.”

She couldn’t let go…

Though just a child of five or six, Annie was always overly restrained, careful to the point of walking on eggshells. Lynch recalled once before when he’d casually asked her to stand and wait for him before leaving the house.

After getting delayed by an unexpected matter, Lynch had completely forgotten about it and gone about handling business outside, returning only late at night. To his astonishment, Annie had remained obediently standing in the room—even though it was freezing cold by then, and she was shivering with cold, she hadn’t moved from the tile she was standing on.

Damn this wretched world.

Lynch couldn’t fathom what kind of experiences had taught a little girl her age, who should have been mischievous and carefree, to become so obedient and reserved. He didn’t think such extreme compliance and docility were virtues worth praising.

Bending down, he reached out to gently pinch her cheeks, speaking softly: “You don’t need to act like that. No one here will chase you away, beat you, or starve you. Be like a normal child—relax, and go outside more often. Now go play.”

Change couldn’t happen overnight. Lynch didn’t have any immediate solutions, other than hoping she’d eventually find warmth in her daily life.

Annie left, accompanied by Frankenstein, the big hulking figure Lynch had assigned to act as her personal bodyguard.

Lynch withdrew his gaze and fell into quiet contemplation.

“What a talent…”

Sensing spiritual power on her first attempt—it might have been partly due to her meticulous concentration, but her innate talent certainly couldn’t be ignored. Among her peers, even the fastest usually needed several days to achieve the same.

“She’s likely at Fourth Rank already, isn’t she?”

Lynch was no longer the uninformed novice he had been when he first entered the Wizard World. He now understood clearly how much talent mattered for an apprentice’s journey.

“Should I consider ’accelerating’ her development?”

Now that he had identified a promising seed, Lynch considered whether artificial intervention could be used to speed up her spiritual power growth and hasten her entry onto the Wizard’s Road.

The risks of such acceleration were undeniable, but if paired with the right cultivation path, these side effects could not only be mitigated but might even provide significant advantages later on in her wizard career.

Lynch knew of one path that allowed apprentices to bypass age restrictions and start their Wizard’s Road early. The Dark Princess Margaret of the Black Tower Alliance had walked this very path, which led her to become one of the four supreme Third-Tier powerhouses of the Ancient Ruins.

The only hiccup was that he didn’t possess full knowledge of this particular path—his understanding only extended to the apprentice period, enough to advance one to wizard status.

“Knock knock knock!”

At that moment, the study door was knocked again.

Lynch looked up to see Alya standing at the doorway: “Mentor, Lord Greywell has arrived. He says there’s an important matter to report to you.”

Lynch nodded: “Let him in.”

Moments later, Greywell entered the study. A trace of fatigue lingered on his face. Managing a city of three hundred thousand citizens was no easy task; the accumulation of major and minor affairs had clearly taken a toll on the elderly man.

Lynch gestured for him to sit on the sofa and said to Alya: “Prepare two cups of red tea, brewed with Soul Dead Wood.”

Greywell chuckled: “You’re too kind, sir. I’m not quite as worn out as I seem. I’ve just been troubled by trivial matters these past few days.”

Lynch asked: “Is it related to what you came to report today?”

Greywell nodded: “Yes.”

After a brief pause, he sighed before continuing: “It’s still the same old issue. Another noble has left—this time, it’s the City Guard’s Commander, Knight Derek.”

With a bitter smile, he added: “At this rate, we’ll soon have no one left to rely on.”

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