Chapter 256: 【Extraordinary Knowledge】 and the Great Spellbook
“Aren’t you going to leave? I thought you would be eager to use these resources as soon as you got them,” Teacher Ji said as she noticed I had not left yet.
“Well… I’m not in a hurry to use these resources, but I would like to ask some questions about the spellbook before I go.”
“Hmm? You’re back to the spellbook question again? I’m telling you, this kind of indecisive behavior of jumping around will cost you later.”
“Um… it’s just preliminary preparation, Teacher Ji. I have obtained a spell called Memory Shelf, and I want to make some magic modifications to it… copying it by hand is indeed a bit troublesome…”
“Memory Shelf… is this a non-restrictive consumption spellbook? I know about this. Have you already learned how to use it? The threshold for this spellbook isn’t low.”
“Um, well, it seems I have some busy work ahead. It’s rare for you to come and ask me questions; let’s go to the laboratory.”
Teacher Ji tidied up her belongings a bit, and when she heard “Memory Shelf,” she pretty much understood the situation.
As I followed Teacher Ji into the laboratory, which hadn’t seen a visitor for several days, I tidied up a bit with a Cleaning Spell and began my formal work, but before that, Teacher Ji had something else to discuss with me.
“Xiao Han, I haven’t told you what this group I applied for is about, right?”
“Um… No.”
I nodded. At that time, Teacher Ji suggested I might not be qualified enough, and after teaching me how to use Spirit Vision to analyze the Fireball Spellbook, she stopped paying attention to me. Since then, my path had strayed further and further, and Teacher Ji didn’t intervene; instead, she organized the things I was exploring.
However, since this was a research group applied for by an Extraordinary Witch, it certainly wasn’t just for my amusement, at least not on the surface.
“I was simply focused on your ability at the time; having innate Spirit Vision qualifies you to reach the Floating World level of Spirit Vision.”
“Um.” I didn’t say much else; without this ability, I wouldn’t have my current achievements.
“Although you’re not yet Extraordinary, the world has blessed us with Spirit Vision, allowing you to bypass the prerequisites of Extraordinary and see the world under Real Time first. This ability has its definition among the Extraordinary, which is Real Vision, the Real Vision within Real Five Senses.”
“Real Five Senses?”
“This is a life-level cultivation skill. Generally speaking, the primary stage is the Extraordinary level, which is necessary to access the cultivation system. However, due to your innate Spirit Vision, you leaped directly to the Floating World level in a different way.”
“So if I advance to Extraordinary, will I directly step into that so-called Real Vision level of Floating World?”
I instinctively swallowed. Didn’t that mean I was way ahead of others?
“Yes, but once you advance to Extraordinary, the rest of your Real Five Senses will also be at the newly entered Extraordinary level, requiring you to slowly cultivate and improve.”
“I’m fine with that… But since this is a cultivation skill, can I start… cultivating now?”
“This is a blessing given to you by the world and does not apply to the cultivation of Real Five Senses; it can only be passively improved over time. There may be other methods for improvement, but at least currently, there are no significant ways to enhance it. However, using it more often can accelerate the process.”
“So, Teacher Ji, do you want to use my Spirit Vision for something?” Getting this answer wasn’t disappointing; instead, I organized my thoughts and returned to the previous question.
“Yes, I possess Real Editing technology, and I want to create a brand-new prototype spellbook. However, I can’t do it by myself; you understand, right? The significant gap of Real Five Senses is my greatest limitation. Of course, my ambition goes beyond just this.”
“Create a prototype spellbook?”
“Yes… or rather, edit a spellbook; it’s almost the same. According to the research materials I found, creating a spellbook is quite easy for me and would only take a few dozen days at most. Especially for basic consumption spellbooks, I can get it done in just over ten days. But that’s not what I need. What I want is… the Great Spellbook!”
“The Great Spellbook?” I was somewhat taken aback by this term.
I could hear Teacher Ji’s ambition in her tone, but unfortunately, I didn’t know much, so I felt a bit confused. However, I knew she wanted to accomplish something significant, and the Great Spellbook was a part of that.
“Yes, I need to leverage your abilities. Even if you’re not yet Extraordinary, there’s still a gap between the Floating World level of Spirit Vision and the Floating World level of Real Vision. However, the Floating World can see things that I cannot…”
At this moment, Teacher Ji seemed a bit excited by her own words; maybe this was the first time she revealed her ambition to me.
“Sorry… Xiao Han, I got a bit carried away just now. You don’t understand the significance of the Great Spellbook; that’s why it sounds impressive, but I will control my emotions… mainly because it’s the first time I’ve said this to someone else. It’s… a bit embarrassing.”
“Um… I understand…” I didn’t expect Teacher Ji could ever feel embarrassed. How wonderful.
“It’s good that you understand. Let me briefly explain the concept of the Great Spellbook. Xiao Han, do you know the difference between a small spellbook and a spellbook?”
“I know. Spells in a small spellbook don’t have spell ceremonies, while spells in a spellbook do have spell ceremonies.” I responded; I was familiar with this knowledge.
“Then guess what extra feature the Great Spellbook has compared to a spellbook?” Teacher Ji smiled at me. Even though it was a question, she didn’t give me time to answer and continued, “It’s 【Extraordinary Knowledge】.”
“【Extraordinary Knowledge】?”
Upon hearing this answer, I didn’t think of the theoretical knowledge related to the Extraordinary. Instead, I specifically thought of that particular thing, like the one in Store Manager Shali’s hands that she would never give away, and… that 【Unsolved Extraordinary Knowledge】 among my talents!
“Don’t be nervous. I know your talent has awakened 【Extraordinary Knowledge】, but I won’t snatch it from you. I can’t do that yet. For my ambition, I have naturally prepared something for 【Extraordinary Knowledge】. However, I must warn you, the value of Extraordinary Knowledge far exceeds your imagination. You cannot tell anyone.”
“But…”
“What do you want to say? Do you know someone who possesses 【Extraordinary Knowledge】? You mean Shali, right? She definitely can’t keep something like that, but she’s part of the script and a pawn for the Witch Academy, meant to set the stage for the script. Originally, she should have belonged to Tan Han… but the script went awry, and your actions… could also be a result of script changes.”
“That’s also…”
“Of course, we won’t discuss that anymore. Just understand that the Great Spellbook requires 【Extraordinary Knowledge】, and the Great Spellbook is also something everyone is vying for, including me. To be frank, if I can create the Great Spellbook, I wouldn’t be able to keep it either. I would just return it to the Grand Library of the Witch World… that’s its value and significance. Do you understand?”
“I… I understand…”
I looked at Teacher Ji with this expression, instinctively swallowing hard. A Great Spellbook created using 【Extraordinary Knowledge】 would be something even Teacher Ji, an Extraordinary Witch, couldn’t keep?
What a game-changing thing; I immediately felt the weight of 【Extraordinary Knowledge】.
However, from this perspective, it seemed that the value of 【Extraordinary Knowledge】, which had not yet been made into a Great Spellbook, was still far lower than that of the Great Spellbook. At least for script development purposes, the Witch Academy could bring this out, and Teacher Ji could possess it without developing any greed towards me…
“Let’s leave the serious matters here. Don’t worry too much, just don’t go around talking about it. Those who possess 【Extraordinary Knowledge】 and Witches mastering Real Editing technology all harbor such ambition. There are also many teams in the Witch Academy working on creating Great Spellbooks.”
Teacher Ji comforted me a bit since this was the Main World, which was relatively safe, allowing many Witches to fantasize about completing the creation of a Great Spellbook, including herself.
The Witch Academy is more of a research base than just a place to recruit humans from the Main World to turn into Witches. Because of this, the academy’s faculty of Extraordinary Witches is quite rich.
This is why, after a student reaches the higher grades, it’s common for an extravagant Extraordinary Witch to take a few students under her wing.
Some teachers even rarely teach classes, which is completely normal.
Thus, the Witch Academy’s “bad habit” of poaching students from other academies isn’t baseless.
“Let’s not talk about this anymore. I’m mentioning it just to give you some context, to know what I’m up to, and what you should be doing. Now let’s shift the topic to your Memory Shelf spellbook.”
“Um.”
I nodded; after absorbing too much information at once, I needed to take things slow. I didn’t know why Teacher Ji wanted to share so much information with me so quickly, perhaps she believed my future stage would be more than just this world.
As I unfolded my spellbook, Teacher Ji and I began our collaborative research.
That’s right, collaboration, not a top-down guide. Teacher Ji possessed a rich and deep theoretical basis, while I was responsible for the practical operations using Spirit Vision. After all, this spellbook was fundamentally mine; it couldn’t fully detach from me, or else the spell effects established by this spell and the knowledge base I set up on it would collapse and vanish.
My request was simple: to change the way this spellbook recorded information, from manually copying it to viewing it with my eyes. I initially thought this would be a simple operation. However, the actual situation turned out to be… this spellbook trapped both Teacher Ji and me…
“Don’t worry… I’ll go use my permissions to find information about this thing from another place…”
“Um… Teacher, why is it so difficult to just slightly modify the effect…?”
“Is it difficult? This is normal for the time-consuming process. You can’t expect anyone to know everything; even the Academy Head has to look for resources.”
“Maybe your perspective hasn’t changed yet. Witches have long lifespans, and some things are destined to take a long time. Even if I were to create a prototype Fireball Spell using Real Editing technology, it would still take over ten days. So you understand the difficulty of derivative spells, right? This is a non-restrictive consumption spellbook, regarded as quite an advanced spellbook, and extending its application requires a significant expenditure…”
“What about your Great Spellbook…?”
“That’s my ambition. Short-lived beings can spend their entire lives pursuing dreams, while long-lived beings can take a long span of time to accomplish something.”
“But… I remember the Witch Academy graduates every ten years, right…?”
“Are you saying you won’t help your teacher once you graduate?”
“Um… How could that be? I definitely will! I also want to witness the birth of the Great Spellbook since I… also have reasons…”
“I’ll count that as you still have a conscience.” Teacher Ji rolled her eyes at me and threw some materials my way. “These are the runes and rituals we might involve in our future modifications. You should learn them temporarily first. If you don’t understand anything, ask me later; don’t just jump into it without knowing anything.”
“Uh? I’m already getting into rune modifications now?” I received these materials, and the runes on them didn’t match the three hundred basic runes Teacher Ji had given me before. It seemed I had already moved beyond basic territory.
“Of course. Haven’t you already come into contact with runes? It’s perfect to learn while doing. Moving forward, when we research 【Extraordinary Knowledge】, it will also follow this learning model. The Great Spellbook won’t be created overnight, and before reaching that point, we might create many prototype spells for verification and experimentation. During this time, you will learn many spells and knowledge about rune rituals. So this is the learning process I arranged for you after the course exemption… If all goes well, three years later, when you choose a mentor, it will also be me if you still want that.”
After Teacher Ji finished speaking, she headed to her office. It seemed she was going to get serious.
I gazed at my Memory Shelf spellbook, somewhat overwhelmed, unable to believe that just a spur-of-the-moment idea turned into this…
It seemed like… today would be impossible to complete!
And indeed, this kept me busy until evening. Just as I suspected, I wouldn’t finish today, but Teacher Ji had found a direction. With that guidance, she predicted we would complete it by tomorrow.
It was just unfortunate that I would have to back out of the plan to take my roommates to the secret realm today.
Who would have thought the academy would issue rewards today, and I ended up staying because of one thought?
And before I left, I still needed to exchange things. After all, the spellbook used for swapping, the Memory Shelf spellbook, had already been taken by me. I couldn’t just be a deadbeat, right?
Fortunately, Teacher Ji let me choose these resources myself. For example, the Crystal of Earth Vein Memory. Teacher Ji knew I could see the information contained in the memories using Spirit Vision, so she allowed me to pick and choose.
It would be foolish not to keep good items for oneself; only the ones I couldn’t use should be swapped away.
Now wasn’t the time for camaraderie; the rewards Teacher Ji brought to the class were meant for motivation, and the most important part was the incentive, not just the rewards.
To truly acquire good items, one must strive when the academy provides a stage to showcase oneself.
These were Teacher Ji’s exact words.
Such stages to showcase oneself abound, such as once-a-month theoretical assessments, unscheduled tests, small competitions requiring applications, and even joining a powerful club to participate in its activities, all of which require one’s own abilities.
If a person cannot open their mind, lacks capability, and still loves to complain, then such a person is not worth pitying.
“You’ve divided these Earth Vein Memories into many parts. What are you doing…?”
“This larger part is for the exchange, and this smaller part, I’m leaving for Tu Xingyue from the class; she is the acting vice-class leader who manages the class. I owe her quite a bit. This part is for my roommates.”
“Hehe, your roommates must be quite lucky.”
“There’s no helping it. There aren’t many good things among the Earth Vein Memories. If there really were good items, I wouldn’t be so generous. Out of a thousand… exactly a thousand, I only found three that are useful for me right now. No wonder they call it a blind box; the Earth Vein truly remembers everything, right?” I complained.
“Oh? Are you so picky? You only think three are valuable?” Teacher Ji asked with a smile. “But this is also expected since it aligns with the level of rewards received by new students. You previously obtained too many good things, and that’s why you overlook these. However, according to the academy’s definition of value for high consumption spellbooks, this isn’t enough.”
“That’s why I was looking for rewards from other academies… By the way, don’t these items come with any labels to tell me how to use them?”
“What you have there is a high-concentration bl**d essence crystal from the bl**d Clan Academy. After using it, it greatly boosts the activity of your bl**d and also enhances your affinity for the bl**d, though it will destructively strengthen your body. I advise you not to use it.”
“Eh?” I looked at the bright red crystal in the small vial, instantly pulling back.
“What? You don’t want this? Actually, if you don’t want this, then you probably won’t want the good things from other academies either because you aren’t of their species, and thus can’t perfectly use these items, just like they wouldn’t dare to use our Magic Sources. Perhaps you could keep it; you still have many other items for trading—those things you definitely won’t use.”
“That’s true… I should have thought of that. Even though I can’t use it, that doesn’t affect its value…”
“Pick items that are cheap and plentiful, after all, there are many people in our class, and if you contribute too little, you’ll run out soon. I think this fruit is quite nice—it’s plentiful and has limited effects. It’s a favorite among those muscle-heads from Beast Academy; it helps repair muscle fatigue to a certain extent and although it can slightly increase strength, that’s based on adding more muscle. Do you want it?”
“Um… no, no… I don’t want to become all muscle-bound…” I waved my hand and settled on the second item that was cheap and plentiful.
With Teacher Ji’s help, I finally cleared out all the equivalent items and also familiarized myself with the things I had obtained.
If I had to describe it, it was like a big pit!
Those academies never intended for other academies to benefit, but for the academy level, the so-called rewards were just to keep the script going. However, for us students, these rewards were everything in the competition.
“Alright, you’ve wasted a lot of my time; you should go back now.” Teacher Ji shook her head and ushered me away.
“Um… By the way, I’m curious. Since most of the things they gave me are unusable, what happens to the Magic Sources obtained by other academies from our Witch Academy? What about the spellbooks?”
“What’s there to happen? Why are you curious about this? You shouldn’t pry into things that are not your concern, but if you’re really curious, I don’t mind telling you: they got the Magic Source, so let them use it.”
“But I remember that after using the Magic Source…”
“Becomes a prospective witch; you already know this, right? If they don’t use it, we’ll help them use it.” Teacher Ji laughed and then hurried me out.
