"Light Cut!"
Shing!
Without even chanting, he directly generated a blade of light beside Kanzaki Rei.
No chant again?
Even if it was only a second-tier Light Blade, the fact that it appeared instantly was impressive.
The spell itself had extremely low lethality, but it made up for that with incredible speed.
If the goal was merely to land the slightest scratch and claim victory, it really was a solid choice.
Bang!
But it was far too slow.
With a mere thought, Rei produced two identical blades of light. They formed in perfect synchronization, and the moment they appeared, the two spells collided and instantly canceled each other out.
"Swift winds gather—forming a storm…"
But the white-haired student had no intention of stopping.
He had already begun chanting again at rapid speed!
Boom!
Before his chant could finish, a violent gust blasted into him.
His body was hurled straight across the classroom and slammed into the wall at the back.
"I told you to use the magic you're best at," Rei said with a helpless tone. "Are you best at every single spell?"
Rei flicked his hand.
The swirling wind swept past, retrieving the bag of gold coins from the white-haired student's grasp.
As the wind burst dissipated, the student's body slid limply down the wall.
Okay… that felt refreshing.
The originally planned display of authority had been completed exactly as scheduled.
Poor white-haired classmate. If you hadn't shown up, I might have spent the rest of today feeling irritated.
"Alright, that's enough."
The other party hadn't actually committed any wrongdoing. Naturally, Rei had no intention of tormenting him.
"Everyone, today I'll be teaching the spell Daylight."
"Before we begin discussing the spell itself, there's a counterintuitive conclusion you all need to understand first…"
Rei formally entered lecture mode.
The white-haired student climbed up from the floor.
Rei had controlled his strength, so the student hadn't actually been injured.
Embarrassed, he slunk back to the last row. After whispering with his classmates, he finally learned the truth.
Damn it…
A few days ago, an eight-year-old kid had actually become the Chief Mage.
And he was supposedly a magical genius comparable to Izpalut?
What the hell?
Was I the only one who didn't know about this?!
After carefully thinking about how to explain Daylight in a way that would be easy to understand, Rei's lecture quickly captivated everyone.
Rei himself had already mastered Transcendent Magic.
His understanding of magic came from a higher-dimensional perspective—almost like looking down upon the entire structure from above. As a result, his explanation of the spell's internal mechanics was astonishingly thorough.
If it were about teaching them Transcendent Magic itself…
That would be impossible.
The complexity of Transcendent Magic began at Level 101.
It was like skipping all mathematics from elementary school through university and jumping straight into calculus.
Far too difficult.
But explaining Daylight?
For Rei, it was like a scholar who had earned multiple PhDs across mathematics fields, won the Fields Medal, then returned to teach elementary school arithmetic—after carefully researching the best way to make it simple and intuitive.
From the higher-dimensional understanding granted by Transcendent Magic, Rei revealed insights that many of these mages might never grasp even after studying Daylight for an entire lifetime.
Once the conclusions were laid out clearly, all the vague impressions and unclear fragments they previously held suddenly clicked into place.
It was like learning the Grand Unified Theory first, and only afterward revisiting the previously confusing phenomena—suddenly, everything became easy to understand.
Each conclusion supported another.
Each idea reinforced the next.
Every sentence.
Every theory.
Every new perspective he introduced.
Each one triggered waves of realization among the students.
One epiphany after another.
"Today's lecture ends here."
Rei let out a small breath.
Finally landed it safely.
The moment those words fell, the spiritual field that had filled the entire room instantly dissipated.
The students snapped out of their intense state of enlightenment, suddenly realizing that two hours had already passed.
Insights had flowed into their minds like a rushing stream.
Every single one of them could clearly feel it—
Their understanding of Daylight had deepened tremendously.
The spell that once felt vague and mysterious had suddenly become crystal clear.
Many students even realized something shocking.
They could now cast Daylight without chanting.
They understood it.
This single class had surpassed countless nights of hard training.
"Teacher!"
Rei had just started to leave when someone rushed forward faster than he could react.
"About what you explained regarding Daylight—I still have questions!"
"Teacher!"
Rei sighed internally.
What a hassle…
But in the end, he didn't avoid them.
Instead, he patiently answered their questions one by one.
It took half an hour before he finally resolved them all.
Once everything was finished, Rei hurried out of the classroom and quickly concealed his presence.
At that moment, Iz appeared naturally at his side.
"How was it?"
"I feel a bit tired."
Some of the questions those students asked…
Rei felt he had clearly explained them during the lecture already.
How are they still asking the exact same things?
"You're moving too quickly on the path of seeking the root," Iz said calmly. "Sometimes you should slow down and look at the others who are walking the same road."
"…Understood."
Rei accepted Iz's advice.
When it came to the pursuit of the Root, Rei trusted Iz's judgment greatly.
After finishing the lecture, Rei walked around the academy with Iz for a while.
He now had his own office within the school.
There were staff salaries, food and housing subsidies.
His library permissions were fully unlocked.
At the moment, he simultaneously possessed three identities:
Special Appointed Instructor at Loynes Magic Academy
Member of the Mage Association
Chief Mage of Loren
With the combined authority granted by these three roles, there were very few places he couldn't access.
Rei soon arrived at the academy library.
"…There really are a lot of magic books."
Looking around, the library was filled with dazzling rows of magical tomes, along with countless commentaries explaining them.
Here, you didn't need to spend hundreds of gold coins outside just to buy a third-tier magic book.
Nor did you need to worry about bookstores running out of stock.
The concern here wasn't students learning too much.
It was that they might not finish learning everything.
"No wonder… everyone wants to study at Loynes Magic Academy."
With benefits like this, even Rei would want to study here.
If nothing else, the sheer number of magic books alone made it worthwhile.
Outside bookstores?
Even with money, you couldn't buy this many.
Beyond that, the library also contained notes from Root Mages.
It truly was an excellent place.
However, Rei still didn't see Pally anywhere in the library.
It felt like she had suddenly disappeared.
The appearance and disappearance of a Diviner really were impossible to predict.
Rei didn't bother searching for her intentionally.
Even Iz had been toyed with when trying to track her down.
If Iz couldn't find her…
Rei didn't think he stood much chance either.
Pally was the only person Rei had ever seen leave Iz at a disadvantage.
After finishing his teaching duties, Rei continued discussing soul magic with Iz, picking up their unfinished conversation from the afternoon.
Before they realized it, the discussion stretched deep into the night.
From magic…
to the soul…
then back from the soul into magic again.
When it was finally time to rest…
Rei ultimately returned to his warm palace rather than staying overnight at the academy.
"Next… things should be peaceful for a while."
There was no need to explore dungeons anymore.
He had already earned enough money.
The snow-filled, frigid months brought with them an overwhelming sense of unease.
Rei had no intention of venturing out during such dangerous seasons.
And December was even worse—the most dangerous time of the entire year.
For these two months, Rei planned to stay quietly in Knoroya rather than travel.
Early the next morning, Iz left Knoroya.
After helping Rei complete his academy onboarding procedures, he was now going to bring Aizen over.
Iz was powerful enough that Rei wasn't worried about him.
If continent-sinking monsters were spawning in the wilderness, Rei felt people should be more concerned about themselves—and the entire continent—rather than someone as monstrously strong as Izpalut.
Rei's schedule became simple.
During the day, he immersed himself in the Forbidden Archive.
In the afternoon, he taught one class.
From Rei's perspective, the greatest resource granted by the Chief Mage position was access to these strictly forbidden books.
For now, his plan was simple:
Read every forbidden text he could.
Even if someday there were a political coup, or the king suddenly changed his mind and stripped him of the Chief Mage title—
Rei would still have profited immensely.
And many forbidden books also contained puzzles and encrypted knowledge.
He could conveniently train his Cryptic Scholar progress while solving them.
November 8th
Iz brought Aizen to Knoroya.
Aizen had worked in the Circle City for over ten years and had already built his life there.
But when he heard that materials from sixth-tier continent-sinking monsters were available—and not just one of them…
He couldn't suppress his excitement.
Without hesitation, he abandoned the city where he had lived for more than a decade and moved everything over with Iz.
From now on, the Arcane Curiosity Shop would be established in Knoroya.
As for Circle City?
Let it go to hell.
With Aizen's arrival, Rei now had someone reliable to help modify staffs and craft magical equipment.
Conveniently, the materials he had obtained earlier were mainly intended to convert the Void Spirit Ringstar Staff into a spear-type magic staff.
However, after arriving in Knoroya, Aizen still needed time to set up his workshop, secure storefront space, and handle various preparations.
It couldn't be rushed.
Three more days passed in November.
The Forbidden Archive contained 1,643 books.
Among them, 253 forbidden texts carried hidden secrets.
Rei had already read 102.
Out of those, 19 triggered memory meltdown effects—reading them would cause immediate unconsciousness.
After conducting some experiments, Rei determined something interesting.
Among those nineteen:
6 books would knock him unconscious simply from reading their content.
The remaining 13 books were readable—but their hidden secrets couldn't be deciphered.
These thirteen books spanned several fields:
Magic
Astrology
Fate
The Future
Time
The Root
Why those particular subjects?
Because Rei had deliberately prioritized forbidden books related to those fields.
And coincidentally, those 19 books contained secrets currently beyond his ability to comprehend.
Aside from those nineteen, the other 83 books were also mostly related to these domains.
Fortunately, their knowledge could still be studied normally.
"Let's stop here for today…"
"This one can't be read either."
Rei closed another forbidden book and placed it back on a nearby shelf.
That particular row was reserved for forbidden texts he had already confirmed were currently unreadable.
"Ritual of the Descent of the Evil Nest…The Fractures of the World…Records of Forbidden Magic…The First Light…The Heavenly Realm…"
"Before I knew it, I've already learned so much."
These revelations were astonishing.
Some knowledge even shattered the worldview Rei had only recently formed, forcing him to rebuild it all over again.
The structure of this world…
Had never actually been fully explored.
It wasn't even known whether the world was a flat realm beneath a dome of heaven, or a planet drifting in a cosmic universe.
The only confirmed fact was that beyond the sky lay the stars, and the realm where those stars resided was known as the Astral Realm.
The seas surrounding Ruilen were called the Secret Sea.
Within the Secret Sea existed hundreds of continents.
The continent where Ruilen was located was merely one part of the Mystic Sand Archipelago.
The Mystic Sand Archipelago contained six continental islands.
Those six lands together formed the coalition of kingdoms that had established the rule of Class Awakening at age sixteen.
As for how vast the Secret Sea truly was…
Or what lay beyond it…
Those were mysteries no ordinary person could know.
Geography was only a tiny fragment of the knowledge contained in these forbidden books.
There were also secrets about gods, theories about Nests, and biographies of legendary figures.
Some of those biographies even contained their personal insights and revelations.
Rei had only read eighty-two forbidden books so far.
Yet the knowledge he gained from them rivaled everything he had studied day and night over the past two months.
Now, Rei was confident that his knowledge surpassed that of most native inhabitants of this world.
Especially when it came to forbidden and hidden knowledge.
Knowing more than ordinary people…
Was probably one of the signs of stepping into the ranks of the truly powerful.
It seemed that choosing to become a Loren citizen had indeed been the correct decision.
The knowledge from these forbidden books alone had already made it worthwhile.
"And I didn't expect this either… there are even records of the Path of Godhood."
"The divine path of the Cryptic Scholar."
"As an 8th-tier Cryptic Scholar, after uncovering the secret of a world's origin…"
"…one must choose to forget it."
Forget it?
An utterly incomprehensible operation.
Did becoming a god require betraying the very principles of your profession?
Why was it that advancing to a 9th-tier profession, the so-called path toward godhood, seemed to run completely opposite to the profession's own philosophy?