What Dragonwell Tea hadn’t expected was that Clarence could go on and on about spells, even those from crossed schools that he had never learned himself.
Could this be the legendary type who loves reading up on strategies... no, research papers?
Or is there some sort of academic journal or newspaper within the wizard circles?
After pondering for a while, Clarence replied, "Since you have a few friends, I recommend the spell ’Mutual Truce’ to you."
"No, no, no, it doesn’t seem like it’s ’a few’ that many..."
Dragonwell Tea retorted.
In this group of players, there were only two old friends he was relatively familiar with—Delicious Wind Goose and the Wandering Child.
The others, strictly speaking, should be considered his subordinates...
Upon hearing this, Clarence couldn’t help but laugh.
He seemingly realized that his amusement wasn’t quite appropriate to show in front of a student, so Clarence coughed twice, suppressed his smile, and continued to explain seriously:
"This spell... can force a group of people engaged in a melee to separate to opposite ends according to their factions. Your allies will be drawn to your side, and your enemies will be pushed away from you.
"After the separation is complete, a wall of air that blocks attacks will form between you. The strength and speed of the pulling force, as well as the flow rate and thickness of the air wall, vary with personal strength and differ from one person to another.
"However, this spell will not change the terrain or stop terrain from forming. So you can have your friends set traps outside the battlefield, then stand at the location—trap-battlefield-casting point—and use this Decree spell. This way, you can deliver all your enemies into the traps... It’s a good combo, just hard to pull off alone."
Clarence said with a light chuckle, "Although I’m not very familiar with Decree spells, I do know the current mainstream system. The Decree Wizards from the Silver Tower in the Winter Principality are particularly good at this kind of positional warfare.
"Capabilities spatial manipulation are characteristic and advantageous for the Decree School because you often get to master different levels of spatial abilities from bronze to silver rank, one or two ranks earlier than schools with spatial manipulation abilities like Cripple, Idol, and Shaping.
"Considering alternatives, you might want to work in this direction."
The wizard, with round-framed glasses and a gentle, refined demeanor, earnestly offered his suggestions for improvement.
"Thank you very much, teacher!"
Dragonwell Tea responded respectfully and quickly.
He hadn’t expected to actually receive useful advice.
It wasn’t that he doubted Clarence’s expertise.
It was mainly that Clarence’s aura always left Dragonwell Tea somewhat uneasy...
Clarence’s demeanor was such that he could suddenly run his hand through his hair, toss his glasses aside, change his hairstyle, and start off with "There shall be no adversaries before us" without it feeling out of place.
And Clarence’s voice vaguely resembled that of a certain blue individual...
Dragonwell Tea momentarily dismissed this unsettling thought.
He changed the subject, "But, Teacher Clarence... haven’t you already finished this month’s classes?"
"Well, I still have some things to take care of here. So I’ve shifted next month’s classes to this month, as it were."
Clarence smiled kindly and nodded, "I need to create a cursed object and I’m missing some materials and influences. I’ve issued a commission for them to search various influence pools. Once they return and I finish making the cursed object, then I’ll leave.
"Until they return, I’ll be in the library every day after class. If you have anything you want to ask me, you can wait here around this time... I will be passing by on my way to the eighth floor."
"Thank you very much, Teacher Clarence."
Dragonwell Tea once again respectfully thanked him, bowed, and then took his leave: "Then I’ll take this book with me now."
"Sure, just remember not to stay up too late."
Clarence nodded with a smile, his voice warm and rich.
After Dragonwell Tea left, he looked at Dragonwell Tea’s retreating figure with interest.
...You don’t bear any ill will towards the Black Tower, so why the nervousness?
"However, elven relics..."
Clarence smacked his lips.
I hope your friends won’t come to any harm.
After all, the one going to the relic to collect influences this time is a blockhead who doesn’t understand human affection or sophistication...
It wasn’t until after leaving the library that Longjing Tea, who was completely oblivious to Clarence’s mind-reading, felt a cold sweat streaming down his back.
Just now, he didn’t dare make any movements, let alone show any expression, and he didn’t dare to ask for details.
He was terrified of giving away to Clarence that something was amiss... which would then expose the whereabouts of the players at the elven relics.
He had just mocked those who held others back for being onlookers; it would be funny if he ended up doing the same.
Longjing Tea was the type who disliked others holding him back but hated even more to be the one holding others back. Even when playing ’Humanity’s Epic Fail’ online, he was the only one in the crowd who was seriously trying to clear the game...
He always harshly disciplined himself and was even harsher in disciplining others without any politeness.
But since Longjing Tea had never seen a Soul Reaping Wizard, his wariness and attention towards Clarence were still insufficient.
In the face of an ordinary person who had not undergone a Transcendent advancement, a silver-tier great wizard like him didn’t even need to cast a spell to read their thoughts.
He kept his composure until he reached his dormitory, shut the door behind him—and then finally started posting frantically in the forum:
"——URGENT, URGENT, URGENT! The team from Black Tower that’s heading to the relics might have already set off! @WanderingChild @WanderingChild @WanderingChild"
Soon enough, Wandering Child replied with a message: "Are you sure about the news?"
Longjing Tea: "I didn’t dare to ask more since that was a big shot from the Soul Snatching School. But he sent out more than one team to collect influences. So there’s a high chance that some people will be heading to your location!"
Wandering Child: "Got it, take care of yourself. Watch out for the Soul Reaping Wizard!"
Longjing Tea: "Understood. I’ll keep my livestream on starting from tomorrow, and won’t deliberately ask about anything. Once I’ve learned the skills, I’ll read some books on geographical and historical knowledge, and I’ll title the stream recordings with the names of the books and post them directly to my personal space. If you need any information, you can check it there."
Jiu’er: "If possible, remember to look up information about demons... It’s somewhat urgent."
Longjing Tea: "No problem, I’ll do my best."
Having agreed to the task of collecting information, Longjing Tea let out a deep breath, finally beginning to calm down.
Unbeknownst to him, his palms were already soaked in sweat.
On the other hand, Annan had turned back to seek out old Vasily.
"...Your Highness, you want to craft a cursed object?"
Vasily frowned slightly: "I could, but do you have an influence on you?"
"I have two influences on me,"
Annan glanced at them and replied, "Both are low-tier. One is ’Endless Echoes of the Mirror Realm’, and the other is ’A Step Ahead’ of the Blade Realm. The influence from the mirror realm is about to reverberate soon... I don’t know what it can do, so I came to seek your opinion. I am gathering materials to advance lately, so I need to suppress my nightmares for now."
"Endless Echoes...is that an influence of the new gods? I haven’t heard of it, nor am I sure what it can do. However, if you only want to delay the effect..."
Vasily pondered for a moment, then quickly replied to Annan: "Then let me first tell you a basic Ritualist technique, Your Highness. If an influence is about to expire, it can be incorporated into any ritual of the same divine domain. After the ritual is completed, the influence’s duration will be reset... Or rather, the influence itself will be consumed and replaced with a brand new influence. This way, you won’t be dragged into nightmares by the echo.
"We pile up and store influences on ourselves in this way. Of course, how to use two or more influences to synthesize an influence belonging to other domains is a bit more of a complex formula..."
"But ’A Step Ahead’ is a very useful neutral influence. The Blade Realm is a neutral domain that no god governs, so gods of domains like ’Murder’, ’Forging’, ’Sword’, and the like can also generate ’A Step Ahead’.
"’A Step Ahead’ can be used to craft a very useful one-time cursed object—the ’First Strike Blade’."
Old Vasily smiled: "I have the materials here and can craft it right now.
"Or perhaps... you’d like to try making it yourself?"