Free Web NovelChapter 28: Chapter 28: Another Way to Use the Plug-in
Two seconds passed.
A pleasant voice suddenly rang out. "I see. This must be a random assessment arranged by the academy."
Random assessment—an unannounced, random test arranged by the academy.
Among the many rumors circulating in Lakefront Castle, these words had appeared countless times.
Rumor one: The academy held random assessments several times more frequently than the official, full-participation assessments.
Rumor two: A clue to a random assessment might be hidden in some seemingly ordinary corner.
Rumor three: A random assessment could pop up at any unremarkable moment.
Rumor four: What random assessments truly tested were keen insight, meticulous logical thinking, and extraordinary initiative.
Rumor five: The rewards for random assessments were varied, including not only Black Tower Points but also items like Magic Potions and Spiritual Materials.
Now, Mo Ning felt the rumors made a lot of sense.
’Isn’t this random assessment right in front of me a test of "keen insight"?’
At that moment, Mo Ning subconsciously looked in the direction of Vino’s voice, just in time to catch a glimpse of her profile in the crowd.
It was an unforgettably beautiful face.
The Creator had clearly put a great deal of thought into crafting this face, sculpting it with remarkable beauty.
But it wasn’t just beauty.
The bridge of her nose was high like a mountain ridge, and the lines of her profile were sharp. Her jawline had no trace of a redundant curve, and her posture was as straight and tall as a pine. All of this lent her features a vibrant, heroic air.
Mo Ning’s gaze lingered for only a moment before he looked away.
’It wouldn’t do to trigger her "Spying Sense," if she had one.’
The other newcomers quickly caught on, and a clamor erupted like a tidal wave.
"The entrance to the Lecture Hall has been hidden."
"A Secret Gate! This must be a Secret Gate!"
"The Lecture Hall is most likely somewhere in this hall. We have to find the entrance ourselves."
Their young faces were filled with irrepressible excitement.
Although yesterday’s sudden assessment in the dining hall hadn’t awarded many Black Tower Points, it was enough to make everyone understand one thing: behind every one of the academy’s surprise challenges lay a sweet reward.
Many of the newcomers were already moving impatiently, striding quickly toward different corners of the hall.
Mo Ning didn’t notice another pretty figure three meters behind him, taking in his every move.
Especially his "glancing around" motion.
This young lady glanced at Mo Ning’s back, then at Vino’s profile, a faint smile gracing her pretty face.
A vermilion mole on her left earlobe was quite conspicuous.
Just then, Mo Ning felt eyes on him again and instinctively glanced back.
But the girl’s reflexes were unnaturally fast. Before Mo Ning even turned his head, she took a small step, angled her body, and shifted her gaze to the hall’s northeast corner.
Mo Ning scanned the area but didn’t find anyone who seemed to be spying on him.
He frowned and turned his head back.
At the same time, with a mere thought, he summoned the [Insightful Secret Eye] to hover high above the hall, monitoring every move within it.
The girl with the vermilion mole lowered her head slightly and mouthed a sentence: "Truly impressive."
The action was rather strange, as if she were communicating with someone.
Yet her furtive appearance didn’t quite look like a conversation.
By observing Mo Ning’s behavior, she had already realized that he was likely the first newcomer to figure out this was a random assessment.
*****
「Deep within the Black Tower.」
「Inside the Observation Room.」
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice, Nasha, was lounging lazily on a beast-hide chair, her two smooth, jade-like calves swinging gently.
In her right hand, she held a thumb-sized, dark-red bean covered in fine blue lines, which she then tossed into her mouth.
CRUNCH!
The moment her teeth clamped down, the bean let out a bloodcurdling scream that was rather unsettling to hear.
Nasha’s cheeks puffed out slightly. She chewed twice, a look of satisfaction appearing on her face.
This was a Screaming Bean.
You couldn’t find this item in the Black Tower’s official store; it was a little snack only available on the black market.
Two orbs of light were hovering in front of the apprentice.
In one of the orbs, Mo Ning’s image was clearly visible.
Within the other orb was the slender figure of the girl with the vermilion mole.
"Impressive, indeed!"
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice caught the words the girl with the vermilion mole had mouthed perfectly.
Reading lips just so happened to be within Nasha’s range of abilities.
The Third Level Apprentice let out a smug "Hmph!" and said, "I told you yesterday, Mo Ning is the real genius among this batch of newcomers."
"I told you there was no need to pay too much attention to guys like Sitt and Mika, who seem strong but are actually quite average."
"You didn’t quite believe me, but now you finally see who was right, don’t you?"
With a flick of her wrist, Nasha tossed another Screaming Bean into her mouth.
AAAAH~
Another scream echoed.
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice’s gaze flickered before locking back onto Mo Ning’s face.
Monitoring newcomers was a rather tedious job. For her, this random assessment was a rare bit of entertainment.
*****
「Inside the Mysterious Secret Hall of the Quiet Forest.」
Mo Ning’s gaze swept over the entire hall like a hawk’s—the edges, the center, the dome, the floor, every stone pillar, every floor tile.
Relying on his formidable memory, he quickly compared the hall as it was now to his memory of it from when he first entered yesterday.
The result: no changes whatsoever.
’Looks like "finding the Secret Gate by spotting changes in the furnishings" is a dead end.’
The thought flashed through Mo Ning’s mind, but he didn’t feel the slightest bit of frustration.
A dark glint flashed deep in his eyes. ’I’ll just have to use my trump card.’
With a mere thought.
In an instant, strands of the Thread of Truth silently surged from the depths of his consciousness, rapidly weaving and intertwining.
In the blink of an eye, a fine, diamond-patterned net of light had taken shape, floating in the void.
The mesh of the glowing net was uniform in size. At the intersection of each warp and weft condensed a miniature structure of unimaginable intricacy—hexagonal hubs, spiral circuits, and countless unnamable geometric creations, all woven together into a suspended, precision instrument.
This was a "Cheating Skill" he had developed for the [Eye of Truth]—or rather, a small door he had accidentally stumbled upon after countless experiments.
Initially, Mo Ning only used the Thread of Truth as a measuring tool.
With just a thought, a thread of light could extend to any location and instantly feed back extremely precise data.
For example, by stretching a Thread of Truth across the circular hall, the moment its two ends touched the edges, he could obtain its diameter: 125.8354 meters.
The margin of error was sub-millimeter, a hundred times more accurate than any observation with the naked eye.
「Until two months ago.」
Mo Ning had seen a Low Level Witchcraft Item called the "Demon Flame Torch" in the Holy Spear Kingdom.
The item could produce Magic Flames reaching up to 2,000 degrees, specifically used for smelting Spiritual Metals.
Acting on his instinct to collect knowledge about Witchcraft, he casually released a few Threads of Truth to measure the Magic Flames.
He also summoned the [Insightful Secret Eye] to record the Magic Patterns on the torch’s surface.
The [Insightful Secret Eye]’s precision was extremely high; it could discern and record even the most minute turns in the patterns.
Although the recorded Magic Patterns were only superficial in form and couldn’t be used to analyze the deeper energy structure, they still held research value that could not be ignored.
Then, something unexpected happened.
The moment the torch was lit, Magic Power surged out like a tidal wave.
At that very moment, the Threads of Truth trembled.
It was an extremely faint tremor, almost imperceptible had he not been completely focused.
But the tremor was real—the threads of light had a peculiar magical reaction to the burst of Magic Power.
Mo Ning stood frozen on the spot, a flash of insight exploding in the depths of his mind. ’The Threads of Truth are, by their very nature, the most covert detectors of Magic Power!’
They could "see" the flow of Magic Power.
They could "touch" energy ripples.
They could perceive the hidden pulsations deep within space that were invisible to the naked eye.
In the following days, he buried himself in magical deductions and repeated experiments, confirming that this diamond-shaped grid structure could effectively amplify external fluctuations in Magic Power.
He gave it a simple and easy-to-understand name: the [Demon-Seeking Net].
