Free Web NovelChapter 50: Chapter 48: He’s the First in the Last 100 Years
The moment the two "Nashas" made eye contact.
Using the surface of the Mirror Technique as a medium, the real Nasha immediately shared all the perceptions of the "Nasha" in the mirror.
First.
The "Nasha" in the mirror stared directly into the intense light, and the real Nasha immediately felt a sense of discomfort.
The Witchcraft greatly weakened the pain as it was transmitted.
By the time it reached the Sharp-eared Female Apprentice, only a slight discomfort remained—like someone had gently pressed on her eyelids, and that was all.
Second.
Blindness followed.
The world disappeared.
There was only light, with nothing discernible.
Up to this point, Flash seemed normal.
But then, things started to get strange.
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice was astonished to find that at the exact moment the light flared, a bizarre offset appeared between the position the mirrored "Nasha" saw and her own actual location.
She compared them carefully—the difference was about half a body’s width.
The discrepancy didn’t seem large.
But remember, the two "Nashas" were very close, less than ten meters apart.
If the distance were extended to fifty meters, or a hundred meters—the offset might reach several meters.
On a real battlefield, that was a distance that couldn’t be ignored.
As the intense light gradually dissipated, the blinding effect began to weaken.
The mirrored "Nasha" inherited the real one’s powerful regenerative abilities, and the pain subsided like a receding tide.
Her vision shifted from pure white to grayish-white, and she could vaguely make out some shapes.
Then, a surprising result emerged.
The mirrored "Nasha" saw two similar humanoid silhouettes, one to the left and one to the right, standing quietly.
Each silhouette was positioned about two meters away from her real body’s location.
At this moment.
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice suddenly remembered a passage that Mo Ning had written on his project application:
"This doesn’t quite count as a true Illusion Technique.
"It just uses the moment of blindness from the intense light, during which the subject’s visual-neural-soul pathway enters an ’overload reset state’.
"Embedding a resonant structure of a specific frequency can temporarily interfere with the target’s Perception mechanism.
"One could call it a ’low-end Illusion Technique,’ or an ’Illusion-like Technique’."
She finally understood what Mo Ning had written.
Whether it was the "visual offset" or the "dual silhouettes"—it was all an illusion created by the improved Flash.
This was no longer a simple Sub-zero Level Trick.
Nasha couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration, "This kid is truly incredible."
For a newcomer to improve a Sub-zero Level Trick was already a rare and commendable feat.
And this particular improvement was quite creative—no, in the Female Apprentice’s eyes, it was nothing short of a "stroke of genius."
Never mind a newcomer; the vast majority of Apprentices couldn’t have done it.
Nasha had read countless papers on Witchcraft improvements written by Apprentices over the years.
Most only earned the comment "shows some original thought."
Compared to this one by Mo Ning, those papers paled in comparison.
Nasha leaned back in her chair, a complex emotion welling up inside her. ’If only I had a mind like that.’
She knew it wasn’t something you could gain through hard work alone.
It was a spark of ingenuity, the brilliant flash of a soul shining brightly in a single moment.
Even more, it was an innate talent.
Something no one could ever take away.
Nasha suppressed that subtle pang of envy and brought her focus back to the desk.
Another half hour passed.
The Female Apprentice carefully read the paper one more time.
Then, she pulled out a standard review template and began to think about how to fill it out.
The template’s paper was twice as thick as ordinary scale pattern paper and had beautiful watermarks along the edges. It was clearly custom-made.
This document was for the archives, so no one dared to write carelessly. If the academy were to investigate in the future, whoever was responsible would pay a heavy price.
After a few seconds.
Nasha lifted her Ink Tube Pen and began to write in the "Preliminary Review" section, her strokes neat and precise:
"This paper is well-structured with rigorous deductions. The improvement to the Sub-zero Level Witchcraft, Flash, is highly innovative."
"Innovation," as used in this evaluation, is a key metric for all papers on Witchcraft improvement.
If there was no innovation, the project application would be rejected outright.
Those "improvements" that merely changed a few parameters or slightly altered the structure could never "cheat" the academy out of even a single Black Tower Point in funding.
Among the Witchcraft improvement projects that reached the application stage, most papers written by Apprentices only received the evaluation "shows some innovation."
To be blunt, that meant very little.
It was just barely enough to squeeze out some funding.
Only a few Apprentices with a truly deep understanding of Witchcraft were capable of receiving a better evaluation: "shows good innovation."
As for the even higher evaluation of "highly innovative," only an extremely small number of papers ever received it.
The weight of the word "highly" was enough to make even those Apprentices who had been immersed in Divination for many years take a second look.
Yet Nasha wrote down the evaluation without hesitation.
She felt Mo Ning’s brilliant idea was completely deserving of such a rating.
The next level of evaluation was "exceptionally high."
The terms "some," "good," "highly," and "exceptionally high" formed a clear evaluation hierarchy, with each level representing a difficult threshold to overcome.
Of course, there were even higher ratings.
But those were comments that not even Official Wizards dared to hope for, let alone Apprentices.
Nasha’s pen hovered over the paper for a moment before she continued writing.
"After experimental verification, the Effect of the improved Witchcraft, Flash, exceeded expectations and has some practical value."
All papers on improving Witchcraft must bridge the gap between theory and practice, which means validation through Casting.
After all, no matter how elegant the theories were on paper, if they fizzled out in practice, they were nothing but a pile of scrap.
Here, too, was a conventional four-tier evaluation system: "Slightly Below Expectations," "Meets Expectations," "Exceeds Expectations," and "Significantly Exceeds Expectations."
Most Apprentices only managed to achieve the first level: "Slightly Below Expectations."
This was perfectly normal.
When Apprentices wrote their project applications, they inevitably padded their data to increase the chances of approval.
By the time the paper was written and the experiments were complete, those inflated bubbles had been popped by reality, and the final evaluation naturally came back down to earth.
That was the price they paid.
Yet here was a newcomer, on his first attempt at improving a Witchcraft, who had actually received the third-tier evaluation: "Exceeds Expectations."
The news would be shocking to anyone who heard it.
"Practical Value" was another important evaluation metric.
It was also divided into four tiers: "Some," "Considerable," "High," and "Very High."
After all, it was a Sub-zero Level Trick. No matter the improvements, it was still just a Trick, so it received the first-tier evaluation: "has some practical value."
Nasha glanced at the evaluation she had written and slowly penned the final verdict:
"Overall Evaluation: Star Badge Second Level."
The moment the nib left the paper, a wondrous sight appeared.
Two exquisite, star-shaped emblems quietly materialized in the preliminary review section—the so-called "Star Badges."
According to the academy’s paper review system, the Star Badge was the classification insignia for Apprentice Level papers. The insignia for Wizard Level papers was the "Moon Chapter."
The Female Apprentice knew very well what this evaluation meant.
Star Badge First Level meant "Pass," Star Badge Second Level meant "Excellent," and Star Badge Third Level meant "Exceptional."
Star Badge First Level came with basically no reward; it simply meant the research project was complete.
Star Badge Second Level and above usually came with additional rewards.
Above that were two more levels—Star Badge Fourth Level and Star Badge Fifth Level.
But those were in a realm beyond the ordinary.
Only papers evaluated as having both "Significant Value" and "Significant Importance" had a chance of receiving a higher Star Badge level.
Over 99.9% of Apprentices wouldn’t dare to dream of such a thing in their lifetime.
Nasha whispered to herself, ’Getting two stars on his first paper... In the last five years, I think this kid is the first one.’
It wasn’t that the academy lacked talent.
Every few years, a few brilliant individuals would pop up who could also get two stars on their first paper.
But for a newcomer to get two stars on their first paper—as far as she knew, besides Mo Ning, there hadn’t been a single one in the past century.
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice thought that the academy could give a newcomer a little encouragement; adding an extra star wouldn’t hurt.
But rules were rules.
Nasha raised her left hand, and her Spiritual Power extended like a silken thread into her Apprentice’s Magic Ring—the mark of an Apprentice’s status.
Beneath the cuff of her gray robe, the silver-white ring flashed faintly, signaling its activation.
The Female Apprentice spoke softly, "Witch Spirit, the paper’s preliminary review is complete."
The Witch Spirit’s signature mechanical voice sounded from the void, without warmth or inflection:
[Preliminary review confirmed. Executing academic paper transport protocol—]
Faint ripples suddenly appeared in the air above the desk.
The air in that small area distorted gently, shattering and re-forming the light.
The neatly bound stack of scale pattern paper began to blur rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it completely disappeared.
Nasha had seen this scene countless times and was long past being surprised by it.
She knew the paper was traveling through some sort of invisible channel to her mentor Yi Lin’s Witchcraft Laboratory, where it would undergo a final audit.
And given her mentor’s personality, she was unlikely to overturn Nasha’s recommendation—it was just a Sub-zero Level Trick, after all.
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice leaned back in her chair, a faint trace of envy rising in her heart.
It wasn’t envy for Mo Ning’s talent—she couldn’t even be bothered to feel jealous of that anymore.
What she envied was his "special treatment."
Normally, the final Auditor for a paper written by an ordinary Apprentice would be a First Level Wizard.
Yet Mo Ning was just a newcomer, and her mentor, a Second Level Wizard, was actually willing to take the time to review his paper personally.
This was absolutely preferential treatment.
’Can’t be helped.
’After all, the kid is a real genius.’
*****
At six-thirty.
Mo Ning finished washing up and was about to head to the dining hall.
Lately, the "underachievers" had all tacitly adjusted their meal times.
They generally started heading to the dining hall after six-thirty in the morning, avoiding the "Top Students."
No one made a rule, and no one discussed it, yet it was as if an invisible hand had silently split the roughly two hundred people into two separate groups.
As one of the "underachievers," Mo Ning naturally went with the flow.
Just then.
His Secret Technique Whisper suddenly vibrated.
A message from Anya had arrived:
[My channel only allows me to contact my family once a day. I just received some bad news from them. Sir Rent of the Royal Library died half a month ago.]
Mo Ning’s expression darkened.
He immediately thought of the office piled high with books. He remembered the old man sitting behind the desk, reading glasses perched on his nose as he pored over manuscripts. He also remembered how, just before he left, the Sir had clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Study hard. Don’t let your talent go to waste."
A stifling anger lodged in his chest, making him feel suffocated and wanting to curse.
From the sound of Anya’s message, Sir Rent’s death was anything but peaceful.
This confirmed his suspicions.
On the day they’d parted, the Sir had a ruddy complexion and a booming voice, full of vigor. He hadn’t seemed like the type to suddenly drop dead.
Mo Ning stood in silence for a moment. The anger in his heart gradually cooled, settling into a cold knot deep inside him.
Sir Rent’s death meant that the Phantom Carved Statue—a key component of the Divine Statue Technique—was most likely lost as well.
This was truly awful news.
