The apprentice dormitories were about eight hundred meters away from the magic tower. While contemplating, Miss Jia Na arrived in front of a cold white, cylindrical building.
“Ding—”
Miss Jia Na's single room was on the third floor. As the mechanical elevator ascended quickly, a curved corridor appeared opposite the elevator. Walking along the corridor, Miss Jia Na finally stopped at a corner.
“My dear Miss Jia Na, you have been away for ten hours and fifty-eight minutes. In every minute and second of that time, your loyal servant has been eagerly awaiting your return…”
“Alright, Door Spirit, did anyone come looking for me this morning?”
“No, Miss Jia Na. Apart from a damned puppet mouse, no one else has been here.”
Slightly raising her head, an alchemical magic painting, about two meters high, appeared before Miss Jia Na.
Within the magic painting was a bust of a noble gentleman, about 50 years old, wearing a respectable black satin suit, a top hat, a monocle over his left eye, and a goatee.
However, his incessant chatter and fawning expression greatly diminished the character's demeanor in the painting.
“Knock knock knock—”
Ignoring the Door Spirit's rambling, Miss Jia Na lightly tapped the magic painting with two knuckles. The painting, which was hanging on the wall, opened like a revolving door when she gently pushed it.
“Bang—”
The magic painting closed, revealing a slightly cluttered room of about 60 square meters within Miss Jia Na's view.
There was a mahogany soft bed, a low round table, and a not-so-spacious washroom. Besides these basic facilities, most of the room's area was occupied by various magic plants and large experimental tables.
“Return to original position—”
Looking at the messy room, Miss Jia Na made a casting gesture and quickly cast the Cleaning Spell.
Under the power of Miss Jia Na's max-level Cleaning Spell, the room, which had previously been difficult to even step into, became somewhat neat and clean.
“There are too many things and the room is too small. No matter how much I tidy up, it will always look like this.”
With a wave of her hand, the dust and garbage that had been cleaned up were thrown into the trash can by the bed.
“When I earn money in the future, I still need to rent a bigger room. Otherwise, the experimental materials later might not fit.”
...
Pulling up a chair next to the experimental table and sitting down, Miss Jia Na, who had been looking forward to this for a long time, carefully took out the magic scroll from the inner pocket of her wizard robe and spread it out neatly on the experimental table.
“Confidentiality Agreement.”
Unrolling the magic scroll, the first thing that came into Miss Jia Na's sight was a standard confidentiality agreement from White Coral Academy.
Its main content required apprentices not to casually disclose the witchcraft knowledge within the scroll and to jointly protect White Coral Academy's rights to compliant knowledge.
“The binding effect of this agreement is approximately twenty years. After twenty years, the restrictions included in the agreement will automatically disappear.”
The twenty-year restriction was simply because the magical effect of this type of standard agreement could not be maintained for too long. If an apprentice or Formal Wizard of White Coral Academy intended to leave the organization, they would sign a high-level confidentiality agreement for a hundred years before leaving, to ensure the monopoly of knowledge.
Without hesitation, Miss Jia Na picked up the quill pen next to her and signed her name on the agreement. Subsequently, the confidentiality agreement was successfully validated, and the restriction covering the magic scroll was lifted.
“«Low-Level Elf Summoning Ritual»…”
Reading the content of the scroll softly, Miss Jia Na found that all the text within the scroll was written in Mithris Language. Not only that, but it also contained a few passages in common Elvish. Although the content was not extensive, understanding it still required a certain threshold of access.
“As expected, it's Mithris Language. Fortunately, I had already prepared for this.”
When choosing paid courses, Miss Jia Na specifically took Mithris Language, which was closely related to the Summoning system of the mystical side. To save some expenses, Miss Jia Na only studied for five lessons.
It was during this short period that Miss Jia Na quickly mastered all the grammar of Mithris Language using her language learning skills from her previous life.
She even engaged in extensive practice during the after-class exercises, specifically focusing on translating long and short sentences in Mithris Language.
Even though her language communication wasn't completely fluent, Miss Jia Na was confident that she would have no problem reading Mithris Language.
“If I had enough academic credits at the time, I could have continued with the subsequent oral practice courses… Unfortunately, with midterms approaching, I couldn't afford to be distracted by elective courses anymore.”
First-year apprentices had six required courses: «Ancient Magic History», «Basic Spells (Pronunciation and Gesture Standardization)», «Basic Herbalism», «Basic Biology», «Black Magic Defense (Wizard Combat)», and «Elvish».
These courses were free for first-year Wizard Apprentices. Starting from the second year, all courses would be charged by the lesson.
It was during this period that Miss Jia Na maximized her financial planning. In addition to the six free required courses, she also used the monthly subsidy provided by White Coral Academy to take two paid courses – «Mithris Language» and «Basic Contract Studies».
It was precisely because of this that while other apprentices were overwhelmed with the six required courses, Miss Jia Na, using the Contract Studies knowledge she had learned in advance through self-study, completed her first Contract Summoning during her time as a First-Level Wizard Apprentice.
Moreover, she was very fortunate to summon a very friendly Spirit World creature – a Celestial Sparrow.
“Although the contract process was smooth at the time, I was indeed a bit reckless. If my soul perception ability wasn't naturally strong, a slight misstep could easily have led to a backlash from the contract array.”
Contract Summoning is a subject with a relatively high knowledge density among all mystical disciplines. Not only must there be absolutely no errors when drawing the contract array, but the positioning of the Spirit World coordinates and the control of the soul resonance frequency during the first attempt are also delicate tasks that require high concentration.
Even a slight mistake could cause the array caster to suffer a soul backlash. If not treated properly, there was even a risk of becoming an idiot.
“Huff—”
Taking a deep breath and looking at the magic scroll before her, Miss Jia Na gradually collected her thoughts and focused.
The path of a Wizard is full of thorns. Even though Miss Jia Na had the system by her side, if she didn't accumulate enough knowledge later on, having a pile of experience rewards would ultimately be in vain.
...
“Tick tock—tick tock—”
The second hand of the mechanical clock on the wall ticked continuously. As Miss Jia Na studied more deeply, her brows furrowed tighter and tighter.
“Similar to Basic Contract Studies, the process of Elf Summoning also requires constructing a contract array with mental power. Aside from some minor differences, the logic of drawing the first half of the array is similar, except for the casting method of the contract and the method of one-way positioning… It is indeed not simple.”