Chapter 171

Half a year passed, and the standard of Gao De's batch of new students was basically clear at a glance; one could see the whole picture from a glimpse, without needing to wait until the end of the academic year.

Although most students at Sairisi Academy were magic user geniuses who entered through rigorous assessments, there were also gaps between geniuses.

Gao De, this wild magic user from the Bremen region who did not participate in the enrollment assessment, entered the academy through a recommendation letter, and enjoyed the academy's highest treatment.

In the eyes of many, he should have been the bottom-tier material among this batch of new students, struggling every year for those 10 credits.

Yet they didn't expect that this character, whom everyone looked down upon, would forcefully carve out a name for himself.

First, he was stunning in the enrollment mission, breaking the record left by Dean Jia Wen.

Subsequently, in the assessments of the elective courses he chose, except for "Magic Ink Extraction and Production," he achieved first place in all of them, and even finished several courses with full marks.

With this, although Gao De couldn't yet be called a magic user genius, the name of a learning genius resounded throughout the entire academy.

He even had a modest reputation among the mentors.

Some mentors were just watching the fun, but more mentors had this thought: When will this learning genius take my course, so I can see exactly how much he's worth and whether he's as capable of learning as rumored.

And besides Gao De, two other freshmen showed abilities and talents exceeding those of average students.

The most famous was certainly Yilan, known as the "magic user genius," who was recognized as the head of Gao De's batch of freshmen.

Next was Jielika Hai Er, this wealthy young lady who looked unassuming but was actually a ruthless character.

When she was thirteen, her magic user rank had already reached a third-rank magic user apprentice.

In order to awaken a more powerful specialty, Jielika intentionally stuck at the third-rank magic user apprentice level for so long; no one knew how deep her foundation was.

Anyway, in the eyes of many, once Jielika advanced to a 1st-circle magic user, she would catch up to and surpass Yilan, who was a step ahead, in a short time.

In addition, her affluent family background also gave Jielika extremely high knowledge; although she couldn't compare to Gao De in course learning, she was still second among this batch of freshmen.

The trio of Yilan, Jielika, and Gao De were grouped together by busybodies in the academy and called the three great geniuses of the 9655 batch of freshmen at Sairisi Academy.

Although there were only thirty-some people in a batch of freshmen.

Gao De didn't care about this, but he didn't resist it either.

In a "school," bearing the title of a genius is certainly more beneficial than harmful; this is beyond doubt.

Most of the courses Gao De studied were only taken as electives based on his own needs, and he generally just dabbled in them.

The only one he studied in depth and never interrupted was the "Runology" course.

It's just that after studying "Runology" for so long, the only runemaster Gao De had come into contact with from beginning to end was He Xi.

After He Xi applied for a waiver of "Runology" for him, he became even more "isolated from the world."

So, in fact, until now, Gao De didn't even know what stage his learning in Runology had reached.

He only vaguely sensed that it should have exceeded the content of the first stage of the "Runology" course, but he didn't know exactly which stage it was at.

However, Gao De didn't care much about this.

Because no matter which stage it was, in reality, he was still just a beginner in "Runology."

The road of Runology is truly too long.

After handing in the composite rune diagram designed yesterday based on He Xi's requirements, Gao De received his first "criticism" from He Xi: "You focus too much on the high efficiency of composite runes. This is important, but it is not the most important thing."

"Composite rune design is only the initial part of a magic array design. If you focus excessively on high efficiency in this initial part and optimize too early, it will affect the possibility of combining magic arrays later."

"At the beginning, we should focus more on the implementability and compatibility of composite runes."

"It's not that high efficiency is wrong, but you have to consider the actual situation, find a balance point, and appropriately sacrifice a bit of its efficiency for other capabilities."

After pondering for a long time, Gao De finally came back to his senses and said respectfully, "I understand."

He Xi nodded slightly.

He knew that this was Gao De's answer after careful thought, and that he truly understood.

Not just a "I understand" response to appease him. "Take it back first, revise it once, and give it to me tomorrow."

He handed the composite rune diagram Gao De had submitted back to him, then gave a "Hmm," and took out another piece of parchment, handing it to Gao De:

"This is the task assigned to you for today."

Gao De silently took the rune diagram and the parchment with the "problem" written on it, and left the rune workshop.

He returned to Building 30 in the First District.

Before going upstairs to "solve the problem," Gao De routinely went to the kitchen to cast 【Water Creation+】 for his "daily first draw."

It was still honey water.

Even though Gao De had a calm temperament, he couldn't help but frown.

Since the last time he "drew" the Water of No Leakage, in such a long time, nothing other than honey water had appeared.

This made Gao De suspect whether his luck had been reversed in the new year, for his luck to be this bad.

After Gao De left, He Xi also returned to his small room.

The drafts on the table were already two heads higher than before.

Through continuous experiments and calculations over these past few months, he had gradually gained some clues and touched the shadow of the "interference constant."

"Must be faster," he muttered, and then unconsciously thought of Gao De, who had proposed the "interference constant."

He Xi was the person in Sairisi Academy who understood Gao De's abilities best.

He clearly knew that compared to the "learning genius" title Gao De displayed externally, which made him famous, the "rune genius" title, which only he knew for now, was what Gao De was most worthy of praise for.

And the degree of this "rune genius" could even crush Yilan's "magic user genius."

After all, in the life he had lived before coming to the Saint Xi En Kingdom, He Xi had actually seen many, many "magic user geniuses" stronger than Yilan.

But he had never seen a "rune genius" who could be stronger than Gao De.

Even, there hadn't been anyone who could compare to Gao De.

"In fact, with his current level of knowledge in Runology, he is already able to start magic array design," He Xi Aokenli said to himself.

"But under the current Runology system, 1st-rank magic arrays can only be constructed by 1st-circle magic users."

There is no such thing as a 0-rank magic array.

"The level is enough, but the magic user rank is not, so he can only be stuck on composite runes..."

"Just like many runemasters, clearly their attainments in Runology have reached the next stage, but they are limited by their magic user rank and cannot construct magic arrays of the next rank."

Among the hundred arts of magic users, only the path of runes has the most strict levels.

Like pharmacists, even magic user apprentices can fully prepare 1st-rank potions, and other professions are the same.

But in the world of runemasters, low-circle magic users absolutely cannot construct high-rank magic arrays.

This is also the biggest shackle limiting the forward development of Runology.

High-circle magic users are already a low-probability event, and being proficient in Runology is also a low-probability event; the probability of having both, needless to say, is obvious.

And for a "discipline" to develop, there must be a sufficient number of "big shots" to pave the way.

This old man sighed, but his eyes gradually shone with brilliance: "As long as the interference constant is derived, this status quo can be changed!"

This is indeed an incredible thing.

Nowadays, when the Holy Empire, the Jin Quehua Dynasty, Lin Hai City, and even countless powerful magic user forces are all trying their best to cultivate a high-rank runemaster.

Who would have thought that in a royal academy of an inconspicuous small kingdom, there was an old man who was ignored and even excluded from the center of power by the academy, a broadly defined third-rank runemaster, who was trying to reconstruct the Runology system.

(End of chapter)