Chapter 116: The Second Monthly Grading

Uh...

Seeing how Lan Qingyou was currently in her twenties, yet actually dropped out of school at fifteen.

Thus, the bunch of them began speculating whether something had happened within her family.

Meanwhile, The High Priestess didn't think too much into it, immediately throwing out an apology.

After all, she also didn't know what Lan Qingyou's circumstances were. She merely made a joke, only for things to turn out like this, prompting her to immediately apologize to Lan Qingyou.

The Tower: "It's fine, it's fine."

Lan Qingyou fundamentally didn't take The High Priestess's words to heart.

Instead, it should be said that everyone was just joking around to begin with; this minor banter fundamentally couldn't be considered a serious matter.

The Fool: "Tower, could the reason you dropped out of school be related to your legs?"

After all, no matter how one looked at that flying posture, there was clearly something wrong with it.

The Tower: "That's right. I got into a car accident when I was fifteen, paralyzing both my legs, so I stopped going to school."

Lan Qingyou actually didn't conceal this point.

Meanwhile, seeing this, The High Priestess blanked out.

Originally, she merely intended to make a joke. Who would have expected that this Tower Witch was actually a disabled person...

"... I truly deserve to die!"

The High Priestess slapped her own forehead, expressing repentance for her joke.

It seemed it would be best to crack fewer jokes in the future.

"Perhaps I really should learn how to interact with people from The Hierophant and The Empress."

The High Priestess, Vivian Nadasdy Bathory.

Her family was exceedingly wealthy; this was the wealth accumulated starting from her grandfather's generation in the pharmaceutical business.

Relying on her family's wealth, she was sent to study in an aristocratic school.

However, those aristocratic children in the school fundamentally looked down upon an upstart who had only passed down wealth for three generations.

Consequently, she suffered various insults and discrimination within the school.

One day, having endured until it was unbearable, she initiated a revolt, engaging in a massive physical brawl in the school corridor with the people who constantly bullied her.

The outcome was readily apparent. Being physically weak to begin with, she lost thoroughly and was hospitalized.

From then on, she began a life of taking online classes at home and came into contact with the internet.

It was also from this moment on that she became an out-and-out otaku girl.

In her eyes, the internet was virtual and hypocritical. Yet simultaneously, it was genuine and beautiful.

She loved surfing the internet and observing covertly. Because everyone here was talented and spoke pleasantly, she super loved it.

But also because of this, she transformed into an existence possessing practically zero communication skills.

Unable to bear watching this continue, her parents sought out numerous psychologists to provide her psychological counseling, and only then was she slowly pulled back.

In the end, right when the psychologists prepared for further treatment, she was forcefully teleported to Kalim Continent.

Therefore, strictly speaking, despite Vivian appearing exceedingly carefree and highly conversable within the villa, her true, effective communication was completely restricted to discussing matters involving magic and mana.

On this end.

After finishing dissecting Lan Qingyou's paper, everyone returned to tranquility.

After all, they all had their respective matters to attend to, and given the current hour, it was almost time to sleep.

Lan Qingyou was the same.

It was just that tonight, after finishing her shower, she didn't take out her card to read papers like usual. Instead, she brought out the wooden board she had originally broken off from the collapsed shelter.

This wasn't an ordinary wooden board, but rather a wooden board carved with magic patterns.

Of course, this was stating the obvious.

The main reason was still because the magic shield core of that shelter was present upon this wooden board.

Namely, the part that was engraved in the opposite direction compared to the rest of the board.

After all, compared to researching magic patterns, the experience points gained from researching the shield core would definitely be far higher!

Now that the transportation and illumination aspects of traveling had been resolved, what remained was the issue of safety.

Golems and a dwelling.

If she wished to fight and live in the wild, these two items were indispensable.

Therefore, on the second day—which was also the third day since the second mana tide arrived—Lan Qingyou formally commenced the research and development of her own shield.

Magic patterns and magic circuits were two different things.

Patterns belonged under "Symbology", focusing more heavily upon the aspect of inscription.

After mastering the symbol blueprints and conditions, one merely needed to utilize inscription tools to carve them using their own mana.

Conversely, magic circuits were things hidden beneath the symbols.

They were similarly drawn out using one's own mana.

The difference lay in the fact that one was the exterior, while the other was the interior.

Symbology served as an auxiliary existence; taking it out separately, apart from being able to look at it, held no use whatsoever.

On the other hand, magic circuits could operate even when separated on their own.

Thinking up to this point, Lan Qingyou took out a stone slab, subsequently using her finger as a pen to begin drawing upon it.

The stone slab was a leftover from what the stonemason Li Huai made for Lan Qingyou previously, currently serving perfectly as a practice target.

Anyhow, her home still contained plenty of them; once she used them up, she could even use wooden boards.

However, her idea was excellent, but fell victim to her being too untalented.

Carving and drawing on the stone slab was nothing much, but the moment she finished with the stone slab and began drawing on the wooden boards, the issues sprouted.

No other reason.

The wooden boards couldn't withstand her torment.

Or perhaps it should be said her craftsmanship was too atrocious; wanting to achieve the degree of finesse present on the shelter was fundamentally impossible.

"It seems I still need to practice more."

After yet another wooden board shattered, Lan Qingyou hugged her arms across her chest and spoke in a solemn tone.

She attributed everything to her own lack of proficiency. Although this carried a slight suspicion of shifting the blame, in reality, there indeed existed reasons corresponding to this aspect.

After all, previously, the most she had drawn were things like alchemy arrays, which didn't require much finesse apart from the 'circle'.

Yet now, having to draw out an entirely complete, serially connected composition was still beyond her capabilities.

Practice. Practice like her life depended on it.

Ultimately, practice makes perfect. Failing right now didn't equate to failing in the future.

Therefore, on the third day of the mana tide, Lan Qingyou stubbornly locked horns with the magic shield.

She completely forgot about claiming previously that she wanted to research something to allow herself to offer a bit of 'contribution' this month to see if she could scrape an S-rank grading again.

So much so that she didn't even notice the second mana tide's conclusion in the dead of the night.

Not to mention, after wasting a massive pile of stone slabs and wooden boards, she actually managed to grasp a bit of the ropes in the end.

[The one-month period has arrived. Now initiating the second Monthly Grading.]

[This ranking will utilize 'Shelter Level, Individual Level, Contribution to the World of Kalim' as three reference aspects. Furthermore, those without rewards will not be included in the rankings.]

Whoosh—!!!

Lan Qingyou, who had originally only gone to sleep right as the sky brightened, was abruptly awakened by the voice of the world detonating by her ear.

Shooting right up into a sitting position, she rubbed her somewhat messy hair crushed from sleeping, looking all around her with groggy eyes.

Discovering that it wasn't due to someone charging into her shelter, she finally lay back down with peace of mind.

"Squeak—Squeak—"

Steel Wool, who was pressed tightly beside Lan Qingyou, was the same.

After Lan Qingyou abruptly sat up, it was awakened as well. Seeing the other party lie back down, it followed suit and closed its eyes.

"Wait, it's the Monthly Grading!"

Subsequently, Lan Qingyou opened her eyes once more.