Chapter 2242: The City That Never Sleeps

————I'll make up for it tomorrow~~

————

Take Xia Duo himself; he never thought about competing in strength with an excavator, speed with a car, or computing power with a computer. Even though he has undergone multiple Bloodline Awakenings and his strength, speed, and even his thinking have qualitatively improved compared to before, he has never thought about relying solely on his physical body to handle everything.

The sages of his hometown said long ago, "The nature of a gentleman is no different from others; he is simply good at utilizing external objects." The reason humans are human is, to a large extent, because they know how to use tools.

Psionic Mages certainly have ways to use external objects to amplify their own power, but the source of power remains themselves. In Xia Duo's view, this is undoubtedly their greatest flaw.

Individual power is limited. If one cannot use external objects to obtain new sources of power, no matter how much internal power one has, there will come a time when it is exhausted, and at that moment, one will be at the mercy of others.

Overall, Xia Duo is very satisfied with his achievements in the Time Acceleration Zone over these two years. Although he cannot directly counter the Mental Image World, he can at least render the opponent's ineffective.

Now, the only thing he is somewhat unsatisfied with is that he still lacks a Psionic Master to cooperate with him for practical combat testing. Of course, even without one, it does not affect the practical application of the 【World Editor】 spell.

Verification is merely the final confirmation step; Xia Duo believes he has full confidence in his research results.

……

Tower of Time, top-floor Study.

Xia Duo and Niya are sitting next to each other in front of the Projection Window. The Tower of Time has now been moved to the Floating City Public Zone, and the projection they are currently facing is the real-time scene outside the Tower of Time.

Not far away in Hengchun Square, a group of children is touring around under the guidance of a young boy, occasionally stopping for explanations. Seeing this scene, Xia Duo cannot help but smile knowingly.

If he guessed correctly, those should be the teachers and students of the Territory's enlightenment class. He seems to have some impression of the leading boy; he should have seen him during the last Job Rank Assessment he presided over before entering the Time Acceleration Zone.

According to the regulations of the Tower of Time, only those who obtain the Level 1 Mage rank are assigned various jobs; before obtaining the Level 1 Mage rank, they are all Apprentices.

It is conceivable that the boy in Hengchun Square outside looks very young, as if he is an Official Mage even before reaching adulthood, which would have been completely unimaginable in the past.

This is the magic of Modern Education!

"That little guy should be the youngest Official Mage since the Tower of Time was built, right?" Xia Duo said casually.

Hearing this, Niya couldn't help but snort, "Why don't you talk about me? I am the youngest Official Mage, okay!"

"How can Yinsiteduode compare to you? You must have already come into contact with Magic before the age of 16, right? But him? He might have still been helping his family with chores before 16! If I remember correctly, he should only be 17 this year!"

In other words, Yinsiteduode only took one year to become an Official Mage. This speed of progress would be shocking if placed in the past.

Once Xia Duo said this, Niya immediately fell silent. However, what Xia Duo didn't say was that Yinsiteduode's speed of progress, while rare, is not particularly difficult to achieve nowadays.

As it stands, the little guy is indeed the youngest Official Mage in the Tower of Time, but he is not necessarily the fastest to become one; some people "enrolled" at an older age but progressed faster than him.

Moreover, Xia Duo has also discovered a trend: as the teaching system of the Tower of Time's Academic Affairs Office becomes increasingly perfect, the originally formulated three-year training plan has become increasingly outdated.

More and more Apprentices are able to complete all their scheduled studies within two years, and for those who cannot finish within two years, giving them another year might not necessarily help them complete it either.

Therefore, Xia Duo is now considering whether to shorten the term for Apprentices recruited in the future from the previous three years to two.

Come to think of it, the Apprentice stage before becoming an Official Mage was originally planned by Xia Duo as an enlightenment stage. Analogous to the school system of his hometown, it should count as the kindergarten and Primary School stages.

Official Mage—or more accurately, the Level 1 to Level 10 Mage ranks—is classified as the Middle School stage. Becoming an Advanced Arcanist is like the college entrance exam; if you pass, you go to university, and becoming a Great Arcanist is like being a graduate student.

If one fails to advance, one can choose to repeat a grade and continue testing, or choose to transfer to the vocational education stage, which is to continue rising from a Level 10 Mage and follow the path of a Legendary Mage advancing to a Great Arcanist.

Unlike the academic path of an Arcanist, the Legendary Mage path is basically employment-oriented, engaging in professions related to the Application of Magic, such as Magic Technician, Magic Farmer (Druid), professional Warrior, and so on.

These professions basically no longer engage in specialized basic research work, but will develop deeply in their own professional fields under the guidance of relevant researchers. As long as one delves into their own profession, becoming a Legendary is not a delusion.

In Xia Duo's plan, it can be said that in the future, there will be no profession unrelated to Magic. Even if one cannot perform Spellcasting, living in a society full of Magic Creations, it is impossible to be unrelated to Magic.

The so-called "Magic Civilianization" is essentially prepared for those who cannot perform Spellcasting. In the foreseeable future, Magic civilization will long remain in a state where Spellcasters and non-Spellcasters coexist.

If one does not consider and prepare early, the more developed Magic becomes, the more it will divide these two groups that essentially belong together.

"By the way, while I was away, was there any news from Jieyin?" Xia Duo nudged Niya with his shoulder and asked softly.

"Yes, he came looking for you a few times a while ago. When he couldn't find you, he told me."

Niya had an expression of 'if you want to know, just ask me'. Xia Duo naturally couldn't leave her unsatisfied and hurriedly asked, "What did he want with me? Is there any new progress in the research of the Activator?"

"How did you know?"

"It's a task I assigned him; how could I not know! Hurry up and tell me, what exactly is the new progress?"

"Alright, Jieyin actually wanted to tell you that he has developed a Universal Starter that can simultaneously accommodate usage scenarios outside of an Arcane Energy Field."

Actually, Niya didn't care about any Activator; she cared more about Xia Duo's attitude. "By the way, Jieyin also sent a sample, which is a Magic Lamp. He said you would definitely like it when you see it."

"A Magic Lamp?"

"That's what he said. I didn't look closely and just put it away."

As she spoke, Niya had the Tower Spirit teleport over a rather exquisite box. Xia Duo opened the box, and on the velvet lining inside lay a small gadget similar to a desk lamp from his hometown.

Below is a base, in the middle is a thin rod, and on top is a structure with thin claws similar to those used to set a Gemstone on a ring. However, inside this one is not a Gemstone, but a colorless, transparent Crystal.

The entire lamp has no Magic Aura at all, and the craftsmanship is relatively crude. At first glance, it looks like something a clumsy craftsman practiced on.

But next to the lamp, there is a small cube that integrates all the Magic Aura from inside the packaging box. It is this small cube that makes Xia Duo almost unable to look away.

Regarding this, he gave his praise without hesitation—

"What a genius concept! It is simply too exquisite!"