Lor's face was somewhat unsightly as he carefully tried to erase the stroke he had just drawn incorrectly.
This time, there were no further mistakes, and he smoothly wiped away the misaligned part.
"Phew."
With a light breath of relief, Lor did not stop, but began to erase the model he had drawn earlier.
Those low-level wizard apprentices, upon reaching this step, might continue to construct the meditation model, because this might be their one and only chance in life.
As for the shortcomings of the meditation model that prevent promotion to wizard, this flaw is as if nonexistent to them.
After all, they originally didn't have much chance to be promoted to official wizard, but Lor obviously wouldn't do such foolish things.
Erasing the meditation model took much longer than constructing it, as he had to be careful not to affect areas where cracks appeared.
After more than an hour, Lor finally managed to reduce the structure of the meditation model to forty percent.
"At this point, the following steps would be easier."
Lor's serious expression relaxed; now even if it collapsed, it wouldn't have much impact on him.
Immediately, his speed began to increase, erasing the external structure around the few points where the meditation technique had cracked.
Thirty-five percent...
Twenty-five percent...
"Boom—"
The familiar sound of collapse echoed again within Lor's sea of consciousness.
This time the model collapse did not cause any major damage to Lor.
When he opened his eyes, there wasn't even a double image; it was just that his head was still a bit dizzy.
After sitting quietly for a moment, once the dizziness faded, Lor looked up at the mechanical clock.
It was now past six forty in the evening.
Touching his somewhat hungry stomach, he decided to wander down to the hall.
Making several turns, as he approached the stairs, Lor heard noises coming from downstairs.
"Everyone, we were all chosen by Wizard Mala as wizard apprentices, and when we reach the wizard tower, we should unite."
"Viss is right; he's a genius with level-four meditation talent. If we follow him, we certainly won't be bullied."
"Alright, Viss, it's decided, I'll follow you from now on."
"Me too."
"I..."
...
"Quite lively."
Lor smirked slightly and didn't mind it, passed the corner and went straight to the staircase, intending to go downstairs, but suddenly discovered that the originally lively hall had quieted down.
He looked around in a circle and found everyone was looking at him.
"Why are you looking at me?" Lor raised his eyebrows, kept walking down the stairs, and said: "I'm just here to get some dinner, continue, don't mind me."
"Lord Lor, I am Tecok Viss."
A sturdy, richly dressed blond youth took a few steps forward, stood at the bottom of the stairs, and asked, looking up:
"Are you interested in joining our group? I can offer you generous rewards."
Hearing the noble-blooded youth called out his name, Lor paused slightly in his steps.
He looked around the hall again until he saw a plainly dressed young man who boarded the spaceship with him and then understood.
"The place I am going is somewhat special. Joining you doesn't mean much to me." He descended the stairs and said to the noble youth.
Lor did not deceive this ambitious young man; most of those on Mala's ship will eventually go to the area of the wizard tower where Mala himself is located.
And he himself will be sent to another wizard tower with the Earth and Fire Faction wizard.
"Lord Lor, don't you want to hear the rewards I can offer you?" A trace of unwillingness flashed in Viss's eyes as he tried to retain him.
Clearly, he thought Lor was brushing him off.
"How about this, Mr. Viss."
Lor revealed a subtly intriguing smile at the corner of his mouth, "If we really get assigned to the same wizard tower by then, I'll agree to join you, how about that?"
He suddenly felt like teasing the kid could be quite amusing, wondering how disappointed Viss would be when he didn't see him getting off the ship.
"Alright, it's settled then." Viss instantly beamed with joy.
"Mm."
Lor nodded, bypassed Viss and the others, and approached a stone puppet seemingly made of rock standing on the left side of the hall, said:
"Hello, please give me a dinner."
The stone puppet knocked on an iron window behind it.
Shortly, a tray with bread, fruit, and vegetable soup was handed through the iron window.
The stone puppet picked up the tray and handed it to Lor.
"Thank you." Lor took the tray and randomly found a spot in the hall to sit down and eat quietly.
No one, including Viss, came to disturb him again.
Others didn't dare, and Viss wasn't in a hurry.
Anything could wait until Lor joined his organization.
After dinner, Lor returned to his room, lay on his bed in a starfish shape, emptied his mind, didn't open the elemental lamp, and silently stared at the dark ceiling in a daze.
After idling for a full hour, he sat up again, turned on the elemental lamp, and opened the meditation technique for a read-through.
"Strive for success in one attempt."
After confirming there were no mistakes, Lor took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and continued constructing the meditation model.
Maybe it was due to the previous relaxation that the construction of the meditation runes proceeded much more smoothly this time.
Thirty percent...
Seventy percent...
Ninety-nine percent.
Lor carefully drew the last stroke, and the originally invisible, almost non-existent meditation rune within the sea of consciousness suddenly began to tremble, releasing a faint yet special gravitational force.
The earth and fire elements that were originally dispersed in the air and invisible to the naked eye seemed to be drawn in and slowly surged into Lor's sea of consciousness.
...
Third floor of the spaceship.
While meditating, Mala sensed the elemental shift, looked down towards the direction from where the wave transmitted.
Upon discovering it was coming from Lor's room, he glanced up at the mechanical clock hanging on the wall.
"Eight and a half hours, though a bit worse than me, still quite impressive."
Mala smiled, "The Fire and Earth faction has an extra little genius; they better reward me handsomely."
Ordinary wizard apprentices with level-five meditation talent typically need three days to get started on the meditation technique.
Yet Lor only took eight and a half hours, which is relatively impressive for a batch of geniuses.
While Mala, during his first meditation, constructed a complete Fire Element meditation model.
Because his meditation talent level is seven!
An aspiration level unattainable by ordinary wizards.
He only needs to memorize the meditation rune model and outline five percent at the start in the sea of consciousness; the rest will be automatically completed by the Fire Elements.
...
Spaceship second floor, cabin number 5.
"Finally succeeded."
Gazing at the intricately complex three-dimensional rune glowing in red and yellow within his sea of consciousness, Lor exhaled a breath of relief.
It was due to the firsthand experience in a previous life's game and the reference of bloodline runes that he could successfully outline this meditation rune after only three failures.
Outside the meditation rune, there is a not-too-large elemental domain.
The function of this domain is to accommodate the witchcraft model.
As the meditation technique progresses, this elemental domain will expand increasingly.
"At present, it can only accommodate five witchcraft models at most; besides the basic three, the others will need careful selection once at the wizard tower," Lor thought discreetly.
Once witchcraft is constructed, it is permanently solidified, and changing paths later is very difficult.
If not, wizards wouldn't divide into so many factions; they would simply form two major groups, elemental and bloodline, since all could interconvert.