I loaded the Mysticism panel.

During this time, Richard has been practicing silencing techniques whenever he has a spare moment.

The first hurdle has been overcome.

He used a steel pipe to create a vacuum, and with continuous practice, he can now not only create it but also control the strength of the vacuum.

Use whatever you want, whether it's light or heavy.

The next step is to remove the steel pipe.

The steel pipe serves as a medium, a crutch for beginners.

Once he's mastered it, the vacuum won't rely on the straw in the steel pipe to draw out the energy; it will simply be expelled from his own ether.

Only by removing the medium can this technique be truly mastered.

Going a step further... it's about extending the distance without a medium, bringing the vacuum to a single point.

To achieve the ultimate, ten times the force is concentrated on a single point.

This is called "locking".

From being usable to mastering its strengths and weaknesses, to being independent of the medium, and then to remote locking.

Richard's goal is to reach the level of casting spells without a medium before the Silent Fern runs out of energy.

It seems to be more than enough at the moment.

With the help of the still water spread out by [contemplation], he can perceive more precisely every fluctuation of his etheric flow at the moment the vacuum is expelled.

It was clear where they went too far and where they were a step too late.

[Critical Thinking lv.2], the progress is increasing step by step.

He could clearly understand which part of the three-page lock structure was load-bearing, which part was redundant, and which direction the vacuum should be reduced in.

Combining the two makes training much easier.

However, due to his heavy workload, he could only practice in his spare time.

Speaking of which, silencing is a legitimate technique that can be countered by [Shadow Reversal].

The essence of silence is to expel a vacuum from the outside world, to drain and take away the ether surrounding the target.

Pulling it out, snatching it out, turning it over... is it pouring it in? Filling it in?

Richard couldn't quite grasp it at first.

One must first practice casting spells without a medium before one can talk about mastering and reversing them.

Richard suppressed the thought.

The road ahead is long, and we must take it one bite at a time.

After finishing his practice, he did one last set of tidal breathing.

I practiced all night, and my stomach was already empty.

Richard stood up and picked up the glass jar from the Royal Hotel from the table.

Evelyn had only two almond cookies left from her rush to finish making them.

He unscrewed the cap and put it in his mouth.

One piece down, then another.

As for the rabbit professor with the little icing wings, he really couldn't bear to touch it.

………………

More than two weeks have passed since the start of the semester, and that "crash course" schedule is still not being finalized.

The department was busier every day.

That afternoon, after the epigraphy class ended, Associate Professor Croft kept a few people behind.

Richard, Montagu, Catherine, and Fisher.

It wasn't just those in the special class who were left behind.

Richard followed Croft toward the windowless classroom on the east side, where some more people joined them along the way.

Many of them were unfamiliar faces, but they wore undergraduate badges on their chests;

There were also some older young people, in their mid-twenties, who generally had dark circles under their eyes and looked like graduate students.

A significant number of students were selected from each of the preparatory, undergraduate, and postgraduate programs.

The door closed behind me.

Croft pressed his hand against the door frame, and the inscriptions on the four sides of the wall briefly lit up before dimming again.

Three people were already seated at the front of the classroom.

Richard recognized the man in the middle as Associate Professor Greer from the engineering school, who had a full beard.

During his training, he taught students about industrial accidents.

The man on the left, with mostly white hair and a slightly hunched back, is Hollis, a senior associate professor in the Department of Classics who has taught sealing studies for decades.

I've never met Richard, the one at the very back, but the ether around him is clearly a level above the three associate professors.

"This is Professor Wyndham," Croft introduced.

Professor, Richard felt more confident.

The group included everyone from full professors to preparatory students, representing every level.

Croft didn't beat around the bush and handed out the task list in his hand.

"The higher-ups want to compile a 'Battlefield Crash Course Seal Manual'."

His gaze swept over the people in the room.

"This handbook was spearheaded by Professor Wyndham, with Associate Professors Hollis and Greer each overseeing their respective sections."

"Which categories to include in the book, and how to determine the format, is up to them."

"As for you," Croft said, looking at the students.

"The professors have been very busy lately, with a lot of requests piling up, and they also have to coordinate with various departments separately."

The sealing diagram was disassembled and sorted out layer by layer, and the key parts were picked out, copied, checked, and categorized...

These groundwork tasks need to be done, so we've asked you for help.

To put it bluntly, professors are high and mighty, only concerned with setting the direction and nodding.

All the small, miscellaneous tasks were done by the students in this room.

Professor Wyndham put his lecture notes on the table and began to speak.

"When this manual is compiled, the names of several authors should be listed at the beginning."

"According to academic practice, those who participated in the compilation and proofreading will be thanked in a line at the end of the volume."

Richard was genuinely surprised to find an acknowledgments appendix; he had thought the students would be completely exploited for their labor.

"In addition," Professor Wyndham added.

"Those who can enter this room are all promising talents who have been selected."

This experience will later be recorded as academic qualifications in their respective files.

"Do your best and don't waste this opportunity to improve yourself."

What Richard cared about was the work itself.

The most crucial work in these sealing techniques is something a preparatory student wouldn't normally be allowed to handle.

Now he can actually break hundreds of seals and glimpse the deeper layers of academia.

More importantly... to compile a manual, one must know what seals are lacking on the front lines;

To know what the front lines are lacking, you need to know what they are fighting and who has died there.

This kind of information is something that ordinary preparatory students would never even get their hands on.

Professor Wyndham finished his polite remarks and leaned back.

"Let Croft arrange the tasks."

For the next few days, these dozen or so students spent their free time in the windowless classroom.

Each person has a stack of sealed complete maps, a charcoal pencil, and a sheet of white paper.

One seal at a time was broken, the key parts were picked out, and the rest were deleted.

Professor Wyndham rarely appeared in public; most of the time, he would just flip through the manuscript, point out a few stylistic flaws, and then leave.

Associate Professors Hollis and Greer were usually there.

The graduate students were assigned the most crucial and difficult seals.

Undergraduates are next, while preparatory students are mostly assigned basic and large-volume courses.

But Richard dismantled it quickly.

The early academic style of Imperial Capital University placed the weight of the pen under the subjunctive verb.

If you recognize the physical education department, you can quickly identify the key parts.

Through critical thinking, he understood the position of each stroke within the entire seal and deduced which strokes bore the weight.

As the seal was unfurled, while others were still meticulously examining the bones, he had already extracted the skeleton.

He dismantles things quickly and remembers them well.

【Extensive Knowledge】Make sure you remember every neatly copied manuscript.

Hollis once messed up the proofread manuscript and couldn't find the original image of a certain overprinted seal.

"Williams." The old man adjusted his glasses.

Where is the original map of the three-section formation in the northern part of the highlands from the day before yesterday?

"It's at the very bottom of the fourth stack." Richard said without looking up.

"I marked the key part in the upper right corner. What I deleted were the two winding lines in the middle. You mentioned the day before yesterday that you should pay attention to the finishing edge."

Hollis flipped to that page and remained silent for a long time.

"...You have a good memory."

Therefore, the main chores of classification fell to Richard, which was exactly what he wanted.

Richard deliberately took those few cards and went to Greer.

"Associate Professor Greer." He handed over the request forms.

"These items cannot be found in the records."

Greer took it and glanced at it.

"It's normal that it can't be found."

He slammed the demand form on the table.

"You classical studies students keep talking about Celts and the Black Earth River, things that are hundreds or thousands of years old."

But none of the things on the front lines came from ancient books.

He sized Richard up:

"You are Isabella's nephew, and you have a lot to do in this part of the classification."

I have some free time today, so I'll explain it to you thoroughly. Otherwise, you'll be completely confused when you see these requirement lists.

He pulled out another roll from under the stack of brown paper.

It was a "battle situation report" covered with sealing wax from the Ministry of the Interior.

Greer spread the roll out on the table.

"What's published in the newspapers is mostly embellished; the real stuff is here."

Richard looked at the scroll of battle reports.

The first item is the Battle of Mons.

"Albion's expeditionary force crossed the sea, and their first major engagement took place in Mons."

Greer pointed to the section in the report.

"They guarded the north bank of a canal, while there were three times as many people on the other side."

"We couldn't hold out for a day, so we retreated south."

He turned the page.

"It's not surprising that they retreat. Everyone knows that if you can't win, you retreat."

"But after this retreat, strange things began to happen."

Richard leaned closer to take a look.

The record above details the expeditionary force's great retreat, during which they abandoned their armor and weapons along the way.

Those who fell behind, those who were injured, and those who couldn't walk all collapsed on that dirt road heading south.

The announcement was accompanied by oral accounts from the scholars who had been recruited to join the team.

The accompanying scholar said that on that night, a figure appeared out of thin air between the retreating troops and the pursuing enemy.

Some say it's a row of shadows with bows drawn and arrows nocked, others say it's light of an indescribable color, lying between the two armies.

The pursuing vanguard was caught off guard when they bumped into that thing.

It was during this brief period of confusion that the retreating troops were able to escape successfully.

"The Angel of Mons," Greer read the word from the report.

"The soldiers all spread the word that God sent them to protect them."