I loaded the Mysticism panel.

When they arrived at the gate, Evelyn was waiting for him at the school bus stop so they could go back together.

Richard didn't join the queue. He waved to his sister and made a walking gesture, indicating that he wanted to walk back by himself.

The girl wrinkled her nose, looking somewhat suspicious, but didn't say anything, and was swept into the car by the crowd.

Two stone griffins perched on the stone pillars of the school gate, their wings covered in bird droppings.

Richard walked through them and turned onto the south-facing street.

The reason is simple: I just want to walk more.

The "Walking" option in the "Body" menu was still grayed out, but he wanted to confirm one thing:

Can you silently accumulate experience for skills that haven't been activated yet?

If possible, walking home is a win-win situation, as it provides both physical exercise and valuable experience.

As he walked, he kept his attention on the "Walking" indicator on the panel.

Gray, completely still.

After walking for about five minutes, he looked at it again.

It's still grayed out; the experience bar isn't even showing a number—it's completely blank.

He walked for another ten minutes, and his breathing began to become a little heavy.

The panel remained unresponsive; the grayed-out items did not receive any input whatsoever, not even implicit accumulation.

Sure enough, it won't work unless it's turned on; there are no shortcuts.

He sighed, abandoned the observation panel, and focused his attention back on the road.

It's about three miles (4.8 km) from Greenwood to home, passing through a large part of Briston's old town.

Rows of houses line the street, their brick walls covered in coal ash accumulated over decades, obscuring the original red brick color.

Turn the corner past the post office, and you'll find the secondhand market right ahead.

This time, he wasn't just looking for an excuse to walk; he was thinking of stopping by the flea market to see if he could find some antiques to earn points.

It's called a market, but it's really just a narrow alley less than 100 meters long.

Most of the sellers are older, and they are very good at judging people. They can tell at a glance whether someone is going to spend money or just browsing.

So when Richard strolled over, no one got up to solicit business.

Richard was quite pleased with this; he slowed his pace and glanced at the stalls.

Brassware, old books, badges, a worn pocket watch, and a tarnished silver chain.

He turned his attention to the panel, focusing on the column for available points.

Zero is always zero.

I walked past more than a dozen stalls, examined countless bronze artifacts with inscriptions, and touched some old books in very poor condition.

The panel remained completely still, without even a fluctuation of 0.01.

It seems that not all old things hide something.

The reason why ornaments and consecration discs can provide points is probably because they do indeed contain remnants of supernatural power.

No matter how old an ordinary old item is, if it doesn't contain anything, it's just scrap copper or waste paper to him.

Richard put the copper cigarette case back on the stall, and the stall owner didn't even lift his eyelids.

By the time he got to his front door, the back of his shirt was soaked with sweat.

Three miles is just a walk for most people, but for him it was a long march.

He stood at the doorway for a while, catching his breath, before pushing the door open and going inside.

There was no one upstairs; Father hadn't come home from get off work yet, and Mother was probably in the kitchen.

Richard went upstairs, closed the bedroom door, and focused his attention entirely on the control panel.

Available points: 1

The whole point contributed by the divination disc lies there quietly, waiting to be spent.

He first tried putting the points into his breathing to see if he could stack them.

When playing games, the worst thing you can do is to add all your skill points to one thing; specializing in one skill will give you the greatest improvement.

After confirming, I touched [Breathing Lv.1] and tried to push it inward. A gray prompt quickly popped up on the panel:

This feature is now enabled. To advance to the next level, you must meet the following requirements:

Basic level reached Lv.2 with maximum experience points; learned a transcendent breathing technique.

Below was a line of even smaller text:

"Unlockable Effect Preview - Breathing Healing: "

Wherever the breath flows, the body undergoes minor repairs, and chronic illnesses gradually subside.

Richard stared at the word "healing".

If "healing" can truly achieve "gradual fading of chronic illness," then as long as he is still breathing, his body is moving in a better direction.

He thought about things further ahead.

Lv.3 heals minor wounds, but what about Lv.5? And Lv.10?

If the level continues to increase, can breathing directly enhance muscle density, improve bone toughness, and optimize nerve responses?

If that's the case, then "breathing," which seems like the most ordinary skill, is actually the most fundamental of all skills.

Because it never stops, whether it's awake or asleep.

The higher the level, the greater the benefit per breath; this is the logic of exponential growth.

He even considered an even more outrageous possibility.

What if we unlocked some kind of "extraordinary breathing technique" that allowed breathing itself to draw energy from the outside world?

According to the panel, one of the requirements for advancement is to "learn an extraordinary breathing technique".

The phrase "extraordinary breathing method" alone evokes a wealth of thoughts and ideas.

Extraordinary powers do exist in this world, as evidenced by the pendants and the divination disc.

If one day he finds that breathing technique, combined with the panel's bonuses...

What others need to do through meditation, spiritual practices, or rituals, he only needs to breathe.

I get stronger while eating, I get stronger while walking, and I get stronger while sleeping.

Furthermore, with these skills being unlocked and their effects stacking up... he quickly suppressed his excitement; it was too early to think about these things now.

I pulled myself back to reality and re-examined the panel.

Since we can't breathe into the second point for the time being, let's look at something else.

His gaze shifted to the remaining three items of "body".

The reason for exclusion remains the same: these three items either require time or resources, and he can't provide either.

Our attention shifts to "wisdom".

[Perception: Enhanced sensitivity of the five senses]

When I truly enter the realm of the extraordinary in the future, my keen senses might save my life.

But in today's world, having too much inspiration might actually bring trouble.

Critical thinking: reasoning, analysis, and applying knowledge to new situations

His interest was piqued by the immense power of that ability.

Try to use your consciousness to engage with reasoning; a prompt appears on the panel:

"This feature requires the following prerequisite: Knowledge ≥ Lv.3".

The golden finger logic requires a foundation of knowledge before building the tower of reasoning.

Without a foundation, speculation is built in the air.

The last item is "Knowledge": quickly master, memorize, and understand basic knowledge.

Richard made a list in his mind.

Part-time jobs that students can earn money through—translation, copying, tutoring—are all based on sufficient knowledge.

In terms of mysticism, both times he gained points by coming into contact with ancient artifacts that sealed away extraordinary powers.

If you want to consistently earn points in the future, identifying and finding antiques will be the key.

The knowledge required to identify antiquities, including archaeology, paleography, folklore, and religion, all fall under the category of "scholarship".

Every clue, when followed to the end, points to the same starting point: he has chosen his target.

The gray fades, and the writing lights up.

[Knowledge] Lv.1 Experience: 0/200

The changes were quieter than after the [Breathing] light was activated.

Richard got up from the edge of the bed and squatted down to rummage through his schoolbag.

He first turned to Latin, which was his most troublesome subject.

In the past, looking at the Latin declension table was like staring at a bowl of dough that couldn't be stirred; the word endings were all stuck together, and it was impossible to tell which was which.

He turned to the chapter on verb conjugation and stared at it for a few minutes.

The relationship between roots and affixes begins to emerge.

amo, amas, amat—the endings of first-conjugation verbs are no longer a string of gibberish that needs to be memorized.

It has structure and logic; the word endings tell it who the subject is, where the tense is, and what the tone is.

He turned to the next page, read for a few more minutes, and silently timed it in his head.

Content that used to take an hour to barely understand can now be outlined in about ten minutes.

The effects are most noticeable in language-based, memory-based, and classification-based learning.

As for deeper concepts, such as advanced mathematics, philosophical arguments, and legal deductions, the effects are not as dramatic.

Knowledge provides an acceleration in breadth, but in-depth breakthroughs still require critical thinking.

In other words, he can become a learned polymath much faster than others.

But to truly delve into a specific field, one must rely on time, critical thinking, and gradual, step-by-step learning.

He closed his textbook and glanced at the control panel:

[Knowledge] Lv.1 Experience: 1/200

The experience I gained from those few minutes of reading has already begun to take effect.

Unlike breathing, learning requires active learning behavior to trigger it.

Reading, attending lectures, observing, practicing... every effective input of knowledge propels the experience bar forward.

He made a plan in his mind: listen attentively in class during the day and spend time in the library after class.

The knowledge density in the classroom is readily available; as long as you absorb it carefully, you should accumulate a considerable amount of experience by the end of the day.

If you add in self-study after class, you can probably reach level two within a month.

After reading for a while, I heard the sound of dishes clattering downstairs.

His mother was already setting the table, and Evelyn was calling his name at the top of her lungs.

Richard responded and got up to go downstairs for dinner.