Wizard: This mushroom is too fierce.

Early in the morning, before the sun had risen, a little mushroom in the corner of the house had already woken up from its sleep. Around it, a dozen or so little mushrooms were still asleep, lying haphazardly all over the carpet.

This little Puji is a bit thinner than the other Puji, but its small eyes are full of wisdom, making it somewhat different from others.

Little Puji rubbed its eyes, then tiptoed away from the small rug Roland had prepared for the Puji and went to Roland's study.

Little Puji lifted its mushroom cap and then showed a pained expression. It was too short, while the desk was so high. Every day, it had to climb for a long time to see the book.

"Pfft..."

But if you want to stand out and be noticed by the great king, becoming his right-hand man, how can you do it without reading books!

He was neither as physically strong as the swordsman Kharak, nor as naturally favored by the king as Lord Jin Duoduo.

I'm just an ordinary mushroom, not even as good as other ordinary mushrooms; my body is so small and thin...

"I want to study!" A determined look appeared in Little Puji's small eyes. It climbed up the corner of the table step by step, and finally, after a lot of hardship, it arrived at Roland's desk.

The only book on the desk is its study target.

Little Puji's eyes shone brightly as it painstakingly turned the pages of the book, then lay down on it and began to study.

It has been studying this book for a very, very long time, and often secretly hides in a corner to listen to the great king and that strange purple-haired human's lessons.

Although he didn't know what was being said, Little Puji learned a lot of vocabulary from the king.

"The Wizarding Script Encyclopedia," Little Puji thought with anticipation. "If I learn this book, I should be able to help the great king."

......

In the afternoon, in the courtyard of Roland's villa

Swordmaster Kharak was sitting cross-legged on the ground, his longsword resting on his knees, his eyes closed, feeling the gentle breeze.

Roland and his parrot Haik stood a short distance away, talking quietly.

"Little Roland, I'm at my wit's end." Haik plopped down, wiping the sweat from its brow with its wing, and said weakly, "Karak's tradition is completely different from the mainstream training methods in the wizarding world."

"It told me that the first step in practicing breathing techniques is to feel the flow of the wind!"

"How is this possible... It has neither the magical organs common to supernatural beings, nor the fighting spirit seed generated after knights break through human limits." Haik said somewhat dejectedly, "It's just a slightly special Puji, it has nothing."

"If we look at it this way alone, the first step in this lineage is obviously extremely difficult."

Haik added silently, "I think it's even possible that I'll never even get started."

Roland sat under the umbrella beside him, a book in his hand. After listening calmly to Haik's complaints, he said softly, "Be patient... Lord Haik."

"I believe in Karak. I think it's fully capable of achieving this." Roland looked up, observed Karak's condition, and then said, "Although its training method seems like a fantasy, for a Puji at the bottom of the food chain, isn't this the necessary path to becoming stronger?"

Why were the wizards able to achieve final victory in the First Great Crusade?

"Lord Haik, you should know who our wizarding world faced during the first Great Crusade, right?" Roland asked softly.

Haik pondered for a moment, then said uncertainly, "The World of the Seven Gods?"

"That's right. Back then, the Wizarding World was just a small plane, while the Seven Gods World is a medium-sized plane by today's standards." Roland turned a page in his book, a glint in his eyes, and said softly, "In the eyes of astral beings, such an act of insubordination is almost impossible to accomplish."

"But what was the result?" Roland continued, "The result was that those wizard predecessors used their wisdom to completely dismantle the opponent's cultivation system, achieving an unprecedented victory and helping the wizard plane advance to a medium-sized plane."

"In fact, this is precisely the brilliance of a cultivation system!" Roland explained, "Wizards never pursue power, but rather truth, value thought, and crave knowledge."

"The same applies to Karak; the first step in its legacy is to teach it how to think."

"Only after going through this step can it truly become a qualified practitioner."

Roland closed the book, then glanced at the mechanical clock hanging in front of the door, and said in a deep voice, "Alright, it's about time."

"I need to go see Master Ashius." Roland stood up. "Lord Haik, I'll need your continued help training Karak here."

After saying this, Roland walked out of the courtyard, got into the carriage prepared by the minotaur Quinn, and headed towards Professor Ashius's magic hut.

While he was at it, Roland opened the academy forum and checked some information: "A super real estate project led by the Everlasting Super Shop Alliance and assisted by two wizarding institutions has commenced today at the artificial wetland, Azure Lake, outside the Deep Caverns."

"This project is seen as a sign of the rise of Hengyin Superstore Alliance and has been jointly evaluated by multiple institutions. It is understood that once the project is completed, a profit of 500% can be achieved."

The hot topic on the forum today is still the financial investment project of that magic hut, or rather, most of the news in the apprentice-level forum's miscellaneous discussion area is related to various opportunities to earn magic stones.

Roland first opened his personal channel and checked the bargaining post: "Sorry, the other party hasn't been online for a long time..."

The Black Flame Crystal's price negotiation still went unanswered, and the forum system automatically marked the other party as having been offline for an extended period.

Roland frowned and tapped on the other person's avatar: "Dawson Oswald, First-Class Wizard Apprentice, has accepted an expedition mission."

Black Flame Crystal is related to the Destiny Meditation Method and is a core magical material for accelerating meditation. Roland browsed the trading area again but did not find anyone else selling it, which gave him a headache.

However, Roland was not too anxious. He first posted a request to buy the item, and then left the trading area.

"Huh?" Roland exclaimed softly, a look of curiosity flashing in his eyes. He had seen a post with his name on it.

The post is a discussion thread titled "List of Outstanding Freshmen".

Below it were several smaller posts with various spiritual connections, and Roland randomly clicked on one.

【The Puppet House】

[Competition Winner: Francis West]

【Puppet: Gale Wings】

[Review: Excellent mechanical gyro mechanism, superior magic output chain, and perfect energy recovery design—first place is well-deserved!]

"Gale Wings, to be honest, even a first-class wizard apprentice who specializes in this area would probably find it difficult to design a better puppet."

"Indeed, among this year's freshmen, this junior Francis can be considered a rising star in the field of constructing puppets as a magical sub-discipline."

Below the post, most of the comments were praising Francis. Roland didn't know much about this area, but he could tell from the words of these senior students that the puppet designed by this person must have greatly shocked everyone who was studying this sub-field of magic.

The sheer number of posts speaks volumes; the official Puppet House forum has over a thousand posts.

Roland then read some posts from other student alliance wizard teams and found that they were mostly between a thousand and a few hundred.

In the middle of this discussion thread, Roland saw a post from the Magic Plants Home.

"What's going on?" Roland's pupils contracted slightly. He thought that the number of people in this post was at most a few hundred, but when he clicked in, he found that this post had almost the most comments of all the posts, even surpassing the post of Francis, who was hailed as a rising star by various senior students.