Aurora City.

  Within the hallowed halls of The Spire Academy, inside the tiered lecture theater of the First Year, Class Three.

  Afternoon sunlight filtered through the tall, arched stained-glass windows, illuminating motes of dust dancing in the air. Pierce rested his chin on his hand, listening with a sense of languid boredom to the lecture being delivered by the instructor on the podium, a man named Johan.

  "...In the War of Dawn, our ancestors utterly vanquished the Nightmare Serpent Civilization, plundering resources beyond count. Since that epoch, the civilization of the Magi has welcomed a golden age of burgeoning prosperity. The Dark Age was brought to a definitive end, and we formally marched into the Era of Wizards!"

  Instructor Johan’s voice was resonant and impassioned. He waved his pointer before the blackboard as if conducting a grand symphony.

  "In the ten millennia since, our Wizard ancestors founded the Astral Alliance and established a systematic and rigorous system of inheritance, causing the number of Wizards to multiply a hundredfold, a thousandfold. Today, our civilization stands as one of the apex hegemonies across the multiverse!"

  "Therefore, students, you must take pride in this legacy. You must strive with all your might to study the Truth and aspire to become a powerful Wizard. Do not fail the blood and sacrifices of your forebears!"

  As the instructor’s voice fell, the apprentices below immediately straightened their backs, their voices merging into a loud and forceful affirmation.

  The eyes of the young students shimmered with longing, their faces revealing a fanatical yearning.

  Of those who enrolled in The Spire Academy, who did not dream of becoming a noble Wizard?

  Wizards—they were the synonym for Power and Truth.

  A powerful Wizard could imprison gods, conquer planes of existence, and even reshape the course of civilizations. They were terrors that made countless alien civilizations tremble at the mere mention of their name!

  In Aurora City, and indeed throughout the entire Astral Alliance, Wizards represented the absolute privileged class. Wherever they went, they enjoyed respect and courtesy that mortals could scarcely imagine.

  Taking in the boiling enthusiasm of the students, Johan nodded with satisfaction. A moment later, his brow raised slightly. His sharp gaze cut through the crowd, landing on Pierce in the corner, who was visibly absent-minded.

  "Pierce!"

  Hearing his name called, Pierce snapped back from his contemplation instantly. He stood up reflexively, his movements standard and elegant.

  "Instructor."

  "Expound upon the beginning and end of the War of Dawn!" Johan commanded sternly.

  After a brief pause to organize his thoughts, Pierce answered with unhurried composure:

  "The War of Dawn began in the year 3984 of the Dark Calendar. The Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes led her kin in a massive invasion, only to be intercepted by the United Wizard Legion in the Shadow World beyond the planar barrier. Subsequently, using the Shadow World as a meat-grinder of a battlefield, both sides engaged in a protracted war of attrition..."

  His steady, calm, and magnetic voice echoed through the spacious lecture theater, exuding an air of intellectual confidence.

  For fully three minutes, Pierce detailed the history of the War of Dawn with precision and exhaustiveness. There was not a single stutter; his logic was clear, his vocabulary precise. It was as if he were reciting directly from a textbook.

  Around him, many students couldn't help but turn their heads, casting looks of admiration at Pierce—the quintessential model student.

  Johan glanced at Pierce with appreciation, yet deep within his gaze, there lay a trace of imperceptible pity.

  As always, exceptional learning ability and memory... but alas, his aptitude is truly lacking. After being enrolled for so long, he has yet to sense magic particles and advance to a Wizard Apprentice. The hope of him becoming an Official Wizard in the future is likely very slim.

  He shook his head secretly in his heart, though his expression remained stern. "Correct. Sit down."

  Pierce sat as instructed. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught his seatmate, Peyton, secretly giving him a thumbs-up under the desk.

  "Still as amazing as ever, brother. There isn't a single knowledge point in this course you don't know!" Peyton whispered in amazement.

  Pierce merely smiled faintly, saying nothing. He sat upright again, assuming the posture of listening attentively, but in his mind, he chanted silently:

  Omniscience.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  In an instant, within a field of vision only he could perceive, a spectral blue screen slowly unfurled. Lines of pale blue data cascaded down like a waterfall:

  [Pierce, Human Male, 16 Years Old] [Constitution: 1.45] [Spirit: 2.44] [Current Task: Analyzing No. 1 Will Rune. Estimated time remaining: 4 hours 45 minutes]

  The Omniscient Eye.

  This was the mysterious 'cheat' his soul had carried with it after he transmigrated to this fantasy world. It claimed to possess the heaven-defying ability to record, analyze, and improve all things in existence.

  Relying on the supercomputer-like assistance of the Omniscient Eye, Pierce had scored full marks in every public theoretical course, becoming the universally acknowledged academic genius of the first year at The Spire Academy.

  Clang—!

  The heavy, prolonged bell signaling the end of class resounded through the cloisters.

  Johan, halfway through a sentence, decisively snapped his thick black tome shut. Without dragging his feet for a second, he turned and left the classroom. A Wizard's time was precious; not a second could be wasted.

  The students were long accustomed to this. They packed their things, standing up amidst talking and laughter to head outside.

  "Next is Meditation Class," Peyton said, turning to Pierce. "Let's head to the Meditation Chamber too."

  Pierce nodded, picked up his books, and followed the bustling stream of people out of the classroom.

  Unlike public theoretical courses such as Origins of Wizards or Planar Geography, the Meditation Class was not taught by an Official Wizard. Instead, senior apprentices managed the order, acting as teaching assistants.

  When the students arrived at the Meditation Chamber, where the air was scented with faint sandalwood, the senior student on duty today was already waiting at the door, arms crossed and expression cold.

  He was a tall, thin young man with deep-set eyes and a rather gloomy temperament. His falcon-like gaze swept over the flock of first-year rookies as he spoke indifferently:

  "Meditation time is one hour. No noise, no whispering, and no wandering about. I don't need to remind you of the consequences of breaking the rules, do I?"

  Under the oppressive stare of the gloomy youth, the students wiped the smiles from their faces, their expressions turning solemn. One by one, they sat cross-legged on the polished wooden floor, closed their eyes, adjusted their breathing, and began to meditate.

  Seeing this, the tall, thin youth let out an imperceptible scoff, a flash of disdain in his eyes.

  According to the Academy's cruel survival-of-the-fittest regulations, the teaching areas for promoted Wizard Apprentices and ordinary students were strictly separated.

  Those sitting here now were ordinary students who had not yet advanced to Wizard Apprentice after half a month of enrollment—the so-called 'underachievers.'

  Naturally, he felt no need to show any kindness to these ants destined for elimination.

  As the students drifted into a meditative state, the spacious chamber quickly fell into a silence where even a pin drop could be heard.

  So-called meditation was, in essence, visualization. It involved using mental power to construct a specific Will Rune stroke by stroke within the mind, thereby leveraging external energy to temper and enhance one's own spiritual power.

  The more complete and distinct the Will Rune construction, the higher the efficiency of meditation, and the faster the spiritual power would rise.

  However, constructing a Will Rune was by no means an easy task.

  It was the physical manifestation of laws, its form extremely complex and obscure. Even the most basic 'No. 1 Will Rune' contained thousands of minute lines and energy nodes within it. To construct such a precise and intricate three-dimensional figure out of nothing in the mind was a hellish test for a rookie's mental power and willpower.

  Precisely because of this, despite half a month passing since the start of the term, the vast majority of students had still failed to successfully construct even the simplest Will Rune, unable to cross that threshold to become a noble Wizard Apprentice.

  Amidst the crowd, Pierce also kept his eyes tightly shut, regulating the rhythm of his breathing.

  His vision plunged into a void of darkness. His consciousness, like a stone sinking into a deep lake, was cut off from the noise of the outside world, gradually descending to the silent bottom of the lake of his mind.

  After an unknown amount of time, aided by the Omniscient Eye, faint specks of light seemed to flash around his spiritual world, merging into his body like fireflies before vanishing.

  "Time's up!"

  The cold, icy voice of the tall, thin youth suddenly rang out, shattering the silence of the room.

  Pierce's eyelids trembled slightly before he snapped his eyes open, a glint of sharp light flashing in their depths.

  At the same time, a stream of pale blue information flowed rapidly through his mind.

  [Spirit increased by 0.01!]

  Pierce exhaled a long breath of turbid air and stretched, feeling refreshed.

  Under the impatient urging of the tall youth, the students of Class Three rose one after another, dragging their somewhat exhausted bodies out of the Meditation Chamber.

  In the corridor, complaints rose and fell like tides.

  "Constructing the Will Rune is just too hard. It's pure torture. I can only construct about sixty percent of the outline; the moment I get to the details, it collapses."

  "Me too, my head feels like it's going to explode. If this goes on, when will we ever advance to Wizard Apprentice? If I can't do it by the end of the term, I'll be expelled."

  "I really envy Shaun and his group. They successfully constructed the Will Rune less than a week after enrollment. And Cyril—that guy is even more of a freak. I heard he's already attempting to construct the third Will Rune! I bet in two months at most, he'll be charging towards the realm of a Level 2 Apprentice!"

  "That exaggerated? Sigh, comparing oneself to others really drives a person to death. Talent... there's just no arguing with it."

  Several students sighed and groaned, their expressions a mix of jealousy toward the geniuses and deep depression over their own mediocrity.

  Infected by their pessimistic words, Peyton's mood also turned somewhat downcast. He looked at the spires outside the window and asked blankly, "Pierce... do you think we can really become Wizard Apprentices?"

  Pierce glanced at him, adjusting his cuffs, and spoke calmly:

  "Who knows?"

  However, in reality, Pierce knew better than anyone.

  If there was anyone present who could guarantee one hundred percent that they would become a Wizard Apprentice, or even go further, it was him.

  For an ordinary person to construct a Will Rune, they had to rely on rote memorization and countless trials and errors, first thoroughly understanding the rune's structure and comprehending its composition until they knew it by heart, before they could replicate it in their mind.

  For those with average aptitude, this was undoubtedly a long and arduous pilgrimage.

  But Pierce was different. He only needed to wait for the Omniscient Eye to finish analyzing the structure of the Will Rune. Like downloading data, he would naturally master it perfectly and construct the Will Rune in an instant.

  In other words, looking at the countdown ticking away on his retina, he knew—

  In less than 4 hours, he would advance to become a true Wizard Apprentice!