Chapter 532 – The Psychic Branch

Chapter 532 – The Psychic Branch

“The Memory Palace doesn’t actually let you truly memorize and master the knowledge. It’s only temporary storage. To really learn it, you still need to review,” Mo Lan reminded her.

“Mm!” Samantha thought it over. “It’s pretty useful, though. Just a bit draining on psychic power. At least reviewing doesn’t require as much psychic power as the initial memorization.”

Mo Lan nodded. “Well then, upperclassman, I’ll go find my dormitory now.”

“Alright!” Samantha said.

The recruitment booth’s curtain lifted and fell. Samantha suddenly furrowed her brow.

Wait, something wasn’t right! She was a Witch!

Witches could use the Transcription Spell combined with their Grimoire to copy books into it without spending any psychic power at all!

This Memory Palace technique was only useful for mages who didn’t have a Grimoire!

Damn it! She’d been swindled!

Mo Lan cheerfully tossed her student card in the air as she strode away from Academy Plaza No. 1.

She couldn’t drop her stingy wild mage persona just yet. As for Samantha… well, she could only say sorry.

The Memory Palace was an excellent psychic power application technique, but it was a bit wasteful of psychic power—especially for someone who had other ways to quickly store knowledge.

Without psychic power at her level, others couldn’t use it as effortlessly as she could, nor would the results be as impressive. It was perfect for earning a little extra on the side.

Elite mages could freely read the Academy’s magic books, attend the Academy’s magic classes, and receive the best training, but dormitory housing required points, dining hall meals required points, sending clothes to be laundered required points, and hiring servants and attendants also required points.

Within Tower Forest, all services required point-based payment. Gold coins couldn’t even be used directly here.

A monthly allowance of 1,000 points was certainly enough to get by in Tower Forest, but with only that much, one would have to penny-pinch.

Even elite mages who wanted the best dormitories and finest dining in Tower Forest had to find ways to earn extra points.

Food was manageable—Etherlance now had Dawn Society contractors as well, so she could simply use Food Cards to handle her meals.

Housing was trickier. She’d just checked: the closer a dormitory was to a Mage Tower, the more expensive it was. The ones near each branch’s main tower were the priciest, costing 50 points per day with a one-month minimum lease.

Rest rooms inside the Mage Towers were even more expensive—100 points per day, with a one-day minimum.

There were dormitories for just 1 point per day, but those were all tucked away in the far corners of Tower Forest, and the conditions weren’t great either.

Still, no matter how many points a dormitory cost, they were all better than the little mud huts at the Witch Academy. They came fully equipped with basic necessities, and even the cheapest ones were comparable to a mid-range inn room.

That sounded like a good deal—but one point could be exchanged for 100 regular gold coins, couldn’t it?

The Academy had a dedicated points exchange. There, one Magic Gold Coin could be exchanged for 1 point, and 1 point could also be converted into 100 regular gold coins.

Even the fanciest inn wouldn’t dare charge 100 regular gold coins for a single night’s stay, let alone one Magic Gold Coin.

Converting points to gold coins wasn’t worth it, and converting Magic Gold Coins to points wasn’t ideal either. Points were best earned within Tower Forest and spent within Tower Forest.

Mo Lan had no intention of staying in those 1-point-per-day dormitories on the outskirts. Walking to a Mage Tower from there every day would be such a waste of time!

She hadn’t forgotten—the Firework Blasts powering the defensive magic formation of the Wilds could hold out for ten more years at most.

She needed to hurry up, learn all the magic treasured by the Imperial Magic Academy, and then slip away.

With her current points, she couldn’t afford any dormitory near a Mage Tower. Monthly rent was 1,500, she’d swindled 100 from Samantha, and she was still 400 short!

The rest rooms inside the Mage Towers cost only 100 points per day—she could afford about ten days’ worth.

The conditions weren’t particularly great; the advantage was that one was more likely to encounter Instructor-level mages there, since only Peak level and Beyond Peak level mages were qualified to reside permanently inside a Mage Tower.

But Mo Lan felt that would be a waste. She wasn’t looking for a mage Instructor anyway. What had caught her eye was something briefly mentioned in “Chapter 2: Dormitory Move-In Guide”—the meditation rooms inside each Mage Tower.

A meditation room was generally only the size of a single bed. It lacked the standard dormitory amenities of a washroom and study. Once you left, anyone could walk in, so you couldn’t store anything there. But it was cheap!

Just 1 point per hour.

Mo Lan had already sold her magic carriage. Once she entered Tower Forest, she had no plans of leaving.

Her plan now was to first go to the Psychic Branch’s main tower, find a meditation room, carefully read through the entire newcomer’s guide, and then visit the Psychic Branch main tower’s library floor to read magic books.

On the Tower Forest map, the Psychic Branch’s Mage Tower cluster was located at the center, and the Psychic Branch’s main tower was the very center of that center.

From its position alone, one could tell that although mages favored elemental meditation techniques, Psychic Magic had always held a lofty status.

Psychic Magic was also the only category of magic that could only be learned at the Imperial Magic Academy. It was simultaneously a magical system unique to human mages.

Mo Lan had read several books introducing Psychic Magic and had long been deeply curious about it.

She walked to the magic carriage station near Academy Plaza No. 1.

Tower Forest was vast—truly vast. If a mage were to walk to the Psychic Branch main tower at normal speed, they might not make it even by nightfall.

Outside carriages weren’t allowed into Tower Forest, but fortunately, the Academy had many public magic carriages.

Between every two magic carriage stations, there were dedicated public magic carriage routes, and the fare was 1 point regardless of distance.

When Mo Lan arrived at the station, she immediately found the magic carriage running from Academy Plaza No. 1 to the Psychic Branch main tower.

“Are you heading to the Psychic Branch main tower, my lady?” the servant driving the carriage asked respectfully.

He was an ordinary person.

“Yes.” Mo Lan swiped her student card through a slot on the carriage door, paid the fare, climbed aboard, and claimed a seat by the window—looking anything but a newcomer.

Mainly because the student card usage guide had practically included photos and videos for every possible use of the card, and the carriage door also had a conspicuous “Swipe Here” sign.

The magic carriage wouldn’t depart for a while yet, so she closed her eyes and began reading the 《Newcomer’s Guide (Ancient Mage Edition)》 stored in her Memory Palace.

She’d already finished Chapters 1 and 2.

She started from Chapter 3, and after finishing Chapter 5—the ancient mage training program—she skipped straight to the Psychic Branch student guide, so she wouldn’t have trouble finding the Psychic Branch main tower’s library floor and meditation rooms later.

She read so intently that she didn’t even notice when the carriage filled with passengers and set off.

By the time they reached the Psychic Branch main tower station, she had just finished “Chapter 6: Psychic Branch Student Guide.”

This worked out perfectly—she no longer needed to waste points sitting in a meditation room to read the newcomer’s guide. She could go straight to the library floor to read Psychic Magic books, saving herself a few points.

When Mo Lan stepped off the carriage and truly stood before the Psychic Branch main tower, she felt extraordinarily small.

The Mage Tower was immensely tall, and the main tower was even more so.

A building constructed by purely physical methods could never reach such a height.