Chapter 736 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 3

The humans of this world also cultivated psychic power, using it to cast magic.

The talent test assessed two things: innate psychic power and mirror exploration aptitude.

Innate psychic power was the same concept as initial psychic power for Valen humans—just called by a different name.

The higher one’s innate psychic power, the greater one’s magical potential.

As for mirror exploration aptitude, according to the original body’s memories, it was a crucial talent that determined one’s ability to explore mirror spaces and the rewards gained from doing so.

The spellcasters of the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins World were called Mirror Explorers, with their strength ranked by star level.

This world’s education system was reasonably well-developed. Magical education ran parallel to ordinary education, but with magical education as the primary focus and resources tilted toward cultivating Mirror Explorers.

Children generally started elementary school at age five.

The program lasted five years, covering foundational subjects such as literacy, arithmetic, literature, social sciences, geography, music, and art.

At age ten, students graduated from elementary school and entered middle school.

Middle school was also a five-year program.

The first three years covered theoretical knowledge related to spatial exploration, along with physical fitness training.

At the end of the third year of middle school, a unified talent test was administered, after which students were sorted into different classes based on their results.

Students whose innate psychic power and mirror exploration aptitude met the required standards—those with the potential to become professional Mirror Explorers—were placed in the Mirror Explorer class. There, they studied psychic power, magic, and mirror exploration, and were even organized into off-campus expeditions to relatively safe mirror spaces for practical experience.

Students with poor innate psychic power and mirror exploration aptitude were placed in the general class, where they learned other vocational skills such as cooking, construction, tailoring, and metallurgy.

After completing the middle school graduation exams at age fifteen, students could advance to specialized advanced academies that trained senior Mirror Explorers, or to other vocational academies.

Mo Lan’s current identity was that of a third-year student at Deer Cry Middle School, the premier middle school in Deer Cry Mirror.

She had just finished her end-of-term exams. After the exams, there was a seven-day break, and today was the second-to-last day of that break.

Tomorrow was the day of the talent test.

Mo Lan wasn’t worried about the innate psychic power test—if anything, she’d need to hold back, or she was afraid her psychic power might overload the testing instruments.

But as for the mirror exploration aptitude test, Mo Lan had no idea what her results would be.

Still, she believed that as long as mirror exploration aptitude was a form of magical talent, hers definitely wouldn’t be poor.

A Sorceress’s Unlimited All-Element Magic aptitude wasn’t limited to just Valen’s magical system.

Although Mo Lan had come to the Three Thousand Mirror Ruins World for a small life space, since she was already here, she couldn’t pass up the magical knowledge and magical materials this world had to offer.

Going forward, Mo Lan planned to treat herself as a native of this world.

Tomorrow, she would obediently go to school to take the talent test. After being sorted into classes, she’d study diligently, get into a top-ranked advanced academy, and then become a professional Mirror Explorer.

When the time came, she could search for a mirror space that met her needs.

The humans here had managed to occupy such a large mirror space and live in peace and prosperity within it, so they must have mastered methods for acquiring mirror spaces.

Mo Lan figured that as long as she received the best Mirror Explorer education and became a formidable Mirror Explorer, she would gradually gain access to this knowledge.

This approach might take a bit more time, but it was absolutely the safest way to explore this world.

After Mo Lan had finished planning her next steps, she started wandering around the house again.

She couldn’t sit still.

She had already fully sorted through this identity’s memories, but she still felt she didn’t know enough about this world and wanted to learn more.

Unfortunately, although this world had tall buildings and skyscrapers, it was a purely magical world without any online information exchange platform like the internet.

Information was spread through word of mouth, recording stone recordings, and newspapers and publications.

In the house’s teleportation room, there was a dedicated mailbox.

Incoming letters and subscribed publications and newspapers would appear in the mailbox at fixed times via teleportation.

The original body’s family had once subscribed to quite a few publications, but after her parents died, even with the pension and the martyrs’ children welfare stipend, income was still tight. To save up mirror coins for the talent test, she had canceled most of her subscriptions, keeping only the 《Deer Cry Daily》.

The original body had gone to the hospital early in the morning, so today’s 《Deer Cry Daily》 hadn’t been read yet.

Mo Lan walked into the teleportation room, opened the mailbox, and sure enough, there was a newspaper inside.

She unfolded the newspaper as she walked toward the Living Room.

“Countdown: 1 Day Until Deer Cry Mirror Middle School Talent Tests!”

“Live Coverage of Equipment Calibration at All Testing Sites!”

“Must-Read for Test-Takers: The Top Ten Forbidden Foods Before the Talent Test.”

“Warning! A Batch of Spatial Awareness Spotted Fungi Disguised as Spatial Awareness Mushrooms Has Entered the Underground Market, Causing Multiple Middle School Student Deaths.”

…

With the talent test approaching, much of the 《Deer Cry Daily》’s reporting revolved around this topic.

When she saw the report about the “spatial awareness spotted fungi,” Mo Lan sighed.

If the original body’s “spatial awareness mushrooms” had arrived just a little later, giving her a chance to see this newspaper first, perhaps she wouldn’t have died from poisoning.

Mo Lan turned the page and saw a prominent headline: “‘Mirror Space—Landscape Dense Forest’ Pioneering Exploration Complete!”

“Landscape Dense Forest” was the very mirror space where the original body’s parents had perished.

Three years later, this mirror space that had cost the Pioneering Corps devastating casualties had finally completed its initial pioneering exploration?

According to the original body’s memories, “Landscape Dense Forest” was the first large-scale resource-diverse and resource-rich mirror space discovered by Deer Cry Mirror—its value was immeasurable.

The report began by stating that as of the completion of pioneering, no second teleportation gate had been found within “Landscape Dense Forest.”

Deer Cry Mirror’s teleportation gate had become the sole entrance to “Landscape Dense Forest.”

This discovery elevated Deer Cry Mirror’s regard for “Landscape Dense Forest” by yet another significant degree.

“From here on, Deer Cry Mirror will probably concentrate even more resources on developing ‘Landscape Dense Forest.'”

After reading this report—which made no mention of whether the mirror space’s core had been found, suggesting it hadn’t—Mo Lan continued flipping to other sections.

The obituary column had three new names added to the list of fallen heroes, and sure enough, they had all perished in Landscape Dense Forest.

Right beside the obituary column was a report about “Martyrs’ Children Special Stipend Increased by 30%.”

Mo Lan did the math. With this increase, the mirror coins she could collect each week from the Mirror Lord’s Prefecture would match what her parents had earned as a regular salary.

Being a professional Mirror Explorer in the Pioneering Corps was indeed a high-risk job, but it also came with high rewards and strong benefits.

Then again, the fact that the martyrs’ children special stipend had been raised again meant the Pioneering Corps must be severely short-handed!

Mo Lan flipped further and, sure enough, found a large section that read:

“Deer Cry Mirror Lord’s Prefecture Pioneering Corps Now Recruiting New Members for Professional Mirror Explorer Positions—Lifetime Benefits Upon Joining!”

The Pioneering Corps was recruiting again. Mo Lan looked it over—the pay had gone up somewhat, while the recruitment requirements had actually been lowered a bit.

Mo Lan estimated that this time, the number of applicants should increase considerably.

The pioneering work in Landscape Dense Forest had already been completed, so the danger going forward would be somewhat reduced compared to before.