Mythology Rebooted-Chapter 41 - 38 Set a Small Goal First

41: Chapter 38: Set a Small Goal First

41 -38: Set a Small Goal First

Wayne returned to the villa, sat cross-legged, and strengthened his thinking and magic power.

He could maintain half an hour of efficient meditation every day.

Beyond this duration, he would fall into a state of mental exhaustion and drowsiness due to overuse of his brain.

Thinking determines the length of meditation, which consumes mental energy, yet simultaneously strengthens thinking and magic power.

Wayne set a small goal for himself, to maintain efficient and extended meditation, squeezing his potential to continuously enhance his thinking, and thereby extending his meditation time and efficiency.

That small goal was 24 hours a day!

To ensure he had sufficient mental energy for daily meditation, he would start a second small goal, to accustom his body to meditation, multitasking without requiring his conscious control, naturally remaining in a state of meditation.

You’re already a mature meditator, time to start moving on your own!

Ordinary talent put pressure on Wayne; he didn’t want to be a mediocre mage.

With the best teachers and the best meditation methods, he was entitled to go further than others on the path of magic.

So what if you have a bit more talent?

Come on, bring it on, let’s see who burns out first.

Wayne bet his hairline; he was determined to outwork all the geniuses!

…

March 23rd, in the afternoon.

A parcel from Lundan arrived at Enrold Town’s villa.

Two maids carried the wooden box into Wayne’s bedroom, which he opened eagerly.

There were nearly sixty books, including bound volumes of basic magic theory from the academy, training guides, and psychological counseling related to magic studies.

After categorizing them, Wayne also found jars and bottles of medicine, brain-strengthening supplements, and small pills for refreshing the mind and aiding meditation.

More than that, there were medicines for the psyche.

A mage never leaves home without medicine, nor lacks psychological counseling courses.

Magic is dangerous.

The story of the Three Boats wasn’t a joke to Wayne; even initial activation of the Hexagram could cause a novice mage to develop psychological illnesses due to the imbalance of the Four Elements, space, and self.

If left unchecked, one might go mad!

The package also included a note, an outline of the basic magic theory curriculum—what to study in the first year, what in the second, and a warning against rushing and skipping grades.

Even geniuses had to first seek their tutor’s consent before advancing to the next level of study.

Wayne flipped open the first-year textbook.

With his photographic memory, he could master the materials with an all-nighter.

Wayne did not rush to browse.

He opened The Hexagram training guide and learned the techniques for activating the Hexagram.

Hefei had mentioned this course.

Wayne had already learned to activate the Four Elements—it had no shortcut, only persistent practice.

When a mage captures Elemental Radiant Spots, the Four Elements enter the body, strengthening the corresponding Essence of Life.

The Earth Element, being the root of life, strengthens muscles, bones, and internal organs; the Fire Element, the energy of life, intensifies desire; the Water Element, the source of life, balances the desire of fire; the Wind Element, the breath of life, keeps the mage healthy and even eternally youthful.

The four elements combined represent a mage’s most basic Essence of Life.

The self, that is, thinking, will enhance the basic essence, elevating it to transcend ordinary reality.

The strength of the Essence of Life is not uniform.

Apart from the enhancements of thinking, its base strength depends on a mage’s own potential.

As the saying goes, not all human physiologies can be painted with the same brush!

Take Veronica as an example.

As a Dragonblood Descendant, her physique is extraordinarily strong, and therefore her Essence of Life far surpasses ordinary people.

She needs to absorb an immense amount of the Earth Element to fortify her muscles, bones, and organs before her body is sated, leaving no excess Earth Element for igniting the Hexagram.

The principle for the other three elements is similar, Fire being an exception; human desires are already excessive, and they are not usually required to take in large quantities from nature.

Only when the Four Elements have satisfied the Essence of Life can a mage activate the four Elemental Radiant Spots of earth, fire, water, and wind.

Activating thinking is simple, innate to everyone from birth, just needing diligent meditation for self-enhancement and natural luminosity.

Last is space.

To ignite space is simple, too—just read more, learn more knowledge.

The academy’s teachings are enough for each student to activate space.

But it’s also difficult; the key is self-control.

Before the Hexagram’s activation and connection, one must not learn knowledge that is too advanced, or the Hexagram will become imbalanced, and the chance to link it in this lifetime will be lost.

Wayne spent the afternoon reading.

In the evening, he received a call from Hefei.

The teacher conducted an online lesson, clarifying the doubts circled by the students.

The call was not long, Hefei was very busy.

As soon as she got back to Lundan, she hit the ground running.

She assigned Wayne homework to focus on meditation, to extend his meditation time as much as possible and to capture more Elemental Radiant Spots.

These Elemental Radiant Spots would satisfy Wayne’s Essence of Life, essentially to lay a solid foundation.

Satisfying the Essence of Life wasn’t something that could be achieved overnight; it took a long time and was hard to predict accurately.

Usually, the longer it took, the stronger the Essence of Life would be.

Hefei estimated roughly three months for Wayne.

“Teacher, why is mine so short?”

Wayne was quite disappointed.

Being shorter was fine, as he would be able to light up the Hexagram faster, but it also meant that his potential was average.

“It’s already quite long!”

Hefei felt somewhat helpless.

Her student didn’t realize how terrifying his Elemental Affinity was.

She thought three months was quite a conservative estimate.

A typical academy-trained prodigy, who had practiced meditation from a young age, would usually need three to five years to accumulate enough.

Hefei never underestimated Wayne’s talent; it was just that she couldn’t pinpoint his potential for life.

Considering he was an ordinary person, with no messy bloodline heritage, she defined his Essence of Life as that of a top regular human genius.

By her estimates, it was about three months.

After hanging up the phone, Wayne felt somewhat dejected, struck by disappointment once again.

If he could, Wayne would have wished to become a super genius with limitless potential.

But he couldn’t!

The harsh reality crushed Wayne’s self-confidence time and again, thankfully he was still able to grind, otherwise, he would be completely out of options.

Thinking this, Wayne started to complain about his golden finger again, The Book of Greed was good for nothing and extremely wasteful.

The only skin feature it provided also made him look neither human nor ghost.

“Could you just give me some potential, huh!

Just a little bit!”

Wayne closed his eyes, met the gaze of The Book of Greed’s Great Eyeball.

The latter returned his gaze, and Wayne’s vision shifted, feeling like The Book of Greed was him and he was The Book of Greed.

That evening, a pigeon emerged from a gentleman’s hat, hopping and jumping around as it opened the feed bag to start eating.

Wayne’s carrier pigeon had very strong hands-on ability; like this pigeon understood the principle that if you want to be clothed and fed, you need to do it yourself.

Waiting to be fed by its owner, it would go hungry for six meals in three days;

Feeding itself, it could eat meal after meal without halt.

After it had finished eating, the pigeon hopped around on the table and windowsill for a bit, and after relieving itself it didn’t bother Wayne, instead, it snuck back into the hat by itself.

Wayne sat cross-legged on the carpet, his tendrils snatching up every Elemental Radiant Spot that failed to evade him in time.

As of now, he still hadn’t touched the bottom of his Essence of Life.

“Figures, my talent is average, and my Elemental Affinity is poor.

I exhaust myself just to scoop up a thousand-odd Radiant Spots, not even a fraction of what prodigies get.

It would be strange if I did touch the bottom…”

Wayne felt dizzy, took a deep breath, and swallowed a pill from a bottle before reentering the state of meditation.

It’s as if a Radiant Spot had leaked some information, Earth, Water, and Wind Elements dared not approach the house, leaving only the Fire Element to build up more and more, swarming towards Wayne with enthusiasm.

What you can’t have is always causing a stir; those cherished have no fear.

Wayne kept Hefei’s advice in mind.

There were already enough desires within the human body; there was no need to take on more from nature.

Therefore, he didn’t feign politeness with the impassioned Fire Element; whenever it showed subservience, he responded with a “heh.”

Busy, in the bath.

On the other hand, The Book of Greed was enjoying the seventy percent of Elemental Radiant Spots it intercepted.

It craved the Fire Element it lacked, but couldn’t change Wayne’s will, it could only wait silently for him to change his mind.

Around the Great Eyeball, several smaller eyes began to open.

The Book of Greed had undergone significant changes recently, particularly at the front cover’s four corners, where three slightly larger eyes slowly opened.

Earthy yellow;

Deep blue;

Verdant green.

From being tightly shut at first, to grey and white upon opening, and now gradually gaining some luminescence, the three eyeballs were being awakened by Wayne.