Ashen God
Chapter 545 - 544: Soundproof Barrier

Chapter 545: Chapter 544: Soundproof Barrier

The Three Tier Spell Silent Field would require eight hours of study, and once mastered, it could reduce the Sixteen hours needed to learn the Fifth Tier Spell High-level Silence Field by half.

Zhang Yanhang did some calculations and realized that if he finished studying both prerequisite spells, the learning time for the Fifth Tier Spell High-level Silence Field would be reduced to just 39 hours, saving 19 hours from the original estimate.

Even if you subtract the 9.5 hours required to learn the Zero Ring Illusion Sound Barrier and the Three Tier Spell Silent Field, you’d still save an extra 9.5 hours. Therefore, it was profitable overall to learn the prerequisite spells before tackling the Fifth Tier Spell High-level Silence Field.

Thus, with the goal of mastering the Fifth Tier Spell High-level Silence Field more quickly, Zhang Yanhang began with the Zero Ring Illusion Sound Barrier. Once he had mastered this Zero Ring trick, he would continue to study the Three Tier Spell Silent Field and thereafter the Fifth Tier Spell High-level Silence Field.

"Since the learning progress bar only shows an hour and a half, I should be able to master the Soundproof Barrier before class ends, but I just don’t know if something unexpected will happen along the way."

Beyond wanting to complete the prerequisite conditions, Zhang Yanhang chose to start with the Soundproof Barrier primarily to acquaint himself with the specific process of spell learning using the most basic Zero Ring Magic.

October 21st, the thirteenth day after the end of the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays, and also the first day since Zhang Yanhang left the Ashen World, 9:40 AM, University Public Classroom.

After a solid hour and a half of spell study, Zhang Yanhang finally mastered the Zero Ring Illusion Soundproof Barrier.

"I can’t believe it took so much time; the Spell Library’s progress bar is incredibly precise."

Zhang Yanhang couldn’t help but sigh. He had thought that being able to use Sixth Circle Magic might mean he would receive some bonus when learning Zero Ring tricks, but he felt no bonus whatsoever. This just confirms that Talent, with its effortless infusion, might truly be different from learning spells on his own.

Since the time to learn the Zero Ring Illusion Soundproof Barrier was so precisely estimated, he assumed that the Three Tier Spell Silent Field and the Fifth Tier Spell High-level Silence Field would be similar, meaning he would likely need to dedicate 48.5 solid hours to study the High-level Silence Field.

So, the question arises, do I genuinely have that much time available? It’s 9:40 AM on the 21st of October, rounding up it’s ten o’clock, and I’m scheduled to enter the Crimson Iron Ore Vein at around five in the afternoon on October 24th.

This means that, in total, I have 79 hours left. After deducting the 47 hours for study, I will only have 32 hours remaining. I need 4 hours of sleep each night, adding up to 16 hours over four days."

After finishing his calculations, Zhang Yanhang was surprised to find that after mastering the High-level Mute Magic, he would, at most, only have 16 hours of rest, and within these 16 hours, he still had a plethora of tasks that needed attention.

"I feel inexplicably busy; why is my time always so tight?" he wondered. Zhang Yanhang had never expected that merely studying one spell could take up so much of his time and make him this busy after returning to the Main World.

"But, as busy as I am, it’s not like I can just skip studying the High-level Silence Field..." He guessed that unless it was really necessary, he likely wouldn’t study such High-level spells again in the future since his time was truly limited.

Incidentally, the utility of the Zero Ring Illusion Soundproof Barrier that Zhang Yanhang now mastered was rather limited; after casting, it would form a stationary soundproof barrier that only covered a very small area, a few meters at most.

But, it was just a Zero Ring trick after all, so he couldn’t expect too much. What really mattered were the upcoming Three Tier Spell Silent Field and the Fifth Tier Spell High-level Silence Field.

"I was thinking of studying Alchemy Potions and Magical Tattoos after coming back, but now it seems there simply won’t be enough time..."

Because stocking up on Thermo-baric Bombs+3 in his Waist Bag to fuse into Thermo-baric Bombs+5 or even +7 also sucked away a significant amount of time, Zhang Yanhang suddenly felt the urge to acquire a true Time Pause ability.

If he had such a power, he would no longer have to worry about the scarcity of time. Of course, if he could interact with objects while time was paused, he might as well be invincible, eliminating the need to enhance his own strength, making it a paradoxical situation.

"I was already pressed for time before returning, and now it seems that nothing has changed. Despite having plenty of free time in the past... this is preposterous!"

Just as Zhang Yanhang was about to further complain about the issue of being short on time, he noticed that he had received new message on his phone.

Thinking it was from the group leader or Li Zerui, he was taken aback to find a class group notification instead. The teaching assistant had instructed Awakeners in the class and a selection of students with high Cultivation Talent to attend a public lecture later.

"What kind of lecture specifies Cultivation Talent? I’ve never heard of that before. Whatever, it doesn’t really matter. I should just go with the flow and check it out," Zhang Yanhang glanced at the lecture’s start time, coinciding with the third period at ten o’clock.

"Wait a minute, attending this public lecture won’t be counted as skipping class, right?" he wondered, finding the timing of the lecture odd, since these things were usually scheduled during midday breaks or other free times.

"No, compared to the public lecture, it’s more important to figure out what to do next." After just completing the Zero Ring Illusion Sound Proof Barrier, Zhang Yanhang wanted to take a brief pause and do something else before continuing with learning the Three Tier Spell Silent Field.

After some consideration, he decided that besides learning the spell, the second most important task was the Fusion of the Thermo-baric Bombs. He took out eight standard Thermo-baric Bombs from his Waist Bag and started the fusion process for Thermo-baric Bombs+3, which took five minutes each. He had enough time before the lecture to create four Thermo-baric Bombs+3.

He had already amassed the sixteen Thermo-baric Bombs+3 needed for Thermo-baric Bombs+7, but he ended up using four to create a Thermo-baric Bombs+5 and swiftly used it, so now he had to re-fuse another four Thermo-baric Bombs+3 to proceed with the Thermo-baric Bombs+7 fusion.

Indeed, he still aspired to forge +7, but this time he was certain not to halt the process due to any time constraints.

......

October 21st, the thirteenth day after the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays had ended, and also the first day since Zhang Yanhang left the Ashen World. At ten twenty in the morning, in the lecture hall of the public class.

At first, Zhang Yanhang wasn’t in a rush to fuse the Thermo-baric Bomb+4 with Alchemy, because to his surprise, the speaker on the stage was from a Secret Department and was a Third Tier Awakened. Upon seeing this person, Zhang Yanhang understood why Awakeners were here listening to the lecture—it was indeed relevant.

However, after listening intently for a while, Zhang Yanhang realized that the Awakened from the Secret Department hadn’t provided any particularly useful information; it seemed more like they were here to advertise and recruit. This struck him as strange because he couldn’t recall a time when Secret Departments lacked manpower.

This was akin to the civil servant job vacancies before the Spiritual Qi Recovery, where hundreds took the exam but only three were hired. Yet those slightly lower in rank were also quite good. If there was a shortage, just relaxing the quota a bit would suffice.

Therefore, given that the situation of the Secret Departments was similar, Zhang Yanhang genuinely had not expected that they would experience a day of manpower shortage.

But as he listened longer, Zhang Yanhang got the impression that it wasn’t a simple shortage of people but that the Secret Departments were undergoing large-scale expansion. Thinking of this, it reminded him of Zhou Muxi, the Third Tier Female Awakened he had encountered before. She had mysteriously joined the Secret Department recently.

He planned to ask Zhou Muxi about the specific situation after the public lecture ended, out of pure curiosity, without any intention of joining the Secret Department himself.

After all, he was already so busy being an unemployed drifter that joining the Secret Department would surely cut into his monster-hunting time in the Ashen World. That wouldn’t do at all; the potential resources from the Secret Department seemed like giving up a watermelon for a sesame seed.

Moreover, what disappointed Zhang Yanhang was that this Third Tier Awakened from the Secret Department didn’t seem to have the authority to directly recruit people. He could only offer the students a chance at an exam and an interview. Whether one could join the Secret Department depended on passing these hurdles, which felt a bit underwhelming.

So, after carefully listening to the Third Tier Awakened brag for twenty minutes about how great the benefits of the Secret Department were, Zhang Yanhang still decided to continue with the fusion of the Thermo-baric Bomb+4.

He needed to fuse sixteen Thermo-baric Bombs+3 into eight Thermo-baric Bombs+4, and considering that each Thermo-baric Bomb+4 required ten minutes to fuse, the whole process would take about eighty minutes.

Since the duration of the public lecture was also two hours, he should be able to successfully convert all the Thermo-baric Bombs+3 into Thermo-baric Bombs+4 before the class ended.

Since he had planned to fuse the Thermo-baric Bombs during class, he had deliberately chosen an inconspicuous seat near the back door. He also took the opportunity to test the effectiveness of the Soundproof Barrier he had just learned to cast.

Initially, Zhang Yanhang figured that, as a High-level Mage capable of casting Sixth Circle Magic, he could at least achieve a sort of instant effect with such a Zero Ring Trick, even without practice. Unexpectedly, it took him one full second to cast such a simple Zero Ring Trick.

Though this speed was much faster than that of a real Mage Apprentice, it certainly didn’t satisfy Zhang Yanhang.

He figured if he were to truly become a mage in a DND world, he’d probably be the kind of Mage Apprentice who’d get killed in battle before he could cast a spell.

After all, even an enemy with average hand speed would have no problem cutting him before he could complete his spell—maybe even two or three times in that one second.

However, fortunately, Zhang Yanhang wasn’t a pure glass-cannon mage but more like a melee mage. So it didn’t matter much if his spells were a bit slower; after all, his enemies wouldn’t be able to break his Energy Shield.

Also, with something like a Silence Spell, it wasn’t really necessary to cast it in front of an enemy on the battlefield. Hence, he felt that the slower casting speed was bearable, as long as it worked properly.

Just as Zhang Yanhang was focused on fusing Thermo-baric Bomb+4, a sneaky figure slipped in through the back door and quietly took a seat next to him.

Zhang Yanhang glanced over and was surprised to see a familiar face, Zhao Yalan, whom he had just met that morning.

"How did you end up here?!" Zhao Yalan, who sneaked in quietly, was startled to find Zhang Yanhang sitting beside her.

"What do you think?" Since Zhao Yalan had entered the range of the Soundproof Barrier, Zhang Yanhang didn’t mind chatting with her for a bit, as he indeed had some matters he was keen to inquire about.

"Are you here for the public lecture?" Zhao Yalan raised an eyebrow.

"You speak as if listening to you is better than listening to a sage. Isn’t that obvious? If you randomly beat up a hundred lucky audience members in this classroom, all hundred would be here for the public lecture, with no chance of exemption," Zhang Yanhang couldn’t help but retort sarcastically.

"And yet you tell me to guess?" Zhao Yalan decided to use this opportunity during the public lecture to have a good chat with Zhang Yanhang.

"Then why did you ask in the first place? The problem was with your question," Zhang Yanhang felt that Zhao Yalan should definitely take the blame for this.

"I actually didn’t expect that you were really a student at the same university as me. What year are you in? Freshman or sophomore?"

Zhao Yalan initially thought Zhang Yanhang’s constant reference to her as "senior" had been just a guise to confuse her, but unexpectedly, just two hours later, they ran into each other again in a university public lecture—well, perhaps not so coincidentally since all Awakeners in the university had to attend the public lecture.

"Guess?" Zhang Yanhang repeated the classic question.