Inside the monitoring room, Helen Su lounged lazily on a sofa, casually flipping through the inspection report. Although she had already memorized every detail, she chose to review it once more—partly as a nod to the dozens of mages’ hard work, and partly as supervision.
"Balanced abilities with no distinct weaknesses or remarkable strengths. Mental power... decent enough. Proportions look good; he'll probably be attractive once grown… plenty of abs... very agile, strong endurance… Anything else?" Helen raised her head from the report and stared at the archmage.
Under her scrutiny, the Level Eighteen archmage involuntarily shivered and respectfully replied, "This is the most comprehensive test we can currently conduct, totaling 116,000 imperial gold coins. All results are here; no other special talents have emerged yet."
Wisely, he chose to overlook and forget some of Helen's previous murmurs. To reach Level Eighteen, a mage's intelligence transcended mere genius.
Helen's eyebrows knitted together. "Given his talent, he'll reach Level Eighteen at best! Hardly anything special."
The Level Eighteen mage, considered "hardly special," maintained his humble and sincere smile as he listened attentively.
"Impossible! His Archimonde bloodline is incredibly strong and pure, even stronger than little Gordon’s. Odd… Perhaps stimulated by his Silvermoon Elf lineage. But how could there be no special talents detected?" Helen's eyebrows furrowed even deeper.
The archmage gently replied, "Archimonde belongs to a superior bloodline. Detecting bloodline talents currently exceeds our abilities."
"Nonsense!" Helen snapped. "I distinctly remember at least six methods to test superior bloodline talents, even at the highest levels! Do you realize how important superior bloodlines are? Are you all incompetent fools? Are my coins wasted on dogs? If he might have a superior bloodline talent, you should spare no expense to test it without even asking me! Understand? No matter the cost!"
"The cheapest method would exceed 600,000 imperial gold coins," the mage calmly reminded.
"Oh… Forget it, then!"
Richard, unaware of this little episode behind the scenes, fell into a deep sleep after enduring a day of painful tests.
In his dreams, he returned to Roseland Village, carrying heavy breadfruit toward home. The familiar, cozy cottage was in sight, his mother standing at the door waiting for him. The delicious scent of freshly baked pies promised freedom from tasteless breadfruit tonight. Little Richard eagerly dashed forward, seeing his mother smile gently before turning back into the house. Suddenly, flames burst forth from every window!
Richard jolted upright with a scream, lunging forward. It took several panicked breaths before he recognized his surroundings, sweat soaking his pajamas instantly. His chest felt as though weighted with lead, nearly suffocating him. Slowly, he lifted his gaze to a luxurious bed beneath him—immense, easily accommodating five or six people. The bedroom itself was enormous; at a glance, precise measurements flooded his mind: a vast 20x15-meter area, ceilings six meters high. Lying there, Richard felt like a lone boat adrift on an ocean. This room alone surpassed even the village chief's entire house, leaving Richard puzzled why such grand space was reserved solely for sleeping.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
He got out of bed, carefully observing the lavish bedroom furnishings, reflecting a style suited both to mages and high aristocrats. Richard soon noticed that whenever he concentrated on an object, precise numerical data instantly appeared in his mind, accurate down to two decimal places. This was his "Truth" talent awakened by Enlightenment, inexplicably strengthened to its second stage: "Precision." Richard could sense deeper abilities as well—the third stage "Insight" for analyzing internal structures, and the fourth, "Appraisal," for identifying material compositions. But reaching these stages was a distant goal.
Richard still didn’t fully grasp the practical uses of "Truth," but quickly found himself drowning in numbers.
Everything he saw overflowed with countless digits, flooding his mind simultaneously. A simple chair comprised 111 data points—length, width, height, surface curvature, and more. If Richard wished, these could multiply infinitely. For instance, the chair’s silk back consisted of countless fibers, and the leather armrests contained minuscule, invisible scales from a dragon-like creature, robust and tightly woven.
Living in a world defined purely by numbers was overwhelming. Richard felt his head might explode from the sheer volume of information. Fortunately, his enhanced intelligence quickly categorized and filtered these numbers, leaving only essential data.
Throughout the night, Richard battled endless data streams, reducing their volume while ensuring critical information remained intact. Unaware, dawn approached.
Today marked Richard’s official first day as Helen Su’s student.
The day began with a tour of Deepblue, introducing Richard to his designated area, public facilities, restricted zones, resource acquisition, points of contact, and general guidelines. Richard was especially astonished by his personal "area."
Indeed, "area" was perfectly precise.
Besides the enormous bedroom, Richard owned a dedicated magical laboratory cluster: one general-purpose lab and six specialized labs. His living quarters included eleven rooms for distinct purposes. One room was solely for clothing storage—a baffling luxury, as all Richard's possessions, largely provided by Gordon, could fit into a small box. Apart from a necklace from his mother, everything—including the magic books from his childhood—had been reduced to ashes by the devastating flames conjured by a high priest’s sacrifice, comparable to dragon breath.
His warehouse area matched his personal quarters in scale, divided into multiple enormous rooms filled with towering shelves. Standing amid the vast emptiness, Richard struggled to fathom how he could ever fill such space—large enough to hold provisions for an entire village through winter.
Guiding Richard was a charming young apprentice mage, whose voice matched her sweet appearance. Throughout the tour, she frequently repeated her name, subtly hinting Richard could approach her "for anything"—emphasizing "anything" with eyes curving playfully like crescent moons. Though Richard didn't understand now, soon enough he would. That would mark his transition from "potentially useful" to "usable," the moment his "exceptional potential" truly emerged.
During their tour, mages hurriedly passing by often stepped aside respectfully, some even bowing slightly. Richard’s "Truth" talent discerned their eyes focusing on the patterns embroidered on his newly acquired robes—identifying him unmistakably as Helen Su’s personal student. Clearly, his status within Deepblue was considerably high.
On the second day, systematic magical training formally began.
Receiving a lengthy curriculum, Richard again felt dizzy. Deepblue defied traditional magical education norms; the "Fundamentals of Magic" alone branched into Magical Philosophy, World Systems, Plane Biology, Plane Geography, Mathematics, Principles of Worlds, Structural Theory, Material Science, Plane Geometry, Spatial Geometry, Race History, Analysis of Alien Lifeforms, and more. Each subject continued subdividing with increasing depth, persisting throughout one’s magical career.
Within Deepblue’s magical system, Magical Philosophy held a pivotal position—it was also where Richard’s true education began.