Richard turned off the faucet and dried his hands on a towel.
He sat down in his chair and sank his full attention into the panel.
[Available Points: 2.23]
This was the largest amount he had ever saved up.
He first tried to push a point into [Scholarship].
The panel displayed a gray notification, identical in format to the one he had seen when he tried to add a second point to [Breathing]:
"This item is already active. To advance again, the following conditions must be met:
Level 2 progress bar at 100%; 1 Available Point; personally decipher one text encrypted with a Double Overwrite."
A line of smaller text was attached below:
"Unlockable Effect Preview — Scholarship ・ Erudite:
All texts that pass before your eyes will be etched into your brain, retrievable as if flipping through the pages of a book. The rate of forgetting approaches zero."
Richard stared at that line of text for a long time.
Erudite.
If Level 1 and Level 2 provided accelerated learning—like going from dial-up to broadband to fiber optics—then Erudite was like installing a library inside his brain.
All texts that pass before your eyes will be etched into your brain.
Retrievable as if flipping through the pages of a book. The rate of forgetting approaches zero.
This meant that every book he read, every page he turned, every line of code he deciphered would be permanently stored in the depths of his consciousness, ready to be retrieved at any time.
For someone following the path of a Scholar, the value of this trait was practically infinite.
Deciphering encrypted texts required him to simultaneously maintain four streams of information in his mind: the original text, a comparison table, an etymological network, and the contextual environment.
Currently, he relied on the bonus from [Scholarship] and the aid of pen and paper, but pen and paper had their limits.
A desk is only so big, and you only have so many sheets of paper.
If his brain itself were an instantly searchable archive, his decryption efficiency would soar exponentially.
For someone who wanted to appraise Marvels, the value of this trait was even more limitless.
A photographic memory meant that the Inscription, Seal structure, and taint characteristics of every Marvel he had ever seen would be permanently stored in his mind.
After handling a hundred Marvels, his brain would hold the complete files for all one hundred;
after a thousand, he would be a living database of Marvels.
At that point, with just a glance, the Inscription’s style, the era’s characteristics, the Seal’s type, the depth of the taint... all the information would automatically leap from his memory bank and line up, waiting for his judgment.
This kind of overwhelming advantage would be a cheat-level edge in any market.
But one of the advancement conditions had him stuck:
"Personally decipher one text encrypted with a Double Overwrite."
’Double Overwrite,’ he searched for the term in his mind.
He had already gone through all twenty-six books on the third-floor bookshelf in Greenwood.
Most of their encryption methods were single-layer substitution, acrostics, or skip-number footnotes.
A Double Overwrite, however, was completely different. He had seen a similar concept on the forums.
Some scribes in medieval monasteries would scrape the original text off a piece of parchment and write new content on the same sheet.
But the scraping was never perfectly clean, and traces of the original ink would remain deep within the fibers.
Later scholars, using special light sources, could make the covered text reappear.
This type of overwritten parchment is called a "Rewritten Version," and the Latin term for it is *Palimpsestus*.
In the context of Mysticism, a "Double Overwrite" was likely something similar, but the level of encryption was a step higher.
It wasn’t just a physical overwrite; it could also involve an informational overlay on the Ether Layer.
Two layers of text coexisted on the same medium, interfering with and obscuring each other. Conventional decryption methods could only reveal the surface layer.
To strip away the surface and reveal the original underlying text required both linguistic skill and precise manipulation of Ether.
Richard filed away this clue and re-examined the advancement conditions on the panel.
Going from Level 1 to Level 2 could be accomplished by naturally maxing out the experience bar; the panel would upgrade it automatically without consuming any Points.
But starting from Level 2 to Level 3, advancement required spending additional Points. This was a watershed moment.
And this was just for Level 3.
If the panel’s design followed a symmetrical pattern, a qualitative leap would occur at every specific level interval.
The further he progressed, the more Points a single advancement might require.
And that didn’t even account for the yet-unlocked major category of [Spirit]. The deficit was still huge.
Realizing this, Richard reined in his thoughts, refusing to dwell on things so far in the future.
Since the [Scholarship] Skill also had conditions to meet, he decided to stick to his original plan and activate [Eating] and [Sleep].
The experience growth rate for [Walking] was relatively low in his daily life, so activating it wouldn’t yield many short-term dividends.
Eating would solve the efficiency of nutrient intake, while Sleep would handle the efficiency of bodily repair. Both could form a synergistic loop with the Breathing Skill.
With both skills complementing the foundational optimization effect of Breathing, all three "Body" Skills would operate simultaneously, and his physical foundation would improve at a visible rate.
Moreover, the unlock condition for the [Spirit] category was: "When all Four Elements of the Body are active, this gate shall open."
He had already activated Breathing. By adding Eating and Sleep, he would only need Walking to unlock "Spirit".
’Once I save up enough Points again, I’ll add Walking and unlock "Spirit" in one go.’
Richard made his decision.
He focused his consciousness on [Eating] and gave it a gentle push.
"Confirm?"
After he confirmed, the gray color faded away.
[Eating Level 1] Progress: 0%
He touched his stomach. Other than feeling his digestive tract clear up a bit, there was no other obvious physical sensation for the time being.
An improvement to his digestive system wouldn’t be immediately apparent; he’d have to wait until after a meal to verify it.
Next was [Sleep]. He locked his consciousness onto it and pushed.
"Confirm?"
The gray color faded.
[Sleep Level 1] Progress: 0%
The change from this one was even quieter than Eating, so quiet that at first, he thought nothing had happened.
But after about half a minute, he noticed his eyelids growing heavy, giving him the feeling that he could fall asleep anytime, anywhere.
He shook his head to push back the drowsiness. Now was not the time to sleep.
[Available Points: 0.23]
Three of the four "Body" Skills were now active, with only Walking left.
’Once I get the prize money from the Cicero Cup, I’ll go to old man Clement and buy the Sphinx Oil Lamp.’
’If I can figure out a way to break the Seal, the total amount of Ether remaining in the Oil Lamp should be enough to accumulate another point.’
’Then I can activate Walking, and "Spirit" will be unlocked.’
’No need to rush. One step at a time.’
He got out of bed, walked over to the sink, and splashed his face with cold water.
The person in the mirror looked much healthier than he had over a month ago.
Although his cheekbones were still a bit prominent, the sickly pallor on his face had completely faded, and the dark circles under his eyes had lightened.
He was somewhat expectant of what effect [Breathing] + [Eating] + [Sleep] would have when all three were running simultaneously.
Over the next few days, Richard dedicated all his time to studying for the Cicero Cup.
The guest room arranged for him in the Ashford Mansion had a large desk and good lighting, making it far more comfortable than the narrow desk in his Brighton bedroom.
His daily schedule was very regular.
After waking up, he would eat breakfast, a proper meal prepared by the Ashford Family’s kitchen: fried eggs, bacon, toast, butter, jam, and milk, with plenty of everything.

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