I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha

“Ah, Senior Sister is going back this time and will be in seclusion. I don't know when she'll be back... It's so lonely here.”

“Purity of heart and few desires, purity of heart and few desires.”

From that day on, Roland plunged headlong into the world of knowledge and meditation.

He made great progress in knowledge. The twenty-odd books given by Mentor Usak were very obscure and difficult to understand, but Roland had extremely high comprehension and had come into contact with many mysterious events, so they didn't seem difficult to him.

Several times he wanted to go back to the academy's library to consult some information, but he found that he could not use the fireplace. Or rather, the academy's teleportation array did not allow him to pass through.

He tried to teleport to other places, but failed as well.

After some research, Roland came to a conclusion—his identity was incomplete and could not be anchored.

Senior Sister went into seclusion after returning, and she told Roland to contact her less during this time. She wanted purity of heart and few desires.

However, after a period of time, Ying Tao contacted Roland. Although she still didn't remember Roland, she knew that this was her junior brother.

She helped Roland choose three formulas for exchange. One was called 'Thunderbird', a thunder-attribute meditation potion—chosen with Senior Sister's help. She secretly embezzled Roland's academy points and gave him a secret potion formula from the Alexandra family. The effect was excellent.

The other two were chosen by Roland with Ying Tao's help, one was a holy-attribute potion, and the other was a wind-element potion.

These three potions were very powerful. If the materials weren't so special, three hundred academy points wouldn't be enough to exchange for them.

Although the related materials were expensive, once he had the seeds, he could plant them continuously after watering them.

Roland tried these three potions and found that they were very beneficial to meditation. Moreover, it seemed that frequent consumption could also enhance the power of the related attributes in his magic. When using corresponding magic, he would become stronger.

This was a special effect that only advancement potions usually had.

The original formulas didn't mention these kinetic energies.

Roland suspected that this was related to the potions he had watered. After being ripened, they all became a little special.

Roland had often taken other elemental potions before, and he also took water, fire, shadow, and earth elemental potions when advancing.

His magic was relatively strong in these four elements. If he took more of these four elemental potions during seclusion, he could bring the power of these four elements to the peak of the apprentice stage.

The three newly exchanged potion formulas could allow him to balance things out and bring the seven elemental powers in his magic to the maximum. This would help with advancement, and after advancement, he would also gain great benefits in various elemental magics.

In addition, Ying Tao also exchanged some potions for Roland, and then the two curiosities were also sent over.

Although the academy often didn't treat people like people, they were very generous when giving benefits. They gave a very distinctive middle-grade curiosity, which could be considered a small treasure. The other was a high-grade curiosity with more complete functions.

Roland's evaluation of these two curiosities was 'not bad'. He used them and felt they were quite handy, so he put them away.

After another period of time, Ying Tao sent some magic books.

Among them was a book on magical shields.

Apprentices could also use magic shields, but with an apprentice's magic power, they often couldn't support the magic shield, and the effect was very weak. But if they advanced to a formal wizard, the situation would be very different.

After advancing to a formal wizard, those defensive curiosities could also be supported with magic power. At that time, the curiosities could resist as many units of magical energy as possible, no longer limited by magic stones, and there would no longer be a situation where the magic stone had to be replaced and the curiosity restarted after blocking one move.

There were also some spells about flying, of various elemental categories. Roland focused on studying 'fire element' flying and 'lightning element' flying.

Roland had a fire element flying curiosity—that firestone was one.

Once he advanced to a formal wizard, the 'firestone' would reveal its true effect.

And once he had mastered the lightning-based moves, then after advancing to a formal wizard, a suitable lightning-based curiosity would allow him to fly away from the battlefield at an extremely fast speed in a short period of time. It was suitable for escaping during battles.

The Lightning-Fire Magic Blade was a very suitable curiosity.

After Roland understood the flying technique, he tried the firestone and the Lightning-Fire Magic Blade a little.

But his magic power was far from being as pure as a formal wizard's, and his magic power hadn't reached the 'elementalized' level, so using them was not only extremely energy-consuming, but also difficult to sustain flight. The effect was also very average.

Theoretically, using the Lightning-Fire Magic Blade to fly for a short time should be able to fly tens of meters in an instant. But in reality, it was only a few meters away. The effect was only slightly faster than 'Flash Sword', very useless.

This incident made Roland discover the upper limit of wizard apprentices.

But Roland was very pessimistic about advancing to a formal wizard.

The potion for advancing to a formal wizard that Catherine gave was of very high quality. It was a small treasure. It could give a high-level apprentice who would never be able to touch the first door of truth a 20% chance of stepping into the door.

So, Roland's chance of advancement changed from 0 to 20%.

If he could maximize the power of his seven elements, he might have more chances.

He didn't know how long had passed, Roland had never left the tower. The years in the tower passed day after day, and every day he was doing the same thing.

Occasionally when he was bored, he would flip through these storage bags he had 'picked up', study other people's magic notes, or refine new potions.

After he understood the knowledge of magic and potion-making in these storage bags, he began to use 'curiosity alchemy' to replace entertainment activities.

After Ying Tao went to the Amir Kingdom, no one contacted Roland again.

Except for Old John, it seemed that no one remembered him anymore.

Slowly, the walls were filled with tally marks. One day, Roland suddenly felt a little homesick.

He wrote some letters to acquaintances in Valeria, and of course, he didn't forget his dear Baron Hol and Madam Julie.

What made him feel devastated was that Baron Hol's reply was very polite, so polite that it was like a stranger.

He thanked the wizard for sharing some of his stories with him... But he had to remind the wizard that he had sent the letter to the wrong address.

In Valeria, no one knew Roland.

Roland had never existed in Valeria.

These replies drove Roland crazy for a few days.

From then on, Roland forgot to write tally marks on the wall. He also stopped reading magic newspapers.

The whole world was no longer relevant to him, because no one in this world remembered him anymore.

No... There was still one.

There were two.

In the whole world, only two people still remembered Roland, one was the Senior Sister in seclusion.

One was Leona, who would run out and secretly dance on the carpet whenever the moon was full.

From that wooden sculpture carpet, Roland was sure that she would secretly run out to dance in the middle of the night. But he had tried to catch her several times, but failed.

One month, Roland finally caught her.

Under Roland's mental manipulation, Leona angrily stood upside down on the dome and danced upside down.

She couldn't 'see' Roland.

But beside her, there was a non-existent dance partner.

On this day, Roland suddenly remembered who he was.

—Aleyye.

This was a name that shouldn't have existed. His mother wanted to use this name for Roland.

But his father firmly changed Roland's name—Roland, that was a human name, a wizard's name.

His father never wanted his child to be associated with butterflies or his mother again.

To keep his child away from butterflies and his mother, he brought Roland to Valeria.

But after all the twists and turns, Roland finally dreamed of turning into a butterfly at the age of sixteen.

“I left my full name on Leona. She is my servant!”

Roland looked at Leona with shining eyes: “It was I who gave this little butterfly life. Real life.”

At this moment, Roland temporarily regained his full name. He faintly felt a strong desire to break through.

He couldn't suppress this desire until Leona suddenly disappeared and hid back in the book. Only then did Roland's desire to break through suddenly stop.

“How could this be?”

Roland suddenly thought of a possibility, and he immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

The butterfly wanted to eat him.

His inner demon wanted to replace him.

The butterfly was helping him advance.

Wait, what was the butterfly?

Roland grabbed his hair: “Who exactly is the butterfly?!”

In the next few months, Roland met Leona several more times. And in these months, he also took out the 'Amber Gem' and began to refine a clone.

One evening, Roland bowed to a strange little statue in the living room, lit three incense sticks, and then went to the astrology area in the northernmost part of the house and flipped through a book for a while.

After thinking for a moment, Roland pulled open the curtain of the astrology area and returned to the center of the hall.

In the center of the hall, a complex and strange magic circle was drawn. It was like a spider web, sticking to a huge and shriveled 'gem'.

This shriveled large amber gem was engraved with various runes. It seemed that the corresponding preparations had been completed by Roland.

Only the last step remained.

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Roland looked at the stars outside the 'floor-to-ceiling window', divined with his fingers, and then sat in the magic circle, in the position symbolizing 'Pluto'.

According to the normal process, the position could be chosen at will. But many wizards like to choose a lucky astrological position to sit in when performing alchemy.

The planet of Pluto symbolizes death, reincarnation, and a fresh start!

This constellation was obviously terribly unlucky, yet Roland was sitting right beneath it.

Upon closer inspection, on a strange little wooden table against the wall opposite him, sat a distorted idol.

It was the idol of the eight-armed goddess, Heraka.

In front of the idol were some fruit platters, a small incense burner, with three incense sticks burning.

If any wizard were to see this strange little table, their eyes would definitely widen.

Because the fruits in the fruit platters were extremely precious magic potion fruits, and the incense in the burner was made from rare materials such as Soul Tears and Dark Water Root.

Roland had already prayed to the goddess before, and had even sat under the idol reciting the goddess's poems for a while.

Originally, after finishing the prayer, he was going to start refining. But suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he went to the astrology area to flip through some books.

Now, he was thoroughly familiar with the knowledge given by his mentor, Usak. He also had a clear idea of how to refine an avatar.

He just needed a bit more luck to succeed.

“Goddess Heraka, please lend me a hand in the next few days. When I achieve great power, I will deliver those more than a thousand superior demonic creatures in Straw Town to you.”

Roland muttered to himself for a while, then activated the magic array, formed a hand seal, and began chanting the incantation.

Streams of magic flew into the shriveled gem, and then various colored elemental glows flew out of Roland's body, like a rainbow, into the shriveled gem.

Seven days later, the runes on the shriveled amber gem were all lit up, looking like a human-sized, glowing, shriveled strange egg.

Roland, looking exhausted, took several bottles of magic potions. Some of these potions restored magic power, some increased vitality, and some enhanced the soul.

He meditated for a day, and when he opened his eyes, his eyes were full of vigor. The brilliance of magic power and soul almost burst out of his eyes.

Immediately, he took out a razor and a mirror.

He made the mirror float between him and the strange egg, the three forming a triangle. The mirror perfectly reflected Roland and the strange egg.

Picking up the razor, Roland faced the mirror in the distance, scraping and cutting his face. Each scrape caused Roland's face to show an extremely painful expression.

Gradually, Roland in the mirror looked withered and his eyes were dull. And the shriveled strange egg gradually filled up, and pulsed slightly as if it had a heartbeat.

Upon closer inspection, the 'divine bird' composed of feathers in the shriveled strange egg looked more and more like Roland.

Roland's current state was very strange. His attention could not be focused. Sometimes he felt like he was sitting here, but sometimes he felt like he was sitting in the center of the magic array.

After a while, he suddenly felt like he was standing between 'himself (Roland)' and 'himself (the egg)'.

At this time, Roland had reached the most critical moment. Whether the avatar could 'live' depended on the next few cuts.

But his soul had been cut and scarred, and his subconscious was resisting the act of cutting himself.

In a daze, Roland found that he was cutting the 'newly appeared self'. From the mirror, he could see that this self had many strange wood shavings falling from his body, flying to the egg.

Suddenly, Roland realized that something was wrong. He braced himself and mobilized his mental power, carefully looking at the mirror, and his eyes went dark.

That wasn't himself at all!

That was a puppet standing there! It was Leona!

The razor had scraped Leona in the mirror several times, and some strange wood shavings were falling from Leona's body, slowly floating to the egg. Then, the already extremely full strange egg quickly shriveled up.

【Shriveled Roland + 1】

“Oops!”

“Grandma, why did you suddenly come out!”

— Anger

— Pain

— Grievance

Suddenly, Roland felt that something was not right.

He could still feel himself sitting in the magic array!

That egg, it seemed to have succeeded!

Suddenly, Roland remembered many things.

Leona didn't come out on her own.

This was something he and Leona had discussed!

He let Leona participate in the final moment of refining the avatar, to complete the final step.

That's right! That's right! Leona was the most critical, the final step!

He had to 'cut' her into the avatar too!

Because she had his most complete name, and also had his most complete trace of soul!

Those wood shavings absorbed by the strange egg would become the 'anchor point of the butterfly'!

When he advanced and merged with the avatar, the butterfly would help him advance, and his avatar would bear the butterfly tribulation for him!

A strong desire to break through gradually filled Roland's heart.

He had reached the Great Perfection realm two months ago, and he could no longer suppress this urge.

With a thought, the shriveled strange egg turned into a strange bird and pounced on Roland. Then, Leona also turned into a ghost form and possessed the strange bird.

Three 'people' merged into one.

At this moment, Roland felt these three selves and suddenly had an epiphany.

“Three me? Isn't this the Three Corpses? Isn't this the Trinity?!”

“Oops? My Three Flowers Gather on the Crown, Three Flowers Gather on the Crown!”

“Hahaha! Hahahaha!”

“I'm going to succeed, I'm going to succeed!”

Suddenly, Roland noticed that this world was somewhat abnormal. All the objects seemed to be shaking.

He suddenly understood. It turned out that he had been sitting on the seabed!

Under the night, the dark tide kept rolling, and the 'large floor-to-ceiling window' in front of him, the plains outside, and the starry sky were all rippling in the waves of the tide. It looked like an oil painting dropped into a water tank.

The water patterns constantly stirred up by the sea water, in these water patterns, the colors on the oil painting gradually penetrated into the water.

The water patterns slowly became colored, layering upon layering in the rippling, that was not water patterns.

Those were butterfly wings!

They were layered like water patterns, every tiny water pattern was a small butterfly, and small butterflies formed a larger butterfly. Larger butterflies formed even larger butterflies.

And he was one of the tiny butterflies, or rather, a pupa that was transforming into a butterfly.

This pupa was beating fiercely, beating

With a 'crack', a crack opened on the pupa, and a seven-colored divine bird with butterfly scales slowly crawled out of the pupa.