Battle Frenzy

Currently, the special training had ended up calming into a state of everyone participating in the lessons while declining to mention the previous night’s matter. Although they were curious, they just lacked any kind of relationship with Wang Zhong that would allow them to conveniently say a few words. Furthermore, everyone had already begun to discriminate against Tianjing, so it just wasn’t all that easy to suddenly get intimate with him.

In the end, other than receiving a few attentive gazes during the lessons in the academy, the rest was basically no different from normal. Other than, of course, the change in treatment Tianjing Academy now received.

With Old Potter’s special care, the academy helped provide the Tianjing Squadron with specially arranged temporary training grounds. These were the private grounds of the Potter Clan and weren’t inferior in any way to that of the Wild Beast Squadron. The key point here was that the Wild Beast Society’s training grounds had to stuff ten squadrons inside, while only nine people from Tianjing Academy stayed at the specially allocated one.

This was but one of the little tricks Old Potter pulled because of the extreme pain he felt toward Wang Zhong’s thoughts of ‘military before academics’. No matter the cost, he had to find a way to show Wang Zhong that the right path for humans was to throw themselves completely into scientific research.

Threats and connections wouldn’t work for such matters. It was more reliable to systematically and patiently guide him onto the right course. With regard to human relations, the more one owed you the harder it became for you to get rejected in the future. Furthermore, not only was he letting Wang Zhong witness and recognize his veteran strength in scientific research, but he had also lent him the training grounds and even tossed in twenty-thirty service staff with but a single word. Old Potter didn’t doubt that a young, talented youth such as Wang Zhong wouldn’t be touched by a single thought about the strength and authority being shown.

And indeed, Wang Zhong didn’t reject his offers. What Tianjing Academy needed at the moment for their training was the space to practice their movements and shifting combat tactics. If they were to try and crowd in with that side at the Wild Beast Society, then they would only be able to undergo personal training.

His quick decision was partly because Ma Dong had influenced him into not placing himself at a loss, and partly because… he had already accepted his participation in the thesis paper. Such an undertaking obviously required some compensation! From what Old Potter had said, only two names were allowed to be hung on the back of this thesis paper. As for how enormous the benefits this paper would provide Wang Zhong, that was so, so far off into the future that it couldn’t even be considered for the time being.

After staying in Copperfield City during the past few days, the Tianjing group had more or less gotten used to the rhythm of the city. More recently, Wang Zhong had grown to love running toward the library, to the point where he even skipped a few squadron sessions on the training grounds!

Basically, their current training was led by Scarlet and Grai, the two of them having the deepest understanding of the various changes in Wang Zhong’s combat tactics. What they needed to do now was simply review and revise the training they had started back at Tianjing Academy. As such, they weren’t that bad of a situation whenever Wang Zhong suddenly chose to play hooky.

This afternoon, Wang Zhong was once more in the library flipping through some stuff. Although Old Potter was the main author of that thesis paper, since Wang Zhong had agreed to help it would be best if he were to actively do his part. It was his habit to not skimp and rush when doing something.

Old Potter still had many original ideas toward this system of living rune patterns. His published ‘Schoffel’s Rune Pattern System’ was one such piece where he previously elaborated on the topic. Naturally, he had been extremely vague at the time and had instead used the concept of the simpler ‘rune pattern activities’ as the point of discussion.

Bur even so, he was indeed the first person within the Federation to make a breakthrough on the aspect of rune pattern principles and boundaries and had even formed a system of classification for the subject. He was also the very first to mention that rune patterns weren’t just cold formulas that simply ‘existed’.

While Old Potter had yet to find another mind with an identical view of the subject, he had even more trouble coming up with substantial proof that would allow him to build up the concept. His viewpoint was indeed extremely advanced, however, and he possessed a kind of original foresight and research foundation was that countless times firmer and more practical than Wang

Most of what they spoke that night involved topics that were still in their infant stages. The basic knowledge provided with regards to living rune patterns had given Wang Zhong much enlightenment, so it was with great gusto that he began to sift through Old Potter’s literary works along with additional related information from the library.

He was currently flipping through a precious book titled ‘A Brief Discussion On The Living Traits Of Rune Patterns’. It was written by a famous rune pattern science from the Federation’s Institute of Science long ago and was actually offered as a counter-argument to Schoffel’s proposed ‘living traits of rune patterns’. It wasn’t spread very far and could actually be considered semi-internal information. Only places like Copperfield City and the like could so grandiosely put it up in their libraries.

Flipping through a few pages, he suddenly felt a pat on his shoulder as a voice sounded, “Hey. Such a coincidence. What book are you looking at?”

It was Laura, who didn’t usually frequent the library. Bumping into her here could be considered a coincidence.

Grinning, Wang Zhong flipped the cover of his book and showed her the title.

“‘Living traits of rune patterns’? Grandfather seemed to mention a new concept of rune patterns before. It seemed to cause some big hoo-haa at the time.” Although Laura had only an ordinary understanding of rune patterns and their scientific aspects, she more or less possessed knowledge of the famous system developed by her grandfather. It was only after thinking of the conversation between her grandfather and Wang Zhong about those so-called ‘living rune patterns’ that she guessed they were just an upscaled version of the ‘living traits of rune patterns’.”

“So that was what you were talking to my grandfather about? Ever since that night I’ve been curious about it, yet grandfather is keeping shut.” Laura couldn’t hold back her laughter and continued, “Grandfather has always been trying to get proof of the concept and it became a thorn in his heart. He would talk about it a couple times every year. Don’t tell me you actually gave him some enlightenment on the topic?”

If that were true, then Laura would be able to understand why Old Potter held such high regard for Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong felt admiration for Laura’s deductions. To guess such an answer that was relatively close to the truth just by reading the book’s title showed she really was an extremely intelligent lady.

Spreading his hands, he said simply, “I don’t dare to say I enlightened him, only that I may have given him a few pointers. It just so happens that my ideas coincided with Headmaster Schoffel’s.”

“Still being quite modest, I see.” With a clear smile, Laura took the chance to sit beside him.

“That’s just me telling the truth. What’s the matter? Does Student Laura feel an interest in the theories of living rune patterns?”

“I don’t have the same elegance and love for higher knowledge like the two of you,” she replied, flinging her hair from side to side. She then smiled as she posed a question to him, “That’s right. Two days from now will be the official start of our combat tactics training. How confident are you in your group tactics? You guys are gonna go up against Saxon. Not only is their Specter Dance Formation extremely unique, but they even have quite nice common formations.”

“The main aspect of this training is participation,” replied Wang Zhong. “This isn’t a formal competition you know. We’re just here for mutual learning.”

“Oh? So calm and collected, huh? But there’s nothing for you to worry about, right? Not with such good skills. After all, you did manage to dodge my soul bear in an instant.”