I Loaded the Mysticism Panel
Chapter 5: [Scholarship]

Chapter 5: Chapter 5: [Scholarship]

When he reached the main gate, Evelyn was waiting for him at the school bus stop to go home together.

Richard didn’t get in line. He waved to his sister and made a walking gesture, signaling that he was going to walk home.

The girl wrinkled her nose, looking a little suspicious, but didn’t say anything as the crowd swept her onto the bus.

Two Stone Griffins perched atop the school’s gate pillars, their wings caked with bird droppings.

Richard walked between them and turned onto the street heading south.

His reasoning was simple: he just wanted to walk more.

The [Walking] entry under his "Physique" attribute was still grayed out, but he wanted to confirm one thing:

Could an unactivated Skill accumulate progress silently in the background?

If so, walking home would be a win-win: he’d get some exercise and build up progress at the same time.

As he walked, he focused his attention on [Walking] on his panel.

Gray. It didn’t budge.

After walking for about five minutes, he checked again.

Still gray. The progress bar didn’t even show a number; it was completely blank.

He walked for another ten minutes, and his breathing was already starting to get a little heavy.

The panel remained completely unresponsive. The grayed-out item wouldn’t accept any input at all, not even for latent accumulation.

’So it’s true,’ he thought. ’It won’t run unless it’s activated. There are no shortcuts.’

He sighed, gave up on watching the panel, and refocused his attention on the road.

It was about three miles (4.8 km) from Greenwood to his home, a path that cut through a large part of Brighton’s old town.

Row houses lined the street, one after another, their brick walls coated in decades of soot that had long since obscured the original red.

Around the corner from Post Office Street was the flea market.

He hadn’t chosen to walk just for the sake of it; he’d planned to stop by the flea market along the way to see if he could find any more antiques and earn some Points.

Calling it a market was generous; it was really just a narrow alley less than a hundred meters long.

The sellers were mostly elderly, and they were sharp judges of character. A single glance was all they needed to tell a serious buyer from a window shopper.

So, as Richard strolled over, not a single one of them got up to hawk their wares.

Richard was perfectly fine with that. He slowed his pace, his gaze drifting over the stalls.

Copper Artifacts, old books, badges, worn-out pocket watches, discolored silver chains.

He split his focus, keeping an eye on the Available Points column on his panel.

He passed a dozen stalls, examined countless engraved Copper Artifacts, and handled a few old books in poor condition.

The panel was silent. Not even a 0.01 fluctuation.

’It seems not all old things hold a secret.’

The charm and the Divination Disc had likely provided Points because they truly contained remnants of Extraordinary Power.

Ordinary antiques, no matter how old, were just scrap copper and waste paper to him if they didn’t have something sealed within.

Richard placed the copper cigarette case he was holding back on the stall. The owner didn’t even lift an eyelid.

By the time he reached his front door, the back of his shirt was soaked with sweat.

A three-mile walk might be a leisurely stroll for a normal person, but for him, it was a forced march.

He stood at the door for a moment, catching his breath before pushing it open and going inside.

There was no one upstairs. His father wasn’t home from work yet, and his Mother was probably in the kitchen.

Richard went upstairs, closed his bedroom door, and completely immersed his consciousness in the panel.

[Available Points: 1]

The single Point from the Divination Disc lay there quietly, waiting to be spent.

He first tried to invest the Point into Breathing again to see if it would stack.

’It’s the same in games,’ he mused. ’You should never spread your points too thin. Specializing in one thing gives the biggest boost.’

After confirming, his consciousness touched [Breathing Level 1] and tried to push the point in. A gray notification quickly popped up on the panel:

"This item is already active. To advance again, the following conditions must be met:

Reach 100% progress towards Level 2; 1 Available Point; learn one Extraordinary Breathing Technique."

Below that, in even smaller text, was another line:

"Unlockable Effect Preview—Breath Healing:

Where the breath flows, minor wounds will mend themselves, and chronic ailments will gradually recede."

Richard stared at the word "Healing."

If "Healing" could truly make "chronic ailments gradually recede," then as long as he was breathing, his body would be improving.

He thought further ahead.

’Level 3 heals minor wounds, but what about Level 5? Or Level 10?’

’If the level continued to increase, could Breathing directly enhance muscle density, improve bone toughness, and optimize neural responses?’

If that were the case, then "Breathing," this seemingly most ordinary Skill, was actually the foundation of all foundations.

Because it never stopped, whether he was awake or asleep.

The higher the level, the greater the benefit from each breath—it was a matter of exponential growth.

He even considered a crazier possibility.

’What if he unlocked some kind of "Extraordinary Breathing Technique" that allowed his breathing itself to draw energy from the outside world?’

According to the panel, one of the conditions for advancement was to "learn one Extraordinary Breathing Technique."

Extraordinary Breathing Technique. Those three words alone set his imagination racing.

Extraordinary Power truly existed in this world; the charm and the Divination Disc had already proven that.

If one day he found that kind of Breathing Technique and combined it with the panel’s bonuses...

...things that others needed meditation, Spirit Medicine, or rituals to achieve, he could accomplish just by breathing.

He’d be getting stronger while Eating, stronger while Walking, and even stronger while he was Sleeping;

And then there was the stacking effect of the Skills themselves once activated... He quickly suppressed his excitement. It was too early to be thinking about all this.

He reined in his thoughts and looked at the panel again.

Since Breathing couldn’t take a second point for now, it was time to look at other options.

His gaze shifted to the three remaining items under "Physique."

The reason for excluding them was the same as before: they either consumed time or resources, neither of which he had.

His gaze turned to "Wisdom."

[Perception: Increases the acuity of the five senses]

Once he truly entered the realm of the extraordinary, keen Perception might be a lifesaver.

But for now, having too much inspiration could actually invite disaster.

[Rationality: Reasoning, analysis, extrapolation]

A very powerful ability. He was tempted.

He tried to touch Rationality with his consciousness, and the panel displayed a notification:

"Activation requires prerequisite: Scholarship ≥ Level 3."

’The system’s logic was that you had to lay a foundation of knowledge before you could build the structure of reasoning.’

’Without a foundation, Rationality would be built on thin air.’

He came to the last item, [Scholarship]: Rapidly grasp, memorize, and understand basic knowledge.

Richard made a mental list.

Part-time jobs a student could take to earn money—translation, transcription, tutoring—all of them required a solid base of knowledge.

In terms of Mysticism, both times he’d gained Points were from coming into contact with antiques that had sealed Extraordinary Power within them.

If he wanted a stable way to acquire Points in the future, identifying and finding antiques would be the key.

And the knowledge needed to appraise antiques—archaeology, paleography, folklore, religious studies—all fell under the category of "Scholarship."

Every path he considered ultimately led back to the same starting point. He had made his choice.

The gray faded, and the text lit up.

[Scholarship Level 1] Progress: 0%

The change was even quieter than when he had activated [Breathing].

Richard got up from the edge of his bed and squatted down to rummage through his school bag.

He first opened his Latin textbook, his most troublesome subject.

In the past, looking at Latin declension charts was like staring into a bowl of inseparable, lumpy batter; the endings all stuck together, and he couldn’t tell one from another.

He turned the book to the Chapter on verb conjugations and stared at it for a few minutes.

The relationship between roots and affixes began to emerge.

Amo, amas, amat—the endings of the first conjugation verbs were no longer a string of gibberish that had to be brute-force memorized.

They had a structure, a logic. The endings told him who the subject was, what the tense was, and what the mood was.

He turned to the next page and read for a few more minutes, silently timing himself.

Content that used to take him an hour to barely comprehend now took him about ten minutes to form a basic framework for.

The effect was most pronounced when it came to learning languages, memorization, and categorization.

As for more profound subjects like advanced mathematics, philosophical arguments, or legal reasoning, the effect wasn’t as dramatic.

Scholarship accelerated the breadth of his learning; breakthroughs in depth would have to wait for Rationality.

In other words, he could become a knowledgeable generalist much faster than anyone else.

But to delve deep into a specific field, he would still have to rely on time and Rationality, chipping away at it bit by bit.

He closed the textbook and glanced at the panel:

[Scholarship] Level 1 Progress: 0.1%

From just those few minutes of reading, the progress bar had already started to move.

Unlike Breathing, Scholarship required active learning to be triggered.

Reading, attending lectures, observing, practicing... every effective input of knowledge pushed the progress bar forward.

He made a plan in his head: pay close attention in class during the day, and spend his afternoons in the library.

The density of knowledge in the classroom was readily available. As long as he absorbed it diligently, he should be able to accumulate a decent amount of progress each day.

If he added self-study after class, he could probably reach level two within a month.

After reading for a while longer, he heard the clatter of dishes from downstairs.

His mother was already setting the table, and Evelyn was shouting his name at the top of her lungs.

Richard called back in acknowledgment, got up, and went downstairs to eat.