"Okay." Luo Wei agreed in one breath.

Axina turned, incredulous. "What did you say?"

Did she mishear?

Luo Wei was… being impulsive?

"I said okay," Luo Wei repeated. "Right here. I think this spot is good."

Hol, Jack, and Gladys all stared at her now.

"We're really building our territory here?" Gladys, all cool edges and heroic sharpness, tilted her head.

"I'm not joking," Luo Wei said seriously. "When we were teleported onto the cliff I scoped the area. This is the most suitable place."

"Higher ground, wide visibility, and those big fractured exposed rocks—we can use them for cover or hurl them as projectiles."

"You picked the place already, why not say so sooner? Wasted time," Axina grumbled.

"I didn't waste time. I brought you straight up here, didn't I?" Luo Wei's reasoning was unassailable. "An individual idea always has flaws. I wanted to hear yours—pool our ideas."

It's just that her teammates' ideas were even more flawed, so she would not be adopting them—for now.

With the site chosen, the five from Siria began laying out defenses.

The second round tests magic apprentices' sense of responsibility and ability to defend a homeland. The rules state the territory they stake out can't be smaller than the building area of a medium village.

In this era, a medium village has roughly three hundred people; the clustered dwelling area is about one hectare—around fifteen mu (≈2.5 acres).

Flattened into a geometric shape, that's a square about one hundred meters on a side, or a circle with a radius close to sixty meters.

Not actually large—about the footprint of a small elementary school campus—and a real village would sprawl larger; villagers don't pack their houses cheek by jowl.

Little flags bearing Siria's crest were wedged into cracks all around the jagged hill, forming a ring.

Gray‑black flagcloth snapped in the wind and rain with a flapping "hula-huluh" rush.

Using magic, the five hauled stones and stacked a high wall, carving Binding Magic Runes into the rock to keep it from collapsing, and etching more runes into the ground to impede attackers.

Hurried fortifications can't be perfect; the lumpy, uneven walls were kind of an eyesore.

Worried a long soak in the rain would make them sick, Luo Wei also had them throw up four tiny one‑person forts at north, south, east, and west—just enough for shelter and to keep watch.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Inside the perimeter, Hol rammed up four mud walls between two great stones with earth magic. Jack cut branches and thatch, roofing the walls—spacious house done.

Gladys, bad at rune carving, got a different assignment: carry engraved rune slabs down the hill—farther from their territory the better.

She looked down at the intricate lines and cartoonish spirals of confusion swirled up in her eyes.

This rune was so weird it made her dizzy.

Shaking her head, she asked, "What rune is this? Why don't I… remember it?"

Her rune work was awful, sure—but she could at least recognize what she'd learned. This was unfamiliar, clearly not a basic rune.

"Oh, that." Luo Wei's dagger went scritch-scritch as she carved. "Should be a Teleportation Magic Rune? I saw it when I entered the arena."

Gladys's pupils jolted. "Teleportation rune—an intermediate rune! You can draw that?"

"Why couldn't I?" Luo Wei shot back. "The tournament only bans students from entering a lower division. There's no rule against learning an intermediate rune on the spot."

In the last round the Divine College used 'Lightning Whip,' an intermediate spell. If they can use intermediate magic, why can't I?

She hadn't used one before because she needed a reason. Now she had one—she just legitimately learned it off the arena's teleportation array!

Gladys's mouth hung open. "You—you can draw it after one look?"

That was what she really meant: why could Luo Wei draw an intermediate rune?

"Not one look. Once going in, once coming out. I looked twice! No idea if I got it right; some details are fuzzy."

Her mouth claimed "fuzzy," but her hand never paused; in the time it took to say that, two more Teleportation Magic Runes bloomed under the dagger.

Hugging the slab, Gladys's gaze filled with existential doubt.

Some people look twice and can draw an intermediate rune.

Some people study a whole semester and still botch a basic one.

Uuuh… her mean big brother was right—she really was a little dumb wolf.

Whimpering, Gladys ran down the hill, heartbroken, to finish Luo Wei's task.

Spectator Gallery.

Before a magic mirror, a cluster of professors secretly tracking Luo Wei were already dumbstruck.

They'd only wanted to see what skill the girl favored by Prince Alfried possessed—then saw this.

How could anyone replicate a rune after just two glances?

How could a mere beginner magic apprentice draw an intermediate rune?

Was this student's mental power just broken beyond reason?

Yes, Luo Wei had flashed her talent with runes in Round One—but those twenty‑odd stacked runes were still basic, and the process looked a bit like exploiting a trick.

At the time, few paid her much attention besides Siria's escorts, the ten‑academy referees, and a few hostile professors.

Now it was different. Because Prince Alfried had shown intent to take Luo Wei as his goddaughter, a bunch of intermediate and senior division professors had drifted over to the beginner gallery just to sneak a look.

One look was enough. Her line—"Look twice at a rune and you can do it"—instantly became a 'Wei‑ism,' stabbing certain rune professors straight in the heart.

Who among them hadn't suffered torment learning runes?

They became Rune Masters precisely because they had great talent—yet even they couldn't make rune engraving look as casual as drinking water.

Their students? Dumber one after another. Seem normal day to day; touch a rune quill and you wonder if they have a brain.

Amateurs see the spectacle. Professionals see the structure.

To non‑specialists this was a moment of surprise, a couple of compliments on speed.

To Rune Masters it birthed a deep sorrow: effort really does crumble before talent.

Being able to cross‑tier engrave, and inscribe dozens nonstop, meant her grasp of spatial structures was extraordinarily strong; her mental world was vast and stable.

In her eyes, a rune wasn't a flat pattern but a spatial polyhedron; her brain could hold those spaces and pre‑assemble the rune's generation and operation within her mind.

Ordinary people can't do that—their mental domains are small and brittle; force a spatial understanding and the mind fractures.

"I'm old… luckily I'm old. Had I met someone like this in my youth, I'd never have chosen runes."

… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ patreon.com/BZDXG - Unlock a HUGE stash of advance chapters now! Dive deeper into the story ahead of everyone else!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.