The trait provided by the Wizard's Mark turns out to be information encryption, which was beyond Duke's expectations.

He initially thought that such a simple spell wouldn't generate any traits, nor did he have any hopes for it.

Looking at this trait, Duke began to ponder some issues in his mind.

That is to say, from this trait, information sent and received through the Wizard's Mark could indeed be intercepted by others.

Duke couldn't help but feel grateful that he was cautious and didn't reveal too many personal secrets within the Wizard's Mark before.

Now, with this information encryption trait, using the Wizard's Mark would be a bit safer in the future.

But safety is relative, and Duke still won't completely rely on this trait.

There are no walls without cracks in this world; if you don't want secrets to be known, the best way is to keep them to yourself.

Duke also thought that having this trait might not necessarily be a good thing.

If one day someone targets him and tries to capture his information but finds it consistently elusive, they might suspect something is amiss.

However, there was no time to worry about all this now, so he noted it down for future reference.

…

Ten days later.

[Earth Breathing Technique level up, Constitution +0.2, Strength +0.2, Agility +0.2, Free Attribute Points +1]

[Earth Breathing Technique: Level 9 (Talent: High-Level Earth Element Affinity)]

On the Skill Tree, the fruit representing the Earth Breathing Technique had fully ripened, and at the full level, it shook and then fell.

The fruit landed in Duke's mind and melted away as if gone without a trace, sending invisible ripples throughout his mind.

Duke closed his eyes, feeling the changes of the moment.

After grinding the Earth Breathing Technique to full level, it finally provided some physical attributes, though minimal, better than nothing.

What concerned Duke was that the Earth Breathing Technique, upon reaching full level, only provided one free attribute point.

He distinctly remembered that after grinding the Giant Whale Breathing Technique to full level, he gained two free attribute points.

Duke pondered for a moment and could only surmise that upon elevating his life level, breathing techniques became lower-level skills, thus reducing the free attribute points they could provide.

More importantly, after the Giant Whale Breathing Technique reached full level before, his Spiritual Power also grew by one point.

However, now the Earth Breathing Technique did not bring any increase in his Spiritual Power.

Duke could only conclude that the benefits breathing techniques provide to Spiritual Power only occur once, and learning a different breathing technique won't have the same effect again.

The essence of a breathing technique is a means to elevate life level, and when he first ground the Giant Whale Breathing Technique to full level and entered the realm of Great Knight, it slightly elevated his life level, thus enhancing Spiritual Power.

But now, being at a relatively high life level, breathing techniques naturally struggle to further enhance his Spiritual Power.

Duke spent a brief moment considering these matters; what really intrigued him was the new talent.

Just as predicted, after maxing out the Earth Breathing Technique, it indeed brought a talent of High-Level Earth Element Affinity.

Duke could now clearly perceive the large amount of Earth Elements surrounding him; just like the Water Element before, the Earth Element in his perception was also very vivid and active.

Having acquired a second talent, Duke naturally became clear on how to proceed next.

Quickly, he sent a message to Vivian, requesting information on the Earth Element.

He wasn't reserved about this since it could directly enhance his strength.

Since Grace had already tacitly approved, Duke wouldn't hesitate to repay Grace when an opportunity arises in the future.

Now with low status and weak strength, Duke couldn't think of how to repay Grace, as it seemed there wasn't anything she needed help with.

Grace, being a Level 3 Wizard, had a considerable influence in the Thorn Holy Tower, meaning there was very little a mere second-level Wizard Apprentice like him could contribute.

Naturally, Duke wouldn't abandon his research on the Water Element; he just planned to first grasp some knowledge regarding the Earth Element to broaden his techniques and fields of knowledge.

This also allows him to avoid situations where Water Element spells would be ineffective.

Upon receiving the message, Vivian acted swiftly, organizing references and compiling several books, which she sent to Duke on the same day.

Two days later, Duke received these materials.

Once received, he paused the refining of Magic Potions to focus intently on studying, gaining understanding about various characteristics of the Earth Element.

Due to his previous research on the Water Element, Duke quickly got the hang of it this time, and he could distinctly feel the differences between the Earth and Water Elements.

Duke went to a small woodland area on the island, stretched out his hand to sense the rich Earth Element below, and expended some Magic Power to separate some clumps of earth from the ground below, suspending them in his hand.

Compared to the Water Element, the Earth Element felt very heavy.

While in the sea, Duke could freely manipulate the surrounding seawater for his use, barely consuming any Magic Power.

But the Earth Element was different. The earth was an entire entity, composed of the elements below.

Extracting some elements from the ground was not easy; Duke felt exerted, not physically but in terms of the Magic Power expended.

Even with the talent of High-Level Earth Element Affinity, for an ordinary Wizard Apprentice without the corresponding spells, extracting soil from the ground with merely one's Magic Power was extremely challenging, nearly impossible.

Even if it could be done, it would consume a huge amount of Magic Power, and the result would merely be to separate a few clumps of earth from the surface, a pointless effort.

If it was heavy rock, it would be even harder.

Rocks being denser, extracting stones from them would require even more effort.

After feeling the utilization of the Earth Element, Duke gained a general understanding of it.

Next was to master related spells; Vivian had sent over several magic model books on Earth Magic.

Duke glanced over them; they were Rock Armor, Rock Spike, Petrification Skin, and Gravity Slowdown.

The spells of the Earth element generally had higher complexity; among these four, the spell model with the lowest complexity was N4, and the Gravity Slowdown spell was up to N6.

This was, so far, the most complex spell Duke had encountered, with a spell model more intricate than any he had seen before.

Duke did not rush, starting from the simple to the difficult, he picked up the Rock Armor spell and began to delve into it.

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