NEC Chapter 55: A Lackluster Elemental Awakening

The greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment!

The result of Chen Mo’s Spiritual Enlightenment left everyone profoundly disappointed!

There was no spectacle to be seen.

Spiritual Enlightenment, also known as Elemental Awakening, was described by some academic mages as the more precise process of “unlocking elemental sensitivity.”

After crossing this threshold, a mage no longer merely manipulates mana with their mental strength. Instead, they can tap into the elemental energies of the world through their own elemental pool, achieving a remarkable effect of leveraging small efforts for massive results.

This wasn’t just a simple multiplier effect.

For instance, as a preparatory necromancer apprentice, Chen Mo could only summon skeletons. But after passing the Spiritual Enlightenment threshold, as a full-fledged apprentice, the little blond “Roy” could summon zombies.

On the surface, it seemed like a mere upgrade in the level of undead creatures, but in reality, the combat power difference was night and day.

In terms of weight alone, an ordinary humanoid skeleton weighed about ten kilograms, while even the lightest zombie, armed with just a club, tipped the scales at over a hundred kilograms.

For Chen Mo, the transformation before and after Enlightenment could only be described as earth-shattering.

As the most critical step in a mage’s initiation, Spiritual Enlightenment naturally carried a certain risk of failure.

But how could Instructor Morton allow such a thing to happen?

First, Morton personally hauled the only large-scale magical detection device from Hal’s “rustic mage retreat” to the Glimmer Group Three dormitory, testing “Roy’s” mental strength seven times a day, like checking blood sugar, to confirm it had reached the double-digit standard required for Enlightenment.

During this period, Morton’s intensive mini-lectures bombarded Chen Mo with every detail about Spiritual Enlightenment, leaving no stone unturned.

Since Morton’s own Enlightenment had occurred over twenty years ago, and to avoid any discrepancies due to outdated experience, he also brought in several top students from Glimmer Group Three to share their breakthroughs and insights with Chen Mo in detail.

Beyond knowledge transfer, Morton spared no effort on the hardware front.

He secured a cultivation room reserved for the advanced Sunlight Group, where the elemental density was higher, providing a richer supply of spiritual energy during Enlightenment to slightly boost the success rate.

That wasn’t all. Morton also acquired two supposedly side-effect-free stabilizing potions, a mental enhancement potion with mild side effects, and a thumb-sized piece of premium Clarity Incense.

Chen Mo, ever principled, insisted on compensating Morton. “If you don’t accept payment, I can’t take these items.”

And so, everyone was satisfied.

According to the Glimmer Group Three students, with this setup, even a dog with a mental strength of ten or higher could succeed in Enlightenment. Finding such a dog would be far harder than achieving the Enlightenment itself.

Chen Mo’s talent was, of course, a bit better than a dog’s, so his Spiritual Enlightenment went off without a hitch, passing smoothly.

Naturally, not one to waste an opportunity, Chen Mo practiced a bit of meditation in the Sunlight Group’s cultivation room. He also made the most of his remaining time by meticulously cleaning every nook and cranny of the room and collecting a handful of dust and debris from the high-energy environment.

When the Sunlight Group’s instructor later inspected the room, he was deeply impressed and went back to berate his own students. “Look at that student! He borrows a cultivation room and leaves it spotless. You lot don’t even know how to take care of your own space!”

To prevent the elemental energy from dissipating, Chen Mo promptly sent the materials back home.

Along with them, he included the saved-up Clarity Incense and the remaining half-bag of mental enhancement potion.

Being able to send express deliveries was incredibly convenient.

If Chen Mo’s Sacrificial Altar was a cheat device that defied logic, then Spiritual Shunting was the meticulously crafted “high-frequency accelerator” module he’d added to it, flexibly activated as needed.

It was like attaching an extra cheat to an already overpowered tool.

Using the shunted Sacrificial Altar, he frequently exchanged information and materials with his homeland. Each time he guiltily yet gleefully accepted the “living expenses” sent from home, Chen Mo could only console himself: No choice—studying abroad in another world is expensive!

Of course, Chen Mo spared no effort in giving back to his homeland.

Over the past period, he’d sent back every bit of otherworldly material he could get his hands on while using the money from home to lavishly bribe his classmates, making everyone in Glimmer Group Three significantly richer.

As a result, the Glimmer Group Three activity area had become Chen Mo’s personal domain. He claimed a plot in the dormitory area and set up a small weather station.

Anemometers and wind vanes recorded wind parameters; barometers, temperature sensors, and humidity sensors tracked atmospheric conditions; rain gauges, visibility meters, solar radiation sensors, and soil moisture sensors handled specialized observations. Naturally, he also hooked up two sets of solar panels for power storage.

Chen Mo also claimed a patch of the courtyard. Within the maximum activity range permitted for Glimmer Group Three, he placed electronic beacons at the edges and deployed two “cleaning robots.”

These disc-shaped devices tirelessly crawled over slopes and grass, diligently “cleaning” the courtyard.

These were Fully Automated Sample Collectors from East Xia’s Electronic Engineering Institute 930. Wherever they went, they unhesitatingly grabbed anything with unrecorded spectral signatures.

Their methods were versatile: small robotic arms for solids, high-speed brushes for dust, probes for liquids, and cutting gears or impact drills for larger objects.

For living creatures like insects, they could cast nets, deliver electric shocks, or even fire tranquilizer darts.

Each Fully Automated Sample Collector carried a large transparent collection box, divided into multiple compartments. Collected items were sorted into different slots and stored in a refrigerated abdominal chamber to preserve freshness.

Items with distinct spectral signatures were placed in separate compartments. When the box was full, the collector would return to a solar charging station in the corner, recharge, swap out the collection box, replenish cryogenic fluid, and clean its equipment, all on its own.

They were like diligent, uncomplaining workers.

Sometimes, though, they bit off more than they could chew.

For instance, when Chen Mo woke up that morning, Sample Collector No. 2 was tangled up with a meter-long lizard. Its tiny robotic arms clung tightly to the creature’s midsection, firing tranquilizer darts relentlessly and occasionally sparking with electricity, making the lizard twitch uncontrollably.

Due to its rushed design and limited size, the collector’s capabilities were modest, meant for grabbing beetles or earthworms at most.

Tackling a beast this large was clearly beyond its scope.

For a creature of this size, the tranquilizers and electric shocks were woefully inadequate, neither enough to sedate nor kill.

The enraged lizard, harassed endlessly, clawed and bit at the collector, making it creak, though its steel body left the lizard merely hurting its own tongue.

Chen Mo eventually intervened to “break up the fight,” and both sides backed off.

He returned the severely drained collector to its charging station, stuffed the lizard into a storage bag, and weighed it. The material weight for this transfer was already met. Chen Mo retrieved the collection box, returned to his room, and skillfully activated the altar to send the “package” through.

Just then, a voice came from the door.

“Roy, someone’s sent you an invitation!”

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