Chapter 32: Checklist

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Laker was not only a straight-A student, but he also had decent magical talent. Not only did he not have to pay to attend Plato Academy, but he also earned money.

What Su Ye was most envious of was Laker’s talent—Photographic Memory. That was the most powerful talent among all of the memory-related talents. Typically, a mage would only barely have Photographic Memory when they reached the legendary level and after combining various other abilities.

Su Ye was deep in thought when Laker closed his book and stood up. He said, “I’ll head out first, see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”

Su Ye did not have to think too hard to know that Laker would first get food from the cafeteria. He would give half of his food to his sister, just like he did during lunch.

He had made a request before he came to the Plato Academy, which was to allow him to bring an extra portion of food back home.

Su Ye felt that he could interact more with Laker in the future. After all, out of the seven people at the last table, only Laker and himself were considered relatively normal.

There were many benefits to attending the Plato Academy. One of them was that he could have his dinner at the academy before heading home.

Su Ye saw that Palos was still studying and was about to remind her again, but then he thought that reminding her once was enough. Giving her too many reminders might invite misunderstanding. He thus headed to the cafeteria.

After dinner, Su Ye headed to the arena once again to take a look around.

Hort was being beaten as if he was a Pig Gnome, but he was still enjoying himself. Su Ye could not bear to watch.

Jimmy was running and had left the third-years, who were running with him, half a lap behind.

Su Ye carried his spellbook and headed home after he loitered around the arena a short while.

Along the way, Su Ye did not waste time. He engaged in Walking Meditation, also called Kinhin.

While he was walking, Su Ye gave up on sensing the physical world as well as his thoughts. He put all of his concentration into his stride and legs. He sensed his movements as well as his body.

Su Ye did not engage in deep meditation as there were people and vehicles on the street. In the past, he only engaged in Walking Meditation in parks where there were no vehicles.

The sky had become dark by the time he reached home.

Su Ye had regained his energy through the use of Walking Meditation. His mind felt fuller.

The first thing Su Ye did when he stepped through the door was to apologize to the three divine statues. He placed the three divine statues back in their original positions, then left the living room.

Su Ye returned to his bedroom and flipped open his spellbook. He started writing on a blank sheet of paper.

Evening checklist:

1. Recall and study the material Teacher Niedern taught about meditation and draw up a simple mind map.

2. Flip through the meditation textbook and find the important key points, then try to gain a basic understanding.

3. Meditate and use logic to find the Light of the Divine Realm that belongs to me.

4. Prepare for tomorrow’s classes.

5. Revise the mind map of the key points for math class.

Su Ye wanted to do simple revisions for the other classes last year, but the teachers had gone through several of last year’s topics in the period they had today. He could not understand what the teachers were saying. He could only study on his own for now and formally start listening to the classes tomorrow.

Su Ye looked at the checklist and scrutinized it.

A small trick for creating a checklist was to start the task with a verb. This way, the checklist prompted him to take action immediately and had a stronger sense of enforcement. It was a basic technique used for time management.

Su Ye did not flip open his notes on the meditation class while he was making his mind map about it. Instead, he directly used the Memory Retrieval technique. He constantly recalled the information presented during the lesson and recorded them onto the mind map one after the other.

Su Ye only flipped through the key points he had noted down and supplemented the mind map when he truly could not think of any new key points by himself.

Memory Retrieval was a method that helped with both memory and studying. Even though it was extremely tiring, it was very effective.

The reason as to why he only recorded down an extremely limited number of key points and not a bulk of information was because it was faster, and it also trained the brain. It would be more effective if he paired this note-taking style with Memory Retrieval after the lesson.

Su Ye only noted down the key points because he was afraid that he would forget them.

When he encountered a few key points that he did not understand, Su Ye sent a magic message directly to Teacher Niedern to clarify his doubts. He then continued on his mind map for the meditation class.

After he finished the mind map, Su Ye once again looked at Niedern’s message. He read through the message and realized that all his doubts had been cleared. He replied, expressing his thanks, and attached his three takeaways from the lesson.

Su Ye flipped through his evening checklist and swiped the first line with his finger. The line of words was colored black, indicating that he had completed his first task.

Then, Su Ye quickly flipped through his meditation textbook and extracted a large number of foreign keywords. He was dizzy.

Su Ye wanted to make a mind map after he extracted the keywords and understood it in his own words but realized that he was running low on energy. He thought for a moment, then decided not to force it. He started to meditate.

Meditation was a powerful tool for recovering energy. When Su Ye returned from work in the past, he would always find a way to engage in 20 to 30 minutes of light meditation to give him the energy to study. His energy would be restored after meditation, which would guarantee him results during his nighttime studies.

Su Ye would give up on meditation if he was especially tired as being fatigued was not ideal for meditation. He might as well get a good rest or sleep.

Su Ye decided to cut down on rest when he thought about the dangers he faced, his goals, as well as the nightmarish number, “55.” He started meditating to restore his energy.

However, Su Ye flipped open his spellbook before he started meditating. He expertly picked out the magic three-dimensional projection of Master Plato and placed it by the door.

“Bless me, Master.”

Su Ye returned to his chair after he spoke and quickly entered a meditative state.

Just like before, Su Ye’s mind turned into a little man made out of light. The figure flew continuously under the dark blue Barrier of the Two Realms.

He could not sense time in this mental world.

Su Ye concentrated on finding the furthest Light of the Divine Realm.

Su Ye only realized that there were different levels to the Divine Realm after he read the meditation textbook.

The place a person entered when they just started meditating was the lowest level of the Divine Realm, which was also the closest to the Human Realm.

The deeper a person meditated, the closer they would get to the source of the Divine Realm, and the greater the power they would obtain.

Most importantly, every person could only choose one Light of the Divine Realm their entire lives. They could not change it. Even a deity could not change it.

Even though the achievements of extremely powerful mages were not solely decided by their Light of the Divine Realm, choosing a Light of the Divine Realm in the deeper regions would grant a noticeable boost in the speed of their growth.

In Su Ye’s heart, the status and reputation of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the rest of the legends were not inferior to the deities. Thus, Su Ye assumed that even if these people did not know high-level meditation techniques, they would still choose the Light of the Divine Realm from the deepest regions.

Su Ye completely forgot that the purpose of his meditation was to rest. He flew forward toward the deeper regions with all his might.

“Most people start to learn spells or battle techniques when they are just six or seven. I am nearly ten years behind them, which means that my road as a mage will be a hundred times more difficult. So from now on, I will grab onto every opportunity I have tightly. I will build on every foundation that allows me to grow. Even though this Light of the Divine Realm cannot determine everything, it still has an important impact on my life.”

“Even if my first Light of the Divine Realm is not comparable to that of the Three Saints of Greece, it can’t be much weaker than theirs!”

Sometime later, Su Ye suddenly saw a ray of white light. He flew over in a hurry.

An ordinary ray of Divine Realm Light was very thick. It usually had a diameter that was over a thousand times the height of Su Ye’s mental body.

However, this ray of Divine Realm Light was extremely thin, its diameter only a dozen times longer than the current Su Ye. It was thinner than all of the Light of the Divine Realm that he had seen to date.

This ray of light was also much more blinding than the rest of the rays.

Even though Su Ye did not touch it, merely looking at it gave him a feeling that it harbored an indescribable power.

Su Ye hesitated for a few seconds, then clenched his teeth and made his way around the ray of light. He traveled deeper into the region.

Time passed slowly, but Su Ye had lost all concept of time. He continuously flew toward the deeper regions.

Sometime later, Su Ye suddenly froze. He then accelerated once again and stopped before a ray of light.