The group of apprentices was pumped, listening intently to the content of Harbos's next lesson.
But after ten minutes of the class, the apprentices all began looking at their acquaintances with blank stares.
None of them understood what Harbos was talking about.
Lai Yi turned her head to look at Furan and saw that she was already boredly picking at her fingers; only then did her nervous heart relax.
"You don't understand either?" Lai Yi asked in a whisper.
"Huh!?"
Lai Yi repeated herself softly. Furan looked at the prompts on her panel.
[Metallurgy (Entry) (Proficiency: 45/100): The study of forging things.]
[You have listened to a master's lecture, Metallurgy proficiency +20]
To be honest, Furan didn't understand at first either, but her proficiency grew so fast that it immediately brought her Metallurgy to the entry level.
Then she found she could understand two out of every ten sentences, though she still didn't grasp Harbos's meaning at all. She couldn't figure it out herself, so she simply decided to wait for her proficiency to rise before listening again.
Speaking of which, the proficiency given by a master's lecture was high and grew incredibly fast. Without this class, improving Metallurgy would likely involve swinging a hammer miserably.
However, she couldn't tell Lai Yi about this improvement—that she would understand more and more. She said loudly:
"Of course I don't understand!!"
Furan's voice was louder than Lai Yi expected. She was dazed for a moment before remembering why she had been whispering.
"Don't be so loud. Even if others can't hear you, you're noisy to me."
Lai Yi spoke awkwardly in a normal voice, while Furan continued picking her nails nonchalantly.
Elan was also drawn by their exchange. He glanced at Furan's completely inattentive expression and shook his head.
Just as he thought, if even the head of a School had to come out and recruit apprentices, there were clearly major issues.
Never mind these apprentices; even he, who had been a Formal Mage for years, didn't understand.
The entire lesson was about weapon forging, but it wasn't like the blacksmithing work the apprentices had imagined.
The content Harbos taught was simply too advanced.
It was like someone teaching you to solve a math problem; you know the steps exist, but you don't understand why they are being done, and then they produce a result using a bunch of operations you don't comprehend.
Harbos's lecture was the same. He was currently teaching 'how to craft a High-Level Staff.' Not only were the technical terms incomprehensible, but they also didn't know what all the processes were for.
"Polygon Gem Placement," "Spell Reaction Time," "Near-Magic-Free Environment"... the apprentices couldn't understand these terms and steps at all.
Some among the apprentices had worked as Magic Craftsmen and made staves; they all looked troubled.
It was reasonable for those who hadn't made a staff to not understand, but it was a bit embarrassing for those who had.
Wasn't making a staff just about choosing the right materials and inlaying gems or other amplification materials? Why did they need to be cut into special shapes?!
At most, drawing some Mana-Conducting Patterns inside the staff counted as advanced craftsmanship; learning that would mean never worrying about food for life.
Elan knew why Harbos was teaching such obviously overly profound content.
Because the School Harbos founded was called the Furnace Casting School. With a name like that, it was clearly a School very skilled at making weapons.
Harbos taught this because he had nothing else to teach.
His School was newly established and severely lacked low-tier knowledge.
He used to be a member of the Elemental School. Founding a School naturally involved using Spells he had researched for years, and he intended to teach these Spells in his School.
But the problem lay there: as a Fourth-Tier Mage, your specialty is naturally casting fourth-tier or Third-Tier Spells, not Spells that even an apprentice could learn.
That would be neither practical nor meaningful.
The Spells Harbos could teach had to be based on the content he was lecturing; if you didn't learn that, you certainly wouldn't learn his Spells.
And that was the issue. His School didn't have the complete system for apprentice learning that long-established large Schools had; even the lowest-level Spell he could teach was a First-Tier Spell.
He also knew Spells from the Elemental School, but those couldn't be taught to these apprentices.
Before Harbos, many School founders went through this. Either you had connections and could persuade a large group to switch to your School, or you did what he was doing now: teach profound content to apprentices to see if you could find a few extraordinary geniuses to help you refine the low-tier Spells.
What if someone listened to your lecture and went back to compile a Spell based on your content?!
While lecturing, Harbos was also observing whether the apprentices had actually learned.
This one doesn't get it, that one doesn't understand either, the one in the back has given up... Harbos's heart grew colder. He knew his situation was even worse than previous School founders.
Other School founders were specializations of a certain aspect of a major School. For example, the Elemental School gave rise to primary element Schools like the Blaze School, Frost School, and Lightning School... and the Necromancy School gave rise to the Modification School.
Although they didn't have their own low-tier Spells at the start, they had connections to the major Schools and could easily modify a few of their own Spells based on the previous School's content.
But the path he was taking was extremely difficult, with no low-tier Spells to reference.
He had tested it before coming; those low-tier blacksmithing tasks and enchantment crafts simply couldn't power the Spells he created.
What he was teaching now was already the bare minimum content that could drive his Spells.
"If only there were low-tier craftsmanship techniques that could support the release of my Spells," Harbos hoped.
Current high-end Spell craftsmanship had gone through countless iterations; the manufacturing process had long ago reached an abstract stage, which was a major obstacle for him to derive low-tier Spells.
Of course, he could search through historical records for old techniques, but picking a suitable one wasn't something that could be done overnight.
Not to mention those records might be fake.
Harbos finished teaching all the content for making high-level staves, but the apprentices all looked at him with blank stares.
"The above is the entire process of how to craft a High-Level Staff."
"If you can gain a deep understanding of this process, then you can learn a Spell and thereby become a member of the School."
"Next, let me introduce this Spell to you. It's called Appliance Enchantment. If you can learn it..."
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