The arrival of the Augustine family was merely a brief interlude, and Locke soon returned to his daily routine of intense study.

Time passed quickly. Winter turned to spring, and Locke had spent one year and three months at Aurelian Academy.

In Locke's dormitory, he had finished reading all nine books on the Vine Hand spell.

On his windowsill, a potted Mandrake Vine had grown from a single seed into a green vine about three meters long.

Under Locke's daily infusion of mental energy, the vine had developed remarkable traits, even expressing simple emotions.

For instance, when the air grew cold, the vine’s leaves would slightly curl, as if a person were huddling for warmth after catching a chill.

If it lacked water, the vine would gently tap the window with its leaves to remind Locke to water it.

Today, Locke turned to the final page of the ninth book on Vine Hand.

It detailed the final step: fully maturing the Mandrake Vine, detaching it from the soil, and grafting it onto his mental energy.

This would allow the Mandrake Vine to be carried with him at all times, ready to be activated by a spell in combat.

Like a vine pet.

Locke arranged ten stones inscribed with ancient runic script in two circles around the Mandrake Vine’s pot, then softly chanted the incantation.

At the same time, the Mandrake Vine, which had been climbing along the window, began to stir. Its leaves quivered, and the vine itself slowly crawled across the glass.

Holding a fresh flower, Locke quickly reviewed the final step in his mind, the common dangers and potential side effects of mental energy grafting.

Locke said, “Mental energy grafting is the final step of the Vine Hand spell. It involves removing the nurtured Mandrake Vine from the soil and, through a ritual, connecting it to my mana, nourishing it with my mana. This allows me to command the Mandrake Vine, refine it further, and use it to attack my enemies.”

“According to the knowledge in the books, Wizard Cole from Virdantia University, who created Vine Hand, proposed a hypothesis, the Wood Element Particle Plant Birth Hypothesis. In this theory, wood element particles didn’t originally exist in this world. But after certain plants emerged, they rooted in water and earth, combining water and earth element particles to form composite wood element particles.”

Locke thought, “Thus, wood element particles didn’t exist originally. The foundation of plant magic lies in plants themselves, which generate wood element particles.”

“Unfortunately, up until two hundred years ago, Wizard Cole hadn’t found the plant he hypothesized created the first wood element particle. So, his hypothesis remains unproven, lacking sufficient evidence.”

“But this hypothesis is one of the foundations for all spells developed by Wizard Cole, the Vine Wizard. Thus, using Vine Hand requires transferring concentrated wood element particles from elsewhere to my Mandrake Vine.”

“And the most concentrated source of wood element particles is plants themselves.”

“Hence, the casting medium for this spell is a plant. If I cast it empty-handed, I’d pay the price with my own life force. My own arm, my own muscles, would wither…”

Locke mentally reviewed all the critical points from the nine books.

This was his first time truly casting a spell, his first time independently using magic.

Strangely, Locke wasn’t as nervous as he’d expected. Instead, he felt calm and composed, as today’s casting was the culmination of nearly two years of relentless review and contemplation.

Every step was deeply familiar to him.

Dean Tongus had warned the three of them that Corfu Island, unlike the wizarding world, had scarce magical resources. This meant injuries caused by magic were hard to treat, as few healers were available.

In the past, the academy had seen wizard prospects die from their own spells’ backlash due to carelessness.

Locke transferred the life force and wood element particles from the flower in his hand to the Mandrake Vine. The flower rapidly withered, while the Mandrake Vine sprouted new green leaves, quickly maturing and nearing adulthood.

Holding an obsidian ritual knife, Locke carefully carved Ogham script beneath the Mandrake Vine’s stem.

Through these runes, he would formally graft his mana to the Mandrake Vine, which had been shaped by his mana, making it an extension of himself, like an arm.

Ogham, an ancient language, was the universal rune for plant magic.

This was why learning Vine Hand required prerequisite courses, such as Basic Botanical Magic Knowledge.

Since the Mandrake Vine had been nurtured and shaped by his mana for so long, its branches strengthened, its spirituality enhanced, and its essence optimized, it offered little resistance.

Still, Locke needed to focus all his attention on carving the Ogham runes. He had to inscribe sixteen runes in total.

A single mistake could, at best, destroy the Mandrake Vine. At worst, a spell backlash could overwhelm him with wood element magic, turning every cell in his body into wood, transforming him into a wooden figure.

When wizard apprentices studied plant magic, being turned into a wooden figure by backlash was a relatively common accident.

But even stranger outcomes were possible. The books described a wizard apprentice who miswrote a single Ogham rune, turning what should have been a grafting into a fusion with the vine.

Fusing with a magical plant, however, was an advanced field of plant magic, studied only by first-circle wizards.

As a result, that third-class wizard apprentice turned into a humanoid plant, losing all self-awareness.

He was later retrieved by Wizard Cole for research, the details of which were omitted in the books.

About half an hour later, as Locke carefully carved the final Ogham rune, his body shuddered. The Mandrake Vine in the pot rapidly matured under the infusion of life force. With a ‘snap,’ its body broke at the root, splitting into two segments.

The half-meter root remained in the pot’s soil, rapidly yellowing and losing all vitality.

The two-and-a-half-meter Mandrake Vine, bearing the sixteen Ogham runes, glowed with enchanting green light, signaling the completion of the plant magic.

Locke softly recited an incantation.

The vine, like a snake, began to writhe on the ground, nimbly climbing onto Locke’s legs, then his body, attempting to slip into his sleeve. But the cuff of his white woolen school uniform was too small, and after several failed attempts, it gave up.

It wrapped around Locke’s right arm, with the excess coiling at the base of his shoulder, hanging on his body.

Locke sensed the Mandrake Vine had entered a dormant state. After all, without being a first-circle wizard, it was difficult to keep a magical plant active with plant magic.

That would consume vast amounts of mana.

In severe cases, it could even backfire, forcing the wizard to pay with their own life force, causing parts of their body to wither.

Thus, he could only activate the vine during combat by reciting the incantation and sacrificing a plant, reviving the Mandrake Vine for an instant to attack enemies.

Locke exhaled a heavy breath, walked to the desk, and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. A delighted smile spread across his face. “It’s finally done.”

He closed his eyes. The moment he completed the Vine Hand spell, he became a third-class wizard apprentice.

With his eyes closed, he vaguely saw a faint star before him, orbiting his mental energy core. Within that star were the sixteen Ogham runes, forming a trick spell model.

The books noted that first-circle plant magic required at least a hundred runes, with exponentially increasing complexity. But as a mere trick spell, sixteen Ogham runes sufficed to create a functional spell.

Locke picked up a narcissus flower from the desk, recited an incantation, and the flower in his left hand withered at an astonishing speed. Simultaneously, the Mandrake Vine on his right arm reacted swiftly, extending five vine branches like a plant hand, striking the dormitory wall and leaving five holes.

With a sudden effort, the five branches gripped like a human palm, digging a crater in the wall with a loud crash.

After this, the Mandrake Vine wilted, quickly retracting to Locke’s right arm, resuming its rest.

Locke stared at the scene in disbelief. “This power is greater than what the books described.”

“First, written descriptions are limited compared to hands-on experience. Second, the high quality of my Vine Hand spell likely boosted its power.”

Locke glanced at the Deep Blue Jades scattered around his room, alongside the used, depleted ones.

These Deep Blue Jades filtered his mental energy, stabilizing its fluctuations, increasing his precision in carving Ogham runes by about thirty percent compared to an average wizard apprentice.

This explained the enhanced power of his Vine Hand.

Such was the power of the Horadric Synthesis Cube.

Given the significant effect of these Deep Blue Jades and their consumable nature, acquiring them in the wizarding world would likely be challenging, requiring substantial resources—resources likely out of reach for a small wizard like him with no background.

Locke glanced at the pile of depleted Deep Blue Jades, recalling Dean Tongus’s emphasis on the scarcity of magical resources. He suddenly felt his use of them was somewhat extravagant.

“Three months from now, the wizard ship will arrive at Aurelian Academy.” Locke pulled a black trench coat from his wardrobe and draped it over himself, concealing the Mandrake Vine, which looked like a pet snake on his right arm. “Now that I’m a third-class wizard apprentice, I need to share this good news with Teacher Tongus, Kode, and Patty.”

“With three months left, I’d better not waste time. I’ll ask Teacher Tongus what I still need to work on.”

After all, the more outstanding he was, the more options he’d have to choose his preferred academy when boarding the wizard ship.