Chapter 27 — A Rare Genius
"I see... so that's what I was doing wrong."
Ren focused his mind and cast Fire Spear.
Two spears of flame appeared in midair and shot toward the practice dummy.
Both pierced straight through the target before bursting into flames.
His proficiency was still at Intermediate, but Ren could clearly feel that he had taken a significant step forward.
'Even if you have someone teaching you, that doesn't mean you'll understand everything immediately.'
It was the same in his previous world.
Even if a teacher patiently explained a complicated mathematical formula step by step, that didn't mean the student would understand it after hearing the explanation once. Some people might, but not everyone.
Sometimes, you needed to repeatedly think about the problem, study it, and practice it before everything finally clicked.
The problem wasn't necessarily the teacher.
It was your own comprehension.
Ren could hire a teacher whenever he encountered something he didn't understand, but that didn't mean he could rely on teachers to reach the top.
If simply having enough money to hire good teachers was enough, then the wealthy descendants of powerful families would all be advancing at incredible speeds.
But that clearly wasn't the case.
'The Boundless Growth Technique changes that.'
Its purpose wasn't simply to allow him to acquire different talents.
It could also burn through those talents, temporarily enhancing their effects.
Just now, Ren had burned through his newly acquired Tier 1 Low-Grade Comprehension Talent.
The result had been immediate.
A problem that had troubled him for several days had suddenly become clear.
That was the difference talent could make.
However, Ren also understood the limitations of this ability.
He took out several more resources from his storage ring and converted them into much smaller Tier 1 Low-Grade Comprehension Talent Fruits.
He ate one.
If his Comprehension Talent had been at 59 points before he burned it, the previous process had consumed roughly one point. By eating another small fruit, he could replenish that lost point.
More importantly, he didn't need to waste an entire fruit just to recover a single point. Even if he ate a full fruit, the efficiency would be too low. Instead of increasing his talent by five points, it might only increase it by two or three. And the higher his talent rose, the worse the efficiency would become.
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'There's no reason to be wasteful.'
The Boundless Growth Technique was an incredible ability.
It was also a money pit.
He was essentially turning resources directly into progress, and resources cost money.
A lot of money.
'So I need to use it intelligently.'
Ren couldn't simply burn through his Comprehension Talent whenever he wanted to make his training faster.
Enhanced comprehension didn't magically give him additional training time.
Suppose he was learning a spell that required months of repeated practice.
Burning his Comprehension Talent for an hour could allow him to understand what he was doing wrong, how the spell worked, how to optimize his casting method, or which principle he had failed to grasp.
But it wouldn't give him months of actual practice in that one hour.
He would still need to spend the necessary time practicing the spell and becoming familiar with its execution.
Constantly burning his talent would therefore be extremely inefficient.
He would be destroying valuable talent simply to shorten a process that still required actual practice.
'Don't burn talent to make normal progress faster.'
'Burn it when progress stops.'
That would be Ren's rule.
Used properly, the Boundless Growth Technique would allow him to overcome almost any bottleneck.
As long as he was willing to put in the necessary effort and time, he could eventually learn and master almost anything.
Spells.
Techniques.
Even the creation and modification of techniques.
He might encounter problems along the way, but he would always have a way to overcome them.
That was the true value of the Boundless Growth Technique.
'Of course, having this technique doesn't mean I'm invincible.'
Throughout history, there had always been geniuses with extraordinary talents and people with incredible luck.
There had also been those with exceptional comprehension who created powerful techniques of their own.
But not all of them succeeded.
Many died halfway through their journey.
A dead genius was no genius.
Ren had no intention of becoming one of them.
'I will persist until I succeed.'
Ren's eyes became firm.
'No... I will succeed.'
There was no other possibility.
"Now."
Ren activated the Boundless Growth Technique again.
This time, he wanted to acquire another type of talent.
After processing another batch of resources, a Talent Fruit appeared.
It was a Tier 1 Low-Grade Magic Talent Fruit.
Magic Talent — covered magic affinity, elemental affinity, magical aptitude, spellcasting aptitude, mana control, and related aspects of magic.
Ren consumed it.
Then he created another.
And another.
He ate them one after another until the changes finally settled.
After checking himself with the Boundless Growth Technique, Ren confirmed that he had acquired Tier 1 Low-Grade Magic Talent.
He stopped.
The total cost had reached roughly 3,500,000 Astra.
'Another three and a half million.'
Ren's expression twitched slightly.
His Tier 2 Low-Grade Fire Element Talent was covered by this broader Magic Talent.
That meant he could acquire specific talents individually if he wanted to.
However, the broader talents were much more valuable to him.
Individual talents weren't necessarily that impressive on their own.
For example, his Tier 1 Low-Grade Comprehension Talent had broader effects than his Tier 2 Middle-Grade Technique Talent.
It covered learning, understanding, mastering, and modifying techniques and spells.
His Technique Talent was more specialized.
The Comprehension Talent was broader.
It wasn't simply stronger in every aspect, but its range was much greater.
That was why Ren preferred these comprehensive talents.
One shouldn't look down on a Tier 1 Low-Grade talent just because of its grade.
A talent that covered such a broad range of abilities could already make its owner a rare genius.
And Ren's Magic Talent was no different.
He took out a Talent Testing Spell Talisman from his storage ring and activated it.
A wave of light flashed through his body.
Then, characters began appearing on the talisman one after another.
Tier 2 Low-Grade Fire Element Talent.
Then—
Tier 1 Low-Grade Water Element Talent.
Tier 1 Low-Grade Wind Element Talent.
Tier 1 Low-Grade Light Element Talent.
Tier 1 Low-Grade Space Element Talent.
Tier 1 Low-Grade Time Element Talent.
Tier 1 Low-Grade Rain Talent.
Tier 1 Low-Grade Cloud Talent.
Tier 1 Low-Grade Sound Talent.
Tier 1 Low-Grade Poison Talent.
Tier 1 Low-Grade Magic Affinity.
Tier 1 Low-Grade Spell Affinity.
One talent after another appeared.
The talisman continued flashing until it began to heat up.
Then—
Boom!
The talisman exploded.
The explosion was small, so Ren simply cast Telekinesis and used it to form a barrier, blocking the blast.
He looked at the results with a wide grin.
All of these individual talents were only Tier 1 Low-Grade.
But they didn't exist in isolation.
The various affinities complemented and enhanced one another.
Because of that, their combined effect was far greater than what any single talent could provide.
His Tier 1 Low-Grade Magic Talent now had a greater overall effect than his individual Tier 2 Low-Grade Fire Element Talent.
It meant Ren could now learn spells and techniques from virtually any element he wanted.
And because his various talents enhanced one another, his training speed in those elements could reach a level comparable to possessing a Tier 2 talent in that particular element.
Ren had effectively transformed himself into a rare all-rounder genius.
A self-made one.
A wide grin spread across Ren's face.
He wanted to continue.
Unfortunately, his remaining money put a stop to that idea.
Ren checked his bank account.
Of the original 15,500,000 Astra, only around 5,500,000 Astra remained.
'It's better to invest some of this into my actual strength.'
If he became stronger, he could start taking missions.
Missions would earn him more money.
More money would allow him to purchase more resources.
And more resources would allow him to make further progress with the Boundless Growth Technique.
It was a simple cycle.
'First, I need strength.'
Ren made his decision.
For now, he would stop spending huge amounts of money on talents.
He had already established an incredible foundation.
Now it was time to turn that foundation into actual strength.