The quiet environment made Ivan immensely grateful to the librarian, Madam Pince. The rule against loud noises in the library was clearly necessary.
As a fundamental theoretical book on Transfiguration, A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration wasn't particularly difficult, but its thick pages were obviously not something one could finish in a short amount of time.
An hour passed in a flash, and Ivan's hand had only turned a little more than a third of the way through the book. After some consideration, Ivan continued reading. By the time he had finished the entire book, another hour and a half had passed.
After reading for more than two hours straight, Ivan's head felt a bit fuzzy when he finally put the book down.
These ancient magical books often liked to sprinkle in some mystical and incomprehensible words, as if only by doing so could they display the mysterious nature of magic. This was very jarring for someone like Ivan, who was used to modern textbooks.
"Perhaps this is what it means to be a wizard..." Ivan muttered to himself, thinking that this rather esoteric way of thinking might be the true source of a wizard's talent.
In any case, he couldn't understand it!
[Ding! After a period of careful reading, you find "A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration" to be dry and difficult to understand. Your proficiency in Transfiguration has slightly increased.
Note: "A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration" reading progress: 27%]
The system prompt that sounded in his mind once again took Ivan by surprise, because it hadn't been triggered when he was reading his textbook during class.
Do you have to finish the entire book?
Ivan suddenly noticed the difference. He hadn't finished a single magic book before this. That had to be it.
With this thought in mind, Ivan turned to complain about the system's notification tone, which was no different from a game log.
Ivan felt that although there were some parts he didn't understand after reading the book, it wasn't so bad as to be called "dry and difficult to understand," was it?
He could, however, understand the 27% reading progress.
Anyone who has ever read a book knows that finishing it doesn't mean you've memorized all the knowledge within and can use it freely. Otherwise, wouldn't everyone get a perfect score on exams?
"Now, let's see just how powerful this so-called Scholar's Experience Card really is," Ivan whispered to himself before spending one hundred points to redeem the card.
[Time Remaining: 00:59:59...]
In an instant, Ivan felt as if something had exploded in his brain. All the knowledge he had recently learned and the contents of the books he had read seemed to gush out, only to be categorized and summarized within half a minute. His thoughts gradually became crystal clear...
The feeling was like being used to an old, run-down computer and suddenly being given the latest model.
A minute later, Ivan opened his tightly shut eyes. His right hand gently brushed across the cover of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. Although he hadn't opened it yet, the contents he had previously read had already surfaced in his mind.
The words and sentences that had once seemed obscure, mystical, and difficult to understand now seemed to have new interpretations when combined with their context.
As a basic textbook used by Hogwarts to teach young wizards, A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration must have been revised many times to be refined and concise... at least for wizards.
When Ivan opened the book to review it, he found that he already understood most of the content. All that was left was to re-read the parts he hadn't understood before and had simply skipped over.
Page three, chapter two... page seven, chapter thirteen...
Ivan's hand flew across the pages of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, and the reading progress meter in his mind increased rapidly...
In just twenty minutes, Ivan had finished re-reading the entire book.
[Ding! After a period of careful reading, you find "A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration" to be simple and straightforward, posing no challenge whatsoever. Your proficiency in Transfiguration has greatly increased.
"A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration" current reading progress: 100%!
Reading Reward: 5 Academic Points]
[Transfiguration has reached Level 1. Current Proficiency (12/200). Reward: 5 Academic Points]
The moment Ivan put down the book, two notifications sounded in his mind.
It was worth noting that Ivan felt nothing when his Transfiguration spell leveled up. There was no golden flash of light or any other noticeable effect.
It was just that after understanding the principles of Transfiguration, Ivan felt that casting the spell was no longer a problem. At the very least, the trick of turning a matchstick into a needle was now a piece of cake for him.
Even holding that not-so-cooperative wand wouldn't affect his performance; at most, the effect would be slightly weaker.
This was just as Ivan had previously guessed. Increasing his proficiency wouldn't directly enhance his power; rather, it was more like his power was being expressed through the proficiency score.
Seeing that there were still about thirty-seven minutes left on the Scholar's Experience Card, Ivan didn't hesitate. He rushed to a bookshelf, grabbed the nearest book, A Detailed Explanation of Basic Spell Principles, and began to read.
As soon as he picked it up, Ivan felt that the book was even thicker than he had imagined. Its content was an analysis of commonly used magic spells, as well as some conjectures on the composition of magical energy.
On any other day, Ivan would have found this kind of purely theoretical book incredibly dull, but this time, he was engrossed. He didn't even pay attention to the system prompts that sounded in his mind, completely immersing himself in the ocean of knowledge.
However, halfway through the book, Ivan's expression suddenly changed. He felt as if his once-clear mind had been covered by a white fog, and the continuous flow of thoughts was forcibly interrupted.
The sensation was like... being startled and having to hold it in while you were in the middle of a satisfying pee.
Did I suddenly get dumber?
Ivan stared blankly at the book of spell principles, finding it difficult to adjust to the change in his intelligence.
He stood there stunned for a good while before he finally realized what had happened. He tapped his slightly dizzy head and looked closely. The thirty-some minutes remaining on the Scholar's Experience Card had passed.
Ivan looked at the half-unread book in his hands and unwillingly opened it again. But the other half of the content suddenly seemed profound and difficult to understand. His reading efficiency had dropped by several times over, a fact that was hard for Ivan to accept after having experienced the 'scholar mode' boost.
After reading only a few more pages, Ivan sighed and put the book down.
Having experienced the scholar mode for an hour, Ivan now had a profound understanding of how powerful this redeemed item was.
It wasn't just a matter of increasing his learning speed by a few times. It was a comprehensive enhancement that included his comprehension and thinking abilities, fully capable of turning a slacker into a top student, or even a genius-level scholar!
When it came to learning knowledge, there was almost no such thing as being unable to understand. You just... learned it!