I Might As Well Quit This Lousy Wizard Profession

Chapter 38: 038 Black Cat and Grey Wolf! Chapter 38: 038 Black Cat and Grey Wolf! Today, Lin An planned to thoroughly memorize both “Research on Walking Armor and Iron Floats” and “Military Preparation: Leather Armor Section” at the company.

His confidence stemmed from the fact that he had absorbed the leech-like Spirit Essence mucus from Zhou Xiaoxiao the night before. Deep within his body, that amber-like Spirit Essence still had plenty of substance.

The grand spell release of ‘Sky-Scanning Eyes’ in the wee hours seemingly hadn’t consumed too much of this amber Spirit Essence.

‘Sky-Scanning Eyes’ was fun, but that was all it was—fun.

Allowing the Spirit Essence to aid his brain in memorizing the content of books was what he should be doing.

Unfortunately, the young boss insisted on dragging him into the company’s interview activities.

According to the boss, an interviewer’s experience would create an unspoken low status in the candidates, making it easier to lead them later when developing new games with Lin An.

Especially Lin An, who would carry an invisible aura of authority.

The boss claimed this was based on ancient literati practices; even those flattering and with official positions felt psychologically impacted upon seeing their former exam proctors.

Lin An didn’t understand this and just honestly followed along.

Some of the works brought in by the candidates were truly eye-opening, and Lin An couldn’t help but want to exclaim in amazement, but the young boss had him sit in the middle with a stern face the whole time, saying this posture was full of authority.

Not speaking meant not giving himself away, as people tend to fill in the blanks on their own.

That’s what they said.

But in reality, both the young boss and Lin An were just there to make up the numbers.

The only real interviewer was Mr. Wang from the HR department, a middle-aged woman with sharp eyes behind glasses, who had been personally promoted by the young boss’s father and had served the company ever since.

This head of HR truly understood what kind of artists and planners the company needed.

The young boss respected her a lot, but still managed to obtain the right for Lin An to independently appoint members of the “Special Projects Group.”

“If you see someone suitable, pick a few. You mentioned wanting a charging general before; I’ve already scoped out a few candidates, and we should see results in a few days,” he said.

“Handle the rest as you see fit.”

Lin An glanced at Mr. Wang, who just pushed her glasses and smiled at Lin An, “The boss showed me that green shield work, and I’m extremely in agreement with his view—that our company’s moment to rise has arrived.”

Is that so?

Confidence is cultivated step by step. When the company’s boss and senior managers had expressed recognition and valued his skills, Lin An gradually became more relaxed.

He indeed had someone in mind.

This person…

Looking at the vision before him, a mermaid emerged, her face sorrowful, her falling tears turning into pearls.

Lin An could see those pearls rolling across the floor and then dissipating into mist, vanishing into the air.

Meaning, this was also a person from whom he could harvest Spirit Essence.

He had covertly observed the young boss; at the sight of the mermaid, there was no reaction similar to when they encountered the witchcraft-concealed monitor, where his father’s Lu Jiao antlers created a massive illusion.

Lin An hesitated, wondering if this was considered exploiting his position for personal gain, yet he couldn’t help wanting to bring more benefits to his highly pressured future.

This pressure came from Wizards, from Witch-Hunting Knights, and also from the helplessness he felt as an outsider in the upcoming game development.

“Do you all think this person is suitable?” Lin An flipped through a stack of resumes and pulled one out.

The young boss said with a chuckle, “If you think so, that’s good enough.”

Though he said that, he still took the resume and looked at it, raising an eyebrow, “The mature lady in black stockings?”

“???” Lin An was baffled, “Black stockings?”

Truthfully, he didn’t remember what clothes the person had worn, as the mermaid wearing only two small shells seemed more tempting, especially with those falling pearls.

Mr. Wang glanced at it and nodded, “Zheng Miao, quite well-known in the circle back then. Rumor has it she had a temper and threw an ashtray at her boss during a quarrel, hitting him on the head, and has been freelancing since leaving that job. However, due to her avant-garde aesthetics, she’s pitifully short on contracts.”

She pushed up her glasses, corners of her mouth slightly upturned, “Just now, the work she brought looked very different; clearly, she is starting to question her past convictions, becoming very unconfident, and her work seemed somewhat all over the place.”

The young boss stroked his chin, looking at Mr. Wang, “What do you think about this…”

Mr. Wang took the resume from him, smiling slightly, “Solid fundamentals, no rigid adherence to aesthetics, and clearly willing to bow to life’s demands and take direction; I think she’s suitable.”

Looking at Lin An, she said, “If you’re sure about this person, I’ll have someone talk to her more, give her some hope but string her along, wear down her temperament, and then she can be arranged to start work.”

Sss~

Observing Mr. Wang’s scheming expression, Lin An involuntarily shivered.

Oh mama~

Is this how you HR people operate?

Regardless, seeing Mr. Wang handle it with ease, it seemed this person was likely to join the “Special Projects Group.”

With the addition of this person, Lin An looked forward to the rest of the interviews, but it seemed there weren’t many whose Spirit Essence visions leaked out like this. None appeared after this perfunctory overview, so it was quite a pity.

After lunch, Lin An returned to his office and picked up “Military Preparedness – Leather Armor.” Assisting memory with Spirit Essence proved to be very effective: memory, thinking, comprehension—everything significantly improved.

And Lin An discovered that this method of enhancing brain power with Spirit Essence didn’t seem to be witchcraft.

First, there didn’t appear to be the illusion effects exposed by the dark golden world he noticed before. Lin An realized that every time a Wizard cast a spell, it sustained that dark golden world and divine figures.

Second, when the young boss came over once, Lin An risked not stopping, and indeed it didn’t trigger any reaction from the young boss, or alternatively, the response of his father’s Lu Jiao antlers embedded in his Spirit Essence.

Lastly, Lin An finally noticed that when he used this Spirit Essence to enhance brain power, black smoke like flames would emanate from his body.

And this black smoky fire, he seemed to have only seen on members of the Antler Knight Brigade.

Could this be a tactic of the Witch-hunting Knights?

Lin An couldn’t help but recall how the little boss referred to the Witch-hunting Knights’ early training method as ‘Demon Consumption,’ where they absorbed the Demonic Qi from monsters (Sorcerer Zombies), and the Witch Hunter Knights went so far as to expand their hunting range from Sorcerer Zombies to wizards.

Could it be that this wasn’t just a case of “if you can’t solve the problem, solve the person causing the problem,” but that wizards could also be used as a low-end version of Sorcerer Zombies?

And could those black flames of smoke be the exhaust emitted from the Witch-hunting Knights using the Demonic Qi of Sorcerer Zombies or wizards?

Lin An shook his head to stop such baseless speculation. When the interviews resumed at 2 p.m., he went to the hallway to observe those waiting for the interview and noticed that no one had the kind of spirituality that would leak out, so he simply approached the little boss and declined the arrangement to be an interviewer in the afternoon.

He couldn’t make judgments on professional skills either, as he had no idea who was good or bad. Sitting there like a statue, he would have to listen to the little boss’s suggestions and keep a straight face.

What’s the point?

Better to just do things that he was supposed to do well.

The little boss agreed.

Even in a hallucination, the little boss’s head turned into a wolf’s head with an emperor’s crown, comically looking at Lin An, “To know when to advance or retreat, not to compete or snatch, I am very pleased.”

Pleased, my foot.

Oh~

It was you who dragged me over there in the first place, saying you wanted to show off in front of new employees and mix in some seniority-based prestige, but did you actually not want me to participate?

With human hearts being so complex, Lin An tugged at the corner of his mouth and shook his head helplessly as he returned to the office.

What kind of person was this?

He quickly immersed himself in the world of armor; leather armor and iron armor didn’t have a clear-cut boundary, with iron armor often using some leather materials, and leather armor sometimes incorporating iron sand, iron sheets, or plates.

The method of using spirit essence to enhance cognitive abilities worked very well. In just an afternoon, Lin An actually managed to memorize two thick books and clearly understood their contents.

Interestingly, Zhou Xiaoxiao’s leech spirit’s amber-like essence turned out to be more suitable for this task than Chen Xinmi’s dark golden blood spirit essence.

Zhou Xiaoxiao’s Amber Spirit Essence had a very unique tension and toughness, combined with a soft and moist feeling that came with focus and perseverance.

In comparison, Chen Xinmi’s cold spirit that contained restlessness seemed more suitable for Lin An to use to comprehend skills like Breathing Techniques.

It seemed that spiritual essence didn’t have qualitative differences, but it did have property differences.

Of course, this near-cheat-like ability wasn’t without side effects.

When Lin An closed the “Armor and Iron Floating Tutelage Exam Certification,” amazed that he could remember every detail in the illustrations and even recite the content backwards, a terrible wave of fatigue overwhelmed him, and his brain began to feel dazed.

In a faint whisper, murmurs from an unknown distant direction reached him again, as if someone was shouting at him.

Lin An hurriedly took out a black opaque bag from his computer backpack, and took out several walnuts. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t crack them open.

The glowing little figures inside the walnuts kept babbling, waving their tiny hands and feet around.

Having no choice, he glanced around with his hazy head, simply put the walnuts back into the bag, shoved it under the leg of his office desk, and sat down on the desk before he could finally crack the walnuts open.

Then there arose a question.

Didn’t the little boss seem to crack it open very easily at the time?

Lin An patted his slightly dazed head, picked up the bag, rummaged through it, and found a piece of walnut meat to put in his mouth.

Ugh~

So bitter~

Yet there was an extremely rich fragrance of walnut.

At that moment, a fluffy sensation came upon him, and Lin An turned his head in astonishment only to see a huge cat head staring at him.

“Meow~”

— You’re eating those delicious things again!

The black cat appeared so suddenly that Lin An just stared bewildered.

What baffled him even more was that next to the black cat, a grey wolf had also appeared.

The grey wolf’s cold eyes stared at Lin An, its grey fur moving without wind, subtly rippling with a hint of sapphire blue luster, blending lightness and depth.

It was Mr. Liu’s spirit essence from the programming team!

What was especially unique was that this time, the black cat was different from the last time.

Last time it was always present in the office; this time, the black cat and the grey wolf flickered in and out of the office, sometimes even disappearing suddenly.

Lin An knew this all too well; it was a kind of visual departing and returning to his view.

This…

Were Mr. Liu and Chen Xinmi both watching him at the same time?

How did they end up together?

Had surveillance been installed in the office again?

This was when the advantage of being able to communicate with spirit essence came into play. Pretending to answer his phone, Lin An straightaway asked the black cat, “Where are you guys?”

The black cat nuzzled its warm nose near Lin An’s mouth, sniffing and affectionately rubbed its fluffy tail against Lin An’s arm.

“Meow~”

— We’re in the office building opposite, watching you with binoculars.

“!!!”