Zhao Mu picked up the Drafting Pen and drew the first stroke on the blank sheet.
It was supposed to be a straight line, yet for someone without any drafting background the result was a crooked squiggle worthy of a three-year-old.
On the panel cradled by the demon clown, the numbers began to jump.
Drawing Straight Lines: Proficiency 1.
Without hesitation Zhao Mu set down a second stroke.
Again it twisted and tangled, looking like random scribbling.
Drawing Straight Lines: Proficiency 2.
The simpler the skill, the faster its proficiency rises.
Zhao Mu's pen moved faster and faster, but to the others it seemed he'd gone mad, jabbing the paper at random.
When Shao Han saw Zhao Mu start to draw he felt a pang of unease.
He was the last person who wanted Zhao Mu to become a Jinhai Master.
So when he spotted Zhao Mu furiously sketching lines he took two steps closer, but after seeing what was happening he burst into loud laughter.
"Zhao Mu! Are you insulting Master Liang? She gave you a chance and you're doodling nonsense! It's hilarious!"
Zhao Mu didn't even glance at him, accelerating instead; the faster he drew, the straighter his strokes became.
Drawing Straight Lines: Proficiency 35.
"Shut it."
Liang Gongchi shot Shao Han a cold look; terrified, he clamped his mouth shut, sneered at Zhao Mu, and returned to Shen Moran's side.
Shen Moran, meanwhile, was outlining stroke by stroke with great care. A meticulous girl, her pen tip glided cautiously across the page, everything looking textbook-perfect.
Yet viewed as a whole, the drawing felt slightly off-balance.
Shao Han murmured to her, "He's hopeless—given up on himself. You're a Space Element Spirit Energy User with an innate edge; becoming Master Liang's Disciple and learning Jinhai Manufacturing is only a matter of time."
He knew full well that producing a flawless Spirit Pattern Diagram in one day was impossible.
Fortunately Liang Gongchi had granted them a month; she could practice slowly.
Shen Moran said nothing, focusing solely on her lines.
Meng Qiuqiu and the others arrived. Though they'd never solved math problems, the complex pattern tempted them to try drawing it.
They gave up the moment their pens touched the paper.
Hand-draw a straight line up to machine precision?
Forget it—no human could do that!
The trio watched Zhao Mu curiously, reluctant to interrupt, and sat in a corner of the studio.
Liang Gongchi didn't chase them out. A nearby girl, busy inscribing something, tapped delicately with a Little Silver Hammer, paying them no heed.
They simply sat there, expecting Zhao Mu to quit after a while.
Half an hour passed.
"Swish!"
A pen swept across the sheet; Zhao Mu's straight-line proficiency had hit 100, automatically unlocking the second-stage skill: Rapid Straight-Line Drawing.
With one stroke the line came out perfectly straight and precisely long.
A smug smile flashed in Zhao Mu's eyes.
Right then, he was the finest straight-line drawer in the entire world.
Seeing him stop and smile, Meng Qiuqiu and the others hurried over.
Shao Han frowned and glanced this way as well.
All they saw amid the chaotic scribbles was one stark-straight line.
Shao Han snorted. "Showing off—what a waste of time."
Meng Qiuqiu: "That line's really straight!"
Zhuo Yun nodded. "Clearly a straight line."
Lu Yan nodded. "Mm."
The three stared at Zhao Mu as if to ask: you spent all this time just playing with lines?
Zhao Mu smiled faintly.
"Now my hand can draw lines perfect enough to rival a machine. Next stage—broken lines!"
The spirit-pattern contained extremely long strokes; Zhao Mu had studied the whiteboard and realized the complex design was made of only five lines.
Drawing them as separate horizontals and verticals would create awkward joints, so polylines were clearly best.
He crumpled a scrap sheet into a ball and tossed it into the nearby bin, then took a fresh one.
"demon clown, switch skill to Drawing Broken Lines."
The demon clown grinned, flipped its panel, and the display changed.
Drawing Broken Lines: Drafting Skill, Proficiency 0.
Ignoring everyone else, Zhao Mu set to work on polylines at once.
Once straight lines were perfect, broken ones became much easier—at least they looked neat, as if machined.
But Zhao Mu wanted more than that.
He demanded perfect control of every angle; when he wanted a right angle it had to be exactly 90°.
Only by pushing the details to the extreme could the intricate spirit-pattern harmonize.
As Meng Qiuqiu and the others watched, their eyes gradually changed.
A shimmer rippled in Zhuo Yun's bright eyes.
Anyone can fluke a perfect line now and then.
Yet every stroke Zhao Mu made was ruler-straight.
"Zhao Mu..."
He stared in shock at the focused drawer as though watching a geometric monster.
Meng Qiuqiu no longer felt bored; he gazed at Zhao Mu as if at a priceless treasure.
"Could my best buddy Zhao Mu be a drawing Genius?"
Zhao Mu said nothing, lost in the world of lines.
Drawing Broken Lines: Proficiency 23… Drawing Broken Lines: Proficiency 36… He wasn't doodling; each time he savored the delicate contact of pen on paper and adjusted his next attempt.
Rising proficiency let him sense the subtlest improvements and merge them into himself.
The three friends gaped, shifting from listlessness to unblinking fixation.
It felt like watching a miracle: how someone could swiftly become a master of line drawing.
In barely an hour Zhao Mu had gone from crooked squiggles to ruler-straight strokes and flawless angled polylines freehand.
"Drawing Broken Lines: Proficiency 72!"
The demon clown cheerfully reported his latest progress.
With his basics solid, Zhao Mu's eyes flashed; pen swept the paper, sketching a lightning bolt.
This time it wasn't simple horizontals and verticals but continuous linked polylines.
Advance Chapters avilable on patreon (Obito_uchiha)