7 First Lesson

Distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors; although this neighbor is quite stern and discomforts normal people who are near her, Damian also took this opportunity to gather information. Just as he was about to speak, he saw someone walking from the end of the hallway. The man walked quickly and shouted loudly, "All newly ascended wizard apprentices must go to the last classroom on the tenth floor of the tower at nine o'clock sharp to attend the first public class!"

Adda looked at the man, who had severe scars on his skin, but she didn't say anything. "It must be the war against the demons; I heard that the last squadron of adult wizards was annihilated by a demon general a few months ago, and now they are sending younger ones every time."

Damian knew about the war where thousands of wizards and hundreds of thousands of warriors died daily at the hands of their natural enemies—something similar to a war in his previous world but much graver this time. No one could expect an attack from demons, much less in places where they live, even here in the wizard tower. That's why, in the absence of wizards in this tower by the end of the year, they all ended up dying at the hands of the demons.

Damian knew that sooner or later they would send him to that battlefield, so he hoped to at least learn enough to stay alive and return with all his limbs attached to his body. "If they're sending younger ones, it means we're losing, right?" Damian muttered these words as he walked towards the tenth floor, where he had been before but never thought it would be a classroom.

As a servant, he had to finish all his duties before dawn, and now that he was an apprentice, he knew that all this was probably because classes had to be taught to the young apprentices. Many young apprentices climbed the stairs, and Damian followed them all. Some new apprentices gathered in the hallway and whispered to each other; the atmosphere was lively and everyone was full of hope.

"Adda!" Two more children ran towards them, and one with bright eyes said, "Let's go to class together."

Adda simply glanced at them lightly, not even responding, and turned to Damian. "Let's go now."

The two people who approached didn't show expressions of anger, but they didn't forget to look at Damian with a little fear in their expressions. Who wouldn't be afraid of a child who seemed blind and had a skeletal hand? Everyone thought he was cursed or had experimented with dark magic before, but no one dared to say anything out of respect.

Damian realized that these people probably thought he had a lot of talent, but he couldn't explain these things, so he just nodded and agreed to go with them. It was still a bit before nine o'clock, and almost all the new apprentices rushed to the classroom as soon as they heard the news.

The wizard tower itself must be cylindrical, wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, and divided into two parts in the middle, becoming the East and West towers. At least these divisions were to maintain some control between the apprentices and those who studied on their own; they were separated by sections, and it was known that as the floors got higher, there were more powerful wizards, totaling twenty floors.

The passages to those upper floors were closed at night, and no one was allowed to ascend to those floors unless they had the authority. Damian, as a servant, had seen the access door because he frequently cleaned the hallways, but he had never been allowed to enter the upper floors of the tower.

Following the crowd, he passed through the passage for the first time and reached the east tower. The tenth floor of this section did not have rooms connected to the West Tower; all that could be seen were gray walls with symbols and patterns that Damian, for some reason, found to be shining. Was that because of his special eyes?

Noticing that no one mentioned this out of fear and because he didn't want to draw attention, Damian said nothing. His eyes could see many more things than others; they were quick to read and could have something similar to photographic memory, being able to store or discard information at will.

"That boy is indeed special."

Boom! Boom!

As they walked, two people in front of them stared blankly at squares with strange runes and fell to the ground because somehow they ended up receiving strong mental blows. Everyone passed by them, and no one approached to help.

Damian passed by the two people and watched them struggle to stand up. His longing for the future life of a wizard apprentice suddenly diminished a lot. "We better be careful with what we look at."

...

"Everyone, be quiet!"

Damian and the others sat in the last classroom on the tenth floor of the tower in the west zone for about ten minutes. Finally, a man in his fifties hurriedly entered through the main door of the classroom.

He quickly reached the classroom desk and placed a hand on the desk. "In the first lesson, I will only teach you the rules that this tower demands so that everyone can learn without disruptions. Anyone who comes to ask me something, demand something, or request something without this knowledge will meet my pet, and believe me when I say it likes to eat creatures as small as all of you."

When the man finished speaking, he snapped his fingers, and behind him, a shadow began to form, increasing in size and eventually forming a huge, strange-looking bear. The apprentices sitting in the front row suddenly leaned back and hit the desk in the last row with a loud metallic sound.

Damian, who was used to seeing horrendous things, didn't lower his gaze but instead focused entirely on the magic circle of that old man to summon that huge bear that didn't seem to be alive but rather a puppet.

The man on stage was very angry; after summoning his pet, he straightened up and shouted again, "Silence!"

No one dared to move, although they were enduring it. "First of all, you must enroll with a primary instructor based on your primary elemental affinity and an extra-class instructor if you are interested in learning something more. My name is Dom, and I am a puppet wizard tutor. I also teach support spells and mental development systems. If any of you are interested in my classes, you have the right to come and ask me to teach you."

Damian was interested in the puppets; were they supposed to create whatever they imagined as long as they had the talent plus the skills? That would be amazing; he still remembered too many things from his past life, and there are incredible creatures he could try to create here. But knowing that it all depended on talent, time, and resources, Damian knew he shouldn't get too excited about this.

Dom seemed to be a green old man who wouldn't teach him anything, and no one seemed interested in choosing him. He quickly took out the book he had in his arms and noted it down with a pen. At the same time, there was a whisper around him, and it was Adda who took out a pencil and paper from her backpack simultaneously and began to jot down the important things not to forget.

There were about twenty people in the classroom, and almost half of them had prepared their own pens and white notebooks for personal notes. Those who were not prepared wanted to borrow from the people next to them but didn

didn't dare to speak, so Dom noticed them.

On stage, Instructor Dom continued talking very fast. "We are at war with the demons; in this tower, we don't have good wizards because they all died in battle, and I think I'm also on my way to that. But before that, I will make sure to teach you many things so that at least you don't die humiliatingly once you fight a demon."

"Anyway, as mere apprentices, you must first learn the basics of magic, and these include defense, attack, and support magic. Only once you have learned the basics can you properly cast magic for battles."

Damian only noted the general topics, things he should keep in mind, and many other things that shouldn't be forgotten before wanting to participate in a battle. "Don't waste time on magic you're not talented at; focus on what you're good at and not what you want, or you'll be old in the blink of an eye. We don't have high requirements; as long as you progress steadily, you'll be taken care of. When you're ready, you'll be sent to the battlefield, so be smart or you'll die doing nothing."

Dom paused; his eyes narrowed towards Damian, who was jotting down without even looking away, and what surprised him most was that his eyes seemed to see through the black cloth. "Magic eyes? That's a trait that very few have; maybe there's none in the wizard tower who has this trait."

"Finally, I would like to remind you: look at the book in front of you; don't think there's something or nothing; that's something only second-class wizards can learn."

Damian was confused. He looked down at the book in his hands and soon saw golden words mentioning the correct way to manipulate magical power. "Very well, that's all; you can visit the library, where you'll find a lot of theory." After saying this, Dom turned around and left the classroom as soon as he had entered.

Without the terrifying tutor, everyone started talking, and suddenly voices in the classroom erupted. Damian didn't join the discussion; he stared blankly at the notes he had just taken, as if he were dazed.

"Is your left hand by birth?" Adda's voice came from Damian's right side. Damian had just taken notes anxiously and habitually pressed the book with his left hand; naturally, Adda saw him sitting beside her.

Damian no longer hid his hand and calmly said, "It changed a few days ago."

Adda frowned, as if she were trapped in some problem she couldn't solve. At that moment, a young man entered the main door of the classroom again. With a smile on his lips and a stack of papers in his hand, he went to the classroom desk.

"It's good that everyone arrived early. That's very good; as human wizard apprentices, we must make use of every second of our time because our lives are very short, and we have to make even more use of our seconds of life."

The young man who seemed to be in a hurry arrived with a stack of papers, restrained his smile, and said, "You will receive a form to choose a primary and a secondary tutor; remember that the classes should be of your most notable element. Remember, when Instructor Dom arrives, don't forget to keep quiet because his ears are sensitive."

Everyone remained silent in shock.

The young man was very pleased; the apprentices in this class were very obedient; only then would they not be discarded. He walked among the rows of seats to distribute the forms and manuals to everyone, but at that moment, he stepped on something sticky.

He looked down, seeing the floor was broken; there were traces of blood and saliva. He looked at the students again while his voice trembled a bit. "Has Master Dom already come?"

"He was already here," whispered a girl sitting in the second row who was looking at the man who believed he had arrived before Dom.