The First Night of Becoming an Apprentice

Saul looked at the maid incredulously.

He was only twelve years old!

Saul pulled the heavy cart into the room and slammed the door in the maid's face.

The maid straightened up and beamed unhappily.

At that moment, the maid, who was responsible for delivering books to 603, approached with an empty cart.

She looked at the teenage maid standing outside the door with empty hands and was a bit surprised, "He didn't let you in?"

"It's fine." The maid hooked her collar with her index finger and it popped back onto her flesh, quivering gently, "He'll need it."

Saul, unaware that the man outside the door had taken him for prey, was picking up each book and flipping through it with a blissful look on his face.

Each of these books was thick.

Some of them introduced the plants and animals, minerals, etc. in this world where magic existed.

Some tell of the characteristics and legends of some common ghosts and monsters.

Some are like foreign language textbooks, but the complexity of them is comparable to an English-Chinese dictionary.

Others are drawings, but the drawings are so bizarre and horrifying that they can make one's head spin if one looks at them for a long time.

Roughly flipping through each book, Saul went back to check out the things covered by the black velvet cloth.

There was the crystal ball he had seen before, but instead of being pure black, it was transparent.

There was a set of test tube beakers made of clear crystal or glass, matching a small crucible.

There was also a large wooden box divided into a dozen compartments for different items, which contained several sets of clothes and a first level apprentice badge.

These things were all introduced in the apprentice manual, Saul took the manual and compared them one by one, finally recognizing everything.

Saul pinned the apprentice badge on his jacket, and ran his fingers over the slightly rough texture on it.

Thinking about tomorrow's first public class, Saul took out a copy of Wizard Language: an Introduction to Noah's Language, sat back down at the long table, and began to preview.

After all, in his previous life, he had also broken through the high school entrance exams, and Saul was still relatively good at rote memorization and the sea of questions.

There were no windows in the first level apprentice's room, so he couldn't see the outside scenery, and could only tell what time it really was now based on the blue hourglass above his head.

The blue gravel fell one by one, accompanied by the sound of paper turning and pen tips writing, the whole world was silent.

Gulping down the lunch and dinner brought over by the maid, when Saul looked up again to confirm the time, he realized that it was already 12 o'clock in the middle of the night.

Classes would start tomorrow, so he couldn't stay up too late to use up his energy.

Saul stretched his back as the muscles in his body began to groan with soreness, but his spirit was fine and he didn't feel groggy and tired.

After going through the apprentice's mental power test, he realized that his energy had significantly increased, as if some valve had been opened in his body.

Still the days of the servant, he worked until twelve and slept until four when he had to be kicked awake and proceed to get up and work.

At that time, he never felt like he had enough sleep.

But now that he was an apprentice and had time to sleep, he didn't feel sleepy.

"Is it my illusion? It seems like my spiritual brain power is much stronger than before."

Saul couldn't be sure of his state, and decided to ask for some advice when he went to meet his mentor tomorrow.

He scrubbed himself briefly, then walked over to the wall and turned the candle flame to its dimmest.

Whether it was a room or a corridor, the light level of a candle flame could be dimmed to faint, but it should never be extinguished.

This was common sense that even the servants knew.

The kind that can save your life.

Lying down on his bed, Saul got a little excited again.

This bed was about a meter and a half wide, much more spacious and comfortable than the big bunk he used to sleep in.

Saul spread his arms and legs all over to try to take up the whole bed, only now he is small and thin, even lying horizontally is enough space.

After a while of lying with his arms and legs spread out like this, Saul didn't fall asleep. He had no choice but to retrieve another small mass and cover himself tightly with the quilt, and only then did he feel an inexplicable sense of relief.

This time, he fell fast asleep.

At four fifteen in the morning, the biological clock forced Saul to open his eyes.

He sat up and yawned, the slightly cool air inhaled into his lungs and belly immediately waking him up. Bright candlelight poured down once more, and Saul resumed his seat at the long table.

Only just about to turn the pages of his book, he suddenly had a change of heart and walked over to the door, pushing it open a small crack and peeking out.

His room was sixty-four, near the end of the corridor, where he could see the slope up and down the stairs.

Not a moment later, he heard faint footsteps, and the figure of a boy appeared in the dim light, laboriously pushing a cart upward.

Was it Brown?

Saul's eyes widened, and he was still a little eager to try, but finally suppressed the urge within him.

Although his status had changed to apprentice, his strength was still no different from a day ago.

He reclosed the door and sat back down at the long table.

"I remember that Brown took the early morning shift just two days ago, so why is he again today?"

"Is it because I became an apprentice?"

Although the way Saul passed the apprentice test was somewhat questionable and already known by many apprentices.

But the servants might not care about that, they only knew that Saul had changed from a servant to a powerful and terrifying sorcerer apprentice.

Therefore, Brown, who had once led the bullying of Saul, was afraid that he would have to take the early morning shift more often.

Saul wanted to ask Brown who was actually instructed by him to put him to death.

But now is not a good time, for one thing, Saul does not have the ability to torture the truth, and secondly, it is also easy to scare the snakes.

He looked sideways at the hardback book on his left shoulder and reached out to touch his saving grace, but unfortunately his fingers passed through the air and only touched a void.

"Perhaps only when I become a wizard will I be qualified to understand the principles of this hardback."

The threat of death didn't recede just because he became an apprentice, but instead made the looming cloud heavier, and Saul couldn't see at all what kind of vortex of intrigue he was in.

Saul buried his head and plunged back into the sea of knowledge. The only thing that could give him peace of mind now was to learn, to keep learning.

What woke Saul up again was a polite knock on the door.

Outside the door was Korrie, slightly green under her eyes, I'm afraid she was also staying up late studying.

"It's almost time for class, so share what you learned last night eh?" Kori said nonchalantly.

Perhaps this was the true meaning of the phrase, "Genius goes hand in hand with genius."

Saul looked up at the time, and sure enough, it was almost time for class, even a little later than he had expected to leave.

He hurriedly grabbed his books and pen and paper and rushed out the door.

"That hourglass can be set to remind, it's explained in the apprentice manual."

Saul subconsciously gave an OK sign, only Kori didn't read it.

The two walked briskly toward the East Tower, chatting as they went.

"How long did you read yesterday? I've only been reading for two hours and my head is already too groggy to settle down, I have to close my eyes and rest for a while before I can do that." Kori whispered.

Sol's heart skipped a beat and didn't tell the truth.

"Probably take a break after watching for three or four hours straight."

In fact, he had even eaten yesterday with a book in his hand, and the only time he had a proper break was when he lay down on his bed to sleep.

He'd only gotten a total of four hours of sleep and was now glowing with energy.

Even then Kagome stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief for several moments.

"Your mental strength is quite terrifying, no wonder you could stare at that puppet for so long." She glanced down at the book in her hands and said without regret, "If only I could look at it for that long as well."

As they spoke the two arrived in the large classroom on the tenth floor.

The place was surprisingly full of people, many of whom were obviously not this batch of new apprentices.

Apart from the first row, and the last row in the corner, where there were still empty seats, all other places were filled with people.

While Saul was hesitating between keeping a low profile or a high profile, Korie was already walking towards the first row with her head held high.

Noticing that Saul wasn't following, she turned back and raised her chin at him.

"Come on, you can't lay low anymore."

(End of chapter)