Punk's Disappointment.

Night descended over the land once more. Unlike the still somewhat lively small town of Niailan, the area around the White Tower was absolutely quiet. Due to the spread of the dark energy, large parts of the land were stained with an unusual combination of black and red colors. Everything, from insects to plants, had turned into twisted, dark remnants.

Under the increasingly sharp wind, the remaining remains also became fine dust and disappeared completely into the dark sky.

The sky in the small town of Niailan was very gloomy. The howling wind, the oppressing environment, and widespread moisture all indicated that heavy rain was on its way. The townspeople, who had worked all day, felt uneasy and rushed to gather their things outside. They knew from experience that the old, torn cloth roofs wouldn't keep them dry in the upcoming heavy rain.

Inside the White Tower, Punk was in the middle of experimenting with a Official-level alchemy potion when he suddenly received a notification from the warning system he had set up around the tower. His apprentice assistant had finally arrived.

Punk had expected the arrival of his apprentice assistant well in advance. After all, an apprentice-level mage had no concealment in front of the official-level prophecy spells.

Punk, who was now in a bottleneck in his researches, , felt a bit annoyed by this unexpected visit. The prophecy spell clearly indicated that this young mage had reached the town quite early, but for some reason, she had arrived at the tower later than expected.

These days, Punk was entirely dedicated to numerous research projects, and he had too many other things to do, like, there were a lot of spells that needed to be practiced and studied carefully. Additionally, he had an urgent need to acquire advanced magical skills. He wasn't in the mood to ask about the girl's Journeys; he simply wished that this apprentice would be useful and save him some time.

After setting aside the tools he was holding and placing the partially processed materials on a special tray that controlled the energy, Punk turned around casually to open the door of the White Tower.

Bilan stood tremblingly in front of the gate of the White Tower, which was at least three times taller than her. The white gate was a piece of regular marble with no cracks on it. The entire White tower was like this. It looked like a square tower directly carved from a whole piece of granite.

But the white color of this tall tower did not give Bilan a feeling of whiteness or cleanliness; on the contrary, just standing in front of the door, she felt a filthy and evil aura spreading across the entire hill. And with the gusts of howling cold wind, she felt like countless invisible claws had surrounded her, and the white tower itself was more like a monster that wanted to eat people whole. Seeing this terrifying atmosphere, Bilan had the urge to turn around and escape as far as possible.

"Boom!"

The door of the White Tower opened abruptly, and the loud sound felt like it knocked on the soul in this dead night. Bilan subconsciously took two steps back and looked inside the door.

She saw a hooded young man standing at the door, who had a face that would even make girls jealous. He was wearing a blue robe, the hood covered his light blue hair, and his hands were half inserted in his robe.

However, what impressed Bilan's mind the most, were not these features but the pair of cold, azure blue eyes. Staring in those eyes, she felt a chill in her heart. Under the gaze of those terrifying pupils, Bilan just felt that many of the excuses that she had thought of along the way had been forgotten entirely. And now, she couldn't utter a single word.

Punk frowned slightly, looking at the girl who was standing in front of the door and trembling like a cat facing a hungry wolf.

"While he was somewhat relieved that people no longer responded with "Wow~ So pretty," the terrified expressions also left Punk feeling a little unhappy. It was clear that no one would be pleased if the person in front of them saw them as a creature emerging from the abyss!"

"You are late. Come in"!

Punk, who was still had many experiments to do, had no time to pay attention to Bilan, who had been stunned for more than ten seconds.

In his opinion, the psychological quality of this little girl was not suitable as his experiment assistant, and It also seemed to him like this little girl belonged to the Lawful neutral camp, so he feared that it would be impossible for her to assist him in dismembering living bodies.

Feeling the fearful little girl had already walked into the White Tower behind him, Punk immediately controlled the door to close firmly.

Now he found out that what he thought would be an effortless task was not so easy after all, and the The consequences of opening the abyss portal in the middle of a town were already starting to show.People clearly had a 'misunderstanding' about him; now, those shrewd yet cautious mages were not likely to readily risk their lives to become his apprentices."

In Punk's thinking, if he was that evil, then like the red-robed mages of Sandalin Association, wouldn't he just kidnap potential apprentices instead of announcing a voluntary recruitment notice.

But now he feels that, even if he offers more knowledge and other temptation, aside from a few crazy guys, no one would be willing to take the risk of becoming an experimental subject for a mage associated with the evil camp.".

This was the reason why reputation was also important; it might not bring one strength, and sometimes it might become a burden; still, its importance could not be ignored, at least that was the case before one had the power to influence the entire world.

Punk felt now he had a deeper understanding of things like prestige and reputation.

"But now..."

Punk turned around, looked at Bilan's eyes with an indifferent gaze, and began to explain his plan for this little student in a commanding tone:

"I know that your name is Bilan. Starting today, I allow you to call me your mentor. Your daily tasks are to clean the White Tower, sort out experimental materials, and regular cleaning up..."

After a slight pause, Punk glanced at the minced meat and internal organs stacked in the corner of the tower.

Bilan also followed Punk's gaze, and finally, she realized what those dark things piled in the corner were.

She quickly recognized that those "things" were pieces of scattered fleshes and broken bones, and now she also knew what the strange smell she had been smelling since entering the White Tower was... It was the smell of blood!

"Staring at the pile of minced meat that was still squirming with wide eyes, Bilan felt a surge of churning in her stomach, and severe nausea rose straight from her abdomen to her throat."

After seeing such a tragic scene for the first time in her life, Bilan's eyes became teary, but she still endured the desire to vomit and listened to Punk's following arrangements.

Because her intuition told the girl that if she showed any signs of disobedience now, she would die for sure, and it would be undoubtedly a very miserable death.

"Punk paused once more and observed Bilan. He was growing increasingly disappointed in her. He began to question whether this alchemist, who couldn't even endure this minor situation, would truly save him time or consume more of his time."

"That Lo Lan delivering this kind of goods even after being late for a week? Too disappointing."

Had it not been for the fact that, if he killed this worthless trash before him, he would solidify his status as an evil mage, which might provoke revenge from the lawful factions of Dolez, he wouldn't have hesitated for a second to eliminate this seemingly useless individual and use her for experiments. After all, there weren't enough experimental subjects anyway.

"But at last,"

Punk sighed in his heart and comforted himself:

"It's okay. I am sure I can find some work for this little girl to make her useful."

So, finally, Punk set aside his irritation caused by the failure of his experiment and the inexperience of his new assistant. He proceeded to explain the tasks to the already pale Bilan.