Magic

The dark, cramped room held two wooden beds, a wooden table that looked ready to fall apart at any moment, two relatively intact wooden chairs, and a stove covered in dust and grime, leaving only a narrow passage just wide enough to walk through.

A faint ray of light shone in through a tiny vent high on the room's south wall.

In that light, dust floated through the air like mayflies with nowhere to settle, drifting freely in every direction.

Amid the flickering light and shadow, a thin youth could be seen lying flat on one of the slightly damp wooden beds.

The youth named Gao De in both his previous life and this one was using the faint light to inspect the dusty, cramped room as he breathed in the barely perceptible smell of mildew.

The surroundings were utterly silent.

This place looked less like a residence than a sealed prison cell.

"You're saying I've been unconscious for almost a day?" Gao De finally spoke, asking the youth who was presumably his "roommate."

"I thought you were dead! You scared me half to death!" The youth who answered was extremely thin.

Gao De was already on the skinny side, but this boy was far more emaciated than him. He looked malnourished and was as small as an eight- or nine-year-old child.

Of course, Gao De knew he was already thirteen.

He was the same age himself.

In Gao De's world, that age still counted as childhood.

But here, thirteen was already considered adulthood.

Why had "he" been "unconscious" for nearly a day?

More accurately, how had "he" died?

It was precisely because "he" had died that Gao De had been able to take over this body.

A simple deduction.

Unfortunately, Gao De could not remember anything about how "he" had died. He had no idea where this place was, what his current situation was, or even what the roommate before him was called.

Fortunately, he had not forgotten everything. His predecessor had still left him with some memories.

Some things Gao De considered truly important were clearly engraved in his mind, impossible to dispel.

Perhaps, to "him," the memories of this place had been too painful, so they had not been passed on when Gao De took over the body.

In Gao De's view, that might actually be a good thing—if he had inherited all of his predecessor's memories, then who exactly would he be?

His predecessor, himself, or a new personality formed from the fusion of both?

He had no desire for his personality to change.

The downside was that he urgently needed to understand his situation.

Luckily, he did not need to painstakingly probe for answers. His roommate, Emil, still shaken and unable to stop talking, began explaining everything without even needing to be asked.

"I knew this day would come. Even though, Gao De, you're the only one among us who can independently brew Novice Spider Venom Potions, that means nothing in Mage Seda's eyes."

At that, Emil glanced at Gao De's expressionless face. Seemingly afraid of upsetting him, he mumbled, "What I mean is, we're called apprentices, but everyone knows Mage Seda doesn't treat us like people at all. We're just his human Gray Rats for testing potions, and free servants."

"So Mage Seda doesn't care at all about how capable we are."

Hearing that, Gao De could roughly guess how he had "fallen unconscious."

The key phrase was: potion testing.

Meanwhile, Emil continued chattering. Gao De's earlier coma had clearly frightened him badly, and he needed to vent those negative emotions through talking.

"I'm telling you, I even checked whether you were breathing before! You weren't breathing at all, and I couldn't hear your heartbeat either. You were dead beyond doubt! Yet you actually woke up again. If you weren't talking to me perfectly fine right now, I'd think you weren't human anymore, but undead!"

Emil slapped his thigh, incredibly excited by his roommate's return from the dead.

In a place like this, a companion was his pillar of support.

Besides, if Gao De had died, it would probably have been Emil's turn to test potions very soon.

"Could the potion Mage Seda brewed have succeeded?" Emil guessed.

The thought made him even more excited.

If it really had succeeded, Mage Seda would surely be overjoyed, and they would definitely get to enjoy better days for a while.

And perhaps they would no longer need to test potions?

After all, the potion would already have been successfully brewed.

But Gao De was not as optimistic as Emil.

He knew the truth.

The potion brewed by the Mage Seda Emil kept mentioning had not succeeded.

—It would be more accurate to say it had successfully sent Emil's good roommate on his way.

Gao De rubbed his still faintly aching temples, focusing as he sorted through his thoughts.

As a student in the Jingda Mathematics Department, one of the country's top universities, he had been pulling all-nighters in the school library working on his graduation thesis. He had been so exhausted that he had rested his head on the desk for a short nap.

When he woke up, there was already billowing smoke and a sea of crimson before his eyes.

Endless tongues of flame were licking toward him, leaving him no room to struggle.

Once a fire broke out in a place like a library, it was impossible to contain.

Gao De's fate had therefore been sealed.

People who studied mathematics were generally rational and did not believe in mysticism.

But an ironclad fact told Gao De that this body was no longer his own, and rejuvenation was even more impossible.

Something as absurdly mystical as transmigration had truly happened to him.

Through Emil's nonstop chatter and Gao De's occasional questions, in less than half a day, Gao De had already figured out his current circumstances.

An orphaned street beggar with no parents, taken in as an apprentice by Mage Seda and brought to this herb garden to tend medicinal herbs, brew potions, run errands, and... test drugs on human bodies.

Other than Mage Seda himself, everyone else in the herb garden was an apprentice like Gao De and Emil.

The number of apprentices remained at around ten year-round.

But it was a dynamic balance.

Every so often, Mage Seda would drag away an apprentice to test a newly brewed potion on a human body.

No one knew what kind of potion Mage Seda was trying to brew. They only knew that he had failed every time and had never once succeeded.

And with every failure, the apprentice testing the potion would die on the spot, with absolutely no chance of survival.

Whenever the number of apprentices in the herb garden fell below five, Mage Seda would go out and return with around five new apprentices to keep their numbers stable.

As for where the apprentices came from, they were mostly parentless beggars like Gao De.

"Why not try to escape?" Gao De asked Emil thoughtfully as he organized his somewhat jumbled thoughts.

"Have you gone stupid?" Emil cried in surprise. "Did you forget? Mage Seda branded us with Tracking Marks. No matter where we run, he can track us down. If we don't run, we can still cling to life. But if we dare escape, we'll die immediately!"

Tracking Marks.

Gao De narrowed his eyes and fell into thought.

If transmigration was mysticism, then this world was mysticism beyond mysticism.

—This was a world where magic existed.

Yes.

Magic.

The magic of this world was not some superstitious trick involving talismans and chants, but true wondrous arts of transformation—a heaven-defying power capable of changing things and reality through unscientific means.

The Tracking Mark Emil mentioned was one form of magic.

A highly educated student who had received compulsory schooling should have scoffed at such mysterious powers that existed only in novels and films.

Deeply rooted beliefs could not be shattered by just a few words from Emil.

The reason Gao De had accepted the concept of magic so easily was simple.

He licked his chapped lips and looked toward the stove in the distance.

Without Gao De making any movement, the earthenware pot hanging over the stove suddenly slid sideways through the air. It moved above the rickety wooden table, tilted slightly, and poured its scalding water directly into a cup resting on the table.

The pot then landed steadily on the table, while the cup filled with hot water floated into the air and moved smoothly toward Gao De.

Gao De reached out, took the cup, and sipped from it, moistening his throat, which had become painfully dry after a day of unconsciousness.

Then he simply let go. Yet the cup did not fall. As if gravity did not exist, it floated in midair and moved steadily back to the table at the same smooth pace.

Other than glancing at the stove, Gao De had made no movement throughout. The same was true for Emil, and there was no third person in the room.

It was as though an invisible third party, or a formless hand, had completed the simple task of pouring Gao De a cup of water.

In Gao De's original world, this would have been an utterly terrifying sight.

Yet the two people in the room looked completely normal, as if such a bizarre supernatural occurrence were an everyday sight.

—Gao De appeared calm on the surface, but inside, his heart was already in turmoil.

His predecessor had not left him any memories related to daily life, but he had left behind all the knowledge he possessed, including language, everything he knew about this world, and, most importantly, knowledge of magic and potion brewing.

No matter where one was, knowledge was the most precious thing.

Thus, Gao De was immensely grateful that his predecessor had left him the things that truly mattered.

The method he had just used was one of the only two cantrips his predecessor had mastered.

Mage Hand (Transmutation, 0th Circle):

A floating spectral hand appears within casting range and remains until the spell ends or is dismissed.

If the spectral hand moves more than 30 feet (10 meters) away, or if Mage Hand is cast again, the existing spectral hand disappears.

Mage Hand can perform simple actions, such as manipulating an object, opening an unlocked door or container, or pouring out the contents of a vial, but it cannot carry more than 10 pounds (approximately 4.5 kilograms) or activate magical items.

A trivial cantrip to a mage, yet it brought Gao De indescribable shock:

"Mage Hand."

"It does not even count as magic. It can only be called a cantrip."

"This is a world of true power and truth."

"The great power of magic, the truth of spells—that is..."

"Magic!"