Master's Banquet

Master Moxidu's residence was enormous. Not only was it a detached three-story building, but each floor contained seven or eight rooms.

The quiet surroundings were highly suited for magicians and Magic Apprentices to delve into knowledge.

Especially the side room Master Moxidu had casually assigned to Saine—after entering it, Saine discovered that even the speed at which he condensed Mental Strength had increased somewhat. There was probably a hidden magic array in the room serving that purpose.

To outsiders, the path of cultivation and Truth Exploration pursued by magicians seemed dull and tedious. Yet Saine, who was absorbing the nourishment of knowledge in the side room, did not feel that way.

"Introduction to Alchemy" and "Basic Knowledge of Fire Element" were both courses Saine had taken before. Yet even he had not expected that, with the notes and annotations Master Moxidu had left in the two Magic Notebooks, he would uncover so many points of knowledge he had never explored or noticed before.

The two Magic Notebooks could not be finished in a day or two. By the time the day was drawing to a close and Saine's stomach was growling, he had only skimmed five pages of "Introduction to Alchemy" and thoroughly absorbed and understood the knowledge on two of them.

To say nothing else, the two books would be enough to keep Saine occupied for one or two months.

No wonder Master Moxidu had handed them to Saine. He had likely intended for Saine to recuperate from his injuries during that time as well.

As for the Initial Meditation Method, Saine had not touched it immediately.

Rice had to be eaten one bite at a time. Though he had received no clear hint, he vaguely felt that compared with the Meditation Method, Master Moxidu seemed to place greater importance on the two parchment notebooks he had given him.

After all, the former was merely an inheritance of Mental Strength recorded by Master Moxidu, while the latter consisted of notes the master had written down word by word with his own hand.

Put more simply, the Initial Meditation Method was a cultivation method passed down through Master Moxidu's line, perhaps one Master Moxidu himself had inherited from those before him.

But those two Magic Notebooks belonged to Master Moxidu himself, the crystallization of his wisdom and knowledge.

Spellcasters in the Wizard World generally attached immense importance to Knowledge Inheritance. Although this was the territory of Black Magicians in the Underdark, the group of Black Magicians was ultimately still a kind of magician.

As the day came to an end, the hunger rising in his belly and the "dong, dong" chimes of the Magic Quartz Clock in the living room signaled that it was getting late.

Just as Saine was considering whether he should bid his mentor farewell and leave, the door to the room he was in gently opened.

A rather unusual humanoid metal frame appeared in his field of vision. A faint red light issued from the top of the metal frame, followed by a somewhat stiff voice. "Master Moxidu requests your presence in the second-floor dining room for dinner. Please follow me."

The metal frame before him was clearly not a living thing.

Its appearance and origins filled Saine with curiosity. As a Formal Black Wizard, the power and bizarre methods Master Moxidu possessed could not help but stir Saine's longing.

During the learning process that followed under Master Moxidu, higher levels of magic and mysterious phenomena would surely reveal themselves to him one by one.

When Saine followed the metal frame to the second floor, he found that Master Moxidu had already arrived and was seated at the head of the dining table.

Besides Master Moxidu, there were two other people in the dining room, seated respectively to his left and right.

The one on the left was a man in a pale yellow Magic Robe. Apprentices of the Black Wizard Academy generally wore black robes, so it was rare indeed to see a man dressed in a yellow Magic Robe with a metallic sheen.

The person seated at Master Moxidu's right was a woman who looked rather young, though she was clearly older than Saine.

A long black robe wrapped around most of her figure, leaving only a fair face that remained vividly imprinted in Saine's memory.

"Hehe, you're here." A faint smile tugged at Master Moxidu's ordinarily grim face.

After nodding to Saine, he introduced Saine to the two disciples beside him.

"This is the new disciple I have taken in. He is your Fifth Junior Apprentice."

"If he has anything he does not understand regarding magical knowledge or the elemental fields in the future, the two of you must guide him promptly," Master Moxidu instructed his two disciples.

"Yes, Mentor," the disciples on either side respectfully replied.

Strictly speaking, Saine should address the two people before him as "Senior Brother" and "Third Senior Sister."

Senior Brother Zorro had followed Master Moxidu the longest. Though he did not look particularly remarkable, Saine could sense a heavy pressure from him.

The man's strength clearly surpassed that of ordinary Advanced Apprentices. As for whether he had reached the level of a Formal Black Wizard, that remained unknown for now. Saine felt that his strength might be on par with an Academy Supervisor.

Third Senior Sister Fei'er, according to her own introduction, was an Advanced Apprentice.

Saine could tell that among his two senior apprentices, Third Senior Sister was the more enthusiastic one, while Senior Brother merely nodded lightly to show his acknowledgment.

With the strength and depth of knowledge possessed by his two senior apprentices, teaching Saine, a mere low-level apprentice, naturally posed no problem.

After all, as a Formal Black Wizard, Master Moxidu had no shortage of magical research and experimental projects on hand. He also frequently accepted alchemy commissions from other magicians.

Naturally, he did not have much time to devote specifically to teaching Saine.

A master could lead one through the door, but cultivation depended on the individual.

Before Saine had thoroughly mastered those two Magic Notebooks and advanced to an Intermediate Apprentice, Master Moxidu would likely have little personal instruction to offer him.

The dinner for the four people in the dining room consisted of several richly colored and fragrant delicacies, along with some oddly shaped desserts.

Saine did not know whether this was because it was his first dinner at Master Moxidu's residence, or whether Master Moxidu and his two disciples had always lived so extravagantly.

Among the delicacies on the table was the Black Sharkscale Fish Saine had wanted to eat with Lina two days ago.

Moreover, judging from their appearance, the other dishes were no different from the Black Sharkscale Fish. They had been prepared from Demonized Creatures and even magical beasts.

It was also during the meal that Saine learned from the rather enthusiastic Senior Sister Fei'er that the humanoid metal frame which had led him upstairs was an Alchemy Puppet personally designed and developed by their mentor.

However, the puppet was still only a half-finished product, which was why it looked like nothing more than a frame.

Although its combat ability was not outstanding, it was more than sufficient to serve as a household servant.

Furthermore, during Master Moxidu's experiments, the Alchemy Puppet could sometimes lend a hand. It was more useful than ordinary apprentices.

At the dining table, Senior Sister Fei'er was the one who mainly spoke with Saine.

Meanwhile, Senior Brother Zorro frequently conversed with their mentor in low voices.

Given his strength and foundation of knowledge, Senior Brother Zorro was likely the most capable among Moxidu's three current disciples of conversing with him and even discussing magical academic research.

Saine vaguely heard the two mention something called a "Fire Element Fission Generator," but as someone of weak strength, Saine was utterly at a loss as to what it actually was.

He merely chatted softly with Senior Sister Fei'er while repeatedly reaching for the delicacies on the table before him.

It was Saine's first time eating so many Demonized Creatures.

In particular, Senior Sister Fei'er introduced the unremarkable dish at the center of the table, whose main ingredient turned out to be the hind leg of an Advanced magical beast, the Frost Lion Rabbit.

This was a magical beast overlord even stronger than a Saltwater Crocodile. When Saine speared a piece of meat and put it into his mouth, the chill contained within the dish first sent a shiver through his entire body.