Three Years

As Saine and Meili were talking, Fatty Baus, one of the "poor students" among the Magic Apprentices, finally finished dealing with a Dark Being who had come shopping and walked over to the two of them.

Fewer and fewer Black Wizard Apprentices came to shop at Fatty Baus's store. Instead, its clientele had gradually become the Dark Beings and Underground Subhumans of the City of Mozhsuobula.

For instance, the Dark Being that had just left was a millstone-sized spider with eight pairs of legs.

This spider was not a magical beast, nor did it possess a Magic Crystal.

Though most of its sounds were incomprehensible hisses, it could barely squeeze out a word or two of human language.

It was not Fatty Baus's first time dealing with it, so basic trade and communication were still possible.

Saine did not know where these spiders came from.

He only knew that there were quite a few Dark Beings like spiders in the City of Mozhsuobula.

Just like the Minotaur tribe, these Dark Beings were completely submissive beneath the rule and majesty of the Formal Black Wizards.

However, compared to the Minotaurs who stood guard outside the city year-round, Dark Beings such as these spiders were far more low-key and mysterious.

After tossing the Black Gold he had just earned onto the counter, Fatty Baus walked over, patted Saine on the shoulder, and asked, "What mission are you planning to take on this time?"

"Don't let it be some dangerous mission. Otherwise, the little medicine Meili makes won't even be enough for you alone," Baus said bluntly.

"This mission isn't dangerous. I'm just going to patrol a few areas outside the city."

"My Alchemy Experiments and magic studies have been rather demanding lately as well, so I don't have much spare time to waste." Saine gave a simple answer.

An ordinary patrol mission was much simpler and safer than the mission Saine had undertaken last time to wipe out the Blue Jaw Feather Flock.

After all, the former had a clear objective: kill at least twenty Blue Jaw Feathers.

The latter, on the other hand, might only require Saine to wander around outside for a few days and leave the appropriate markers before he could complete it.

Moreover, while patrolling the surrounding areas, Saine could completely conceal himself and proceed cautiously.

A situation like last time, where someone lay in ambush and launched a surprise attack beforehand, was practically impossible.

Saine's answer made Fatty Baus nod.

Then he brought up the items Saine had handed him today. "Those three Blue Jaw Feather Claws of yours should sell quite well. Even that dark spider that just left was very interested in them, and it bought one outright."

"Black Wizard Apprentices don't use these things much, but they're favorites among those Underground Subhumans and Dark Beings. I never thought you'd actually manage to make Alchemy Items," Fatty Baus said with a sigh.

"How can they count as Alchemy Items? They're just little trinkets with successful enchantments, the most basic of basic things."

"It's just a pity that I've used up all the Blue Jaw Feather Claws I had. I still have a few beaks left, but they probably won't last much longer." Saine shook his head.

"I do have some low-level magic materials here. I just don't know how high your success rate is when making equipment."

"If it's too low, won't I lose my shirt and go bankrupt?" Fatty Baus said with a grin.

Fatty Baus's words warmed Saine's heart.

He gave Baus's shoulder a hard punch. "Don't worry. I'll pay you!"

There were no great twists or turns in Saine's compulsory Academy mission this time.

After quickly completing his patrol within three days and marking the Academy's signs, Saine swiftly returned to the City of Mozhsuobula.

For a rather long period afterward,

Saine maintained this fulfilling yet busy life of studying magical knowledge, completing Academy missions, assisting his mentor's experiments, diligently meditating to strengthen his Mental Strength, and accumulating magic power.

In the dark and gloomy Underground World, few creatures noticed the swift passage of time.

Saine included—he had long since adapted to the environment and life here.

His longing for the Surface World, along with his memories of the sun and the star-filled sky, gradually sank into the deepest recesses of his heart as a faint image.

As time passed, even the appearance of his Mother gradually became blurred in Saine's memory.

This left Saine adrift.

To cope with it—or rather, to dull that sense of being adrift—Saine could only throw himself even more completely into his daily cultivation and studies.

Three years later.

Twenty-year-old Saine had grown taller and leaner than he had been four years ago, while his features had become colder and far more handsome.

At one meter eighty, Saine was tall even among the apprentices.

He was not only taller than Senior Sister Fei'er, but had also surpassed Senior Brother Zorro and his mentor Moxidu.

Tall Black Wizard Apprentices were rare.

Combined with the Underground World's lack of sunlight and certain trace elements, the fact that Saine had grown so tall showed that his genes had played a major role.

That day, after completing the Elemental Converter in mentor Moxidu's laboratory,

his mentor and Senior Brother left the laboratory one after another, leaving only Saine and Senior Sister Fei'er to tidy up the pile of scattered objects on the Laboratory Table before them.

Over the past three years, Saine's changes had not been limited to his height and facial features. His attainments in magic and mastery of alchemy had changed as well.

Mentor Moxidu had indeed not misjudged him. Saine truly possessed considerable talent in alchemy.

By now, Saine had long surpassed his Senior Sister in alchemy. Even his mentor and Senior Brother Zorro had praised him more than once.

As for low-level tricks like engraving the Sharpness Spell onto Blue Jaw Feather Claws three years ago, Saine now disdained doing such things.

The Alchemy Item he had taken to Fatty Baus last month was a ring that could barely be rated as a Low-Level Magic Item.

It had a spell trick fixed within it—Light Spell—which could be used once every two hours.

It was a fairly decent item, and it sold for the high price of three hundred Black Gold.

Yet the cost of making that Magic Ring had been less than fifty Black Gold. The staggering profits of alchemy were plain to see.

Moreover, that ring was the fourth Low-Level Magic Item Saine had successfully made in the past three years.

At the beginning, the first two Magic Items Saine successfully produced had indeed owed more to luck than skill.

But through countless failures and summaries, Saine had gradually worked out a method of his own.

Perhaps before long, Saine would be able to create equipment with offensive magic fixed within it.

Even the simplest Minor Fireball or Wind Arrow, once successfully made, would surely be a small treasure among Low-Level Magic Items, worth far more than a Bright Ring and the like.

Aside from his considerable growth in alchemy, Saine had not neglected his personal cultivation over these three years.

On top of his original foundation, he had mastered Object Control Art and Fire Chain Blade among intermediate magic.

Saine had not greedily learned more magic, because his mentor Moxidu had warned him that dabbling in too much magic at lower levels had no meaning whatsoever.

His Mental Strength and magic power were not enough to support him casting every spell he had learned in battle. Besides, biting off more than one could chew only led to indigestion. Rather than spend more time on novel magic, it was better to devote that energy to meditating on Mental Strength.

The wisdom of a Formal Black Wizard left Saine not daring to raise the slightest rebuttal or doubt.

Over the past three years, Saine's Mental Strength had slowly risen to 38 points.

Though there was still a certain gap between him and the 50-point threshold for high-level apprentices, this cultivation speed was absolutely not slow in the Black Wizard Academy.

While he had not continued to delve into many more intermediate spells, Saine had learned quite a few low-level spells and spell tricks over the years.

Light Spell was only one of them. Among those low-level spells, the most representative was a dark-element spell with Necromancy Element tendencies that Saine had learned from his girlfriend Lina—Skeleton Summoning.