Black Wizards Attack

Two days later, in his room aboard the Wizard Ship, Locke embedded two Dark Cyan Jades into gold rings and filled both Dark Cyan Jades with Mana.

Including the Dark Cyan Jade he had synthesized the day before, he now wore three Dark Cyan Jade gold rings, giving him an extra 30 points of Mana.

Ten points of Mana could roughly cast Vine Hand five times. An additional thirty points of Mana meant he could cast Vine Hand fifteen more times.

In battle, that was an extremely crucial improvement.

While Wizard Apprentices of the same level still had to calculate their Mana carefully and make every spell count, he had already achieved a preliminary degree of spellcasting freedom. He could simply attack his enemies continuously through sheer quantity.

The only problem was that he had too few spells in his spell pool to fully make use of his vast extra Mana reserves.

"I've used up all the gemstones I brought aboard." Locke let out a breath. "I'll have to wait until we get off the Wizard Ship and find a way to buy more."

"Dark Cyan Jades should be consumables too. I wonder how long one can last."

Locke looked at his hands. His left hand wore five Deep Blue Jade gold rings, while his right wore three Dark Cyan Jade gold rings. His Mana fluctuations had become so steady that they were practically nonexistent.

Locke picked up a wooden cup sitting on the lid of a barrel before him. Under the influence of his Mana, the water inside began to spin.

"The Magic Centrifugal Extraction Technique is now proficiently mastered."

"Very good."

Someone knocked on his door, and Lorne Guerrero's voice came from outside. "Locke, it's mealtime. Let's hurry to the deck to eat."

Lorne Guerrero was the kind Third-Class Wizard Apprentice whom he, Patti, Kode, and the others had encountered when they first boarded the ship.

After living in a room below the Wizard Ship's deck for a day, Locke discovered that Lorne Guerrero also had third-tier aptitude and lived on the same level as him.

Neither of them was socially awkward, so after a few exchanges, they quickly became familiar with each other and got along quite well.

Strangely enough, from the moment they boarded the Wizard Ship, all its rules had been sorting people into categories.

Wizard Seedlings with the same aptitude lived together.

As a result, in just two days, seven distinct social circles had begun to form aboard the Wizard Ship. Rather than becoming friends with Patti and Kode, Locke had become friends with Lorne Guerrero, who lived on the same level as him.

Perhaps that was simply how life worked. At different stages, different people walked alongside you.

Locke had been close to Patti and Kode before only because Corfu Island had contained just the three of them as Wizard Seedlings. Now, however, there were hundreds of Wizard Seedlings from all over aboard the Wizard Ship. New friends inevitably appeared, while old friends were inevitably neglected.

Locke opened the door. Lorne Guerrero held two plates. "I can already smell the delicious food on the deck."

"Our time on the deck is limited. Come on, Locke."

"I already got you a plate."

Locke looked helplessly at Lorne Guerrero. "Lorne, you're far too familiar with me. We've only known each other for two days."

Lorne Guerrero said, "That just proves we're fated to meet."

"From the first moment I saw you aboard the ship, I knew we'd get along."

Locke followed Lorne Guerrero. According to Lorne, he came from the Obsidian Empire on the Schleswig Islands of the Schleswig Continent, and he was the emperor's eldest son.

By the traditions of their mortal world, he should have been the Empire's heir and its next emperor. However, he had been found to possess wizard aptitude.

Lorne told Locke that there were no lower wizard Academies disguised as schools on the Schleswig Islands.

The wizards there served the emperor directly, forming the Wizard Council of Elders that helped his father rule the Empire.

Because he possessed wizard aptitude, the Wizard Council of Elders on Schleswig Island immediately stripped him of his right to inherit the throne and guided him onto the path of Truth-Seeking.

Lorne's personality happened to be that of a wandering knight. He enjoyed helping others, so he was very satisfied with the arrangement.

Locke also felt that Lorne did not seem much like a Wizard Apprentice. He was more like a wandering swordsman. Aboard this Wizard Ship, most Wizard Apprentices wore gloomy expressions, spoke little, and constantly watched their surroundings with vigilance.

But Lorne was carefree and loved talking to people.

As a result, quite a few Wizard Apprentices assumed Lorne had some special motive and instead avoided speaking with him.

Only a small number of Wizard Apprentices, including Locke, paid him any attention.

Many long oak tables and beechwood stools had already been set out on the Wizard Ship's deck. The tables were laden with sumptuous food, including roast suckling pig, truffle wild mushroom risotto, herb-baked lobster with saffron foam, black truffle cream mushroom soup, and much more.

Lorne had already picked up a steak and begun devouring it. He swept through a huge piece of steak, then grabbed two roasted chicken legs and swallowed them without even chewing.

Locke raised an eyebrow. There was a reason Lorne could eat so much.

According to Lorne himself, he was apparently a Grand Knight and also a Knight prodigy.

The mortal worlds of different islands were truly completely different. From Locke's deliberate and casual conversations with the third-tier Wizard Apprentices over the past two days, he had learned something.

The mortal world on every island was different. For example, Schleswig Island, where Lorne came from, had an extraordinary profession absent from Corfu Island's mortal world—the Knight.

It was said that this was because the wizards who had traveled to Schleswig Island two hundred years ago had been Wizard Apprentices from the Tower of Mutation, which specialized in Life Magic.

They had specially designed an extraordinary profession called [Knight] for the mortal world of Schleswig Island. By implanting Life Seeds, they artificially created extraordinary organs within the human body, granting people superhuman physical abilities.

In essence, it was an alternative form of human bloodline modification surgery, much like the Stone Crab Bloodline human modification Locke had previously helped Professor Alder perform.

Other mortal worlds were even stranger. Some were not stuck in the Middle Ages at all, but had steam engines, coal mines, and primitive old trains, resembling the Renaissance of his previous life.

In short, the Southeastern Corner Region was the true continent, while those mortal worlds were merely larger islands scattered across its ocean.

Separated by the Endless Mysterious Sea, each island had developed differently, like an independent world of its own.

Lorne looked at Locke strangely. "Locke, aren't you eating?"

"Hurry up, or the food will all be snatched away."

Locke nodded to a female Wizard Apprentice before him who also had third-tier aptitude, then picked up a steak and placed it on his plate.

Locke unhurriedly finished a steak, ate some broccoli and a small piece of bread with strawberry jam, then asked Lorne, "How many more days do you think it will be before we truly reach the Wizarding World?"

Lorne shook his head. "No idea. I heard the Wizard Ship is about to begin its return journey. There are nearly a thousand Wizard Apprentices here already."

Locke nodded.

The Wizard Seedlings aboard the Wizard Ship would eventually be assigned to different wizard organizations.

The Wizard Ship would stop at various locations throughout the Southeastern Corner Region, and the Wizard Seedlings would disembark in batches.

That meant some of the Wizard Seedlings had likely already been assigned to wizard mentors from the major organizations of the Southeastern Corner Region.

However, no wizard mentors had appeared recently to assign the Wizard Seedlings with third-tier aptitude like them.

They were probably going to finish assigning the Wizard Apprentices above deck before bothering with them.

It was not their turn yet.

Locke had just finished clearing up and was about to return to his room below deck when the deck suddenly shook. Quite a few Wizard Apprentices fell from the unexpected tremor.

Then Locke turned and saw Jarvis and dozens of other wizard mentors suddenly step onto the deck and head toward them.

Locke immediately sensed that something was wrong.

A wizard mentor used magic to amplify his voice and shouted toward them, "Careful! Use magic to protect yourselves!"

The next moment, countless clouds of black mist appeared above the Wizard Ship. The once bright artificial sky rapidly darkened, and the artificial sun lost its radiance as though devoured by an eclipse.

The Wizard Ship continued shaking. Countless zombies fell from the black mist in the sky as though it were raining.

The Wizard Seedlings screamed in terror.

Within the black mist overhead, numerous wizards seemed to be hiding.

They laughed mockingly.

"Heh heh... Are these the future seedlings of our Southeastern Corner Region? What a disappointment. You panic so badly at the slightest bit of Black Magic. What can we possibly expect from you in the future?"

"Those foolish, hypocritical White Wizards of the Southeastern Corner Region have raised you into such useless creatures. We Black Wizards would be better off taking these seedlings and properly training them ourselves."

"White Wizards, according to the rules, half of the Wizard Seedlings must be given to us Black Wizards."

"Take them!"

Jarvis and the other wizard mentors shouted.

"This is bad! Those Black Wizards are trying to seize people! Stop them! These are seedlings cultivated by our White Wizard Association. We can't let them take them for free!"

"Stop them!"

For a moment, all kinds of Black Magic shot out from the black mist in the sky, while Jarvis and the other wizard mentors retaliated with Fire Magic, Water Magic, and other spells.

The zombies clashed with Water Elements, Fire Elements, lightning, and frost.

On the deck, Locke saw a second-tier Wizard Apprentice get rammed into the sea by a zombie. Then a stream of black mist descended from the sky and actually abducted her amid laughter.

"Hahahaha! This little girl belongs to our Corpse Eater Cemetery today."

"I'll train her into an outstanding Black Wizard. You hypocrites will regret this someday."