"Did he offend someone?" Thor asked.
"I heard he brought a book of advanced Elvish with him and thought he could study it once he became an apprentice. But this morning, they found him in a flower bed." Keli leaned closer to Thor and deliberately lowered her voice to scare him. "They say he cut his legs into several pieces and buried them in the soil like plant roots. By the time they found him, he'd nearly bled to death."
"Can they still save him?"
"Who knows? Anyway, by the time I got there, they'd already taken him away." Keli sounded a little regretful.
"Aren't you scared?" Thor looked at the girl, who was barely in her teens, in surprise.
Keli propped her chin on her hand and murmured, "Before I came here, I already knew roughly what the Wizard World was like. It's not so different from home. People are always dying for no apparent reason."
The new apprentice's breakdown was just a minor incident. Keli soon changed the subject to her experience of carrying a bucket to see Mentor Gudo yesterday.
"...I feel like Mentor Gudo is quite willing to teach me, but he just can't control his vomiting. The bucket I brought him was almost half as tall as a person, but he still filled it in less than an hour. I can't understand how he eats so much!"
"Heh..." Thor felt both disgusted and amused.
Keli suddenly turned her head to look at Thor. "You finally smiled. When you first got here, you looked like a walking corpse."
Thor's smile faded, and he rubbed his face with one hand.
Did he really look that haggard?
Only straightforward Keli would say it out loud.
The instructor for Basic Cognition of All Things was a Level 2 Apprentice.
He was so gaunt that his cheeks were sunken, and he looked even more like a corpse than Thor did.
He didn't bother interacting with the class, either. He just droned on in an even voice, reading from the book until Thor was ready to fall asleep.
Thor simply opened the book and read it himself.
After yesterday's eventful day, he hadn't had time to preview today's material.
Basic Cognition of All Things was a hodgepodge of biology, chemistry, history, and geography.
Anything recorded in a Wizard Apprentice textbook had at least some connection to Witchcraft.
For example, in the section on plants, Thor found a type of grass that could increase a person's Magic Power.
But the price was that anyone who took it became a mindless puppet. Rather than helping someone increase their Magic Power, it was more like sacrificing oneself so that someone else could refine Magic Crystals.
There were ten books in Basic Cognition of All Things, each ten centimeters thick. There was no way to read them all quickly.
Thor skimmed the parts that interested him, occasionally looking up to stretch.
Then he saw Keli's former lackeys, Duoze and Luoke, sitting beside Duke and whispering about something.
Keli showed no reaction at all.
"What are you looking at?" Keli noticed Thor's gaze and followed it, spotting Duoze and the others' little scheming.
She curled her lip. "They're trying to isolate you. So childish, like little kids."
The lesson turned into a study period. Before long, some people had even started studying material from other courses.
The Level 2 Apprentice at the lectern only read the first section of the book aloud. Once he was done, he started reading something else, completely ignoring the class.
"No wonder there are barely any senior apprentices here. They must all know this class is useless." Keli muttered, regretting that she hadn't brought another book.
"Keli, could you lend me some Magic Crystals?" Thor had been working up the courage for a long time before finally asking her.
"What do you need Magic Crystals for?" Keli eyed him warily. "I don't make loans that I'll never get back!"
"I want to borrow a couple of books from the Library."
"Someone just went crazy from reading the wrong book, and you're not afraid?"
Thor said sincerely, "I won't read anything I shouldn't. But I really need some specific books right now."
Keli didn't ask what books Thor wanted to read. After hesitating for a moment, she emptied five black, semitransparent diamond-shaped pieces from her purse.
"I can only lend you five. You have to pay me back in three months... Pay me back..."
"Ten."
"Deal!"
"Do we need to write an IOU?"
"Of course!"
Thor tore a page from a blank notebook, and the two of them completed their first financial transaction.
After the first lesson, the second was the class everyone had been looking forward to: Rune Construction.
Rune Construction was the foundation of casting Witchcraft.
But to everyone's disappointment, this lesson was also taught by a Level 2 Apprentice.
This one was even worse. After explaining the most basic Rune-drawing technique once, he told everyone to practice on their own.
Most of the newcomers had only understood part of the lesson and wanted him to explain it again. But when they asked, he demanded payment!
As soon as Thor heard he'd have to pay, he gave up.
He recalled the points the instructor had just covered. Since he seemed to remember them clearly enough, he began picturing the first Basic Rune in his mind.
With his eyes closed, the first Basic Rune appeared clearly in Thor's mind.
He opened his eyes and sat there for a moment, stunned and disbelieving.
"Have I already... memorized it?"
To make sure his eyes had remembered it and his hand hadn't forgotten, Thor picked up a pen and drew it on a blank sheet of paper.
He opened the book and compared his Rune with the one printed there.
They were identical!
Even the curve of every line was exactly the same!
Thor closed the book and tried again. This time, he used a special pen and ink. Following the instructor's directions, he began channeling the Magic Power within him into the pen tip.
This time, it was difficult to put pen to paper.
He had to release the Magic Power evenly and coordinate it with his Mental Power to form a Basic Rune.
If he failed at any step, the Rune would collapse, the spell's power would vanish, and it would become nothing more than an ordinary drawing on blank paper.
Thor focused intently.
And then—
Success!
Although it had been drawn on ordinary paper, the Rune shimmered with iridescent light, and its Magic Power fluctuations were clearly perceptible.
"You... You did it?" Keli stared wide-eyed and murmured.
She'd originally planned to pay for another explanation. But when she saw Thor succeed on his first try, she suddenly felt that she might manage it too if she studied the material a little more.
Thor didn't hear Keli. His gaze had already shifted to the next Basic Rune.
The second.
Success!
A great success!
The third.
Success!
The fourth.
...Failure.
Thor frowned.
He hadn't failed because he'd remembered the Rune incorrectly. He'd run out of Magic Power.
Could his Magic Power really sustain only three Runes?
Or was there something wrong with the way he was channeling it?
Thor finally felt, in a very real way, how dangerous it was to lack Magic Power.
No wonder Kongsha thought she had him cornered. No wonder Mentor Kazi hadn't even wanted to spare him a second glance.
Thor's chest rose and fell sharply a few times before he slowly calmed down.
"Why panic?" he told himself. "Haven't you already made up your mind?"
Thor took out his Crystal Ball and Human-Monster Walking Diagram and began meditating to restore his Magic Power.
Having little Magic Power had its benefits, too. It came back quickly.
He had to learn to look at things from both sides.
Thor's success at drawing three Runes in a row had already caught everyone's attention.
Not just the new apprentices, but even the senior apprentices and the Level 2 Apprentice at the lectern were shaken by the successive fluctuations of Magic Power coming from Thor's direction.
A few newcomers who had planned to pay the Level 2 Apprentice for instruction changed course and prepared to ask Thor for help.
But when they saw Thor meditating after drawing only three Runes, they hesitated again.
Maybe the new apprentice had made a mistake in constructing the Runes. Besides, they couldn't just walk over and interrupt someone's meditation, could they?
Duke's eyes shifted as he turned around and said something to his two companions. Then he picked up his Rune and hurried to the lectern. Every apprentice who came from outside had brought at least some Magic Crystals with them.
The Level 2 Apprentice at the lectern seemed quite pleased that Duke had been the first to approach him. He lowered his voice and explained a great deal, drawing envious looks from the other newcomers.
Duke, for his part, kept responding with expressions of dawning realization, as if he'd finally understood.
Angela sat at the edge of the classroom. Her big, lovely eyes slowly drifted from the lectern toward the back of the room, finally settling on Thor with an intrigued look.
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