The Best Always Get Their Chance

Mark saw determination in Thor's eyes.

Though he didn't know how a newcomer who had only just become an apprentice had decided to undergo Wizard Body Modification the very next day.

Mark had hesitated for a whole month before cutting into his own hands.

But now, he could see some value in Thor.

Anyone who could escape the laboratory at midnight was no ordinary newcomer.

Either he had ability, or he had someone powerful backing him.

"Then go ahead and copy it first. This book explains things very plainly. If you still want to study further after you've finished it, come find me in the laboratory. I'll be here for the next month."

Mark's unusual gentleness left the other two newcomers in the laboratory dumbfounded.

"Thank you, Senior Mark."

Thor sat down again. He didn't have much time, so he had to copy the book as quickly as possible.

Mark left Thor to his work and went to the other side of the laboratory.

Anjita, who had been watching for a long while, picked up the book in front of her and walked over to Mark with a sweet smile.

"Senior, I ran into a few problems while learning to construct runes today, and I just can't get them right. Could you teach me?"

Angela rested the book against her chin, doing her best to show off her cute side.

"Of course," Mark said with a smile. "Ten Magic Crystals, or two credits."

The delight that had just appeared in Angela's eyes vanished in an instant.

She only had a few dozen Magic Crystals altogether. How could she spend them just to ask a few questions?

"I-I'll think it over some more on my own."

Angela hurried back to her seat and lowered her head, afraid to see anyone looking at her with mocking eyes.

She figured she would have to find a chance to ask Mentor Kazi instead, but she and Duke hadn't seemed to impress him yesterday.

Would he come to the laboratory today?

Green's Cognition of Wizard Body Modification wasn't very thick, only a little over a hundred pages. It wasn't printed, either, so there weren't that many words in all.

As he copied it, Thor skipped some useless exclamations and focused on the important information, making notes as he went.

But for a newcomer who had only been an apprentice for two days, fully understanding the book was harder than he'd expected.

Thor didn't hesitate to take the book to Mark and ask him questions.

From Mark's change in attitude, Thor could tell that he was trying to make it up to him.

He didn't know why.

Was Mark wary of him because he'd survived, or had Mark found out that Big Pink had intervened?

Whatever the reason, Thor could take advantage of it and get something out of Mark first.

With Mark's help summarizing the key points, Thor's copying speed increased considerably. He was confident he could copy down all the important information in the book by noon the next day.

That way, the two Magic Crystals he'd spent wouldn't go to waste.

Mentor Kazi didn't show up until after three thirty.

He kept his brow furrowed, as if he were puzzling over some difficult problem.

Duke tried to approach and ask a question, but Kazi casually waved him away.

Only then did the two newcomers understand why the other apprentices didn't come to the laboratory to ask questions.

The patient explanations on the first day had apparently been nothing but a deceptive opening act. Once you'd been drawn in, his true, cold nature emerged at once.

Duke couldn't find any sense of superiority over Thor this time, and he looked a little flustered. The glances he secretly cast at Thor grew increasingly complicated.

But no one expected that after Mentor Kazi had spent a while frowning and thinking in the laboratory, he would suddenly walk over to Thor.

"Mentor?" Mark thought Kazi had come to see him and nervously stood up.

But Kazi stopped in front of Thor instead. "Come with me."

Thor was startled, then delighted.

Yesterday, Duke and Angela had been taken away while he'd been left behind, which meant the mentor had given up on him. But today, the mentor had remembered him after all.

What had changed his mind?

Thor quickly gathered up his book and quietly followed Kazi.

They went down the slope of the East Tower. Whenever they encountered an apprentice on the way, the apprentice moved to the side of the passage, lowered their head, and bowed.

As a new apprentice, Thor had never been to the lower floors of the East Tower.

The lower floors of the West Tower housed the butler and servants. The very bottom, the first floor, was a dump.

When Thor had swept the corridors before, he'd taken the rubbish to a storage room, where someone came regularly to clear it away. He'd never been to the dump himself and had no idea what it was like.

He'd only heard that the servants who went there were all long-serving old hands, each with an eccentric personality, and that they hardly ever interacted with outsiders.

The farther down they went, the dimmer the lights in the stairwell became. Thor kept his head down and stayed close behind Mentor Kazi, not looking around curiously.

But he silently counted the floors.

Nine,

eight,

seven,

Two!

When he reached two, Kazi suddenly turned and led him onto that floor.

At the entrance to the second floor, a burly man who looked to weigh over two hundred pounds sat motionless on the ground, leaning against the wall.

He blocked most of the corridor.

Kazi led Thor through the remaining gap. The man still didn't react.

A few steps later, they came to a red wooden door.

Kazi pushed it open, and the door creaked shrilly.

As soon as Thor followed him inside, a pungent stench mixed with the smell of blood filled his nostrils.

Thor immediately held his breath and looked up at the mentor in front of him.

Mentor Kazi looked as if he had no nose. His expression didn't change at all as he stopped in the middle of the room.

The walls all around the room were coated in a ghastly white powder. Words Thor couldn't recognize were scrawled across them as if someone had doodled them there.

Fortunately, though the writing looked somewhat chaotic, it didn't make Thor feel dizzy.

In the very center of the room was a conveyor belt extending out from the wall.

Black leather strips covered the entrance, hiding whatever lay within.

Beside the conveyor belt stood a long table covered with square boxes of various sizes.

All the boxes were open, and none held anything, but some unknown sticky substance clung to their edges and corners.

Clusters of tiny mushrooms, each about as big as a fingertip, had sprouted on the outsides of some boxes.

A collection of tools, including hammers and chisels, hung on one side of the table.

Under the long table sat another large box on wheels. Its lid was open, and the inside was smeared with patches of dark reddish-black stains.

That box seemed to be the source of the stench and the smell of blood.

Near the wall at the back stood another table and two chairs. The chairs had been left carelessly pulled out.

A pile of books sat on the table alongside loose sheets of paper, a tipped-over pen holder, and a pen that had rolled onto the floor.

"The first and second floors of the East Tower are rooms where corpses are kept. This is the second floor."

Corpses?

Thor pressed his lips together. The things he'd just seen suddenly took on a different meaning.

"If you can handle the work here, you'll earn three credits a month."

Thor's head jerked up.

The apprentice handbook said that one credit could be exchanged for ten Magic Crystals, and credits were useful for more than that. The reverse didn't work—ten Magic Crystals couldn't buy you a single credit!

Thor could hardly hold back. "I want to, I can, I'm able to" were already pushing at his teeth and lips, ready to burst out on their own.

But then he suddenly thought of Angela and Duke from yesterday. Hadn't they also been brought here? Yet they hadn't met Kazi's requirements, which was why they'd returned to the laboratory today?

"What do you need me to do?" Thor tried to make his voice sound calm and obedient.

"Dispose of alienated corpses." As Kazi spoke, he pulled down a lever beside the conveyor belt.

The conveyor belt began to move. Soon, a fresh corpse pushed through the black leather strips and came around in front of them.

Thor had already guessed that he would probably be given work involving corpses. But when an actual corpse appeared before him, he still turned pale and took two steps back.

The corpse was strapped to the conveyor belt and covered by a piece of black leather. Its face had not been damaged and remained exposed.

Thor recognized him at a glance. It was the new apprentice Keli had mentioned—the one who had cut his legs into strings and buried them in a flower bed yesterday!