Menial Apprentice

The first ray of morning sunlight fell upon the doll's head hanging from Taylor's doorknob. The tiny doll's head swayed, seeming to awaken in the sunlight, then immediately bellowed at the top of its lungs:

"Get up, you lazybones! The road of knowledge and truth won't stop just because of you!"

Hearing the doll's head hanging from the doorknob shout, Taylor opened his weary eyes. With a long face, he sat up from the bed, tidied himself up, got dressed, and pushed open the door.

As a transmigrated soul, Taylor had too much on his mind. He had been unable to settle down for a long time, sitting there until midnight before he barely managed to empty his thoughts and attempt meditation.

He had finally managed to vaguely sense the existence of his Mental Space, but he could not open it. The frustration left Taylor scratching at his head, and he had not slept well for the rest of the night.

That was why he woke up this morning looking utterly exhausted and drowsy.

"Thinking too much isn't a good thing either."

Taylor vigorously rubbed his face, recovering a trace of energy before quickly setting off and leaving the dormitories arranged specifically for apprentices.

Taylor arrived at the entrance to the Apprentice Library. A notice had been posted there, listing all the work assignments for newly arrived Menial Apprentices. One point would be awarded for each day of work completed.

Pushing through the crowd to the notice, Taylor read through the assignments line by line.

Taylor: Clean the western walkway of the apprentice dormitories.

Cleaning the walkway...

Taylor pondered it for a moment. He was quite familiar with the western walkway of the apprentice dormitories, since it led directly to the docks, and they had come by that route.

Now that he knew the location, Taylor turned and headed toward the apprentice dormitories. The work still had to be done, and once he finished, he could return to his room sooner to meditate and study.

He collected the necessary cleaning tools and two rags from the storage room, then carried a small bucket while holding a broom, a mop, and the two rags in his arms as he headed for the western walkway of the dormitories.

Upon reaching the western walkway, Taylor set down the bucket and the other cleaning tools. He first filled the bucket with water nearby, then soaked the mop in it.

Next, he picked up the broom and began sweeping away the loose dust and dirt from the walkway. The area he was responsible for was the broad central road west of the dormitories and the sidewalks on both sides.

The nearby wizard towers, apprentice storage rooms, Apprentice Library, and similar places had been enchanted with cleaning spells by powerful wizards. Dust would never settle there, so they did not need cleaning.

While Taylor cleaned, the nearby railings, streetlamps, and the eastern and southern walkways were also being cleaned by other Menial Apprentices. More than once, he saw them wearing miserable expressions, sometimes muttering under their breath as though complaining about something.

Though he was somewhat unwilling to work, Taylor understood that this was also an equal exchange under wizard rules. They had gained meditation techniques, spell models, and knowledge, so naturally they had to offer their labor in return.

These Menial Apprentices were very young, and their attention was easily distracted. The apprentice responsible for guiding them had said that the wizards had discovered that newly arrived apprentices could not meditate and study effectively for very long. Much of their time was wasted in distraction.

Since that time would be wasted anyway, and forced study would only have the opposite effect, they might as well work. Setting aside time for labor created a balance between work and rest, gave their minds a change of pace, and actually increased the time they could effectively absorb knowledge.

Besides, they earned one point a day.

Taylor focused his attention and swung the broom in his hands, little by little clearing the dust from the cracks in the sidewalk. He aimed to leave the western walkway under his care spotless.

When he grew tired from cleaning, Taylor took out a clean rag and spread it over the steps, then plopped down on it to rest while contemplating the meditation technique.

"Meow, meow, meow~~~~"

On a streetlamp not far from Taylor, a Six-Eyed Owl with six eyes and the lower body of a cat silently watched everything around it.

Its six eyes each faced a different direction, taking in everything they saw. Anyone who violated wizard rules and disrupted the peaceful order of the White Tower Alliance would be discovered by them.

Six-Eyed Owls were also Level 3 Apprentice lifeforms created by the White Wizards of the White Tower Alliance. Their strength could not be called especially formidable, but it was more than enough to handle a large group of apprentices.

Any apprentice who had spent some time in the White Tower Alliance was unwilling to come into contact with beings like these Stitched Beasts. Perhaps a formal wizard could deal with one using a single spell, but to apprentices like them, these creatures were more terrifying than demons.

Dusk

The sun slowly sank in the west, and Taylor finished his work for the day. The western walkway was not only long but frighteningly wide. He had swept every trace of dust from it. After finishing, he sat on the steps and waited silently for a while. Sure enough, a Six-Eyed Owl appeared on the streetlamp behind him. After its six eyes inspected Taylor's work, it nodded, flapped its wings, and flew away.

Watching the Six-Eyed Owl fly away, Taylor could not help thinking:

So this is the inspector mentioned on the notice board. I wonder how such a complex lifeform was created.

Thoughts were just thoughts. Taylor would not waste precious time on meaningless matters now.

As he hurried back to his dormitory, he repeatedly considered the tricks and key points of the meditation technique, trying to open his Mental Space as soon as possible and quickly construct his own spell model.

Many newly arrived Menial Apprentices were around him as well. Unlike Taylor, however, they chatted and laughed, even quietly complaining that the tasks arranged for them by the wizards were nothing but manual labor and unsuitable for them.

In truth, Taylor's progress was already the fastest among the newly arrived Menial Apprentices at his level. The other Menial Apprentices had also attempted meditation, but they were simply too young to properly rein in the stray thoughts in their minds. They were even more prone to wild imaginings than Taylor. Taylor could at least control his thoughts, but a large portion of those children could not.

Over the following days, Taylor spent his days cleaning the western walkway and his nights studying meditation and attempting to open his Mental Space.

Finally, on the fourth day, Taylor successfully opened his Mental Space.

When he opened his Mental Space, Taylor felt as though his head were about to burst apart. Yet he also sensed a constraining force and a space with distinct edges and corners. Within that angular space flowed a force—an invisible existence that seemed controllable by thought, yet remained vague and indistinct.

He felt as though a space had opened inside his mind, and the drifting energy within it was his spiritual power. Now, he needed to mobilize that spiritual power and use it to fill the Lesser Fireball Spell Model, whose phantom form had already appeared within his Mental Space.

However, floating at the very center of his Mental Space was a tiny blue-white dot. When his spiritual power touched that dot, a piece of information was conveyed to Taylor.