Nancy 1

For a time, no one spoke. The topic of aptitude seemed to have cast a gloom over them all. They continued down the stairs and soon reached the fifth level.

The fifth level was nothing but darkness. There were no lit candles or oil lamps on the walls. Looking from the stairwell toward the corridor leading to the rooms, they could see only a pitch-black passage.

Villet took the lead inside without the slightest hesitation. At the same time, she took out two small black stones and rubbed them together. After a burst of sparks, the two stones slowly began to glow with blue fluorescence, becoming as crystal-clear as gemstones. The blue halo illuminated several meters around the four of them.

"What is that?" Lü Lando asked. The blond boy Yuri seemed not to have seen the thing before either, his face full of curiosity.

"Glowstones. Basic Wizard supplies for lighting," Villet answered softly.

Anglie watched the two stones she held up and secretly had the Chip scan them. The conclusion was that the stones contained trace radioactive elements that could produce blue fluorescence, but because the amount was too low, they could only be used for illumination.

The four soon arrived at the living quarters on the fifth level.

There were no lights, and no people in sight.

With a click, Anglie casually twisted open the door to one room. A faintly moldy smell rushed at his face, carrying a heavy dampness with it. He could see nothing inside the room; it was completely dark. The other three were not afraid of the dark either, and each chose a nearby room to enter. Since it appeared that only the four of them occupied the entire fifth level, they chose rooms opposite one another.

Lü Lando's room was directly opposite Anglie's. Yuri was next door, while Villet was diagonally across from him. Staying close would also make it easier to look after one another.

Anglie lit the oil lamp on the table, then placed the glass shade over it. He casually surveyed the room.

It was an ordinary brown wooden room: one single bed, two chairs, and a small wooden table. That was all the furniture it had. White patches of mold were visible everywhere—on the table, the walls, and the floor.

"What a blatant difference in treatment." Anglie shook his head, covered his nose, and backed out of the room. Before long, he saw the other three emerge one after another as well. "Should we clean the rooms first?" Yuri suggested.

"Mm."

Among them, aside from Yuri, none had been raised in the lap of luxury. After finding the toilets and washrooms, they took out cleaning tools and quickly cleaned their rooms from top to bottom. They even wiped the mold off the walls with rags. Lü Lando also cleaned his good friend Yuri's room along with his own. Only then did the four feel somewhat better. The rooms were barely fit to live in.

After cleaning up, they returned to their rooms and meditated alone.

While they meditated, the ship gave a violent shudder and left the harbor.

Over the next few days, aside from eating, washing up, and occasionally going onto the deck to bask in the sun, the apprentices who had boarded at the port were rarely seen. They were either hiding in their rooms and meditating diligently or concentrating on studying the books they had brought along.

Anglie was the same. Every day, he did nothing but meditate and read. His days were calm and flat, without the slightest ripple. Still, he saw Villet leave her room every day, biting her lower lip tightly as she went to rest on deck. Each time, her face was deathly pale. Later, Lü Lando told him that among those with first-level aptitude, some of the poorer ones suffered an exceptionally agonizing ordeal every time they meditated. Villet was very likely one of that small group. The hardship involved was far beyond the comprehension of people with much better aptitude like theirs.

But other people's affairs had little to do with him. Though he felt some sympathy, Anglie did not dwell on it. During this period, his own progress was not slow.

Meditation methods could only accurately convey the sensation of meditation and the relevant mental patterns to others through reading the Wizard's Book or through the transmission of spells. Moreover, there was also the diagram of the Will Rune, so meditation methods could not possibly be taught orally.

Anglie also discovered something else. Meditation had a minimum age limit. After asking Yuri and the others, he learned that the limit was twelve years old. Only those at least twelve could read and memorize the Will Rune. Otherwise, insufficient mental strength could cause backlash, turning them into fools and idiots.

After four or five consecutive days of meditation, Anglie could now visualize ten Will characters at once. For someone with his second-level aptitude, this speed was not fast; it could only be considered normal. First-Rank Apprentice was the easiest stage to reach. It merely meant having slightly stronger mental strength than an ordinary person. That black-robed man had not even bothered asking them about it, likely because First-Rank Apprentices were not much different from ordinary people with aptitude. Advancing was very easy.

More than half a month later, the ship stopped at a new port. More than ten new apprentices boarded. After the rooms were assigned, only one person was placed on the fifth level. The others did not know much about the rest. The apprentice assigned to the fifth level was an ordinary young girl with slightly dark skin. She carried a longbow on her back, had short green hair, and looked at people with somewhat vacant eyes. She had no interaction with the four of them, merely finding herself a room from afar and settling in.

"Whew... I've finally reached twelve." Anglie sat cross-legged on the bed in his room and let out a deep breath. His face was somewhat pale. Living in the cold, damp lower level without sunlight for so long had turned his skin fair from lack of regular sun exposure. The healthy complexion he once had was gone.

"Twelve is the level of a First-Rank Apprentice. Next, I should begin sensing the unknown energy components in the surrounding space. As long as I can successfully guide them into my body, I can become a Second-Rank Apprentice." Recalling the records in the Wizard's Book, Anglie felt a faint surge of delight.

"From the start of meditation until officially becoming a First-Rank Apprentice, it took me over a month. Yuri and the others said it usually takes a little over a month. No matter what aptitude someone above first level has, this is the most basic step of accumulating the initial amount of mental strength. Everyone takes roughly the same amount of time. What comes next is the truly difficult part. Even Jia De, who reached Third-level Apprentice at fourteen, spent two years advancing from First-Rank Apprentice to Third-level Apprentice. The road afterward should be a long one." Anglie had already prepared himself mentally. Jia De's aptitude had later been posted as fourth-level, while both Nancy and Eli were third-level.

He glanced at the crystal clock he had brought, which showed four in the morning. He still had an hour to meditate. Anglie closed his eyes again and entered a meditative state.

This time, however, he was no longer visualizing the Will Rune. Instead, he opened up his senses and tried hard to feel the air around him, attempting to capture that special, mysterious energy mentioned in the book.

What kind of power he could sense would, to a great extent, affect the direction of Anglie's future path.

In the darkness, he sat cross-legged on the bed with his eyes tightly shut. There was none of the phenomenon of glowing eyes that appeared when he meditated on the Will Rune. He looked no different from someone sleeping while sitting up.

Second by second, time passed. Anglie sat quietly in the darkness.

"Zero, based on the existing data, establish a task: capture energy components in the air."

"Task established... Capture beginning..." Zero Chip began consuming Anglie's physical energy as it conducted high-speed analysis and detection.

More than ten minutes later, the Chip still gave no response or feedback. Anglie finally could not help opening his eyes.

"Looks like I was too impatient." He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Even the Chip, with its enhanced perception, can't capture energy components. It seems this process can't be completed in a short time. But I once obtained a Magical Item, and the Chip even stored its energy components. If I had another Magical Item now, perhaps I could use the energy components within it and actively release a large amount around me. That would definitely let me reach Second-Rank Apprentice."

"But this sensing process may very well be a kind of training. If I do that, there might be a risk of unstable foundations. Forget it. I should just honestly work at sensing them." Anglie sighed in resignation. He closed his eyes again and sank back into meditation.

Still, the Chip's existence meant that he did not have to wait until becoming a Second-Rank Apprentice before using Magical Items. That was Anglie's advantage. Only with Magical Items could he feel even a little safer in this environment and those he would face in the future.

The next day, Anglie did not know how long he had slept before hurried footsteps woke him. From the voices outside the door, he vaguely caught words such as "fight," "deck," "Eli," and "Nancy."

"Nancy?" Anglie recalled that she was the young woman Adolf had mentioned, the one who would look after him on the ship—the daughter of a grand duke.

"Sounds like something happened?" He rolled over, threw back the blanket, hurriedly got dressed, locked his door, and followed Yuri and the others ahead of him upstairs.

After climbing several levels, he saw apprentices running toward the deck both ahead and behind him. It seemed they were all going to watch the excitement.

"What happened?" he asked Yuri beside him as they ran.

"Nancy and Eli got into a fight. I heard... Eli took a liking to a girl, but... Nancy saw the way he went about it and found it unbearable. They exchanged a few words, and then they clashed." Yuri explained hurriedly, pausing briefly to catch his breath.

"This is a fight between two people who own Magical Items. We absolutely can't miss it." Lü Lando turned his head and said from up ahead.

Anglie and the others surged onto the deck with the crowd. They saw Nancy standing on the deck, one hand gripping the cross sword at her waist as she faced off against Eli. Circles upon circles of apprentices surrounded them, watching with great excitement.

Nancy still wore a white strapless top and those stonewashed, tight-fitting pants that looked remarkably like jeans. Standing on the deck, her golden ponytail drifted lightly in the sea breeze, her expression solemn.

"Eli, if you take back what you just said, I can pretend nothing happened."

"Take it back?" Eli laughed wildly. His white Swordsman uniform trimmed in gold made him appear exceptionally valiant. With a flick of both hands, a pair of black daggers edged in silver spun down into his palms. A red, eye-shaped gemstone was set into each blade, their surfaces engraved with countless intricate, delicate patterns. They looked extraordinarily luxurious.

"Nancy, out here at sea, your father, Grand Duke Rocky, cannot protect you. Everyone can rely only on their own strength. If you don't approve of what I do, then the only way is to defeat me." Eli's handsome face still wore its arrogant expression.

"Defeat you?" Nancy tightened her grip on the sword hilt. "Then... as you wish. Evan!" The bronze ring on the middle finger of her right hand suddenly flashed, blooming with a pure white halo so blinding it was like the sun itself.

Eli twisted his hands, turning the red gemstones on both daggers toward Nancy. "Magasha." The rubies slowly lit with red light, like two blood-red eyeballs.

With a clang, Nancy bent forward and lunged at her opponent.

Eli also rushed forward, his daggers carving two red streaks through the air.

The two figures crashed together. With a soft smack, red and white light flashed abruptly.

Hiss! Clang!

After two successive sword strikes, Nancy calmly held her cross sword against Eli's neck. A translucent membrane firmly blocked the blade, preventing it from advancing even an inch. Meanwhile, a blurred bloody hole was clearly visible on her left shoulder. Blood slowly ran down from it.

"You won." Eli smiled faintly and pushed away the cross sword at his neck. "Then I withdraw what I said. That girl is yours." He pointed at a pretty short-haired girl sitting collapsed on the ground not far to his side.