Nancy 1

For a moment, none of them spoke. The topic of talent seemed to have cast a pall over everyone. They continued down the stairs and soon reached the fifth floor.

The fifth floor was utterly dark. There were no lit candles or oil lamps on the walls. Standing in the stairwell and looking down the corridor leading to the rooms, they could see only a pitch-black passage.

Without the slightest hesitation, Villet took the lead inside. At the same time, she took out two tiny black stones and rubbed them together. After a burst of sparks, the 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 are those?" Lü Lando asked. The blond boy Yuri seemed not to have seen them before either, his face full of curiosity.

"Glowstones. Basic Wizard supplies used for lighting," Villet replied softly.

Anglie looked at the two stones raised in her hand and secretly had the Chip scan them. It concluded that the stones contained trace radioactive elements capable of producing blue fluorescence, but the amount was too low for them to be used for anything other than illumination.

The four of them soon arrived at the rooms on the fifth floor.

There were no lights, no people.

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

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

Anglie lit the oil lamp on the table, then put 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 mold spots could be seen on the table, the walls, and the floor.

"What blatant unequal 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."

Other than Yuri, none of them had been raised in luxury. After finding the toilet and washroom, they took out cleaning tools and quickly cleaned their rooms. They even wiped away the mold spots on the walls with rags. Lü Lando cleaned his good friend Yuri's room as well. Only then did the four feel a little better. The rooms were barely fit to live in.

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

While they were meditating, 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 port apprentices who had boarded the ship were rarely seen. They were either hiding in their rooms and diligently meditating or concentrating on studying the books they had brought.

Anglie was the same. Every day, he did nothing but meditate and read. His days passed plainly, without the slightest ripple. Still, every day he saw Villet leave her room with her lower lip clenched tightly between her teeth to rest on the deck. Each time she left, her face was deathly pale. Later, Lü Lando told him that among those with first-level talent, some of the poorer ones suffered an abnormally agonizing ordeal every time they meditated. Villet was very likely one of that small group. The hardship involved was far beyond what those with much better talent like theirs could understand.

But other people's affairs had little to do with him. Though he sighed over it, Anglie did not dwell on it. During this period, his progress each day was not slow.

Meditation methods could only accurately impart the sensation and brainwave patterns involved in meditation through reading a Wizard's Book or through spell transmission. Moreover, there were diagrams of Will Runes involved, so meditation methods could not possibly be taught orally.

Anglie had also discovered something else. Meditation had a minimum age requirement. After asking Yuri and the others, he learned that it was twelve years old. Only those at least twelve could read and memorize Will Runes. Otherwise, they might suffer a backlash from insufficient mental power and be turned into fools or idiots.

After four or five consecutive days of meditation, Anglie could now imagine ten Will characters at once. For someone with his second-level talent, that speed was not fast; it was merely normal. First-Rank Apprentice was the easiest stage to reach. It only meant having slightly stronger mental power than an ordinary person. That was why the black-robed man had not even bothered to ask them anything. First-Rank Apprentices were not much different from ordinary people with talent and could advance easily.

More than half a month later, the ship stopped at a new harbor. More than ten new apprentices boarded. After the rooms were assigned, only one person was placed on the fifth floor. They did not know much about the others. The apprentice assigned to the fifth floor was an ordinary 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 a room in the distance and settling in.

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

"Twelve is the level of a First-Rank Apprentice. Next, I should begin sensing the unknown energy components in 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 joy in his heart.

"From when I began meditating until I officially became a First-Rank Apprentice, it took me over a month. Yuri and the others said that it usually takes a little over a month. No matter what talent one has above first level, this most basic step of accumulating the original amount of mental power takes everyone the same amount of time. The true difficulty comes next. Even Jia De, who became a Third-level Apprentice at fourteen, took two years to charge from First-Rank Apprentice to Third Rank. What follows should be a long process." Anglie had already prepared himself mentally. Jia De's talent had later been posted as fourth level, while Nancy and Eli were both third level.

He glanced at the crystal clock he had brought with him. It was four in the morning, and he could still meditate for an hour. Anglie closed his eyes again and entered a meditative state.

This time, however, he was no longer imagining Will Runes. Instead, he opened his perceptions and tried hard to sense the air around him, attempting to capture the special, mysterious energy mentioned in the book.

What kind of power he could sense would greatly influence the direction of Anglie's future path.

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

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

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

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

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 rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Even the Chip with amplified perception can't capture the energy components. It seems this process can't be completed in a short time. However, I once obtained a Magical Item, and the Chip even stored its energy components. If I had a Magical Item now, perhaps I could use the energy components inside it and actively release them in large quantities around me. That would surely let me reach the level of a Second-Rank Apprentice."

"But this process of sensing is very likely a form of training. If I did that, my foundation might not be solid. Forget it. I should honestly work at sensing it." Anglie sighed resignedly, closed his eyes again, and sank into meditation.

However, the existence of the Chip meant that he did not have to wait until becoming a Second-Rank Apprentice to use Magical Items in advance. That was Anglie's advantage. Only with Magical Items could he have even a little sense of security in this environment and those yet to come.

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

"Nancy?" Anglie recalled that she was the girl Adolf had mentioned, the one who would look after him a little on the ship—the daughter of that Grand Duke.

"Something seems to have happened?" He rolled over, threw off the blanket, hurriedly dressed, locked his door, and followed Yuri and the others ahead of him upstairs.

After climbing several floors, he saw apprentices appearing both ahead and behind, all running toward the deck. They all seemed to be going to watch the excitement.

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

"Nancy and Eli are fighting. I heard... Eli took a fancy to a girl, but... Nancy saw the way he went about it and found it unbearable. They exchanged a few words, then went at each other." Yuri hurriedly explained, pausing briefly to catch his breath.

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

Anglie and the others rushed 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 of apprentices had gathered around them, watching with great excitement.

Nancy was still wearing a white strapless top and those stone-washed skin-tight trousers that looked very much like jeans. Standing on the deck, her golden ponytail drifted gently in the sea breeze, while her expression was solemn.

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

"Take it back?" Eli laughed wantonly. His white Swordsman uniform with gold trim made him appear exceptionally valiant. With a flick of both hands, a pair of black daggers inlaid with silver edges spun into his grasp. A red eye-shaped gemstone was set into each blade, their surfaces engraved with many intricate, delicate patterns, making them look extraordinarily luxurious.

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

"Defeat you?" Nancy tightened her grip on her sword hilt. "Then... as you wish. Evan!" The bronze ring on the middle finger of her right hand suddenly lit up, bursting with a pure white halo as dazzling as the sun.

Eli rotated his hands, pointing the red gemstones on both daggers directly at Nancy. "Magasha." The rubies slowly lit up crimson, like two blood-red eyes.

With a clang, Nancy bent forward and lunged at him.

Eli charged forward as well, his daggers carving two red streaks through the air.

The two figures slammed together. With a soft snap, red and white light flashed abruptly.

Screech! Clang!

After two successive sounds of blades striking, Nancy calmly held her cross sword against Eli's neck. A translucent film blocked the blade tightly, preventing it from advancing even an inch. Meanwhile, a blurred bloody hole was clearly visible on her left shoulder, blood slowly running down from it.

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