Jia Xiu

The Second Era, 1321.

Iris Kingdom, Folen Territory, Creekwood Town.

A pure black cat stepped with an elegant gait, walking across the dark red terracotta tiles of the Caster Association branch roof.

Dexterously bypassing two chimneys, she arrived in front of a skylight. Through the glass, amber eyes watched several sleeping apprentices in the room.

She extended a paw, skillfully nudged the skylight open, and leaped down, landing precisely on the chest of an apprentice.

Ugh—

The apprentice let out a muffled groan of pain. "Where'd this stray... Mage Margaret."

The black cat jumped to the floor, instantly transforming into a tall, young lady. "Sleeping on the job."

"I..."

Margaret didn't give the apprentice a chance to explain. "Have the candidate selections for the Excellent Young Spellcaster Award been screened?"

The apprentice immediately picked up three files from the desk and handed them to the mentor. "These results are alright, it's just... hard to say."

"Oh? What's hard to say?"

Margaret began flipping through the files.

"Jack optimized the casting distance of the Mage's Hand. What about this one?"

"He... was reported by a classmate for using Mage's Hand to steal socks worn by female apprentices."

The apprentice said with a troubled look.

"He occasionally steals the male apprentices' too."

Hearing this, Margaret was stunned at first, then tossed that file aside as if shaking off something dirty, an undisguised look of disgust on her face.

"Remember, personal moral conduct is also a very important part of the evaluation for the Excellent Young Spellcaster. Then what about this Hannas? A spell that amplifies the effect of the Primary Purification Potion."

"He is the youngest son of the lord here. There are rumors that his results were bought from a mage hired by the lord's estate."

Hearing this, Margaret frowned again.

As a lecturer at Saint Dero Academy, she most despised academic fraud, especially appropriating the results of others.

"What about the last one?"

She no longer wanted to look at the files. What kind of place was this Creekwood Town where a few apprentices spent a whole night selecting without picking out a single reliable person?

"The last one is Jia Xiu, who declared 30 spell patents at the Association..."

"How many?"

Margaret was starting to get angry. Even if someone bought other people's results, they shouldn't buy them so blatantly.

"30, all concerning the Basic Healing Spell, but they should all be his own doing because this Jia Xiu is quite poor."

The apprentice answered truthfully.

"Absurd!"

Margaret laughed in anger.

The prerequisite for this selection was under eighteen years old.

She didn't believe anyone at that age could rely on themselves to make so many spell patents.

Even she herself, coming from a distinguished family with exceptional talent and becoming the youngest lecturer in Saint Dero at twenty-one, had only held five patents at eighteen.

"I want to see all the spells he submitted."

She was determined to expose this brazenly fraudulent liar.

A few minutes later, all 30 materials were brought before Margaret.

She began to check them one by one.

Yet after spending a full six hours reading through all the materials, she reached a conclusion she dared not believe herself.

This fellow named Jia Xiu might actually be genuinely formidable.

The train of thought for all patents was extremely unified, and the research methods were also uniform, which should have been the work of a single person.

Either Jia Xiu targeted one person and relentlessly plucked 30 pieces of research from them, or he did it himself.

Margaret leaned toward the latter.

Because Jia Xiu's background was very clean, an orphan, without backing, very poor, relying on odd jobs to maintain his research.

He looked unbelievably inspiring.

The only fault that could be picked was that the results were somewhat suspected of being "watered down."

The 30 items were actually all the Basic Healing Spell, just exaggeratedly subdivided.

Targeting abrasions, contusions, puncture wounds, bruises, burns, and also targeting different body parts, the hand, the forearm, the upper arm, the chest...

Forced to split into so many items.

Judging by this trend, Margaret estimated he could easily pad out at least thirty more.

No matter how much it was padded, though, it was still a solid result.

"I think this Jia Xiu is very suitable to be the winner of the Outstanding Young Mage Award in Creekwood Town. He wouldn't also steal..."

Margaret asked.

"No," the apprentice immediately denied, "Jia Xiu has a very good local reputation."

"Then what else is unsuitable about him?"

Margaret did not understand why the apprentice was hesitating.

"This Jia Xiu's registered profession in the association is actually Warlock."

"A Warlock?"

Margaret was also a bit surprised.

Although Warlocks belonged to spellcasting professions, the principles by which they used spells were completely different from mages.

Mages relied on intelligence to solve problems, using spells by learning and mastering knowledge.

Warlocks, on the other hand, signed contracts with certain powerful beings to borrow the power of a Sect Master.

More crucially, a Warlock's Sect Master was mostly things like Evil Spirits, Demons, and Devils.

Now friction between various nations and the Demonfolk was becoming increasingly frequent, showing a strong tendency to reignite the flames of war. Choosing a Warlock to become a winner at this time, even for a village-level award, would probably cause no small amount of controversy.

However, actually giving the award to a noble boy who bought his results...

After pondering for a moment, Margaret said.

"I need to go meet this Jia Xiu."

At this time, east of Creekwood Town.

Number 4 Quarry Street, Susan's Tailor Shop.

In the small residential room behind the storefront.

Jia Xiu aimed both hands at his own toes, fully focused.

"Radiance as weave, heal wounds as of old."

As the incantation was chanted, a sparkling and warm green light welled up on his hands.

Under the illumination of the light, the toenail of his big toe began to grow at a speed visible to the naked eye, growing nearly five centimeters of toenail in a dozen seconds.

Jia Xiu stopped casting, clipped off the overly long toenail, measured it, and then opened a small booklet.

The title was written on the cover page of the booklet.

<Experimental Report: A Study on the Growth-Accelerating Effect of the Basic Healing Spell Applied to Human Toenails>

A long and difficult sentence full of an "academic atmosphere."

The quill pen was dipped in ink, skillfully recording data, analyzing, and summarizing.

Twenty minutes later, Jia Xiu put down his pen, checked it over, and nodded with satisfaction.

[Completed a research report on a Level 0 cantrip]
[Topic Selection 1 pt / Innovation 0 pts / Workload 1 pt / Research Level 1 pt / Influence 0 pts]
[Evaluation: A piece of fresh academic garbage]
[Reward: 30 Experience Points]

Jia Xiu was not at all surprised by such an evaluation.

He had a very clear and sober understanding of the research he was currently conducting.

As a level 2 Warlock, he had already tried his absolute best to achieve this.

Garbage was garbage, as long as it gave experience.

"Counting this experience..."

Jia Xiu said as he opened another panel.

[Name: Jia Xiu]
[Profession: Warlock]
[Level: 2]
[Current Experience: 890/900]
[Attributes: Strength 4 / Agility 3 / Constitution 4 / Intelligence 8 / Perception 7 / Charisma 4]
[Sect Master: ?##%@...]
[Contract: Path of Truth; the exploration of spell truth is the source of acquiring power]

[Ability: Eye of Runes]

"So close."

Jia Xiu sighed. Although he had looked at this status panel countless times, whenever he opened it, he still felt how absurd it was.

His transmigration process definitely had a bug in it.

Before crossing over, he was originally a PhD candidate specializing in computer graphics. Before starting his doctorate, he was full of yearning for academia, but after starting, he found that the life of a research beast was even worse than that of a working beast, and lab days truly had zero days off.

Coupled with his advisor painting big pictures of a bright future on one hand while dragging his feet on graduation on the other, the man even forcibly added his own child's name to Jia Xiu's thesis.

In a fit of anger, he quit.

Right as his childhood friend started a gaming studio, he dropped out of his doctoral program and joined his friend to work as the lead game programmer, which could be considered matching his major.

Right on the eve of the game's imminent launch, when years of hard work were about to bear fruit, he suddenly transmigrated.

He became a somewhat non-standard Warlock.

His Sect Master's name was a string of garbled code, and he had never seen the entity even once so far. The contract was not very "warlock-like" either.

He neither had to complete any dangerous missions nor needed to sell his soul or anything of the sort.

It was simply... doing research.

Then he gained experience based on the level of his research.

It belonged to the category of changing locations to finish the doctorate he had failed to complete back then.

The good news was that this new "doctoral advisor" did not steal research results, did not engage in mental control, did not default on experience points, and did not even show up.

Naturally, there was no need to boost his charisma to negotiate conditions.

Precisely because of this, compared to a warlock, his stats were much more like those of a mage.

If the Sect Master had any shortcomings.

That should probably be the hands-off management style.

Aside from Rune Eye and experience points, Jia Xiu had never obtained any other benefits from the Sect Master, not even a single spell taught to him.

This was also the biggest problem he was currently facing. He only knew a dime-a-dozen Basic Healing Spell, and his research scope was narrow to the extreme.

Want to learn new spells?

Every legitimate channel to acquire spellbooks was something he could not afford.

Borrowing spellbooks from the Caster Association library charged fees calculated by the second for each book.

If he bought them directly, the price would be an astronomical figure.

As for taking on a master, the only mages in Creekwood Town with the qualifications to take apprentices were the lord's resident mage, who was notorious for accepting disciples solely based on money.

The monopoly on knowledge was tightly clamped down.

Therefore, he urgently wanted to reach level three.

Not only could level-three warlocks acquire new abilities from the Sect Master, but more importantly, reaching level three allowed him to register as a full member at the Caster Association, granting a monthly quota of free checkouts.

"What other topic can I start?"

Jia Xiu scratched his head, activated Rune Eye, and once again inspected the rune composition of the Healing Spell, which he had already looked at countless times, hoping to find innovative points that could be improved.

Speaking of this Rune Eye, it could be considered Jia Xiu's most relied-upon ability now, and most of his research was conducted on the basis of this capacity.

According to the introduction in the system, the function of Rune Eye was actually very simple.

[Convert unreadable text into a form understandable by the user]

However, the magical part was that the runes constituting spells seemed to also be counted as a type of "text".

As for the converted form.

Jia Xiu concentrated his mind and gazed at the runes. Under the effect of Rune Eye, these dense, complex, and distortedly bizarre runes changed bit by bit.

class PrimaryHeal : public MagicSpell, public HealingSkill {

Although it looked very strange, to a lead game programmer, what could possibly be more familiar and understandable than code?

When he first successfully used Rune Eye, Jia Xiu once suspected that his Sect Master's true identity was a game engine.

From this perspective, the originally unfamiliar and obscure spell instantly became clear.

For example, the first line of runes of the Basic Healing Spell represented that this type of spell inherited the characteristics of incantation magic and healing skills.

However, Rune Eye was not perfect either.

During long-term use, he also discovered quite a few problems.

First of all, treated as code, it was not very standardized. There were no comments, no patterns were found in the variable names, reading it was very difficult, and it was extremely complex. The code for such a most basic spell reached as many as thousands of lines.

Secondly, the code was incomplete, containing only the code for the Basic Healing Spell itself. As for what characteristics the incantation magic and healing skills it inherited actually had, it was not completely clear, and he could only deduce a little bit.

And most crucially, this code could not be modified at will.

Jia Xiu guessed that it should be because the runes followed certain rules, but he had not mastered them yet.

Based on the experience he summarized himself, he found that where he could make modifications depended on the perception attribute.

The degree of modification, however, depended on intelligence.

Jia Xiu read through the familiar code over and over again, confirming a somewhat bad piece of news.

He could not find any new modifiable content.

He looked at the code from which he really couldn't squeeze anything new, then looked at the experience points that were just ten points short of leveling up.

Jia Xiu clenched his fists, as if making up his mind about something.

He stood up, walked to the corner of the room, and opened a locked small box.

Inside, two exquisite glass bottles shone brightly; the carvings on the bottles and the liquid exuding magic aura inside both indicated that they were extraordinarily valuable.

One bottle of Intelligence Potion, one bottle of Perception Potion.

They were bought with all of Jia Xiu's savings from the past two years.

More than two years ago, he transmigrated here, fortunately not triggering any plague or disaster, and became much younger—presumably a magical correction by the rules of the world.

At that time, he was unfamiliar with the place and didn't even speak the language, but fortunately traits like black hair, black eyes, delicate skin, and no calluses gave him a strong "noble temperament," preventing him from being driven out as a vagrant.

Kind Aunt Susan of the tailorshop took him in, letting him work as a handyman in the shop and clearing out the shop's utility room for him to stay temporarily.

Facts proved that the environment was the best language classroom.

It took Jia Xiu only a few months, without even memorizing particularly intently, to learn the local language.

He didn't read characters, but he had the Rune Eye.

After figuring out the language, he displayed a small skill that made Aunt Susan exclaim "genius."

Arithmetic.

The multiplication table shocked Aunt Susan immensely, and mental calculation of two-digit multiplication left her even more incredulous.

Thus, Jia Xiu immediately transitioned from a handyman to an accountant and cashier.

He had never studied accounting, but a tailoring shop didn't need that professional of accounting knowledge.

His salary for the new job was eighty Hel per month, one hundred Hel being one Kroner. Having eaten employee meals and slept in the utility room for two years, with no expenses except occasionally purchasing casting materials, he had saved sixteen Kroner.

Those two potions cost eight Kroner a bottle.

Jia Xiu stared at the Perception Potion for a few seconds, then abruptly pulled out the cork and gulped it down in one breath.

Discovering that a few drops were still clinging to the wall of the bottle and wouldn't pour out, if he hadn't not known whether adding water to this potion would affect it, he definitely would have poured some water in to rinse out those few drops.

After drinking it, he waited a few minutes, opened the panel to confirm that perception had increased by +1, and immediately activated the Rune Eye to observe the changes in the Basic Healing Spell rune.

Very soon, he noticed a few lines of code flashing.

That represented newly discovered modifiable positions.

Jia Xiu hurriedly checked those codes.

Hmm... enriching the types of healing action locations, you could add new target points...

Thinking of the Toenail Growth Healing Spell he had just modified, he attempted to make modifications.

Since it can affect length growth, can it grow horizontally too? Huh? It actually can!

Ten minutes later, a healing spell that made toenails grow toward both sides was freshly baked.

Looking at his brand-new creation, Jia Xiu was very satisfied and tried casting it—it succeeded.

It was just that the green light of healing seemed to carry a somewhat sinister feeling.

Now there was still one step away from completing the research: finding a target to practice on.

Jia Xiu looked at his own toes.

He'd better not.

Short of desperation, he didn't really want to sacrifice himself for truth.

Where could he find a suitable target?

Just at that moment, Aunt Susan's voice came from outside the door.

"Little Jia Xiu, someone is looking for you."

"Looking for me?" Jia Xiu opened the door. "Who is looking for me?"

Other than Aunt Susan, he had no acquaintances here. Every day, besides work, he holed up in the utility room doing experiments, at most going to the Caster Association to submit patents—just handling business and never chatting idly.

Yet Aunt Susan wore a smile that said Auntie understands everything and replied, "An extremely pretty girl. I couldn't tell, huh—you've got this kind of skill..."

Jia Xiu ignored Aunt Susan's burning flames of gossip and walked straight into the front shop.

It truly was "an extremely pretty girl," with a head of red hair, delicate features, a slender figure, and an upright posture.

She wore a simple black slip dress; based on Jia Xiu's experience working in a tailoring shop, this fabric meant her family background was unusually wealthy.

For someone like this to come looking for him, it was hard not to feel puzzled.

"You are?"

"Margaret, from Saint Dero Spellcaster Academy, came to Creekwood Town in charge of the evaluation work for the Excellent Young Spellcaster Award."

Jia Xiu understood, he was most likely a candidate for this award.

He had heard of this award and originally wanted to sign up, but dismissed the thought upon hearing that the lord's son also wanted it.

During his school days, shady dealings were inevitable for all kinds of awards.

Now in this feudal background world, how could award evaluations possibly be fair.

With no hope of winning, there was also no need to sign up.

He just didn't expect that he hadn't signed up, yet the organizers had actively come to his door. True, he had registered so many patents at the association, so it was hard not to be noticed.

Actually, he went to register them to earn a bit of the association's subsidy. If other spellcasters learned his patents, he could collect money.

It was a pity that these weird, modified healing spells hadn't sparked any interest from other spellcasters.

Margaret continued, "I have looked at all the materials you submitted to the association, and I think you have a very high hope of becoming a winner."

"Thank you."

Jia Xiu politely expressed his thanks.

"However, I have a few questions I'd like to confirm. First, your professional certification is a warlock, right?"

"Yes."

Jia Xiu also knew that the warlock profession had a rather bad reputation, but there was no need to hide it either.

"Then to ask presumptuously, though you don't have to answer, who is your sect master?"

"Uh..."

Jia Xiu was a bit embarrassed. Good question, he also wanted to know who his sect master was.

"Anrio," he blurted out casually, "with the honorific Illusion."

Anyway, he had long felt that the abilities given by the sect master were like a game engine.

"Anrio?"

Margaret thought for a moment. In her impression, there was no powerful demonfolk named this at all.

Moreover, Anrio sounded very much like a fairy's name, and the honorific Illusion also fit a fairy's naming convention well.

Demonfolk wouldn't take such names. Demonfolk generally had terrifying-sounding titles like "King of Demonic Horns," "Bloody Lord," and "Undead Monarch."

Since it was a fairy, that was fine. Although a fairy sect master's behavior was also hard to understand, they were basically not evil.

Margaret did not plan to keep asking about the contract Jia Xiu fulfilled; that would be too offensive.

"Then can I visit your laboratory? Your perspective on improving spells is very special."

She still wanted to confirm whether Jia Xiu's research was actually completed by himself.

There was no need to ask; just taking a look at the operations in the laboratory would immediately determine it.

"Of course you can, but that little place of mine doesn't count as a laboratory."

As he spoke, he led Margaret to his utility room.

Aunt Susan, who had been secretly watching the gossip, was shocked. Just now, the voices of the two speaking were too low to hear clearly, but after whispering back and forth for a long time, he was about to lead the young woman into his room.

This... shouldn't she avoid the scene?

Over here, the two of you arrived in the utility room.

"Your laboratory, is like this?"

Margaret asked in disbelief.

The small room was only seven or eight square meters, with a bed, a table, numerous manuscripts on the table, and some very poor-quality spellcasting materials.

"The conditions are indeed a bit poor, but they're still enough for now."

"You use this kind of material to do experiments?"

Margaret had never used such poor materials.

"Most of the time I don't, it's too expensive."

"Too..."

Hearing Jia Xiu's reply, she suddenly realized that in her mind, there was never any need to consider the price when it came to spellcasting materials.

Margaret asked again, "In other words, those researches were basically completed on drafts?"

"Pretty much." Jia Xiu replied.

She looked at the drafts on the table, instantly recognizing that they were runes of the basic healing spell. They were slightly modified, but she couldn't tell what the effect of the modification was yet. The ink was still wet, newly written.

Now she was completely certain that that research was done by Jia Xiu, and even accomplished under conditions lacking materials, relying solely on draft calculations.

Margaret suddenly gazed at Jia Xiu, a look that made Jia Xiu's skin crawl a bit.

"You?"

"You must be this year's winner."

Margaret was bursting with a sense of justice right now, having already imagined a story of a poor Warlock who, despite an impoverished life, bravely forged ahead on the path of pursuing the truth of magic, moving herself to tears.

Such talent should not be buried.

Although the award selection was split evenly between the association and the local lord, she only had confidence in securing the association's votes for Jia Xiu.

However, according to the rules, when two candidates tied in votes, a spell duel could be held to determine the final winner.

And she was confident she could help Jia Xiu win the duel.

"You jest, I hardly deserve this award."

Jia Xiu politely refused.

Stealing the award from the local lord's son—how was he supposed to get by around here? This mage from Saint Delro Academy wouldn't be staying here forever.

The risk and reward were completely disproportionate.

Seeing him refuse, Margaret wanted to try persuading him a bit more, saying some generic things about how spellcasters should dare to fight for their own rights.

Yet taking in the crude conditions of the storage room, inspiration struck.

"What a pity, I originally intended to write a recommendation letter for the Creekwood Town winner to help him apply to Saint Delro Academy."

Jia Xiu's ears twitched.

"I also wanted to provide him with a laboratory in the association, where materials could be taken at will."

Jia Xiu's heartbeat accelerated.

"I also planned to sponsor him with a thousand Kroner in funds under my private name, but alas, all this will have to go to someone else."

With that, she turned to leave.

"Wait!" Jia Xiu hurriedly called out.

The rewards now outweighed the risks.

"What, didn't you say you didn't deserve the award?" Margaret asked with a smile.

But then again...