Setting Out!

At that thought, the City Lord's stiff smile relaxed again. With a hint of reluctance, he summoned a guard and whispered a few instructions.

The guard jogged out of the hall and soon returned with a money pouch woven from gold thread, handing it to the City Lord.

Without even checking it, the City Lord handed it straight to Lynn.

"Mr. Lynn, Black Marsh City is only a small city. We don't have many Magic Stones, so I hope you'll forgive us."

Lynn accepted it and felt it over. There were roughly three Magic Stones inside.

Fine. One Magic Stone earned was still one Magic Stone earned.

After sincerely thanking the City Lord, Lynn and the others followed the Wizard out of the City Lord's Residence.

Three luxurious carriages had been waiting for some time and carried them out of the city.

After leaving the city, the carriages traveled for a while longer before finally stopping.

Everyone got out, gazing at the empty wilderness in confusion.

Why were they getting off here?

The Wizard offered no explanation and led the seven Apprentices into the open area.

The Wizard chanted strange syllables, and the surrounding negative energy rapidly gathered. A magic array appeared out of thin air on the clearing.

The magic array quickly expanded, and then a massive bird made entirely of white bones, with a wingspan exceeding ten meters, crawled out of it!

Eerie blue Soul Fire burned in the Bone Bird's eye sockets. As its drafty Bone Wings flapped, they somehow generated powerful wind pressure.

"Get on."

The Wizard ordered.

The Apprentices looked at each other, completely at a loss when faced with the enormous skeleton.

How were they supposed to climb something so smooth?

Lynn cautiously approached one of the Bone Wings, intending to climb up along the wing that formed a slope.

But as soon as he reached it, he saw the Bone Wing squirm rapidly like putty before forming a series of steps.

Oh... that's pretty advanced?!

Lynn climbed the steps onto the Bone Bird's broad back and found a flat spot to sit down.

It was kind of uncomfortable.

Seeing this, the other Apprentices followed suit and soon took their seats on the Bone Bird.

Once everyone was seated, the bones squirmed again, extending strips of "bone belts" that bound them in place.

Lynn wasn't flustered in the slightest.

He was all too familiar with this. They were seat belts!

The Wizard flew directly to the Bone Bird's head and sat cross-legged, reaching out to stroke its skull.

The Bone Bird let out a silent shriek, beat its wings, and shot into the sky. The fierce airflow made the Apprentices cry out as they clutched the surrounding bones tightly.

The Bone Bird flew incredibly fast, and Black Marsh City rapidly shrank below them.

Lynn had originally wanted to build a relationship with the Wizard along the way and ask about the Wizarding World, but the violent wind kept him from opening his mouth at all.

Yeah... if he opened it, he wouldn't be able to close it again.

The others were no exception. Even the adorable Lillian and the aloof Eileen were thrown into disarray by the gale, their hair turning into wild lion manes.

As time passed, the people high in the air gradually lost heat and began shivering from the cold.

It seemed the Wizard wasn't considerate enough. Wouldn't it have been nice to give everyone an energy barrier?

About half a day later, damp, salty sea wind rushed toward them, followed by the sight of an endless blue ocean on the horizon.

The Bone Bird beat its wings and landed directly on a simple dock by the shore, where a bizarre-looking sailing ship was already waiting.

The three-masted vessel appeared to be pieced together from some kind of black wood and enormous bones. One look told them it was a standard ship of the dark faction.

It was the Withered Bone Spire Academy's ship—the Netherbone.

If a ship like this sailed across the ocean, pirates would probably turn around and flee at the sight of it.

It was freaking terrifying!

Another Wizard in gray robes stood waiting silently on the dock.

His style was completely different from Xilu's mysterious appearance. Rather than hiding beneath a hood or mist, he openly displayed his body.

Clearly, he had tremendous confidence in it.

His face was gaunt, his skin an unhealthy waxy yellow, and his cheekbones jutted out sharply.

Yet the most eye-catching things were the inhuman components on his face.

His left eye had been completely removed and replaced with a constantly rotating compound eye that glimmered with a cold red light.

It looked very much like the organ of some large insect. Its densely packed lenses rotated independently, inspiring fear in anyone who looked at them.

Below the elbow, his right arm had been entirely replaced by a limb ending in a bone blade that glinted with cold light.

His close-combat ability was surely formidable as well.

Below the knee, his left leg consisted of four or five dark-purple, tentacle-like appendages.

Those tentacles looked soft, yet they supported his body steadily. They even wriggled unconsciously from time to time, tapping lightly against the ground.

The black-robed Wizard Xilu exchanged a few words with him, pointing at Lynn as though specifically explaining his talent.

Then Xilu said nothing more. He mounted the Bone Bird again and vanished into the horizon as a streak of black light.

He needed to hurry to the next city to hold another "recruitment ceremony."

The gray-robed Wizard's insect-like compound eye swept over the Apprentices who had just climbed down from the Bone Bird's back, shivering from the cold.

His gaze lingered on Lynn in particular for a moment. The dense lenses contracted, as if refocusing.

Lynn felt as though everything about him had been laid bare, and his heart tightened.

X-ray vision?

That old bastard hasn't taken a liking to me, has he?

The gray-robed Wizard offered no greeting or pleasantries. In a slightly hoarse voice, he directly ordered:

"Board the ship."

This "ship of bones" was enormous, and quite a few Apprentices from other cities were already aboard.

They looked over Lynn's group of newcomers with either curiosity or disdain.

Lynn, dressed in cheap linen clothes, drew particular scorn from those richly dressed youths.

Another lucky poor kid.

The gray-robed Wizard clearly knew Lynn's value and directly instructed the boatswain, "Take him to a private cabin on the top deck."

That order immediately drew the attention of the other Apprentices aboard. Cabins were assigned based on talent.

The top deck?

Clearly, he was a genius!

In an instant, everyone's expressions changed.

There were only a few cabins on the top deck, and the Wizards themselves stayed there as well.

For a moment, countless probing, envious, and jealous gazes converged on Lynn, giving him a very real taste of being ogled.

But no idiot dared to step forward and shout, "This isn't fair!"

Fair?

This was a Dark Wizard's ship!

You wanted fairness from them?

Then you were really brave~

The other six Apprentices from Black Marsh City, including Mary, instinctively gathered around Lynn, forming a small group centered on him.

In this unfamiliar environment, surrounded by strangers, sticking together was instinctive.

But their talents were poor, so they could only be assigned to the lowest level of the ship.

And their identities as nobles and sons of wealthy families were completely useless here.

Not to mention that once they entered the Wizarding World, everyone was merely an Apprentice—there were already plenty of sons of City Lords and great nobles aboard this ship.

There was even an unwanted young prince from the Kingdom of Hess.

Mary tried to follow Lynn into the top-deck cabin, but he rejected her outright.

He had no intention of bringing that stupid woman along again.

Helpless, Mary could only head down to the lowest level with the others.

After finding their respective rooms and tidying them up, they agreed to meet on the deck.