Matthew staggered, completely losing his balance. Driven by tremendous inertia, he flew like a cannonball hurled from a catapult.
Face-first, he slammed toward the rotten wooden threshold ahead, its edges sharp as blades!
"No!" Kavi's horrified roar was drowned out by the chaotic crash.
"Bang!"
A dull, teeth-grinding thud rang out.
Matthew's face, still full of arrogance just moments ago, struck the edge of the blackened, decayed threshold with no cushioning at all.
Under the tremendous impact, he clearly heard the scalp-prickling crack of his own jawbone breaking.
Then, agonizing pain laced with the taste of rust erupted from his mouth, instantly flooding every nerve in his body.
"Aghhh!"
A shriek warped beyond recognition burst from Matthew's mouth. Blood, saliva, and white fragments sprayed from his wide-open mouth, splattering everywhere.
He clutched his mouth tightly with both hands, curling up like a shrimp as he rolled and convulsed across the floor in agony, letting out low whimpers.
Blood gushed through his fingers, staining his hands and the front of his clothes red. The passageway fell utterly silent.
Everyone had been stunned senseless by the sudden upheaval and the grisly scene before them.
One moment, the class leader had been high-spirited and imposing. The next, he was rolling on the floor with a face full of blood, howling in agony.
That white thing mixed with blood and spat out of his mouth... was clearly half of a front tooth.
Kavi scrambled over to Matthew's side. Seeing his elder brother's mouth full of blood and his body twitching in pain, he turned deathly pale. He helplessly tried to help him up, yet did not dare touch him.
"Big Brother, Class Leader, are you... are you all right? Your teeth... your teeth..."
The instant the hull lurched violently, Li Ang had "weakly" slid to the floor along the tilt, curling into the corner against the cabin wall and coughing violently, as though the accident had only made his already frail body worse.
One hand covered his chest and the other his face. Through the gaps between his fingers, he watched Matthew's miserable state. Beneath his heaving chest, his heart pounded wildly.
It worked. Things had gone even more smoothly than he expected. The narrow passageway was now in complete chaos.
Matthew's heart-rending howls, Kavi's frantic shouts, and the terrified discussions of the other apprentice candidates all mixed together, filling the cramped space.
Curled up in the corner, Li Ang used his violent coughing as cover and etched Matthew's blood-smeared face, twisted by excruciating pain, deep into his memory.
A flicker of vengeful satisfaction passed through his heart, but he quickly calmed down. He could not stay here any longer.
While everyone's attention was fixed on Matthew, he braced himself against the cabin wall and silently slipped away from the edge of the crowd, keeping close to the damp, icy planks.
Every step came with a searing stab in his lungs and suppressed gasps for breath. He gritted his teeth, not daring to pause for even a moment.
He pushed open his own creaking, broken wooden door. The stench of rot and mildew hit him again, but this time, Li Ang felt the safety of having survived a disaster, along with deep anger and resentment.
He bolted the door behind him, leaned against it, and panted heavily. His chest wheezed like a broken bellows.
"Cough... cough, cough..." A violent coughing fit struck again, and Matthew's words wrapped around his heart like a nightmare.
Though he was not truly a member of the Carlson Family, they should not have mocked someone willing to spend his entire fortune to give them an opportunity. They had even indirectly caused the death of old Carlson's only son, the real Li Ang Carlson.
Fighting spirit blazed in his eyes. Tonight's events were only the beginning. Matthew, Kavi, you will pay for this eventually!
To do that, he needed power—the power known as magic.
Having made up his mind, he immediately sat cross-legged on the pile of moldy straw.
He used the Gale-Sailing Canvas again to clear the air inside the room, then began meditating amid the fresh air and lively wind-element magic around him.
Emptying his mind of all distracting thoughts, he immersed his full awareness in the world described by the Basic Meditation Principles.
Adjust his breathing, dive deep within... imagine the Mental Core... guide the magic...
Thanks to the Gale-Sailing Canvas creating a wind-element magic environment far denser than the ship's lower deck, the flow of magic entering his Mental World was especially clear this time.
Cyan wind-element magic, like lively sprites, circled and condensed around the Mental Core formed by his will.
Cast aside all distractions. Focus completely.
Li Ang's consciousness became like the most precise spindle, meticulously drawing those cyan threads of magic toward the core, compressing and spinning them...
Time passed in the darkness. Only his ragged breathing and the occasional suppressed cough echoed through the cramped room.
After an unknown length of time, a faint yet incomparably steady cyan light suddenly lit up in the endless void!
Like a newborn star, it slowly rotated at the center of his Mental World, giving off gentle yet distinct pulses that resonated wondrously with the dense wind-element magic around it.
It was done. The first Magic Starlet had successfully condensed!
Suppressing the wild joy in his heart, Li Ang felt an indescribable coolness spread instantly from his Mental World, as if washing the dust from his soul.
His senses became clearer than ever, and he felt an inexplicable affinity with—and greater control over—the wind-element magic flowing through the air.
With a thought, the cyan Astral Star in his Mental World flickered faintly, and a weak strand of spiritual power was drawn out.
[Bound Facility: Gale-Sailing Canvas] [Consume 5 points of spiritual power to upgrade? Current spiritual power: 10/10]
Confirm upgrade, Li Ang silently said in his heart.
Bzz!
An invisible ripple spread outward from Li Ang, only to be instantly confined within the ship's cabin.
The faintly concealed magic formation patterns on the three sails high above the mast seemed to flash with an extremely weak cyan glow before vanishing again, as though nothing had happened.
But Li Ang clearly sensed the change. The airflow around the sails seemed more "obedient," and the efficiency with which wind-element magic gathered had quietly increased.
Li Ang then opened the panel to confirm it.
[Gale-Sailing Canvas: Lv1] [Current effect: Can control the gathering and dispersal of air within the ship's range, creating a wind-element magic environment. Air gathering and dispersal ability +10%; wind-element magic environment density +10%] [Lv2 effect: Air gathering and dispersal ability +20%; wind-element magic environment density +20%] [Upgrade requirement: Number of Magic Starlets in the Mental World reaches 2; consume 10 points of spiritual power]
It was done. He had finally taken the first step on his path to becoming a wizard.
Before you continue