Condensing a Starlet

Matthew stumbled, completely losing his balance. Under the tremendous inertia, he shot forward like a cannonball flung from a catapult.

Face-first, he crashed viciously toward the rotten wooden threshold ahead, its edges sharp as blades!

"No!" Kavi's horrified roar was swallowed by the chaotic din.

Bang!

A dull thud that made teeth ache.

Matthew's face, which had been brimming with arrogance just moments ago, slammed heavily into the jagged edge of the blackened, decayed threshold without any cushion.

Under the immense impact, he distinctly heard the scalp-tingling crack of his own jawbone shattering.

Then, a searing pain mixed with the taste of rust exploded from his mouth, instantly flooding every nerve in his body.

"Aaargh!"

A shriek distorted beyond recognition burst from Matthew's mouth. Blood, saliva, and white fragments sprayed from his gaping jaws, splattering everywhere.

He clutched his mouth tightly with both hands, his body curling like a shrimp as he rolled and convulsed across the floor in agony, letting out low whimpers.

Blood streamed through his fingers, staining his hands and the front of his clothes red. The passageway fell deathly silent.

Everyone had been stunned senseless by the sudden upheaval and the gruesome scene before them.

The class leader who had been so high-spirited a second ago was now rolling on the ground, howling with blood all over his face.

That white object mixed with blood foam that he had spat out... was clearly half a front tooth.

Kavi scrambled and crawled to Matthew's side. Seeing his elder brother's mouth full of blood and his body twitching in agony, he went pale with fright. At a complete loss, he wanted to help him up but did not dare touch him.

"Brother, Class Leader, are you... are you all right? Your tooth... your tooth..."

The instant the ship lurched violently, Li Ang had "weakly" slid down along the tilt and collapsed on the floor. Curled in the corner against the cabin wall, he coughed violently, as though the accident had only made his already frail body worse.

One hand pressed against his chest and the other covered his face. Through the gaps between his fingers, he watched Matthew's miserable state, his heart pounding wildly beneath his heaving chest.

It worked. Things had gone even more smoothly than he had expected. The narrow passageway was in utter chaos.

Matthew's heart-rending howls, Kavi's panicked shouts, and the terrified chatter of the other apprentice candidates all blended together, filling the cramped space.

Curled in the corner, Li Ang used his violent coughing as cover and etched Matthew's blood-smeared, pain-twisted face deep into his memory.

A flicker of vengeful pleasure flashed 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 along the edge of the crowd, keeping close to the damp, icy planks.

Every step came with a burning stab in his lungs and suppressed gasps for air. He clenched his teeth and did not dare pause for even a moment.

He pushed open his creaking, broken wooden door. The stench of rot and mildew rushed over him once again, but this time, Li Ang felt the safety of having survived a calamity, along with profound anger and unwillingness.

He bolted the door behind him, leaned against it, and gulped down breaths. His chest wheezed like a broken bellows.

"Cough... cough, cough..." Another fit of violent coughing seized him, while 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 who had been willing to pour out 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 was only the beginning. Matthew and Kavi, you would pay the price for this sooner or later!

For that, he needed power—the power called magic.

Having made up his mind, he immediately sat cross-legged atop the pile of moldy straw.

He used Gale-Sailing Canvas again to clear the air in the room, then began meditating amid the fresh air and lively wind-element mana surrounding him.

Emptying his mind of all tangled thoughts, he immersed his entire consciousness in the world described in Basic Meditation Principles.

Adjust his breathing, dive deep within... visualize the spiritual core... guide the mana...

Thanks to the wind-element mana environment created by Gale-Sailing Canvas, far denser than that at the bottom level of the ship's hold, the flow of mana entering his spiritual world was especially clear this time.

Azure wind-element mana, like lively sprites, circled the spiritual core constructed by his thoughts, spinning and condensing.

Cast aside stray thoughts. Let his heart remain undistracted.

Li Ang's consciousness was like the most precise spindle, meticulously drawing those threads of azure mana toward the core, gathering, compressing, and spinning them...

Time passed in the darkness. Only his heavy breathing and the occasional suppressed cough echoed through the cramped space.

After an unknown amount of time, as though within an endless void, a faint yet incomparably steady azure light suddenly ignited!

Like a newborn star, it slowly revolved at the center of his spiritual world, releasing gentle yet distinct ripples that resonated wondrously with the dense wind-element mana around it.

It was done. The first Magic Starlet had successfully condensed!

Li Ang suppressed the wild joy in his heart as an indescribable coolness instantly spread from his spiritual world, as if it had washed clean his dust-covered soul.

Li Ang felt his perception become clearer than ever before. He also gained an inexplicable sense of affinity with, and control over, the wind-element mana flowing through the air.

With a thought, the azure starlet in his spiritual world flickered faintly, and a weak thread of spiritual power was drawn out.

[Bound Facility: Gale-Sailing Canvas]

[Consume 5 Spiritual Power to upgrade? Current Spiritual Power: 10/10]

Confirm upgrade, Li Ang silently said in his heart.

Buzz!

An invisible ripple spread outward from Li Ang, only to be instantly confined within the ship's cabin.

The three canvas sails hanging high above on the mast seemed to flash with an extremely faint azure gleam along the already obscure formation patterns on their surfaces, before it vanished again, as if nothing had happened.

Yet Li Ang clearly sensed the change. The air around the canvas sails seemed to have become more "obedient," and the efficiency at which wind-element mana gathered had quietly increased as well.

Li Ang immediately 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 mana environment. Air gathering and dispersal ability +10%, wind-element mana environment concentration +10%]

[Lv2 Effect: Air gathering and dispersal ability +20%, wind-element mana environment concentration +20%]

[Upgrade Requirement: 2 Magic Starlets in the spiritual world, consume 10 Spiritual Power]

It was done. He had finally taken the first step on his path to becoming a wizard.