Watcher? Sword Maiden?

"I'm so tired, Ingrid. Are you going to shower first, or should I?"

The voice arrived before the person, and Lois, who was reading in the dormitory, immediately turned dark.

The door pushed open, and two girls carrying sword bags entered. Beads of sweat clung to the fuzz on their faces as they burst in, laughing and chatting like a spring breeze filling the room with vitality, carrying the fresh scent of sprouting earth.

"I'll go first," Ingrid said, sitting down. "I still need to do laundry later, and your legs are like jelly. You should sit for a while and recover your strength."

"True," Sonia stretched, then slumped onto the table like a Slime. "Ugh, I'm already starting to regret transferring to the Swordsmanship Department. It's so exhausting. Classes are one thing, but Professor Tello Zan insists I take two extra hours of Advanced Course, and I even have to spar with him... then I have to continue Swordsmanship Training at night to master the Ripple Sword Spell Spirit. I feel like my entire schedule is packed to the brim."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Ingrid said, full of envy. "Professor Tello Zan is a Three-Winged Swordsman. He was even selected as one of the Ten Outstanding Star Sword Saints last year and is known as the 'Hidden Hand Sword Saint.' They say he might even challenge for the Four-Winged Legendary rank... by then, Sonia, you'll be the apprentice of a Legendary Arcanist!"

Lois's hands unconsciously crumpled the book.

Sonia waved her hand. "Professor Tello Zan hasn't said he wants to take me as an apprentice yet. He just thinks I have talent..."

Ingrid sighed. "I actually wanted to be Professor Tello Zan's apprentice from the start, but he has never publicly taken on any apprentices. Sonia, you're the only exception he's made in all these years!"

"Then I'll recommend you to Professor Tello Zan tomorrow. I can't guarantee anything, but I should be able to get him to give you an interview opportunity—"

"No need. The Professor is clearly focused on cultivating geniuses. I'm just an ordinary person. Not only would he not accept me, but he would likely just find me annoying." Ingrid said while looking for clothes. "Besides, I'm about to break into the Second Ring. In a few months, I'll be able to summon a spell spirit, and the resources of the Swordsmanship Department will open up to me... maybe I'll catch up to you by then!"

"I won't be waiting for you, though," Sonia giggled. "It's a good thing I have you, Ingrid, otherwise I wouldn't know how to turn down Felix's invitations."

Ingrid asked curiously, "I heard he wants to spar with you again. Don't you want to have another match with him?"

"I don't!" Sonia said firmly. "He doesn't want to spar at all; he just wants to get closer to me."

"Isn't it a good thing to get closer to Felix?"

"Setting aside the fact that he's a playboy, it's plain to see that my future achievements in swordsmanship will definitely surpass his. I have no interest in a man who can't even beat me in my strongest field."

"Sword Flower University is still too small. I'm definitely going to develop at Truth University in the future. As for romance, I'll wait until I've achieved something in my swordsmanship."

Lois's fingernails nearly pierced the pages of her book.

Adele, who had been watching a show on the light screen, asked with a mix of feigned and genuine confusion, "Sonia, are you going to transfer to Truth University?"

"Not exactly, but Professor Tello Zan can help me sign up for sword competitions at Truth University and let me use their equipment. I might have to run between Truth and Sword Flower in the future." Sonia sighed. "The more I think about it, the more tired I get."

Adele let out a "wow." "Then won't you be able to meet the top students at Truth University? If you meet any handsome guys, remember to introduce them to me!"

"No~ prob~lem~" Sonia drawled. "How could I forget my roommates when good things happen? We're such good roommates who have spent a happy year together, right, Lois?"

Lois was so angry her mouth twisted, and it took a great effort for her to force a smile. "Of course. I just worry that Sword Saint Sonia won't recognize us roommates anymore."

"How could that be? I'm just a little village girl from the countryside. I'll still need Young Miss Lois to look after me in the future." Sonia said with Sarcastic Insults. "Oh, is the Young Miss reading a Water Art textbook? I'm so envious. I really want to continue studying Water Art too; it's so easy and respectable, unlike the Swordsmanship Department, which is just too exhausting~"

Ingrid realized by now that although Sonia was chatting with her, her words were aimed directly at Lois.

She couldn't be bothered with their grievances and went straight into the bathroom to shower.

Sonia was prepared for Lois to explode, but Lois remained silent, as if she had decided to lie flat and take the mockery.

Sarcastic Insults relied on PVP interaction; now that the other party had gone into a defensive crouch, Sonia lost interest. She shouldered her bag and called out, "Forget it, I'll shower when I get back tomorrow morning. I need to head to the Meditation Room to prepare for my first trip to the Void Realm. Have a pleasant night, everyone."

Ingrid was in the shower, Lois didn't speak, and only Adele replied, "Goodbye, Sonia."

As the footsteps faded away, only the sound of water remained in the dormitory.

Adele looked at the silent Lois, thought for a moment, and walked over to start a conversation. "Hmph, that village girl Sonia is really getting ahead of herself. Just because she has some talent in swordsmanship, what's the big deal? You don't need to take it to heart, Lois. With her arrogant attitude, she'll hit a wall sooner or later... hm?"

Adele looked over and discovered that Lois was actually reading, even taking out a workbook to solve problems.

"I lost this time," Lois said. "That village girl Sonia has already climbed to a height where I have to look up to her. If things continue like this, when we meet again a few years after graduation, I will inevitably have to bow my head to her."

Seeming to have already imagined her own humble future, the corners of Lois's mouth twitched. "I can't accept this... I refuse to believe I can't even compare to that village girl!"

Adele didn't disturb her and returned to her seat to continue watching her show.

Although the show was still good, Adele's mind couldn't settle down.

She turned to look at Lois again and found that Lois wasn't just acting on a whim; she was still studying with intense focus. After a moment of thought, she turned off the light screen and took out her own books to study.

When Ingrid came out of the shower and saw both of them studying diligently, she was slightly surprised.

However, she didn't say anything and quietly went to the balcony sink to wash her clothes.

After the guard finished checking the student information in her wristband, Sonia entered a fully enclosed Special Building.

As soon as she crossed the threshold, Sonia felt as if she had passed through an Invisible Boundary. Her thinking speed suddenly accelerated, and the Ripple Sword Spell Spirit jumped out from her shoulder, looking very excited.

"So, after I enter the Void Realm, will you still be by my side?" Sonia asked.

"This actually counts as overtime," the Watcher, who was walking beside her, said leisurely. "It's beyond the scope of my service."

"So you mean you're not willing..."

"So, there has to be Overtime Pay!" The Watcher rubbed his fingers together. "You have to buy a drink at a Bar just to get someone to talk to you, right? If you want someone to accompany you to the Void Realm to chat and travel, you have to express your gratitude somehow!?"

"I'm super broke!"

"Aside from money, you still have plenty of surplus value left to sell."

Sonia raised her eyebrows slightly, hooking her finger into her form-fitting shirt to reveal a deep cleavage: "The most valuable thing I have is myself, you know..."

"That's exactly what I was waiting to hear! From now on, you're an employee working for me." The Watcher snapped his fingers: "But since you haven't graduated yet, you're still on probation. And since it is a probationary period, there's no labor contract either. As for your probationary wages, the Stamina Potion you drank and the Wooden Sword you used have already covered it, so..."

"So you're hoping I'll work for you for free?"

"Tsk, that's a harsh way to put it. I provide various opportunities to nurture your growth, and you provide some labor in return as you grow—isn't that a healthy production relationship where employer and employee progress together?"

Sonia didn't reject this unequal, exploitative contract, but instead asked: "You've gone to such great lengths—testing me in dreams, arranging my training, and stimulating my talent for swordsmanship—all just to have me work for you? Then what is my job description?"

"Survive."

"Survive?"

"Surviving is the rarest thing in this world." The Watcher seemed to be smiling: "Most people are merely existing."

"I still can't understand." Sonia said: "I believe every gift has its price. You've invested so much in training me; you must want to reap something greater from me. Unless you are a phantom of my own mind, I can't think of any reason for you to be this selfless."

"I'm not being selfless. On the contrary, there is no one in this world more selfish than me." The Watcher laughed: "I demand that you live according to my will—could there be anything more selfish than that?"

"But..."

"Haha, I was just joking. How could I be such a good person who thinks of you like that?" The Watcher laughed: "I do have a serious matter to ask of you—due to certain reasons, I have become very weak and cannot explore the Void Realm on my own, so I need you to protect me."

As they spoke, Sonia had already arrived in front of Room 311. She opened the door with her Wristband, revealing a narrow, empty Meditation Room. The floor was covered entirely by an orange carpet, and the lights on the ceiling illuminated every corner.

This was a Meditation Room at Sword Flower University, and it was the best quiet place Sonia could find to enter the Void Realm.

She closed the door, sat cross-legged on the carpet, and let the Ripple Sword Spell Spirit float above her palm. She poured her entire focus into the Spell Spirit, searching for the Gate of Truth hidden within the knowledge, attempting the first Void Realm journey of her life.

Although Sonia had successfully summoned her first Spell Spirit, she could not yet be considered a One-Winged Arcanist because she had not condensed her own "Silver Wing."

Without Spell Power, without a condensed phantom, she naturally could not fully activate her Spell Spirit and could not be considered an Arcanist at all.

To condense a Silver Wing, one must enter the Void Realm, swim through the Sea of Knowledge, use the soul to attract knowledge, extract Spell Power from that knowledge, condense the Spell Power into Void Wings, and use those Void Wings to leverage the authority of the laws—only then could one become an Arcanist!

The only way for an ordinary person to enter the Void Realm was to find the Gate of Truth within their own Spell Spirit and let their soul pass through it, reaching the illusory world constructed of laws and knowledge—the Void Realm!

It is said that the Void Realm is dozens, hundreds, or even ten thousand times larger than the real world.

Countless Arcanists never encounter another person in the Void Realm throughout their entire lives, so all Arcanists must rely on themselves to explore it.

The Meditation Building was specifically designed as a quiet space for Arcanists to explore the Void Realm. Beyond being quiet and free from disturbance, Sword Flower University also cast the miracle [Starlight Chasing Shadow]. This not only accelerated the students' thinking speed in the Meditation Building, making it easier to find the Gate of Truth, but also channeled countless beams of starlight descended from the Star Law Master, causing the students' souls to emit a fragrance that knowledge loved, allowing them to condense their Silver Wings faster!

Soon, Sonia found the Gate of Truth within the Ripple Sword Spell Spirit.

Since it was her first time, Sonia couldn't help but feel as nervous as if she were going to a tryst, and she asked in her heart: "Watcher?"

"I'm here. Don't worry, there is a Bond between us; the Sacred Fate has connected you and me."

Sonia's mind immediately calmed down. As her consciousness touched the Gate of Truth, her vision was instantly swallowed by darkness.

When she woke up, she found herself lying in a boat, floating on a lead-gray sea.

Before her was a sky as thick as black ink, and she was surrounded by a hazy mist.

She lay at the stern of the boat and saw another familiar person lying at the bow.

Sonia: "Watcher?"

Ash: "Sword Maiden?"

The two made Eye Contact and both let out a sigh of relief.