Saul stared at the maid in disbelief.
He was only twelve.
Dragging the heavy little cart into the room, Saul slammed the door shut right in front of the maid with a bang.
The maid straightened up, pouting in displeasure.
Just then, another maid pushing an empty cart, who was in charge of delivering books to Room 603, walked by. She looked at the young maid standing outside the door empty-handed and asked, a little surprised, “He didn’t let you in?”
“It’s fine.” The maid hooked her index finger under her collar. It snapped back against her skin with a light tremble of her chest. “He’ll want it.”
Unaware that someone outside the door had already marked him as prey, Saul was blissfully flipping through each book one by one.
Every single one was thick.
Some detailed magical flora, fauna, and minerals of this world.
Some described the traits and legends of common ghosts and monsters.Some resembled foreign language textbooks, yet the content was as convoluted and difficult as an English-Chinese dictionary.
There were also picture books, but the illustrations were eerie and grotesque. Looking at them too long could make one dizzy.
After skimming through each book, Saul turned to inspect the items covered in black velvet.
There was a crystal ball he’d seen before, not black, but transparent.
There was a set of transparent crystal or maybe glass, test tubes and beakers, along with a small crucible.
There was also a large wooden box, divided into more than a dozen compartments, containing various items: a few sets of clothing and a First Rank Apprentice badge.
All of these items were listed in the apprentice handbook. Saul checked them off one by one with the handbook in hand, finally managing to identify everything.
He pinned the apprentice badge onto his coat and gently brushed his fingers over the slightly rough engraving.
Thinking about tomorrow’s first public lesson, Saul pulled out Wizard Language: An Introduction to Noah Script, sat back down at the long table, and began to preview the material.
After all, in his previous life he had survived the gaokao (A difficult test in China), he was quite good at brute-force memorization and drowning himself in practice questions.
There were no windows in a First Rank apprentice’s room. He couldn’t see the outside world. He had to rely on the blue hourglass hanging above to tell the time.
Blue grains of sand trickled down one by one. Accompanied by the sound of flipping pages and a writing pen, the entire world fell silent.
He ate the lunch and dinner delivered by the maid absentmindedly. When Saul next looked up to check the time, it was already midnight.
Classes will begin tomorrow. He couldn’t afford to stay up too late and burn through his energy.
Saul stretched, his muscles groaning with soreness, but mentally he still felt sharp, no sign of drowsy fatigue.
After taking the Mental aptitude test, he’d noticed a clear improvement in his stamina. It was as if something inside him had been unsealed.
Back when he was still a servant, he had to work until midnight and be kicked awake at four in the morning to start again.
He always felt like he hadn’t slept enough.
Now that he was an apprentice and finally had time to rest, he didn’t feel tired at all.
“Is it just my imagination? I feel like my mental capacity is way stronger than before.”
Still unsure of his condition, Saul decided to ask his mentor about it tomorrow.
He gave himself a quick wash, then walked to the wall and dimmed the candlelight to its lowest setting.
Whether in a room or hallway, the brightness of the candles could be adjusted, but they must never be extinguished.
Even servants knew this.
It was the kind of thing that could save your life.
Lying on the bed, Saul felt a surge of excitement.
The bed was about a meter and a half wide, far more spacious and comfortable than the shared bunk he used to sleep on.
Saul stretched out all his limbs, trying to occupy every inch of the bed. But he was still small and skinny, there was even enough space to lie sideways.
After lying spread out for a while and failing to fall asleep, he curled into a small ball and tucked the blanket tightly around himself. Only then did he feel a strange sense of comfort.
This time, he quickly fell asleep.
At 4:15 a.m., Saul’s biological clock forced his eyes open.
He sat up and yawned. A breath of cool air entered his lungs and belly, immediately waking him up.
The candlelight flared once more. Saul returned to the long table.
Just as he was about to open a book, something stirred in his heart. He walked to the door, cracked it open, and peeked outside.
His room was 604, near the end of the corridor, with a view of the sloped path connecting the floors.
A few moments later, he heard faint footsteps. In the dim light, a boy appeared, struggling to push a cart uphill.
Was that Brown?
Saul’s eyes widened. He felt a surge of eagerness to do something but quickly suppressed it.
Although he had become an apprentice, his actual strength hadn’t changed from the day before.
He closed the door again and sat back down at the table.
“I remember Brown just had the midnight shift a few days ago. Why is he doing it again?”
“Is it because I became an apprentice?”
Although Saul’s method of passing the test was a little unusual and had already become known among many apprentices—
The servants likely didn’t care. They only knew Saul had transformed from a mere servant into a powerful and terrifying apprentice.
Which meant Brown, the one who had led the bullying was probably going to be stuck with midnight duties for a long time.
Saul wanted to ask who had ordered Brown to kill him.
But now wasn’t the time. One, he lacked the ability to extract the truth. Two, it would only alert the enemy.
He turned to look at the hard-covered book on his left shoulder, reaching out to touch the object that had saved his life, only for his fingers to pass through air, grasping nothing.
“Maybe only after I become a true wizard will I be qualified to understand the secret of this book.”
The threat of death had not disappeared after becoming an apprentice. In fact, the shadow over him had only grown heavier. Saul still had no idea what kind of sinister vortex he had been swept into.
So, he buried himself in the ocean of knowledge once again. Only studying, relentlessly studying could bring him peace of mind.
A polite knock on the door broke his focus.
Outside stood Keli. There were faint shadows under her eyes. She had probably stayed up late studying, too.
“Time for class. Want to compare notes from last night?” Keli said bluntly.
Maybe this was what they meant by “a genius must walk alongside other geniuses.”
Saul glanced at the time and realized it was nearly time for class. It was even later than he expected.
He quickly picked up his books, paper, and pen and rushed out the door.
“That hourglass can be set to give reminders. It’s explained in the apprentice handbook.”
Saul instinctively gave an OK gesture, but Keli didn’t understand it.
The two of them walked quickly toward the East Tower, chatting as they went.
“How long did you read yesterday? I only lasted two hours before my head went fuzzy. I couldn’t focus anymore and had to close my eyes to rest,” Keli said quietly.
Saul’s heart skipped a beat, and he didn’t tell the truth.
“Maybe three or four hours straight, then I took a break.”
In reality, he’d even eaten his meals with a book in hand. Only when lying down to sleep did he truly rest.
He had only slept four hours and now felt completely energized.
Even so, Keli stared at him wide-eyed in disbelief for a long while.
“Your mental stamina really is insane. No wonder you could stare at that puppet for so long,” she said with a trace of envy, glancing down at the book in her hand. “If only I could read for that long, too.”
As they spoke, they arrived at the large classroom on the tenth floor.
It was already packed with people, many of whom were clearly not part of the new batch of apprentices.
Only the first row and a corner seat in the back still had open spots; everywhere else was full.
Saul hesitated between keeping a low profile and standing out, but Keli had already walked proudly to the front row.
Seeing Saul lag behind, she looked back and raised her chin at him.
“Come on. You can’t stay low-profile anymore.”
(End of Chapter)