Chapter Content
Chapter 3. Wasn’t This Person Dead?
“Fulan, right…?”
“Yes.”
“Here are the items you wanted to redeem. This card is the access card for the first floor of the library. Just take it to the library and you will be able to enter. The copied versions of the two books are also here.”
Fulan accepted the items from an elderly man. The two books were not very thick; she could easily hold both in one hand.
“Lastly, I must remind you of one thing. All knowledge exchanged with points cannot be widely disseminated. The consequences would be quite serious.”
“Alright…”
Fulan’s expression did not change much. Those rules probably had nothing to do with her anyway. From her perspective, she was indirectly selling the books as well.
The so-called “wide dissemination” did not forbid someone from reading the book and then passing it along to another person afterward. Small exchanges or gifts between individuals were not regulated.
What the academy meant by wide dissemination was something like printing large quantities of the book and handing out a copy to everyone who joined a club. That would count as large-scale distribution.
That had nothing to do with her. The regulations targeted whoever spread the knowledge widely, regardless of who originally redeemed it with points.
She did not immediately leave the room to exchange the books for silver coins. Instead, she decided to skim through them first. After all, she had obtained them first—taking a quick look could not hurt.
She flipped through “The Structure of the Soul,” but by the time she reached the third page, she had already closed it.
Damn it—there were too many specialized terms: “Detectable Target Points,” “Soul Materials,” “Lakshi Combination Method.” She could not understand any of it, and the panel did not give any prompts either, so she gave up.
“Astronomy and the Sea,” on the other hand, completely overturned her expectations of what a book should be like. When she opened it, she found page after page of large illustrations, with only small sections of text providing brief annotations. Somehow, she was able to continue reading it despite only partially understanding.
By the time a dull ache began to form in her head, she realized she had already read half the book.
The elderly man had been leisurely reading his own book the entire time and paid her no attention at all.
Fulan closed the book and walked out. No matter how she calculated the time, she had already stayed a bit too long. It was time to leave.
As she walked, she silently summoned the panel again. Sure enough, something new had appeared in the Skills section.
【Astrology (Not Initiated) (Proficiency: 2/10): You can predict upcoming events by observing the arrangement of stars in the night sky, though you struggle to determine the correct direction of prediction.】
She searched her mind but still felt as if it were empty. Only the few images from the book remained in her memory. There was no other knowledge.
She knew this was because she had not truly learned the skill yet. If she actually reached the beginner level, knowledge would suddenly flood into her mind just as it had when she raised her herb-related skills.
Fulan handed the items to Milank, and Milank gave her a pile of coins. She counted them carefully—exactly fifty silver coins.
Now that she had the money, she needed to think carefully about how to spend it.
In theory, she could spend everything on Magic Stones and simply train that spell for the next three months. After all, without money, she would not be able to train anything else.
Of course, she did not want to do that.
Her plan was to first buy dozens of portions of Gray Tree Root and Soul-Twining Vine to raise the level of her Harmonization Method.
After that, she would purchase a few sets of materials suitable for actually brewing potions and try making some real potions to see how well they sold.
She estimated that buying all those materials would cost perhaps a little more than ten silver coins. She would keep the rest for now and wait to see what other needs might arise.
Her goal was not merely to pass the year-end assessment and avoid the battlefield.
She wanted to use this panel to gain the ability to protect herself in this world.
Learning a few spells alone would not guarantee peace of mind once she left the academy. For now, her objective was to become a formal mage first.
While thinking about all this as she walked, she noticed an apprentice approaching from the opposite direction.
The apprentice seemed to glance at her briefly before immediately turning his head away.
Just as she turned her gaze toward him—
The apprentice suddenly turned and ran away without giving her time to think.
Fulan frowned.
Even if she thought about it with her toes, she could tell there was something suspicious about an apprentice who ran away the moment he saw her.
But there was nothing she could do about it.
At the moment, she had no usable skills at all. She was like a blank mage who knew absolutely nothing.
If a fight really broke out, that apprentice’s sandbag-sized fists could probably beat her twice over.
Fortunately, Cuilan Academy maintained strict discipline. Apprentices were not allowed to harm one another.
Still, the incident gave her a sense of urgency.
It reminded her that she needed to build some combat ability as soon as possible.
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The apprentice who had fled ran through several streets before finally stopping in front of a building without any sign.
He knocked four times according to a secret signal, waited two seconds, and then opened the door.
Inside, he saw a man using a scalpel to dissect a rat. When the man noticed him enter, he slowly stopped.
“Boss Richter… I…”
Seeing that the apprentice could not form his words, Richter interrupted him.
“Calm down before you speak. Do not stand there saying useless things.”
The apprentice took a few breaths before continuing.
“It is like this. Last time, you asked me to find an apprentice, kill him, and deliver the corpse. I searched for a long time before finally locating one who rarely left his dormitory…”
Richter tidied his instruments while listening.
“After I used the Evil Spirit Command Scroll you gave me, I personally saw that apprentice die under the attack of the evil spirit. I originally planned to transport the body a few days later, but the day after using the scroll, I saw that apprentice go out to buy herbal materials…”
At this point, the apprentice’s voice began to tremble.
It was obvious he was frightened. After all, seeing someone you believed to be dead walking around again was quite terrifying.
Richter also became interested and began asking about the exact process he had followed.
“You followed the procedure I marked down? You attached your viewpoint to the evil spirit, ordered it to launch a spirit-body attack on the target, and confirmed whether the target’s mental power had dissipated?”
“Yes… That is exactly what I did. I specifically ordered the evil spirit to ensure the target’s mental power collapsed… After using the scroll, I felt mentally drained for several days. Besides, the dormitory had been crowded during those days, so I thought I would wait before retrieving the body.”
“Interesting… You never went to the apprentice’s room to check, did you?”
“No. I was afraid of attracting attention, so I did not go.”
The reason Richter had instructed this apprentice to kill another apprentice was because those so-called “Senior Apprentices” possessed certain privileges.
And he just happened to need the corpse of an apprentice.
Of course, such matters had to be conducted secretly. If something like this were exposed, no privilege would be able to protect him.
That was why he had arranged for this apprentice to carry out the task. He believed the apprentice had the capability to do it, allowing Richter to avoid getting his own hands dirty.
The advantage of not acting personally was that if the matter were exposed, he could publicly distance himself from it.
Given his status as a “Senior Apprentice,” the worst outcome would probably be losing some benefits.
But now, the apprentice who had “died” had somehow come back to life.
Why?
This question had piqued his interest.
However, he had more important matters to attend to at the moment and could not investigate personally.
“Continue monitoring that apprentice. Once this matter is finished, I will give you the spell you wanted.”