Free Web NovelChapter 8: Chapter 8: Reward
Three seconds passed in silence.
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice, Nasha, silently swept her gaze over her master on the Rose Mirror Surface.
Just as she’d hoped, she caught a small detail—her master Yi Lin’s eyebrow arched, just the slightest bit.
At the same time, the flowing blue light in her master’s mechanical eye seemed to freeze for an instant.
And at that very moment, on the fast-forwarded image in the sphere of light, Mo Ning had just derived the result of the first "multi-dimensional angular variable calculus expression."
Based on Nasha’s understanding of her master, this small gesture meant only one thing: her master was slightly surprised by the computational efficiency this newcomer displayed.
But it was only surprise.
A talent of this level wasn’t enough to make her master commit to anything immediately.
Nasha secretly looked forward to her master’s reaction upon seeing the more outrageous, hours-long, high-intensity Divination derivation that followed.
For the next fifteen seconds, Yi Lin’s face returned to its usual indifference.
Nasha immediately realized that her master had likely sensed her prying and was now controlling every shred of her emotions.
The moment the thirty-second time limit was up, Yi Lin displayed her usual precise control over time. "That’s enough."
The Wizard immediately issued another command, "Transmit this observation footage to me!"
Nasha froze, an uncontrollable surge of intense jealousy welling up inside her.
’Her master actually asked for the complete footage!’
’This meant her master was no longer satisfied with a fleeting thirty-second glimpse and intended to invest more of her precious time to understand this newcomer named Mo Ning in greater depth!’
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice had been her master’s student for seventeen years, yet she had never seen her master show such direct and intense interest in any newcomer.
She even had a strange intuition that her master valued Mo Ning more than her, a possessor of a special bloodline.
Nasha struggled to suppress the roiling emotions in her heart and replied earnestly, "Understood!"
The words had barely left her mouth.
On the Rose Mirror Surface, Yi Lin’s face dissipated like the moon’s reflection on water.
The vibrant rose quickly folded in on itself, annihilating into specks of red light, and the mirror surface returned to its original, smooth silver-white.
Nasha quietly put away the Rose Silver Mirror and muttered to herself, "What a lucky kid. It seems Master has really taken a liking to you!"
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice found this fact hard to swallow. "Hmph. If it weren’t for my recommendation, even with his peculiar talent, that kid would have had to struggle at the bottom for at least a year or two."
"Master is a core member of the academy’s Rose School. Now that he has her favor, he’ll get resources other newcomers can’t even imagine. I can’t just let him have it all for free."
Her emerald eyes darted about as she began to calculate seriously. ’At the very least, I’ll have him help me solve the ten most troublesome Divination problems I have backlogged.’
Nasha made her decision happily. "Yes, that’s what I’ll do!"
Just then.
The scene within the sphere of light changed.
Mo Ning, seemingly tired, finally put down his Ink Tube Pen. He rose and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window that reflected the Birch Forest, where he stood quietly gazing into the distance.
A setting sun was slowly sinking below the sea of trees, painting the horizon into a magnificent oil painting of interwoven gold, red, and crimson-purple.
He watched intently for a while, then suddenly whispered, "Why is it that after five o’clock every afternoon, three halos consistently appear around the outer edge of the sun’s corona?
"The inner ring is deep blue, the outer is light blue, and the boundaries are clear. It doesn’t seem like simple chromatic dispersion. How strange!"
Nasha was taken aback by his words.
From the day she was born until now, for over sixty years, she had seen the three blue halos around the setting sun day after day. She had long since taken them for granted, as natural as breathing, and had never thought to ask "why."
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice suddenly realized, ’This is indeed a phenomenon worth studying. There must be some kind of Mystery hidden behind the three halos.’
Nasha’s gaze drifted to the inquisitive silhouette in the sphere of light, and a mixture of faint jealousy and slight shame welled up in her heart.
She had to admit, ’This kid really does have the heart of a true Wizard, one that seeks the truth.’
There was a widely circulated proverb in the Wizard World: "To forever maintain one’s initial curiosity about the world is an essential Quality for a Wizard to reach the summit of a Witchcraft Tower."
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice felt that this Apprentice named "Mo Ning" clearly possessed such a Quality.
Another three minutes slipped by quietly.
The blue-robed newcomer inside the sphere of light remained standing before the floor-to-ceiling window like a statue, seemingly admiring the afterglow of the sunset.
Nasha suddenly felt an extremely faint vibration from the Rose Silver Mirror she kept close to her body.
She quickly took out the Silver Mirror and saw the embossed rose on its surface seeping a faint, blood-red glow.
’Master has replied!’
Nasha was a little surprised.
She had originally thought that, given how busy her master was, the earliest she would get a response was in a few hours. It wouldn’t even be strange if the reply came the next day.
Such a swift response was far beyond her expectations.
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice dared not delay. She immediately extended her index finger and gently touched the rose pattern on the mirror’s surface.
Where her fingertip touched, the rose pattern abruptly lit up.
Her master’s voice immediately sounded in her mind: "Observe Mo Ning, protect Mo Ning, help Mo Ning grow, until Mo Ning obtains the status of an official Apprentice!"
As always, her master’s commands were concise and clear, crisp and efficient, without a single superfluous word.
Nasha subconsciously replied, "Understood, Master."
She pressed her red lips together, her mood a little complicated.
Because the Sharp-eared Female Apprentice suddenly realized she seemed to have brought this trouble upon herself.
Observing, protecting, and assisting his growth meant that Mo Ning’s safety and development in the coming period would be directly tied to her responsibility.
’What if that kid has an accident, or his growth is slow? Will Master blame me?’
The answer was self-evident.
On the other hand.
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice completely understood the reason behind her master’s order.
There was an ironclad rule in the Black Tower Academy: No Official Wizard was allowed to take a newcomer as a student before they had condensed their first Spirit Ring and obtained the status of an Apprentice.
Behind this decree was a lesson steeped in blood.
About a hundred years ago, a newcomer with an ancient bloodline talent entered the academy and was immediately taken in as a student by a First Level Wizard, breaking convention.
A few short months later, an "accident" occurred.
The newcomer was observing and learning in a Magic Potion Laboratory when the lab was suddenly rocked by a violent Magic Power explosion. The newcomer was blown to pieces, not even bones remaining.
Under normal circumstances, the academy would have conducted a simple investigation and closed the case as an accident.
But a Second Level Wizard who was proficient in divination and traceology happened to also be paying attention to this newcomer.
This Wizard cast a Spell of retrospection and discovered the terrifying, carefully concealed truth—the newcomer had not died in the explosion, but had been imprisoned in a secret space by their master, who was extracting their bloodline origin, day after day, while they were still alive.
After the truth came to light, the academy’s upper echelons were furious and permanently exiled the First Level Wizard to the perilous Outer Domains.
But the poor newcomer had already been severely damaged in the extremely cruel experiments. Even their soul had become fragmented, and they died not long after.
From then on, the academy had this additional ironclad rule.
It gave newcomers a buffer period of at least one year to fully understand all aspects of the academy, learn the basic knowledge, and gain the most fundamental ability to discern and protect themselves, so they wouldn’t ignorantly become "test subjects."
Her master’s voice hadn’t finished, continuing with a second, more specific command:
"Mo Ning currently lacks Black Tower Points. You are to allocate a sum of Black Tower Points to Mo Ning through the proper channels. You will determine the specific amount."
Finally, the indifferent voice revealed a rare trace of approval. "Nasha, you have done very well with this."
Nasha felt a rush of hot blood to her head. Her delicate, pretty face instantly flushed crimson, and the tips of her pointed ears quivered slightly.
’Master... praised me!’
Since becoming her master’s student, this was the third time she had received her master’s explicit approval.
The previous two times were merely a flat "Not bad," while this time’s "very well" clearly represented her master’s high degree of recognition.
Afterward.
The blood-red glow of the Rose Silver Mirror slowly subsided, returning to a cold, silver-white.
Nasha paced back and forth several times before she managed to suppress the excitement that was nearly overflowing.
When she turned her gaze back to Mo Ning in the sphere of light, a somewhat absurd idea suddenly popped into her head:
’Since Master wants me to protect Mo Ning, I might as well use the excuse that I’ve "taken a liking to him" and find a way to live in the same apartment. That way I can offer him all-around protection. Besides, the academy doesn’t forbid Apprentices from living with newcomers.’
’The fact that Master values Mo Ning so much proves that this kid’s Secret Divination Talent is even stronger than I imagined.’
’And as long as a Divination genius like him doesn’t die prematurely, becoming an Official Wizard in the future is almost a certainty.’
Besides.
’If we live together, I can conveniently "borrow" Mo Ning’s Divination Talent to solve some of my own tricky Divination problems, which would also help me rapidly increase my own strength.’
