Chapter 1: Magic

The room was dark and cramped, yet it contained two wooden beds, a wooden table that looked as if it might fall apart at any moment, two wooden chairs that were still in decent condition, and a stove covered in dust and grime, leaving only a narrow aisle in the room just wide enough to set a foot down.

A faint sliver of light filtered in through a tiny transom window on the room's south wall.

Through this light, the dust floating in the air drifted about freely, like mayflies with nowhere to land.

In the flickering light and shadow, one could see a thin youth lying flat on one of the slightly damp wooden beds.

The youth, who was called "Gao De" in both his past life and his present one, was using the dim light to examine the dusty, cramped room, smelling the faint, musty odor in the air.

The surroundings were deathly silent.

This place didn't look like a residence; it looked more like a claustrophobic prison cell.

"Are you saying I've been unconscious for nearly a day?" Gao De finally spoke, asking the youth who should be called his "roommate."

"I thought you were already dead; you scared me to death!" the youth who answered was extremely thin.

Gao De's own frame was already considered lean, but this youth was much thinner than him, looking malnourished, with a stature as small as a child of only eight or nine.

Of course, Gao De knew he was already thirteen.

He himself was the same age.

Although in his world, this age was still considered just a child.

But here, thirteen was already treated as an adult.

Why had "he" been "unconscious" for nearly a day? Or more accurately, how had "he" died?

It was surely because of "his" death that his soul had subsequently taken over the body.

A simple deduction.

The unfortunate thing was that Gao De couldn't remember anything about the process of "his" death, nor did he have any impression of where this place was, what his current situation was, or even the name of the roommate before him.

But fortunately, he hadn't forgotten everything; the predecessor had still left him with a portion of his memories.

Some things that Gao De considered truly important were clearly etched in his mind, impossible to shake off.

Perhaps for "himself," the memories of this place were too painful, which was why they weren't inherited when his soul took over.

In Gao De's view, this might actually be a good thing—if he had truly inherited all the predecessor's memories, then who would he be? The predecessor, himself, or a new personality fused from both? He was unwilling for his own personality to change.

The downside was that he now urgently needed to figure out his situation.

He was lucky; he didn't need to rack his brains to probe, as his roommate, named Amy, had already started chattering away with lingering fear, not even needing him to ask.

"I knew this day would come. Although you, Gao De, are the only one among us who can independently brew primary spider venom potion, in the eyes of Master Seda, this counts for nothing..."

At this point, Amy glanced at the expressionless Gao De, seemingly afraid of displeasing him, and muttered: "I mean, we are called apprentices, but everyone knows Master Seda doesn't treat us like people at all; we are just his human-shaped test-subject mice and free servants."

"So, Master Seda doesn't care at all about how capable we are."

Hearing this, Gao De could roughly guess how he had become "unconscious."

Keyword: drug testing.

Amy was still chattering on; it was evident that Gao De's previous unconsciousness had truly frightened him, and he needed to relieve this negative emotion through talking.

"Let me tell you, I checked your breathing before; you clearly weren't breathing at all, and I couldn't hear a heartbeat. You could say you were dead as a doornail. To think you could still wake up after that—if it weren't for the fact that you're talking to me properly now, I would have suspected you weren't human, but an undead!"

Amy slapped his thigh, feeling very excited about his roommate's resurrection.

In a place like this, a companion was his mental pillar.

And if Gao De had died, it would likely have been his turn to test the drugs soon.

"Could it be that the potion Master Seda brewed was a success?" Amy guessed.

Thinking of this possibility, he became even more excited.

Because if it were truly a success, Master Seda would be overjoyed, and they would certainly have a good life for a while.

Besides, maybe they wouldn't need to test drugs anymore? After all, the potion had already been successfully brewed.

Gao De, however, was not as optimistic as Amy.

He knew the truth.

The potion brewed by the Master Seda that Amy was babbling about had not been a success.

—It should be said that it successfully sent Amy's good roommate away.

Gao De rubbed his temples, which were still aching slightly, and concentrated to organize his thoughts.

As a student in the mathematics department of Jing University, a top-tier domestic university, he had been pulling an all-nighter in the school library to finish his graduation thesis, and feeling too exhausted, he had rested his head on the table for a short nap.

When he woke up, there was already billowing smoke and a sea of crimson color.

Those were boundless tongues of fire, licking toward him, giving him no room to struggle.

Once a fire broke out in a place like a library, its momentum was hard to stop.

So Gao De's ending had been sealed.

People who study mathematics are generally rational and do not believe in metaphysics. But facts harder than iron told Gao De that his body was no longer his own, and returning to youth was even more impossible.

Transmigration, such a metaphysical event, had indeed happened to him.

With Amy's incessant chatter and his own occasional questions, in just half a day, Gao De had figured out his current situation.

An orphan from the streets with no parents, he had been taken in by Master Seda as an apprentice and brought to this herb garden to tend to herbs, brew potions, do odd jobs, and... test drugs on his body.

In the entire herb garden, besides Master Seda, everyone else was an apprentice like Gao De and Amy.

The number of apprentices was kept at around ten all year round.

But it was a dynamic stability.

Because every once in a while, Master Seda would take away an apprentice to test a newly brewed potion on them.

No one knew what kind of potion Master Seda was trying to brew; they only knew it had always failed and never succeeded.

And every time it failed, the apprentice testing the drug would die on the spot, with absolutely no possibility of survival.

Whenever the number of apprentices in the herb garden fell below five, Master Seda would go out and bring back a batch of about five new apprentices to keep the number stable.

As for the origins of the apprentices, they were mostly orphans with no parents like Gao De.

"Why not try to escape?" Gao De asked Amy, pondering as he organized the messy thoughts in his head.

"Are you stupid!" Amy shouted in surprise: "Have you forgotten? Master Seda branded us with a 【Tracking Mark】. No matter where we run, he has a way to track us. We can barely survive if we don't run, but if we dare to escape, we'll lose our lives immediately!"

Tracking Mark. Gao De's gaze narrowed, and he fell into deep thought.

If transmigration was metaphysics, then this world was metaphysics within metaphysics... This was a world where magic existed.

Yes.

Magic.

The magic in this world was by no means the superstitious means of drawing talismans and chanting incantations used by occultists, but a true art of miraculous change, a heaven-defying power that could change things and reality through unscientific means.

The tracking mark Amy spoke of was a type of magic.

A high-achieving student who had received compulsory education should have scoffed at this mysterious power that only existed in novels and movies.

Deep-rooted concepts were by no means something Amy could break with a few words.

The reason Gao De accepted the concept of magic so easily was also very simple.

He licked his lips, which had already started to peel, and looked at the stove not far away.

Without Gao De making any movement, the clay pot hanging on the stove moved horizontally out of thin air, moving all the way to the space above the wooden table that was ready to fall apart at any moment, then tilted slightly, and the boiling hot water poured directly into the cup placed on the table.

Then the clay pot landed steadily on the table, while the cup filled with hot water floated up and moved horizontally to Gao De at a steady speed.

Gao De reached out, took the cup, and took a small sip to moisten his throat, which was dry from being unconscious for a day.

Afterward, he let go directly, but the cup did not fall; as if there were no gravity, it just floated in mid-air and moved back to the table at the same steady speed as before.

Throughout the whole process, Gao De made no movement other than looking at the stove, and Amy was the same; there was no third person in the room.

It was as if an invisible third party or an intangible hand had completed this not-so-complex action, pouring a cup of water for Gao De.

If this were in Gao De's original world, it would definitely be an extremely terrifying event.

But the two people in the room were both calm, as if they were accustomed to this bizarre supernatural event.

—Gao De was calm on the surface, but his heart was already in turmoil.

The predecessor hadn't left him any memories about his life, but he had left him all the knowledge he had mastered, including language, all his understanding of this world, and most importantly, knowledge about magic and potion brewing.

No matter where one was, knowledge was the most precious thing.

So Gao De was extremely grateful that the predecessor had left him the truly important things.

And the means he had just displayed was one of the only two cantrips the predecessor had mastered.

【Mage Hand】 (Transmutation, 0-level):

Within the casting range, a floating spectral hand appears, existing until the spell ends or is actively dismissed.

If the distance of the spectral hand exceeds 30 feet (10 meters), or if Mage Hand is cast again, the existing spectral hand will disappear.

Mage Hand can perform some simple actions, such as manipulating an object, opening an unlocked door or container, or pouring out the contents of a small bottle, but it cannot carry objects weighing more than 10 pounds (about 4.5 kilograms) or activate magic items.

A cantrip that was insignificant to a mage brought Gao De indescribable shock: "Mage Hand..."

"It doesn't even count as magic; it can only be called a cantrip..."

"This is a world with true great power and truth."

"The great power of law, the truth of art, is..."

"Magic!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 2 =====