Chapter 79: First Try (Third Watch — Nine Thousand Asks for Monthly Tickets)

"Ugh, did the surgery really succeed?"

When Li En woke from sleep, he could feel no change at all.

His body felt fine, his head didn't hurt, and aside from a faint scar on his forehead, there was no trace of the surgery whatsoever.

"Ack-ack! Of course! Kuku the Witch Doctor is no quack!"

That remark left Li En unsure where to even begin his retort — so Kuku's main job is witch doctor, not doctor? Did you just perform my surgery by doing some shamanic dance?

"Where's the table?" Suddenly, the empty room made Li En notice something was off.

The dining table that should have served as the operating table had vanished without a trace.

Also missing were the stacks of books Kuku had procured from somewhere, along with some of the room's furnishings and hanging paintings.

There were bloodstains on the walls, the ceiling, and the bed boards — the place looked like a cleaned-up crime scene.

He looked down; the cheap carpet was still there, and there was even a faint scent of soap. But the thick smell of blood still hit him in the face.

Even the carpet was soaked through with blood? Li En vaguely figured out where the table had gone, but it seemed best not to pursue the matter.

"Where's my time?!"

Only after stepping outside did he realize he had vanished for another whole day.

He looked around left and right; Kuku had once again disappeared without a trace, seeming a little guilty.

Wasn't it supposed to be done in at most two hours? What happened to the missing furniture and the smell of blood in the room? Li En felt he had to get to the bottom of this.

"It couldn't be that you botched it again and kept patching things up — add water when there's too much flour, add flour when there's too much water." The more he said it, the more Li En felt he was getting close to the truth.

"No! The surgery was a success! The test sub— patient is still alive!" Still alive counts as a successful surgery? Meaning I almost kicked the bucket just now?

Kuku popped out from somewhere, but even from a distance Li En could smell the soap and the blood that wouldn't wash off all over him.

"How much blood did I lose — forget it, don't tell me." Li En sighed; having vaguely figured out the truth, he decided this whole thing was best treated as a dark history.

The key isn't the past, but the future.

He resolved to remind himself: no matter how reliable Kuku looks, he's still a kobold!

"Next time, don't entrust your life to a kobold."

This really isn't racial discrimination — it's that inexplicable, dragon-vein-born confidence kobolds seem to have (the classic kobold saying: "You're a dragon, I'm a dragon! We're the same!").

Excessive confidence, plus rather rough operation (I reckon), means a fairly high chance of things going sideways. Especially after recalling some of Kuku's memories, Li En became all the more certain that in the future he shouldn't let him operate alone.

"Let's try it first." Li En took a deep breath and, following Kuku's instructions, focused his mental power on his head.

"Clang!" He vaguely felt that something had been activated.

It seemed another "self" had awakened, establishing a strange connection with his own consciousness.

"Is this a thought-thread?" It seemed he could make it move.

Li En found it a bit interesting, letting it do calculations in his place — uh, it was basically just him calculating, very easy.

Seeing everything going smoothly, Kuku, in the corner, let out a huge sigh of relief.

The next moment, he puffed out his chest — Kuku really is a genius, Kuku handled everything with ease.

So Kuku casually pocketed the hammer and bloodstained scalpel behind his back — if something goes wrong, fix it first; a kobold alchemist never fails!

Really failed? That was the kobold witch doctor's doing! Kuku's class list doesn't include witch doctor!

"Interesting!"

Li En tried letting the "sub-brain" maintain spellcasting focus and construct the spell model for "Rocket Spell" — an invisible arrow gathered before him.

Yet his hands gripped a sword, ready to slash!

"Stop messing around! Let it adapt! Don't overload it now, don't use both classes' abilities at the same time."

Hearing Kuku say that, Li En naturally complied.

A patient should honestly and faithfully listen to the doctor's orders, even if it's only a witch doctor. Li En was genuinely a little afraid that if something went wrong again, he'd end up dragged back onto the operating dining table.

So he honestly and faithfully went out for a walk and made up his morning practice.

During this process, Li En's "brain core" kept analyzing another cantrip.

As he practiced, he stopped — going from single-core to dual-core, he was certain this wasn't simply a matter of doubling the calculation load.

Rather, once a certain computational capability was reached, spell models that had originally been too complex to control became extremely simple and easy to understand.

"Uh, done?"

After less than an hour of morning practice, Li En was astonished to find he had mastered a second cantrip — the spell model for Mage Hand.

Even with the advantage of having cracked the first cantrip, and many techniques and abilities picked up along the way, this speed still exceeded Li En's expectations.

The second cantrip's difficulty naturally dropped, but something that had originally been incredibly hard was conquered this easily?

"Nonsense! Kuku's Heart Soul! Powerful! Always powerful!" Kuku said, puffed up with pride.

At this, Li En suddenly understood.

The newly born "graphics card" was actually average in strength, but the problem was that the "graphics card driver" was top-tier — even cheat-tier.

Whether or not there was a "graphics card" made all the difference; once Kuku's Heart Soul ability was running, the multiple thought-threads' mutual error-checking and repeated polishing traits made the caster more precise, thorough, and complete — naturally breezing through the difficulty.

Just like when writing a program, having an AI constantly correcting and adjusting, while also constantly annotating and reminding, naturally greatly improves completion.

"Let's go! To the Mage Tower!" And Kuku, having confirmed Li En's condition was fine, was also itching to go.

Li En didn't stop him either; after all the work Kuku had put in, he naturally deserved a reward.

And Li En himself was also somewhat interested in Mage Street and the Mage Tower.

He went back to his room, took off the chain mail (it was all he could afford right now), and changed into the plain civilian clothes of a commoner.

But as he walked, the cloth robe felt floaty and unfamiliar.

Even walking on the road, the unprotected vest felt chilly, making him increasingly uneasy.

But showing up to meet the mage teacher actually wearing knight's gear — Li En wasn't that socially clueless; he vaguely sensed that most mages and holy knights didn't get along well.

"Holy knights! Stinky tin cans! Who likes them?!"

Apparently, this was also a great truth—many professionals who easily crossed the line had some opinions about the Holy Knights, and keeping a respectful distance was already considered a neutral faction.

Li En, holding his letter of introduction, walked smoothly into that Mage Street.

Then, he was a bit dumbfounded—foreigners, who were rarely seen in other districts, seemed to have become the mainstream here.

At a glance, elves, dark elves, dwarves, and gnomes all seemed to have shops here; exotic races were everywhere.

What surprised Li En even more was the density of mages on this street.

He had stayed in this city for so long, and the number of mages he had seen still did not exceed two digits; yet now, looking around, he saw twenty or thirty haggling in various shops.

"Didn't they say casters are rare and precious? Why are there so many?" Li En was a bit puzzled. The scale of Radiance City was also average—was it worth so many mage lords stationing here?

"Mages! Chase after magic! And magic, needs materials!"

At this, Li En understood. The underground ruins produced all kinds of extraordinary materials, and casters' demand for these things was endless; naturally, they would gather here.

Li En stepped inside, but actually stood out a bit, because he didn't have a mage robe—he was only wearing ordinary cloth clothes.

He didn't care about others' gazes either; he just followed the map, counting the house numbers to find his way, and quickly found shop number 13.

The target was on the second floor and above. The "Mage Towers" here, in order to make money and do business, often had the lowest floor as various shops.

The letter of introduction let him pass the inspection of the golem in the shop, and he also stepped onto a "steam elevator," entering the true caster's space.

Ten minutes later, he came out with a completely blank expression.

"Oh, you're the junior brother introduced by Junior Sister Miss Miss Miss Shaliman. The teacher is very busy. Look, this is the textbook. Read it yourself. Once you've mastered these two cantrips, I'll teach you the follow-up." Li En was directly sent away.

Sure enough, only mage lords understand mage lords—they simply couldn't be bothered to talk with outsiders and fools.

Although the words were polite, the reality was that the textbook and exam questions were simply tossed over. Whenever you solve them and prove you're not an idiot, then we can continue talking.

Although that mage didn't say how long the test would take, if you really dragged it on too long, even if you passed, probably no one would care about you.

Li En looked at the casting notes—they were two cantrips with a "special prefix," which meant they were products modified by casters.

Obviously, this was to prevent cheating.

"I really have to thank Kuku." Without Kuku's prior preparation, Li En, whose aptitude was average, might not have even met the mentor and would have been sent away directly.

This was the caster's world—rational and cold.

Resources are limited, so I naturally prioritize geniuses. If you want to receive more attention and investment, prove your ability.

Of course, Li En was, after all, introduced by Miss Miss Miss Shaliman, so they would still give some face—in the end, they'd spend half a year letting you learn a first-tier spell, and then cheerfully "graduate" you.

This was not Li En's malicious speculation, but the experience of many noble children who thought themselves spellcasting geniuses.

"Seems... not that hard." An hour and a half later, Li En walked back into the mage shop.

(End of this chapter)