Two days later, in his room aboard the Wizard Ship, Locke embedded two pieces of Cyan Jade into gold rings and proceeded to fill both with Mana.
With this, including the Cyan Jade synthesized the day before, he now wore three Celadon Gem Gold Rings, granting him an additional 30 points of Mana.
10 points of Mana could roughly cast the Vine Hand Spell five times. An extra 30 points meant he could unleash fifteen more Vine Hands—a crucial improvement in combat.
While other wizard apprentices of the same level still had to carefully calculate their Mana and ration their Spells, Locke had achieved a preliminary level of Spell freedom. He could now overwhelm his enemies with sheer quantity.
The only issue was that his Spell repertoire was too limited, preventing him from fully utilizing his abundant Mana reserves.
"I've used up all the gems I brought aboard," Locke sighed. "I'll have to find a way to restock after leaving the ship."
"Cyan Jade must be consumable too. I wonder how long one piece lasts."
He glanced at his hands—his left adorned with five Deep Blue Gem Gold Rings, his right with three Celadon Gem Gold Rings. His Mana fluctuations had stabilized to near imperceptibility.
Picking up a wooden cup resting on the lid of a barrel before him, Locke channeled his Mana, causing the water inside to swirl.
"My Mana Centrifugal Extraction Technique has reached proficiency."
"Good."
A knock sounded at his door, followed by Raun Guerrero's voice. "Locke, it's mealtime. Let's head to the deck for food."
Raun Guerrero was the kind third-class wizard apprentice Locke, Patty, and Code had met upon boarding.
After spending a day in his cabin below the Wizard Ship's deck, Locke discovered that Raun was also a third-tier talent, residing on the same level.
Neither being socially awkward, the two quickly grew familiar and became good friends.
Strangely, from the moment they stepped onto the ship, its rigid structures had begun sorting people into categories.
Wizard Seedlings of the same tier lived together.
Within just two days, seven distinct social circles had formed aboard the ship. This meant Locke hadn't grown close to Patty and Code, but instead befriended Raun Guerrero, his neighbor.
Such was life—different companions emerged at different stages.
Previously, Locke's bond with Patty and Code had formed simply because they were the only three Wizard Seedlings on Corfu Island. Now, with hundreds of Seedlings from various regions aboard, new friendships blossomed while old ones inevitably faded.
Locke opened the door to find Raun holding two plates. "I can already smell the feast on deck."
"Our time up there is limited. Let's go, Locke."
"I've already got a plate for you."
Locke looked helplessly at Raun Guerrero. "Raun, you're too familiar. We've only known each other for two days."
Raun Guerrero replied, "That just proves we're fated to get along."
"From the moment I first saw you board the ship, I knew we'd click."
Locke followed Raun Guerrero, who claimed to be from the Schleswig continent—the eldest son of the Obsidian Empire's emperor from the Schleswig Islands.
According to their mortal world's traditions, he should have been the empire's heir, the next emperor. But he was tested and found to possess Wizard Talent.
Raun told Locke that on the Schleswig Islands, there were no lower-tier wizard academies disguised as schools.
The wizards there served the emperor directly, forming the Wizard Council that aided his father in ruling the empire.
The Wizard Council of the Schleswig Islands immediately revoked his imperial succession rights due to his Wizard Talent and guided him onto the path of seeking truth.
Raun's personality, fittingly, was that of a ranger—always eager to help others—so he was quite satisfied with this arrangement.
Locke also felt that Raun didn't seem like a typical wizard apprentice but more like a ranger or swordsman. On this Wizard Ship, most wizard apprentices were gloomy, taciturn, and constantly wary of their surroundings.
But Raun was carefree and loved chatting with people.
This made many wizard apprentices suspect Raun had ulterior motives, avoiding conversation with him.
Only a few wizard apprentices, including Locke, were willing to engage with him.
On the deck of the Wizard Ship, many oak long tables and beech stools had been set up. The tables were laden with lavish food—from roasted suckling pig to truffle wild mushroom risotto, herb-baked lobster with saffron foam, and black truffle cream of mushroom soup, among other delicacies.
Raun had already grabbed a steak and devoured it voraciously, polishing off a large portion before stuffing two roasted chicken legs into his mouth without even chewing.
Locke raised an eyebrow. There was a reason Raun could eat so much.
According to Raun himself, he was apparently some kind of "Grand Knight" and a genius in knighthood.
The mortal worlds of different islands were entirely distinct. From his casual conversations with third-tier wizard apprentices over the past two days, Locke had gathered that each island's mortal world was unique.
For example, Raun's Schleswig Islands had a supernatural profession absent in Corfu's mortal world—the Knight.
It was said that two hundred years ago, the wizards who went to the Schleswig Islands were wizard apprentices from the Tower of Aberration, specializing in life magic.
They designed a supernatural profession called the "Knight" for the Schleswig Islands' mortal world, which involved implanting Life Seeds to artificially create supernatural organs within the human body, granting superhuman physical abilities.
This was essentially an alternative form of human Bloodline modification, much like the Stone Crab Bloodline Human Modification Locke had previously assisted Professor Olde with.
Other mortal worlds even existed outside the medieval era, featuring steam engines, coal mines, and early archaic trains—resembling the Renaissance of his past life.
In short, the southeastern corner is the true continent, while those mortal worlds are merely larger islands scattered across the seas of the southeastern corner.
Each island, isolated by the endless mystic sea, developed differently, as if they were independent worlds.
Lauren looked at Locke strangely and asked, "Locke, aren't you eating?"
"Hurry up, or all the good food will be gone."
Locke nodded at a female wizard apprentice in front of him, who also had third-tier aptitude, then picked up a steak and placed it on his plate.
Locke ate the steak at a steady pace, followed by some broccoli and a small piece of bread with strawberry jam. Then he turned to Lauren and asked, "How many more days do you think it'll take before we truly arrive in the Wizard World?"
Lauren shook his head. "No idea. I heard the Wizard Ship is about to return. There are nearly a thousand wizard apprentices here now."
Locke nodded.
The Wizard Seedlings on the ship would eventually be assigned to different wizard organizations.
The Wizard Ship would dock at various locations in the southeastern corner, and the Wizard Seedlings would disembark in batches.
This meant that some of the Wizard Seedlings had likely already been assigned by Wizard Mentors from major wizard factions in the southeastern corner.
But for third-tier aptitude Wizard Seedlings like them, no Wizard Mentors had come down to make any assignments yet.
They were probably prioritizing the apprentices on the upper decks first before getting to them.
Their turn hadn't come yet.
Just as Locke finished tidying up and was about to return to his room below deck, the ship suddenly shook violently. Many wizard apprentices stumbled and fell from the unexpected tremor.
Then Locke turned and saw Jarvis and dozens of other Wizard Mentors emerging onto the deck above, walking toward them.
A sense of unease instantly gripped Locke.
A Wizard Mentor amplified his voice with magic and shouted in their direction, "Be careful! Shield yourselves with magic!"
The next moment, dark mist swirled in the sky above the ship. The once bright artificial sky rapidly darkened, and the artificial sun dimmed as if swallowed by an eclipse.
The Wizard Ship continued to tremble, and from the black mist in the sky, countless zombies rained down like a downpour.
Screams of terror erupted from the Wizard Seedlings.
Hidden within the black mist in the sky, numerous wizards seemed to lurk.
They laughed mockingly.
"Heh… So these are the future seedlings of the southeastern corner? Pathetic. Panicking over a little Dark Magic—what can we even expect from you in the future?"
"Those foolish, hypocritical White Wizards of the southeastern corner have raised you to be so weak. You'd be better off handed to us Black Wizards for proper training."
"White Wizards, by the rules, half of these Wizard Seedlings belong to us Black Wizards."
"Seize them!"
Jarvis and the other Wizard Mentors shouted in alarm.
"Damn it, those Black Wizards are trying to take them! Stop them! These are seedlings nurtured by our White Wizard Association—we can't let them steal them away!"
"Hold them back!"
In an instant, Dark Magic of all kinds surged from the black mist in the sky, while Jarvis and the other Wizard Mentors retaliated with fire magic, water magic, and other spells.
The zombies clashed with water and fire elementals, lightning and frost.
On the deck, Locke saw a second-tier wizard apprentice get knocked into the sea by a zombie. Then, a dark mist descended from the sky, laughing maniacally as it abducted the person.
"Hahahaha, this little girl belongs to our Carrion Eater Graveyard today!"
"I'll mold her into an outstanding Black Wizard. You hypocrites will regret this!"
(End of Chapter)