The Wizard's Pursuit of Truth

A flock of white-feathered gulls soared high into the sky, riding the swell of the waves as an inky darkness descended.

Below, a massive, semi-mechanical steam-powered ship broke through the churning waves, entering a region of deep, dark sea.

The backwash of seawater, mixed with the blood and flesh of crushed Sea Beasts, spread out behind it.

More Sea Beasts swarmed forward to devour the crimson patch.

A black crow, flapping its wings, landed on the sill of a round cabin window.

A pair of hands scooped it inside.

He closed the cabin window and placed the crow on a nearby coat rack.

The wood-paneled walls were hung with a few colorful, decorative pictures.

”If you’re this late again, I’ll put you in solitary for three days.”

The black-haired, black-eyed youth had delicate, handsome features and sharply arched brows.

The crow was more than twice the size of a normal one. If its feathers were a different color, it might even be mistaken for a bird of prey, like an eagle or a falcon.

Its powerful talons were held in check as they gripped the rod of the coat rack. A little more force and it could have sliced the rod in two.

Wang Ya looked at the crow’s remarkably human-like eyes as they glanced upward and decided to be patient, serving it good food and drink for now.

This crow was, after all, the test subject for his first Witchcraft, and it had consumed most of his energy over the past several days.

’When the Witchcraft is complete, this little guy will pay the price it owes.’

Wang Ya ground his teeth silently. He tossed it a piece of fresh Sea Beast Flesh caught from the sea, and in return, felt a wave of pleasure from the other end of the mental connection.

Only then did he wash his hands in the room’s attached lavatory.

Books with heavy covers were arranged neatly on the bookshelf. Every page was made of specially treated Sheepskin Scroll.

He sat in a nearby chair. On the desk before him lay a brown book, open to the middle, surrounded by sheets of scratch paper covered in notes.

’These aren’t the Chinese characters from my past life.’

Having transmigrated to this Wizard World fourteen years ago, he had completely assimilated as one of its natives.

The memories of his past were buried deep in his mind, now just a distant recollection.

His current identity was that of a Wizard Freshman aboard this Wizard Ship.

Among the eighty freshmen, he didn’t stand out.

Wizard Qualification was ranked from high to low, but he didn’t believe in fawning over the few with top-tier qualifications in the vain hope of getting help on the Wizard Path.

His choice of Newborn Witchcraft was also Iron Claw Steel Hide, a minor branch of the Extraordinary Cultivation species.

Among the freshmen, who overwhelmingly chose an Elemental Energy Type, he was like a husky that had wandered into a pack of wolves.

He was one of those excluded every day from the ”Wizard experience-sharing events” the freshmen held in the dining hall.

However, for a Wizard, the most precious things are time and knowledge, and no one shares knowledge for free.

This was one of the core tenets of being a Wizard, as declared on their first day aboard the ship by the Tuta Wizard, the recruiter who resided at the bow.

Wang Ya didn’t care about the so-called sharing events, considering them a complete waste of time. He instead immersed himself in the vast and complex knowledge of Wizards.

He had come to fully understand the Iron Claw Steel Hide Cultivation Witchcraft he had chosen during the seven days and nights of the sea voyage.

After three months of Cultivation, and with just a bit more time, the Black-Feathered Crow he had named Harak would have claws that could shred steel and feathers that could deflect sharp arrows.

The Iron Claw Steel Hide Cultivation Witchcraft would then be considered complete.

The destination of this journey was the Wizard Influence known as the Dark Land.

For the freshmen on the ship to truly join it and become Wizard Students of the Dark Wizard Academy, mastering one Witchcraft was a prerequisite.

The Tuta Wizard once said, ”Newborn Wizards have six months to remain at the academy. If you cannot even master the minimum standard of one Witchcraft, you will be expelled to a nearby Wild Wizard camp.”

This meant they would be abandoned.

Wild Wizards had no lineage of knowledge and no supply of resources. Their Wizard Path was bleak to the extreme.

Most of them either died of old age or resorted to modifying their own bodies just to barely cling to life.

Deep within Wang Ya’s black pupils, a faint blue light flickered.

[Target: Black-Feathered Crow]

[Extraordinary Cultivation Level: 82%]

[Ability: Steel Claw]

[Cultivation Requirements: 5kg of high-protein supplements (daily), one session of Particle Energy nourishment (daily).]

The Eye of Truth. It possessed the ability to detect, collect, and store information, and then analyze it to produce results.

It was a passive skill from the Wizard class of a certain bizarre and grotesque game, the only gift Wang Ya had brought with him into this world.

Professionally speaking, it was a perfect match.

Thanks to these special eyes, the discernment and comprehension of Wizard knowledge, which stumped all the other freshmen, was no longer abstruse or difficult for him.

Every freshman was given the Basic Meditation Method, which involved sketching a Wizard Rune in one’s Sea of Spirit... In terms of progress, he was the first Wizard Freshman to succeed, generating Particle Energy within his body.

Unfortunately, his Innate Spiritual Power of 6.1 was a below-average level of qualification, which meant he couldn’t maintain this advantage for long.

The top-qualified freshmen who later caught up and surpassed him could rely on their powerful Innate Spiritual Power to influence reality and absorb more natural particle energy.

Furthermore, by using refined Particle Energy radiation to influence the body, one could enhance their Physical Strength and Power, allowing them to contain even more Particle Energy.

In this, Wang Ya had an advantage. Under the observation of his Eye of Truth, the refinement process could be controlled with the utmost precision.

The other Wizard Freshmen would inevitably suffer injuries from excessive radiation, forcing them to be cautious and thus slowing their progress.

Wang Ya’s progress in mastering a Newborn Witchcraft was also currently the fastest.

Most of the freshmen had only just generated their Particle Energy and were still in the stage of trying to understand their chosen Newborn Witchcraft, not yet having begun to practice it.

’There’s still plenty of time, isn’t there? Six whole months.’

’How could tedious, boring knowledge possibly compare to the dining hall mixers, with their clinking glasses and attractive young men and women?’

’The scent of mating hormones would proliferate wildly under the warm lights.’

However, for newcomers who didn’t understand the Wizard World, was six months really enough time to learn the Wizard Runes and then master a Witchcraft?

’The Elemental Energy-type Witchcrafts require one’s Spiritual Power and internal Particle Energy to meet a certain standard before they can even be cast.’

Wang Ya believed it would be extremely difficult, unless one was a true genius with abundant resources.

’Everyone makes their own choices.’

Like an outsider, Wang Ya quietly watched the other freshmen turn their meal into a raucous, candlelit banquet.

From the shadows of a corner, he chewed on bread spread with some kind of sauce, frowning slightly at the sweet taste he still wasn’t used to.

The freshmen crowded around the few people at the center, their words serving mostly as flattery.

With brilliant blond hair, a tall and imposing frame, and piercing eyes, Arthur naturally took charge of the atmosphere. ”Friends,” he announced, ”today I will share my experience with Elemental Particle Energy radiation.”

Only those with an Innate Spiritual Power of 7 or higher were qualified to enter his inner circle.

Including him, there were only four people in this group. His gaze fell mostly on the only girl. Under the warm lights, her long red hair seemed to set his heart ablaze, but the scarlet eyes that met his were cold and indifferent.

’It doesn’t matter,’ he thought. ’Even the proudest swan eventually lowers her fair neck. Qualification represents future value, and my Spiritual Power is 7.5.’

’My chances of advancing to become an Official Wizard are the highest.’

’Sooner or later, she’ll understand that only by relying on someone stronger can she walk a broader Wizard Path.’

”So enviable... Arthur, Anna, Rovena, Ossen... If only I had their qualifications.”

The speaker’s tone was cheerful as he plopped down in the seat across from Wang Ya, helping himself to a piece of Sea Beast Flesh and starting to eat.