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The room was dark and cramped, yet somehow it still managed to fit two wooden beds, a wooden table that looked ready to fall apart at any moment, two chairs that were at least still intact, and a soot-stained stove covered in dust and grime. As a result, the only space left in the entire room was a narrow passage just wide enough for someone to place their feet.
A faint ray of light shone in through the tiny vent set high in the south wall.
Within that pale beam, the dust drifting in the air floated like helpless mayflies, wandering freely in every direction.
In the dim flicker of light and shadow, one could see a thin boy lying flat on one of the slightly damp wooden beds.
The boy—named Gao De in both his past life and this one—was using that weak light to examine the small, dust-covered room, breathing in the faint smell of mildew lingering in the air.
Everything around him was deathly silent.
This did not feel like a place for living.
It felt more like a prison cell.
"So you're saying I was unconscious for almost a whole day?" Gao De finally asked the boy who should apparently be called his "roommate."
"I thought you were already dead. You scared me half to death!" the other boy replied.
He was extremely thin.
Gao De was already on the lean side, yet this boy was even skinnier than he was, looking malnourished, small enough to seem like a child of eight or nine.
Of course, Gao De knew he was actually thirteen.
He himself was thirteen as well.
In Gao De's original world, that age could only be considered childhood.
But here, thirteen was already treated as adulthood.
Why had "he" been unconscious for nearly a day?
More accurately—
how had "he" died?
It was most likely because the original owner of this body had died that Gao De was now able to occupy it like a cuckoo stealing another bird's nest.
A simple conclusion.
Unfortunately, Gao De could not remember anything about how "he" had died. He had no memory of where this place was, what his current situation was, or even what the name of the roommate before him was.
Still, it wasn't as though he remembered nothing.
The body's former owner had left him part of his memory.
Some things that Gao De considered truly important were engraved clearly in his mind and impossible to erase.
Perhaps, to the original owner, the memories of this place were simply too painful. So when the body changed hands, those memories had not been passed on.
From Gao De's point of view, that might actually be a good thing.
If he had truly inherited every memory of the former owner, then who would he be?
The original person?
Himself?
Or some new personality born from the fusion of both?
He had no desire for his personality to change.
The downside was obvious—he urgently needed to figure out his current circumstances.
Fortunately, luck was on his side. There was no need for him to probe cautiously. His roommate, Aimi, still shaken and rambling nervously, had already begun talking on his own before Gao De even needed to ask.
"I knew this day would come sooner or later. Even though you, Gao De, are the only one among us who can independently brew beginner spider venom medicine, in Mage Seda's eyes, that means absolutely nothing…"
At this point, Aimi glanced at Gao De's expressionless face, as if afraid of offending him, and muttered hesitantly,
"What I mean is… people like us are called apprentices, sure, but everyone knows Mage Seda has never treated us like human beings. We're nothing more than human test rats and unpaid servants to him."
"So whether we're capable or not, Mage Seda doesn't care at all."
Hearing this, Gao De could already guess how he had "fallen unconscious."
The key words were:
test medicine.
Aimi kept talking endlessly. It was obvious Gao De's collapse had terrified him badly, and he needed this kind of nonstop chatter to ease his fear.
"I'm telling you, I even checked your breathing earlier. There was none at all. Your heart had stopped too. You were dead beyond dead. And yet you still woke up. If you weren't talking to me right now, I'd think you weren't even human anymore, but some kind of undead!"
Aimi slapped his thigh, visibly excited by his roommate's return from the dead.
In a place like this, companions were his only emotional support.
And if Gao De had died, then sooner or later it would probably be Aimi's turn to test the next potion.
"Could it be that Mage Seda's potion actually succeeded?" Aimi guessed.
The possibility made him even more excited.
Because if it really had succeeded, then Mage Seda would surely be overjoyed, and they might finally enjoy a period of easier days.
Maybe they wouldn't even need to keep testing potions anymore.
After all, if the potion had already succeeded, there would be no need.
But Gao De was not nearly as optimistic as Aimi.
He knew the truth.
The potion Aimi kept talking about had not succeeded.
Rather—
it had only succeeded in sending Aimi's good roommate to the grave.
Gao De rubbed his still-aching temples, focused his mind, and began sorting through his thoughts.
In his previous life, he had been a mathematics student at Jing University, one of the top universities in the country. Recently he had been staying up day and night in the library, rushing to finish his thesis. Too exhausted, he had rested his head on the desk and dozed off for a moment.
When he woke up, all he saw was thick smoke and a world dyed red.
An endless sea of flames was reaching for him, giving him no chance to escape.
In a place like a library, once a fire broke out, there was no stopping it.
So Gao De's fate had already been sealed.
…
People who study mathematics are usually rational. They do not believe in mysticism.
But the facts were harder than iron:
his body was no longer his own, and rejuvenation was impossible.
That meant something as fantastical as transmigration had truly happened to him.
As Aimi continued rambling and Gao De occasionally asked a few questions, in less than half a day he had already figured out his current situation.
He was an orphaned street beggar with no parents, taken in by Mage Seda as an apprentice and brought back to this herb garden, where he was made to tend the plants, brew potions, do miscellaneous chores, and… serve as a human test subject.
In the entire herb garden, aside from Mage Seda, everyone else held the same status as Gao De and Aimi—
apprentice.
The number of apprentices was usually kept at around ten.
But it was a dynamic balance.
Because every so often, Mage Seda would drag away one apprentice to test one of his newly refined potions.
No one knew exactly what kind of potion he was trying to create. They only knew one thing:
he had failed every single time.
And whenever he failed, the apprentice used for testing died on the spot. There had never once been a survivor.
Whenever the number of apprentices in the herb garden fell below five, Mage Seda would go out again and bring back around five new apprentices to replenish the numbers.
As for where those apprentices came from, most were probably the same as Gao De—
parentless beggars.
"Why don't we try to escape?" Gao De asked after organizing the chaotic thoughts in his mind.
Aimi stared at him in shock.
"Are you stupid? Did you forget? Mage Seda branded a Tracking Mark on all of us! No matter where we run, he can find us. If we don't run, we might survive a little longer. But if we try to escape, we'll die immediately!"
Tracking Mark…
Gao De's gaze sharpened slightly, and he fell into thought.
If transmigration was mysticism…
then this world was mysticism layered upon mysticism.
Because this was a world where spells existed.
Yes.
Spells.
The spells of this world were not the fake superstitions of talismans and chants used by charlatans.
They were true supernatural arts—powers capable of changing things and reality itself through impossible, unscientific means.
The Tracking Mark Aimi spoke of was one such spell.
A top student raised under modern compulsory education should have scoffed at such mysterious forces, things that only existed in novels and films.
Deep-rooted beliefs could not be overturned by a few words from Aimi.
The reason Gao De had accepted the concept of spells so easily was simple.
He licked his dry, peeling lips and looked toward the stove not far away.
Without making any visible movement, the clay pot hanging over the stove suddenly slid sideways through the air, moving until it hovered above the rickety wooden table. Then it tilted slightly, and steaming hot water poured neatly into the cup resting on the table.
Next, the pot gently settled onto the table.
The cup, now filled with hot water, rose into the air by itself and drifted steadily toward Gao De.
Gao De reached out and took it, drinking a small sip to soothe his dry throat after being unconscious for an entire day.
Then he simply let go.
But the cup did not fall.
As if gravity no longer existed, it floated in midair and calmly moved back to the table at the same steady speed as before.
Throughout the entire process, Gao De had done nothing except glance at the stove.
Aimi had done nothing either.
And there was no third person in the room.
It was as though an invisible third party—or an unseen hand—had carried out the simple act of pouring Gao De a cup of water.
If this had happened in Gao De's previous world, it would have been absolutely terrifying.
But inside this room, both boys looked completely normal, as if such eerie events were utterly ordinary.
—On the surface, Gao De still appeared calm.
Inside, however, his mind was already in turmoil like a storm-tossed sea.
The former owner of the body had left him no memories of daily life, but he had left behind all of his knowledge—
the language, the understanding of this world, and, most importantly, the knowledge of spells and potion-making.
No matter where one was, knowledge was always the most valuable thing.
So Gao De was deeply grateful that the former owner had left behind what truly mattered.
And the technique he had just used was one of the only two cantrips the former owner had mastered.
Mage Hand (Transmutation, 0th Circle)
A floating spectral hand appears within casting range and remains until the spell ends or is dismissed.
If the hand moves more than 30 feet (10 meters) away, or if Mage Hand is cast again, the current hand disappears.
Mage Hand can perform simple actions, such as manipulating an object, opening an unlocked door or container, or pouring the contents out of a vial.
However, it cannot carry more than 10 pounds (about 4.5 kilograms), nor can it activate magical items.
To an actual mage, this was merely a trivial cantrip.
But to Gao De, it brought an indescribable shock.
"Mage Hand…"
"It doesn't even count as a real spell. It can only be called a cantrip…"
"This is a world of true power… and true law…"
"The might of law, the truth of technique… that is…"
"Spellcraft!"