Chapter 109 - E=1.66 (1/2)

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

After Gawain and Heidi’s constant questioning, Jenni was no longer silent and presented the complete stories of all the previous owners of this notebook. Gawain also found out more information about that rogue mage.

The first owner of the notebook was indeed that rogue mage, and he didn’t leave his name in this notebook either. Jenni only knew he was a dejected and eccentric senior that was shunned by everyone. That rogue mage came from the Violet Kingdom that was situated in the northern side of the continent. He was once a member of the human mages’ largest organization, ‘Association of Mystics’. But just as Gawain knew, his magic power was too weak, and he was ostracized. His research was considered unorthodox in the eyes of traditional mages, and he had an extremely miserable life. Finally, in order to treat his daughter, he left the Association of Mystics and entered the Anzu Kingdom. The notebook that Jenni had was one of the manuscripts that leaked out long ago from that rogue mage. It was highly possible that he had sold it cheaply to a mage from the Anzu Kingdom in order to raise funds for the trip.

Perhaps he only sold it for three copper pieces, or perhaps it was worth nothing, and he had merely given away a large pile of books and notebooks.

The second owner was also in the same miserable situation, and he could see from the implied meaning of the words that the rogue mage was conducting similarly ‘unorthodox’ research. It was obvious that he had conducted such research because he was also weak and had no hopes of promotion.

A mage that was having a hard time progressing in magic and runes had hoped that logic and mathematics would aid him in exploring the truth of this world. The rogue mage’s research on the universality and hidden rules of the runes had lit up a path for the second owner, allowing him to vaguely understand that even without powerful magic and individual strength, he would also be able to explore the mysteries of magic. But the second researcher wasn’t able to walk far on this path.

Perhaps it was to collect the funds for research or to validate a certain data in the notebook, this nameless mage had perished on an adventure. The few pieces of property that he left behind had been distributed completely, and this precious notebook had been transferred to the hands of Jenni’s master.

Jenni’s master didn’t become this notebook’s owner as he was an ‘orthodox master’ who treated this notebook with abnormal disdain. He didn’t believe that a bunch of calculations written by two low-grade mages would be able to reveal any truth. Furthermore, he believed that the second owner of this notebook had lost his life in an adventure because he believed the nonsense written on these pieces of scrap paper. The wretch that perished in the ruins had just proven the errors in the notebook.

As such, the master threw the notebook in a pile of trash outside the mage tower. It was then picked up by his ‘apprentice’ Ravencrest.

That so-called ‘apprentice’ was actually that great mage’s slave.

This phenomenon was very common among orthodox mages. They normally had two kinds of apprentices: real apprentices and apprentices that weren’t treated as human. The former would be individuals with a great talent for magic or individuals of high nobility. The latter would only be nominal apprentices in the mage tower but would actually be used as slaves and experiment subjects. Ravencrest belonged to the latter.

Due to his inferior magical talent and that he wasn’t from any prestigious clan, Ravencrest wasn’t valued in the mage tower. Even though he had an exceptional talent for mathematics and logic, due to his inferior spellcasting and rune-sensing abilities, he had been addressed as ‘retard’ or ‘freak’. The great mage barely taught Ravencrest some entry-level knowledge and had used low-cost magical drugs that would cause great sequelae and a ritual to forcefully push Ravencrest into an official mage. Afterwards, the great mage nurtured Ravencrest as a runemaster and planned for him to take charge of the drawing of magic circles and the production of tools.

It was also at that moment that Ravencrest obtained the notebook and became the third owner of the notebook.

After a few years, Jenni got to know Ravencrest.

Different from most of the ‘talented people’ that could enter the mage tower, Jenni was born from a family with low status, and she wasn’t even selected to enter the tower as a ‘mage slave’. She was a frail young lady from a poor village very far from the royal capital. The generations of her family had never interacted with any extraordinary figures, and it wasn’t possible for them to possess a ‘mage’s noble bloodline’.

She was able to enter the mage tower because her hometown had encountered a disaster, and her family was about to die from starvation. It was at this moment, her ‘master’ happened to pass by her village and wanted to ‘show his kindness in exchange for some experimental materials’.

Jenni remembered clearly that it was a windless yet very cold night. Her parents had gathered all of the children to draw lots, and the 14-year-old her had drawn the lot.

On the next morning, she had been pushed into the caravan of the ‘lord mage’ in order to exchange for enough food to survive: two bags of wheat.

She still remembered that the caravan had plenty of things stacked up. There were unknown herbs, animal specimens, rocks, metals, tree barks, a few children that had numbed expressions and were about the same age as her…

The caravan was filled with experimental materials.

The mage had used rations to exchange materials for experiments, and she was being brought to the mage tower as ‘experimental material’.

Afterwards, in the mage tower, she got to know Ravencrest, a mage slave who as an ‘apprentice’ had a slightly higher status than her.

Ravencrest was responsible for ‘feeding’ the experimental materials.

The children that were brought over from the same village were quickly put to use by that mage. At almost every two to three days, a child would be taken. Some would return alive; some wouldn’t. Even if they returned alive, they would quickly turn insane or extremely sick. Jenni was already aware of her fate, but she didn’t try to escape.

Because Ravencrest had been reminding her everyday: ‘never try to escape; it will be worse than death’.