Fanatics of the Magic Academy

Chapter 120 Silas

Rose's gaze fell on Silas, observing him discreetly.

The other person's attire was impeccable, even meticulous. The dark gray long coat was well-tailored, and a dark silver brooch adorned the collar, its intricate yet understated design subtly suggesting that he had indeed previously held a high position.

And unlike most of the slum magicians Rose had observed before, although he also looked disheveled, tired, and dejected, his eyes were brighter.

Clearly, they haven't experienced the despair and pain of trying their best to stay rational yet still inevitably sliding into the abyss.

After a quick thought and consideration, Rose replied with a wary expression, "Yes, I am Rose. Who are you? I don't remember knowing you."

Silas said politely and appropriately, "It's like this, Mr. Rose, I'm a magician who just arrived here. A man named Keaton contacted me before and invited me to a party here. Also, this area is your territory, Mr. Rose. I recently moved to the South District, so I came here specifically to explain and avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings."

Rose didn't say much, just grunted in response.

While Silas outwardly maintained his composure and politeness, inwardly he had long since begun to despise this behavior of occupying the slums as his territory, believing that these marginalized magicians were nothing more than sucking the blood of the homeless.

Then, observing Rose's short stature, smooth skin, and childish voice, he felt disgusted. Who knew how old she actually was, putting on airs with a child's face and body.

But he didn't reveal anything; no matter what he was thinking, his expression remained unchanged.

He continued, "I didn't mean to disturb your life; I just wanted to find a place to stay and slowly recover."

If you don't mind, I'd like to stay in the South District for the time being. Of course, it won't interfere with any of your affairs.

He spoke very politely and adopted a very humble attitude.

Rose was not fooled by the other party's seemingly humble attitude, but there was no need to get into a conflict with him.

Moreover, according to Rose's observation, the other party was a former third-circle mage. Even in this state, he could still be considered a mid-second-circle mage or even a high-second-circle mage. Although he had been cramming on his magical knowledge, he was still a clueless second-circle mage with a sanity level of less than 50, at best a second-circle mage.

Since the other party is willing to give her face, there is no need for Rose to cause trouble.

So, Rose activated [Perception Enhancement] and drew a rough three-dimensional map of the southern region in his mind, which was not difficult for Rose.

A few months ago, when he was still using [Wind Network Perception] to search for corpses, he had already pieced together the approximate shape and size of the entire southern district.

He then marked out about half of the area. As Rose's focus was drawn away, he used the translation rune inside [Perception Enhancement] to reverse the transmission into a wave of rationality and sent it to Silas.

This can also be considered a use of [Perception] magic. Rose frowned slightly, feeling that the consumption of concentration seemed to be a little more than expected. With Rose's current level of concentration, she could hardly perceive any consumption when using [Perception] magic to transmit language or to perceive things.

But now I clearly feel my concentration has dropped significantly. It seems that for an average magician, using [perception] magic to send a message is still possible, but if it's really about packaging pictures...

Sending compressed files really can't keep up.

Silas caught the fluctuation of rationality, was taken aback at first, and then activated his [Perception] magic to receive it.

Then the three-dimensional diagram that Rose had drawn in his mind appeared in his mind. Silas could understand Rose's meaning, but he couldn't understand Rose's crude method of conveying the message. Dude, do you not value your concentration?

It doesn't take time to regain focus, does it?

Why don't you just tell me directly or draw a line?

Silas quickly realized that Rose was a pharmacist, and for pharmacists, the cost of regaining focus was relatively low.

Because drugs that restore focus are often addictive, and their side effects typically include lethargy, physical damage, and drug dependence.

Long-term use of drugs to restore focus can lead to drug dependence and loss of the ability to restore focus on one's own. After that, all focus can only be restored by drugs.

This is fatal for ordinary mages, because potions that restore concentration are very expensive. If all concentration needs to be restored with potions, in the long run, the amount of money required will be astronomical, and being killed is a foregone conclusion. Moreover, such mages will have no chance of struggling after being killed and sent to the slums.

Unlike pharmacists, who can brew potions to restore focus at cost price, the cost is not unacceptable.

In fact, most of the apothecaries in the Magic Federation's alchemy factories have almost completely lost their ability to regain their focus due to exploitation and oppression, and rely on brewing their own potions to recover.

While understandable and acceptable, Silas was still quite surprised by Rose's unrestrained squandering of his focus.

If everyone could use [Perception] magic to transmit various models, images, and knowledge as recklessly as Rose, then there would be no need for the magic network to exist.

Silas believed that Rose must have lost some of his judgment and ability to weigh pros and cons, and that such a person was quite dangerous.

Silas secretly rejoiced that his tone had been relatively calm and that he hadn't offended Rose. Although he wasn't afraid of Rose, it was still necessary to avoid trouble.

Afterwards, seeing that Silas had received his message, Rose said, "The area I marked is my approximate range of activity. Generally speaking, as long as you don't go beyond this range, we won't have any conflicts."

Realizing that Rose was in very good spirits, Silas coaxed Rose, "Okay, Mr. Rose, I understand. I'll stay in the northern part of the South District and won't bother you."

Rose nodded. The place Silas mentioned was the furthest point from the location Rose had marked.

Rose thought for a moment, then added, "By the way, are you a flesh manipulation mage? Or do you need to conduct human experiments and sell drugs?"

Silas was puzzled as to why Rose asked that, but still said, "I'm not a flesh-manipulation mage. I just need a place to stay; I don't need to sell drugs."

Rose nodded, mimicking the curses of eccentric mages described in some books he'd read: "That's good. Damn it, why doesn't the Magic Federation ban drugs? The existence of this rubbish is a desecration of 'reason' and 'freedom'!"

Silas understood what Rose meant. Because mages pursue reason, and the Magic Federation generally promotes "reason" and "freedom," some mages are disgusted by this behavior of abandoning reason in exchange for pleasure.

This kind of thinking is hard to come by for a pharmacist, but Silas can understand it.

He did indeed observe that there were fewer drug users in the southern district, and it seemed that this phenomenon was due to the magician in front of him.

In fact, besides being familiar with the South District due to his previous work, Silas chose the South District as his base because it had less drug use and a much more stable security situation than other districts.