Above the mage

Chapter 1 Spells

The dark and cramped room contained two wooden beds, a wooden table that looked like it could fall apart at any moment, two relatively intact wooden chairs, and a stove covered in dust and grime. As a result, the only passageway in the room was narrow enough to barely put one's foot down.

A faint ray of light shone through a small skylight on the south wall of the room.

Through the light, the dust particles floating in the air drifted freely like mayflies without any support.

In the dim light, a thin boy could be seen lying on a slightly damp wooden bed in the room.

Whether in his past life or this one, the boy named "Gao De" is using the dim light to survey the small, dusty room and smell the faint musty odor in the air.

There was an eerie silence all around.

This place doesn't feel like a residence; it's more like a claustrophobic prison.

"You mean I've been unconscious for almost a day?" Gao De finally spoke, asking the boy who should be called his "roommate".

"I thought you were dead, it scared me to death!" The boy who answered was extremely thin.

Gao De was already considered to be on the thinner side, but this person was much thinner than Gao De, looking malnourished and small, like an eight or nine-year-old child.

Of course, Gao De knew he was already thirteen years old.

I'm the same age.

Although in his world, this age is only considered a child.

But here, thirteen years old is already considered an adult.

Why was "I" unconscious for almost a day?

More accurately, it refers to how "oneself" died.

It must have been because of "his own" death that he was able to usurp the throne.

A very simple deduction.

Unfortunately, Gao De couldn't remember anything about his own death, or even where he was, what his current situation was, or what his roommate's name was.

Fortunately, he didn't completely forget everything; his predecessor still retained some of his memories.

Some things that Gaode considers truly important are clearly etched in my mind and cannot be forgotten.

Perhaps for "himself," the memories of this place are too painful, so when he took over, he did not pass them on to him.

In Gao De's opinion, this might actually be a good thing—if he really inherited all the memories of his predecessor, then who exactly is he?

Is it the predecessor, the original, or a new personality formed by the fusion of the two?

He was unwilling to let his personality change.

The downside is that he urgently needs to understand his situation.

Luckily, without him having to put in any effort to probe, his roommate, Amy, was already talking incessantly, still shaken, without him even having to ask.

"I knew this day would come. Although you're the only one among us who can independently concoct a basic spider venom potion, in Master Seda's eyes, it's nothing at all."

At this point, Amy glanced at the expressionless God, seemingly afraid of displeasing him, and stammered, "What I mean is, we are called apprentices, but everyone knows that Master Seda doesn't treat us like human beings at all. We are just his human test mice and free servants."

"Therefore, Master Seda doesn't care at all about our abilities."

Hearing this, Gao De could probably guess how he had "fallen unconscious".

Keywords: drug trial.

Amy was still chattering away, which showed that Gao De's previous unconsciousness had really frightened her, and she needed to relieve this negative emotion by talking.

"Let me tell you, I checked your breathing before. You were completely not breathing at all, and I couldn't hear a heartbeat. You were as dead as could be. How could you wake up like that? If it weren't for the fact that you can still talk to me properly, I would have suspected that you were not a human, but a ghost!"

Amy slapped her thigh, extremely excited about her roommate's miraculous return from the dead.

In such a place, his companions were his pillar of support.

Moreover, if Gao De dies, it's estimated that it will soon be his turn to test the drug.

"Could it be that the potion concocted by the mage Seda has been successfully made?" Amy guessed.

The thought of this possibility made him even more excited.

If they succeed, then Master Seda will be overjoyed and they will surely have a good time.

Besides, maybe we won't need them to test drugs anymore?

After all, the potion had already been successfully prepared.

Gaode, however, was not as optimistic as Amy.

He knows the truth.

The potion concocted by the sorcerer Seda, whom Amy was talking about, was unsuccessful.

—It should be said that Amy's good roommate was successfully sent away.

Gao De rubbed his temples, which were still slightly sore, and focused his mind to organize his thoughts.

As a student in the Department of Mathematics at Peking University, one of the top universities in China, he was working on his graduation thesis in the school library day and night. He was so tired that he took a short nap on the table.

When I woke up, there was thick smoke and a crimson color everywhere.

Those were endless tongues of fire, licking at him, giving him no room to struggle.

Once a fire breaks out in a place like a library, its momentum is difficult to stop.

Therefore, Gaode's fate was already sealed.

……

People who study mathematics are generally rational and do not believe in metaphysics.

But the undeniable truth tells Gaode that his body is no longer his own, and rejuvenation is impossible.

The incredibly mystical phenomenon of time travel actually happened to him.

With Amy's incessant chatter and his own occasional questions, Gaode had already figured out his current situation in just half a day.

An orphan beggar from the streets was taken in as an apprentice by the monk Seda and brought back to this herb garden. He took care of the herbs, prepared the medicine, assisted the monk, and even conducted human trials.

In the entire herb garden, apart from Master Seda, everyone else was an apprentice like God and Amy.

The number of apprentices has remained around ten for many years.

However, it is a dynamic stability.

Every so often, Master Seda would take one of his apprentices away to test his newly concocted potions on humans.

No one knew what kind of potion Master Seda was trying to concoct; they only knew that he had failed repeatedly and had never succeeded.

And every time the experiment failed, the apprentice would die on the spot, with absolutely no chance of survival.

Whenever the number of apprentices in the herb garden falls below five, Master Seda will go out and bring back a new batch of about five apprentices to maintain a stable number of apprentices.

As for the origins of the apprentices, they were mostly orphans like Gao De, without parents.

"Why not try to escape?" Gao De asked Amy thoughtfully, trying to sort out his somewhat chaotic thoughts.

"Are you crazy?!" Amy exclaimed in surprise. "Have you forgotten? Master Seda branded us with a [tracking mark]. No matter where we run, he can find us. If we don't run, we can survive, but if we dare to escape, we're dead instantly!"

Tracking Imprint

Gao De's gaze sharpened slightly as he fell into deep thought.

If time travel is a mystery, then this world is the mystery within mystery.

This is a world where magic exists.

Correct.

Spells.

The magic in this world is not the superstitious methods of drawing talismans and chanting spells used by sorcerers, but a true art of magical transformation, a kind of heaven-reaching power that can change things and reality in unscientific ways.

The tracking mark that Amy mentioned is a type of magic.

A high-achieving student who has received compulsory education should scoff at such mysterious powers that only exist in novels and movies.

Deeply ingrained beliefs cannot be broken by Amy's few words.

The reason why Gaode so readily accepted the concept of magic is quite simple.

He licked his chapped lips and looked at the stove not far away.

Without Gao De making any move, the earthenware pot that was originally hanging on the stove suddenly moved horizontally into the air, all the way to the wooden table that was about to fall apart. Then it tilted slightly, and the boiling hot water flowed directly into the cup placed on the table.

Then the earthenware pot landed smoothly on the table, while the cup filled with hot water floated up and moved steadily in front of Gaode.

Gao De reached out, took the cup, and took a small sip to soothe his throat, which was parched from being unconscious all day.

He then let go, but the cup did not fall. As if it were free from gravity, it remained suspended in mid-air and moved back to the table at the same steady speed.

Throughout the entire process, Gaode did nothing except glance at the stove, and Amy did the same; there was no third person in the room.

It's as if an invisible third party or an unseen hand completed this simple action, pouring Gaode a glass of water.

If this were in Gaode's original world, it would be an extremely terrifying thing.

However, the two people in the room remained calm, as if they were used to this extremely bizarre supernatural event.

— Gaode appeared calm on the surface, but inside he was in turmoil.

His predecessor left him with no memories of his life, but he left behind all the knowledge he possessed, including language, all his understanding of the world, and most importantly, knowledge of magic and potion-making.

Knowledge is the most valuable thing, no matter where you are.

Therefore, Gaode was extremely fortunate that its predecessor had left it with the truly important things.

The technique he just used was one of only two tricks his predecessor had mastered.

[Hand of the Mage] (Alteration, 0 Rings):

Within the casting range, a floating ghostly hand appears and remains until the spell ends or the spell is actively dispelled.

If the Ghost Hand is more than 30 feet (10 meters) away, or if the Wizard Hand is cast again, the existing Ghost Hand will disappear.

The Mage's Hand can perform simple actions, such as manipulating an object, opening an unlocked door, a container, or emptying the contents of a vial, but it cannot carry objects weighing more than 10 pounds (approximately 4.5 kilograms) or activate magical items.

What was merely a trivial trick for a mage brought Gao De an indescribable shock:

"The Mage's Hand."

"It's not even magic; it can only be called a trick."

"This is a world with true power and truth."

"The power of law, the truth of technique, is..."

"Spell!"

(End of this chapter)