Witch Training Manual: My Water Magic Is Wrong

Wayne gave his name.

"Wien Angus".

The moment the words left his mouth, the city lord froze.

Then he suddenly sprang up from the chair, the movement so forceful that the chair back slammed against the wall with a dull thud.

"You're Wayne Angus? That Wayne Angus?"

Wayne was a little confused by his reaction.

"...Which one?"

"Who else could it be? The Witch's Saint, the Friend of Women, the Knight of Water, the Hand of Purification, the Curse Buster..."

As Ryan got more and more excited, he gestured with both hands in the air, spitting almost onto Wayne's face. A series of titles spewed from his mouth, each one more outrageous than the last, leaving him speechless.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Wayne couldn't take it anymore and interrupted him. "Who gave me these nicknames?"

"My descendants! I read that story at least twenty times when I was a child. The scroll was written in such detail, even down to what style you liked..."

"Alright," Wayne interrupted him, knowing that if he continued, who knew what else he might say.

Ryan shut his mouth, but the way he looked at Wayne was completely different now.

Wayne was filled with mixed feelings at that moment.

A friend to women? A knight of water? A bane of curses?

These titles were all incredibly outrageous, yet Ryan spoke of them with absolute certainty, as if they were made up on the spot.

In other words, my future self really did all those things, and did them so much that they were written into a story and passed down for three hundred years. I don't know which unscrupulous person made it up, but it actually became a book after hundreds of years.

Suppressing the subtle feelings in his heart, Wayne asked cautiously.

"Um... are you sure you're not mistaken? I'm not that famous, am I?"

Renn panicked.

"No mistake! Absolutely no mistake! Wayne Angus, from Frosttown, a water mage, head of the Dark Order, Queen Evelyn's direct envoy—I know all these things by heart!" He became more and more excited as he spoke, spittle flying from his lips again. "I read that 'Biographies of Saints' at least twenty times when I was a kid; the spine was practically worn out! How could you not be famous? You are the most…"

Just then, Ryan added.

"By the way, I'm from 385 years in the future."

Wayne pretended to be surprised.

"Oh, I see. That makes sense."

I saw how attentive Ryan was.

Wayne's lips twitched.

This kid does know a lot.

Seeing that Wayne did not object, Ryan took a deep breath, as if he had made a major decision, and then knelt down with a thud.

"My sage, please accept me as your disciple!"

Wayne took half a step back.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll become your disciple!" Renn knelt upright, clasped his hands in a fist salute, his eyes filled with fervor. "I've wanted to meet you since I was a child, and I never thought I'd actually run into you! Please teach me a few moves, anything will do! Your water magic..."

"Get up first."

"I won't get up unless you agree!"

Just then, a panel appeared above Renn's head.

[Raine - Additional Character Information]

[True Identity: Born in the year 655 of the New Void Calendar, he mistakenly entered the City of Eternal Slumber at the age of twenty-three and was trapped there for ten years. He could have left long ago. With the boundary-breaking rune he possessed, the rules of the City of Eternal Slumber could not hold him. There is only one reason he stayed: Agatha.]

[Note: His feelings for Agatha weren't pity or sympathy, but genuine affection. He had a fiancée back home, an arranged marriage by his parents. He left to become a mercenary, claiming he wanted to broaden his horizons while he was young, but it was really pre-wedding jitters. In the end, he didn't see the world, but instead stumbled into this dilapidated city, where he found the person he truly wanted to marry.]

[Note 2: He knew Agatha was a witch, and he also knew that the witch's curse would worsen. He secretly searched through all the books about witches in the city lord's mansion, trying every method he could, but to no avail. This matter remained a knot in his heart.]

[Note 3: Agatha came to the City of Eternal Sleep for this reason as well. The rules here can, to some extent, suppress the rate at which the witch's curse worsens. She has stayed in the mansion for over a decade, not to enjoy herself, but to prolong her life. But recently, her periods of slumber have been getting longer and longer, which is not a good sign.]

After reviewing the panel, Wayne had a clear understanding of the situation.

Ryan was still kneeling on the ground, looking up at him, his eyes almost overflowing with expectation.

Wayne thought about it and didn't agree immediately.

"Get up first. We can talk about the apprenticeship later. Right now, I have something to ask you."

Upon hearing this, Ryan immediately scrambled to his feet: "Ask away! I'll tell you everything I know, without missing a single word!"

"Tell me about this city first," Wayne said, pushing his teacup aside. "What's the current situation in the City of Eternal Sleep?"

After thinking for a few seconds, Ryan spoke in a much more serious tone than before: "Currently, there are about 100,000 people in this city, but less than 200 are truly awake. The rest are all asleep."

What is the state of a "sleeper"?

"They're people completely trapped by the rules." Renn tapped his temple with his finger. "They're not in a coma, nor are they in a vegetative state. They can walk, talk, and work, but their brains don't contain their own memories. The rules have given them a fake past, and they live according to that fake past. Most of the vendors you see on the street, the guards patrolling the city, and the servants in the mansions are like that. If you don't deliberately test them, they look exactly like normal people."

Wayne nodded.

This matches the information the panel gave him. His current identity, "Cedric Howard," was given to him by the rules, but he retained his original self using water magic.

"And what about those who have awakened?"

"There are two types of awakened individuals," Raine said, holding up two fingers. "One type is like me, who briefly regains their memories every now and then, only to have them suppressed by the rules again. The other type is like you, who weren't erased by the rules when you came in and maintained your complete self-awareness."

"You and Agatha belong to the first category?"

"Yes. We stayed in the city for too long, and our cultivation levels were suppressed too much. No matter how strong you were when you entered, the rules here suppress you to below the third level. The lower your cultivation level, the weaker your ability to resist the erosion of the rules. Agatha and I were lucky to be able to hold out until we were half-awake. Most of the half-sleepers simply slid into full sleep and never woke up again."

When Wayne heard this, his expression didn't change, but he was already making a mental estimate. His current strength was suppressed to 20-30%, which meant that his actual combat power was probably between the third and fourth tiers.

Compared to ordinary awakened individuals, he still has some trump cards up his sleeve, but he's definitely not at the point where he can act with impunity.

"What about Agatha's earlier statement about hiding her identity?"