Witch Training Manual: My Water Magic Is Wrong

Wayne followed Mary upstairs to the second floor.

The wooden stairs, worn and creaking slightly, were quite old. The stairwell was narrow, with whitewashed walls and oil lamps hanging every few steps, casting a dim, yet clean, light.

As Mary reached the corner of the stairs, she glanced back at him. Wayne had just pulled down his hood, revealing a youthful but delicate face.

Mary's eyes widened immediately.

She paused for a moment.

"Young man... how old are you this year?"

"Twenty-one."

Mary pursed her lips, clearly not believing it. She turned around and continued walking uphill, muttering to herself, "Looking like that, she still ran down alone. Isn't she afraid of being kidnapped?"

Upon reaching the second floor, several wooden doors lined both sides of the corridor. Mary walked to the leftmost door in the middle, took out her key, opened the door, and stepped aside.

"Take a look, this is the one."

The room wasn't big, but it was clean.

A single bed was placed against the corner of the wall, covered with clean sheets and a thin blanket. The window was located at the head of the bed and was partially covered by an old curtain.

Wayne glanced around and nodded.

"This one's fine. What's the price?"

"The normal price is three silver magic coins a night, but I'll give you two for Bill's sake," Mary said, leaning against the doorframe. "If you're staying longer, it can be even cheaper. You can stay for now and pay when you leave."

Wayne counted out six silver magic coins and handed them over.

Mary took the money, weighed it in her hand, and didn't leave immediately.

Her gaze swept over Wayne's face.

"Hey sir, just one more question, do you need any other services? Something special, I can give you a 50% discount."

Wayne paused for a moment, then realized what she meant by "special services".

His lips twitched slightly: "No need, thank you."

Mary smiled meaningfully: "Really not? I have plenty of resources here, including men."

"Really, no need." Wayne's tone was firm.

Mary shrugged and didn't insist any further: "Alright, come find me anytime if you need anything. Oh, and remember to lock the door and close the windows tightly tonight. No matter what noise you hear, don't open the door."

After saying that, she turned around and went downstairs.

After Bill left, he turned into a narrow alley.

Night had long since fallen, and the glowing ores on the dungeon's dome began to dim, mimicking the day-night cycle on the surface. The magic lamps along the roadside were still on, but their brightness had noticeably decreased.

Bill knew the way well; she walked through three alleys and stopped in front of a half-collapsed brick wall.

There was an extremely narrow gap between the corner of the wall and the shed, so narrow that even an adult might not be able to squeeze through sideways, but she slipped in like an eel.

At the end of the gap was a shed made of old wooden planks.

The roof was covered with several layers of tarpaulin, and the corners were weighed down with stones.

A tattered cloth was hung at the door as a curtain.

Bill lifted the curtain and went inside.

There were no lights in the shed, but a candle stub was lit in the corner, its flickering flame illuminating half of the space.

Five or six children were huddled together.

The youngest looked only four or five years old, and the oldest was a boy who looked about ten years old. He was squatting at the door, holding a sharpened iron bar in his hand, which was the "weapon" he had made for himself.

When Bill came in, the boy with the iron bar's eyes lit up and he immediately stood up.

"Sister Bill!"

As soon as he spoke, the other children woke up as well.

The little girl peeked out from under the blanket, rubbed her eyes, and said in a groggy voice, still half-asleep, "Sister Bill...you're back..."

Bill put the things he was carrying on the ground.

It consisted of several pieces of dry bread wrapped in old cloth, and a few dried dates that didn't look very appealing.

"Eat up, while it's hot." Bill squatted down, opened the cloth bag, first broke off a piece of bread and stuffed it into the youngest girl's hands, then divided the dried dates among himself. "I got these from that fat cook on the west side. He's doing well today, and he didn't count the leftover scraps."

Actually, she traded it to someone for two copper coins.

In such places, children have no source of income, and every bite of food is hard-earned.

The eldest boy took the bread, but instead of eating it right away, he broke off half and hid it in his pocket. Bill saw this but didn't say anything. She knew he wanted to save it for the youngest boy the next morning; that child had a sensitive stomach and would get a stomachache if he went hungry for too long.

"Sister Bill, did you run into someone new today?"

Bill nodded, tore off a small piece of bread and put it in his mouth, chewing as he said, "Hmm, one came down from up there. Looks like a kid, not much older than me, but he's pretty generous."

"How is he? Is he easy to talk to?" the boy asked again.

"He's alright, not too difficult to please." Bill finished chewing his bread. "I took him to the traveler's house and came back. I'll go collect the money from him tomorrow."

She didn't mention Wayne's silver magic coin. It wasn't that she didn't trust the children, but rather that the silver magic coin was too conspicuous in the hands of those at the bottom of society, and it wouldn't do them any good if word got out.

The youngest girl finished her bread, licked her fingers, and whispered, "Sister Bill, will that sound happen again tonight?"

There was a moment of silence in the shed.

Bill reached out and ruffled her hair: "Don't be afraid, I'm here."

She did not give a direct answer.

Time quickly passed to midnight.

The underground city's dome of ore went completely dark. Not long after Wayne lay down, a series of chaotic noises suddenly came from outside.

He sat up in bed, listened for two seconds, then got out of bed, walked to the window, and lifted a corner of the curtain to look outside.

On the street directly opposite the Traveler's Lodge, three figures were rushing towards them from the direction of the square. The one in the lead was a humanoid creature, on all fours, moving with the speed of a wild beast, its back bent into an eerie arc beyond the normal range of a human.

Two smaller members of its kind followed behind it, rapidly advancing along the base of the walls on both sides of the street.

The guards of the underground city have already blocked their way.

Three men dressed in leather armor, carrying spears and torches, formed a defensive line at the street corner.

The guard at the front roared and thrust his spear forward, piercing the chest of the leading monster with pinpoint accuracy.

The sound of the spearhead piercing flesh was muffled.

Logically, if the spear had pierced the heart, the monster should have collapsed instantly. But it merely glanced down at the gaping wound in its chest, then stretched out its claws, gripped the spear shaft, and yanked it back sharply.

The guard was pulled over.

Before he could even loosen his grip, the monster's other claw swept across. The claw tip grazed his throat, spraying a cloud of blood onto the wall in the dim light.

The remaining two guards' expressions changed drastically. They tried to retreat, but it was too late. Two small monsters flanked them from both sides, blocking their escape route.

Wayne's hand was already on the windowsill.

He was just about to climb out of the window when three figures fell from the rooftops on the other side of the street.

Two men and one woman.

The three moved with incredible speed, landing almost silently. The leader was a man in his early thirties, wielding a one-handed sword. Without pausing after landing, he charged directly at the monster in the lead.

A flash of sword light.

The monster, which had been so ferocious just moments before, had its head blown off. Its headless body took two more steps forward before crashing to the ground.

Upon seeing this, the remaining two smaller monsters let out a sharp screech and turned to run away.

The other man and woman had already blocked their escape route. They attacked from the left and right simultaneously, and in just a few breaths, the two monsters were also cleanly and efficiently dealt with.