The Wizard: Starting as a Corpse Collector Apprentice and Paying for a Monthly Subscription

After seeing off his mentor, Markley, Tyron stretched his stiff neck.

With each crisp "crackling" sound, that familiar feeling, as if the whole world had slowed down, welled up in my heart once again.

[The Sacred Body of Lazybones] is triggered passively.

With 30 times the learning and thinking efficiency, his brain was as clear as a sophisticated supercomputer.

He turned his head and looked at the two skeleton soldiers standing quietly in the corner.

"The mentor left decisively, and the effect of the 'Slacking Off Sacred Body' was triggered directly!"

Tyron squinted and carefully sensed it:

"In other words, they weren't implanted with any magic to monitor me; they were simply my helpers and tasks."

"That makes things much easier!"

After confirming that there were no third eyes around, Tyron breathed a sigh of relief, plopped down in the slightly shaky old chair, and closed his eyes.

Consciousness sank deep into the mind.

The large monthly card panel, radiating a pale golden light, appeared.

Today's tasks were completed quite smoothly.

Five daily tasks: [Consume 6 points of mental energy], [Complete one full meditation], [Complete 2 magic exercises], [Collect 3 corpses], [Perform one spell deduction].

The first four have been completed, and 1200 experience points have been gained.

In addition, there's the 1500 experience points rewarded from the sudden mission "Don't underestimate the young!"

Now, the progress bar for the monthly card has shot up like a rocket, successfully reaching level 4, and is only 500 experience points away from level 5.

"With just one more spell deduction, I can get the last 300 daily experience points. Add to that tomorrow's mission, and leveling up will be just around the corner."

Tyron rubbed his hands together and opened the reward claim interface.

I've been saving up the level 2, 3, and 4 rewards, but now I can finally enjoy them all at once.

Lv2：

[Received: Meditation Essential Oil x5]

[Received: Meditation Essence x5]

Lv3：

[Received: 100 Magic Item Fragments]

[Received: 20 Magic Item Fragments]

Lv4：

[Received: Apprentice Experience Book x4]

[Received: Wizard Experience Book x1]

Looking at the pile of glittering rewards in his consciousness space, Tyren felt like a dragon guarding a treasure.

Besides the usual collections of knowledge and experience books, what he was most eager to acquire this time were a few new items.

First, there's the bottle, which is larger than a regular meditation oil bottle and has a deep purple color.

【Item Name: Meditation Essence】

[Effect: Increases meditation efficiency by 5% after consumption, stacking up to 5 times, lasting for two hours.]

"This is good stuff!"

Tyrone's eyes lit up. For wizards, meditation efficiency is their lifeline.

A 5% increase may not seem like much, but if you stack 5 layers, that's 25%! Combined with the buff from the "Slacking Off Sacred Body," it's practically taking off.

Then, his gaze fell on two clusters of transparent crystals, one large and one small, shimmering with starlight.

Item Name: Fragments of a Ritual Item

[Effect: When enhancing a magical artifact, it increases the artifact's energy by 50 points.]

【Item Name: Fragment of a Magical Artifact】

[Effect: When enhancing a magical artifact, it increases the artifact's energy by 300 points.]

Upon seeing these two items, Tyron's breathing became somewhat rapid.

He had seen this thing once before in the market, but he only glanced at it from afar and didn't look at it much because he didn't have any magical artifacts.

A wizard's magical artifacts are not static; they can be upgraded by infusing them with energy.

Just like upgrading equipment to +1 or +2, you not only get a more robust structure, but you also get special effects when you break through a certain threshold.

Generally, the infusion of magical artifacts consumes other low-level magical artifacts or precious magical materials.

Only when a magical artifact of master level or above breaks will it drop this pure energy crystal.

"A single fragment of a magical artifact typically fetches around 20 purple gold coins on the black market."

"And a single fragment of a magical artifact... starts at least at 500 purple gold coins!"

Tyron quickly did some mental calculations.

100 fragments are worth 2000 Purple Gold Coins, and 20 fragments are worth 10000 Purple Gold Coins!

"I'm rich..."

Tyron swallowed hard, barely suppressing the urge to sell them for money.

"No, these are strategic resources. Although we can't use them at this stage, once we have our own magical artifacts, they will be our means of survival."

"The most crucial thing is that I have no way of explaining where I got this thing from!"

I am currently just a level 0 apprentice and have no means to hide my identity.

The wizards in this world possess terrifying tracking and identification abilities.

After carefully putting away all the rewards, Tyron didn't bask in his joy for long.

He's a man of action.

He quickly got up, grabbed a broom and mop, and cleaned the morgue spotlessly in no time.

Then he ran to the public canteen outside and forced himself to eat the sloppy dinner that tasted like pig swill: mushy oatmeal porridge with pickled vegetables.

After eating and drinking to our hearts' content, we returned to the morgue.

Lock the door and light the dim oil lamp.

Tyron sat back down at the table and opened the book, "The Domination of Bone Runes Explained".

With the 30-fold efficiency boost from the "Slacking Off Sacred Body," his memory and comprehension reached a terrifying level.

The sound of pages turning echoed in the quiet room.

In just ten minutes, the entire contents of the book were imprinted in his mind word for word.

The moment he closed the book, a magical scene unfolded.

The thin book began to disintegrate on its own, turning into countless specks of light that dissipated into the air.

"A one-time knowledge carrier."

Tyronn was not surprised by this.

In this wizarding world where knowledge is highly monopolized, any piece of mystical knowledge is priceless.

Not only magic, but also knowledge of rune formulas, alchemy recipes, ritual prayers, and so on, are invaluable resources.

To prevent knowledge leakage and piracy, these disposable books that are burned after reading are quite common.

"Now that you've memorized it, you should practice it."

Tyron rubbed his hands together, picked up a quill pen from the table, and eagerly wanted to draw a few runes to test their effects.

However, when he looked around, he froze.

"What about the materials?"

He stared blankly at the empty desktop.

All he has now is those 100 high-quality rune papers.

But those were orders from the Fine Wine Gang!

These are the goods he needs to deliver tomorrow! Those are someone else's materials!

Runes are very delicate things; they can't just be drawn on the ground and made effective.

It requires a special carrier, a material that can stably conduct magic.

Ordinary paper simply cannot withstand the infusion of magic and will spontaneously combust instantly.

"well……"

Just moments ago, Tyron was full of excitement, but suddenly he deflated like a punctured balloon and slumped into a chair.

"Money, money, money! Why does everything cost money!"

He looked up at the sky and sighed, his face filled with despair.

"Rune paper costs money! Rune ink costs money! Engraving tools cost money! Even breathing the air in the wizard tower costs rent!"

At this moment, he felt like a great hero with unparalleled martial arts skills, but who was frustrated to death because he couldn't afford an iron sword.

"Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice..."

Tyron shook his head helplessly.

But should we just let him sit there doing nothing?

That's absolutely impossible!

The rune formula for "Dominating Bones" was churning in his mind like a swarm of restless tadpoles.

If he didn't put those theories into practice several times and turn them into real-world experience, he felt like ants were crawling all over his body.

In the silence, his gaze began to wander around the room.

It swept across the table, across the walls, and finally... landed on the two skeleton soldiers in the corner.

"That's right! The skeleton!"

Tyron's eyes lit up suddenly, like a hungry wolf spotting meat.

"Humans are born with spirituality, and bones are excellent natural magical materials. Since we don't have paper, let's do something drastic!"

Just do it.

Tyron immediately jumped up, rushed into the inner room, and yanked open the heavy wooden door to the cellar.

A cold, damp atmosphere wafted over.

By the light of the oil lamp, one could see that the cellar was filled with a dense array of various bone parts.

Arm bones, pelvis, spine, skull...

These are scraps he collected from various corpses over the past six months.

Some are incomplete, some are covered with pits, and some are severely weathered.

To those high-ranking, formal wizards, these were nothing but trash.

But for a poor apprentice like Tyrion, this was precious material!

"When I first started storing these things, I was thinking that I might need them someday. I never expected that day to come so soon."

Tyrone searched the cellar for a while and finally pulled out a skull that had been split in two from a pile of bones.

The owner of this skull was an unlucky mercenary.

During a gang fight, he was stabbed in the head, his skull split in two.

Tyron still remembers the scene when he went to collect the body: red and white things were scattered all over the ground, and the stench was so strong that he almost vomited up his dinner from the night before.

While enduring his nausea, he also had to be wary of other bloodthirsty mercenaries returning to finish him off. He nervously dragged the body into the car and then drove off like a thief.

"You're the one."

Tyron picked up the half-skull and returned to the table.

With the materials ready, the next step is to find the tools.

He didn't have one of those special rune engraving knives that cost hundreds of purple gold coins.

After a moment of silence, his gaze fell on the boning knife beside him, which was still stained with a little blood.

"It'll have to do."

Tyron picked up the boning knife and gestured at the skull a couple of times.

However, reality is harsh.

The skull was far harder than he had imagined, and with its smooth curves, the boning knife simply couldn't penetrate it.

He used too much force and slipped, the tip of the knife grazing his palm, almost causing him to bleed himself.

"hiss!"

Tyron gasped, looking at the hard skull with a troubled expression.

"I remember seeing other apprentices carving bones before, and they were using special carving knives made of white diamond. They were incredibly sharp, cutting through bone like it was tofu."

Thinking of that sparkling white diamond carving knife, Tyron's eyes were filled with envy.

"But that thing... even the lowest grade costs 700 purple gold coins!"

"It's money again!!"

Tyron sighed, feeling like he was being driven crazy by the word "money".

However, the poor have their own ways.

Since the knife isn't fast enough, let's give it a buff!

A sudden inspiration struck Tyron, and he mobilized the last bit of mental energy he had left.

"Magic Thorn Technique!"

hum!

A very faint buzzing sound rang out.

The blade of the boning knife was instantly covered with a layer of high-frequency vibrating magical ripples.

Tyron picked up the knife again and made a light cut into the skull.

laugh!

It's like cutting butter with a hot knife.

The boning knife pierced the hard skull without any resistance, leaving a deep mark.

"It's done!"

Tyron was so excited he almost jumped up: "I'm a fucking genius!"

However, the next second.

Click!

Because I was too excited, my hand trembled and I couldn't control the force.

The skull was pierced through, leaving a large hole, and cracks spread out instantly.

"..."

Tyronn's smile froze.

"Calm down! Calm down!"

He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

"A single use of the Magic Thorn spell only lasts for 5 minutes. Time is of the essence; we can't afford to waste it!"

But while he kept telling himself to stay calm, his hands wouldn't obey him at all.

Bones are not paper, after all; their internal structure is extremely complex.

In some places it is loose and porous, in others it is dense and hard, and there are various bone fibers crisscrossing it.

Carving intricate runes on it is like embroidering on reinforced concrete.

One second it was incredibly smooth, the next the blade tip hit a hard bone.

Tyron instinctively exerted force.

Click!

If too much force is applied, the bone surface will crack directly.

Let's go somewhere else.

If the force is too weak, it won't cut through, and the rune lines will appear broken and discontinuous.

When it encountered areas with uneven density, the tip of the knife slid across the corner, drawing a straight horizontal line and completely destroying the entire rune structure.

Five minutes later.

The effect of the magic thorn has disappeared.

Tyron sat panting in the chair, his eyes bloodshot and veins bulging on his forehead.

With his sense of time flowing at 30 times faster than the "Slacking Off Saint Body," those five minutes felt like two and a half hours of torture to him!

And what were the results?

zero.

He didn't even draw a complete rune framework!

"Grass!!!"

Tyronn finally broke down.

He angrily grabbed the skull, which was riddled with holes, and slammed it against the corner of the wall.

Snapped!

The skull slammed into the wall and shattered.

"If I had rune paper! Even the cheapest kind of straw paper! I would have finished the basic exercises by now!"

Why bother arguing with this broken bone?!

"This is a complete waste of my life! It's slowing down my rise!"

Tyron's eyes were bloodshot as he stared intently at the neatly stacked high-grade rune papers on the table.

Greed in my heart grew wildly like weeds.

"Using a few won't hurt, right...?"

A voice tempted him in his mind:

"Just say it was damaged during the production process, and that it's normal waste... Anyway, those roughnecks in the Fine Wine Gang wouldn't understand."

"In fact... I've already gained my mentor's favor and have a formal wizard as my backer. What do I have to fear from the Wine Gang?"

"I could even use this identity to withhold a portion of this shipment and resell it for some extra money..."

Tyron's hand trembled as he reached for the stack of rune papers.

The moment my fingertips were about to touch the smooth paper.

Whoosh!

The sound of cold water splashing on my face.

Tyron suddenly plunged his head into the sink next to him.

The icy well water instantly submerged his mouth and nose, making him shiver.

He held his breath underwater for a full minute until a burning pain shot through his lungs, then suddenly lifted his head.

"Huff! Huff!"

Water droplets dripped down his cheeks, taking away that crazy greed.

"No! Absolutely not!"

Looking at his disheveled reflection in the mirror, Tyron's eyes regained their clarity and coldness.

"A virtuous person is cautious even when alone."

"To gain genuine trust and respect from others, one must never breach any contract or overstep any boundaries."

"Moreover, I'm facing a group of ruthless gangsters."

"Open competition is inferior; covert competition is superior. Do not be arrogant when you succeed, and do not be discouraged when you fail."

Tyrion closed his eyes and silently recited the maxims of the "Power Sutra" that he had memorized in his previous life.

"Remember! Never let yourself appear too assertive, and never easily reveal your desires or impatience."

"I have 30 times the time efficiency, and I have a much greater margin of error than others."

"I must not be too hasty, and I must not let my mentor and others think that I am arrogant and greedy."

"It's okay if you failed. It only took five minutes."

"If I can master the art of rune drawing on such difficult bones... wouldn't I be even more adept at it on paper later?"

His years of experience struggling at the bottom helped him quickly regain his senses.

Tyron wiped the water off his face, bent down, and silently walked to the corner of the wall.

He picked up the shattered skull fragments one by one and threw them into the trash can.

Then he took out a new bone from the cellar.

This time, his eyes were calm as still water.

There was no anger, no anxiety, only an almost obsessive focus.

"It's okay if I can't use the Magic Needle Technique; let's get a feel for it first."

This is Tyronn.

A highly rational and self-disciplined "King of Scrolls".

……

Two hours later.

Feeling dizzy, Tyron had to stop working.

Although he still hadn't managed to draw a complete rune, he could feel his technique gradually improving.

He sat cross-legged on the bed, without using the rewarded meditation essence.

Since a bottle of serum lasts for two hours, and I already completed one meditation session at noon today, the remaining meditation session will waste an hour of my time.

I began my second deep meditation.

As his breathing gradually stabilized, the surrounding free energy particles began to joyfully flow into his body.

An hour later.

Tyron opened his eyes, a glint of shrewdness flashing within them.

My mental strength has been successfully increased from 3.5 to 3.6.

After recovering to full strength, he did not rest, but instead took out the precious [Wizard Experience Book] and four [Apprentice Experience Books].

"Let's begin the derivation of the surgical procedure model."

Within the consciousness space, countless data streams began to surge and crash.

Two more hours passed.

When Tyronn opened his eyes again, the data on his attribute panel had been updated.

[Surgical Model Experience: 7666/10]

Looking at this auspicious number, Tyronn was filled with excitement.

"Soon."

"I'm not far from becoming a true first-class apprentice."