One day later.
Ethan was sitting cross-legged in the cultivation room on the third floor of his villa, his eyes closed in meditation.
In his mental sea, the thirteenth rune had recently condensed and was still slowly adjusting its position, forming a delicate balance with the other twelve runes.
Grey mist swirled around these runes, flowing much more smoothly than before.
He could feel that the condensation of the next rune was not far off.
Knock, knock, knock.
There was a knock at the door—three steady, unhurried strikes.
Ethan opened his eyes, his brows arching slightly.
He stood up, went downstairs, and pushed open the courtyard gate.
A Spirit Bone Guard stood at the entrance, holding a dark grey card in its skeletal hand.
"Ethan Leo, this is the reward from the academy: 417 magic stones."
The guard handed the card over.
Ethan took it. "Thank you, my lord."
The Spirit Bone Guard nodded and turned to leave.
Ethan tucked the card into his storage ring and walked out of the courtyard, following the stone path toward the Logistics Area.
Old Wright was leaning back in his chair in his usual half-dead manner, holding a thick volume. His eyelids were drooping, making it impossible to tell if he was actually reading or dozing off.
Hearing footsteps, he lifted his eyelids. His clouded eyes scanned Ethan's face before his mouth slowly split into a grin.
"Yo, kid. You haven't been here for nearly a year. Did you miss this old man?"
Ethan leaned against the counter. "Hah, I'm afraid looking at your face would make me lose my appetite. I'm here for models."
"Tsk, boring." Wright curled his lip and tossed the book onto the desk. "This old man hopes every day for someone to come and chat, but you? You open your mouth to buy things and close it to leave. Not a bit of human warmth in you."
"And you have human warmth?"
"Of course." Wright tilted his chin up. "I'm a man who values sentiment above all else."
Ethan didn't take the bait.
Finding no fun in the silence, Wright grumbled, "Young people these days..." He reached under the counter, pulled out a familiar black stone slab, and slapped it onto the table.
"Here."
The surface of the slab lit up, and rows of text emerged.
Ethan's gaze swept across the list, his finger tapping on several lines.
"Seed Bomb, Wood Prison, Withered Wood Revives, Nature's Mark, and Green Vine Guard. Just these five."
Wright glanced up at him, his mouth twisting into an inscrutable curve.
"Another five? Can you handle it?"
"I have a good appetite."
"Fine, you're the one with the money." Wright turned to rummage through the shelves behind him for a moment before placing five knowledge crystals on the counter. "Two hundred and twenty-five magic stones."
After paying, Ethan tucked the five crystals into his ring. Just as he turned to leave, a voice boomed in his ears.
"I am Blood Bone. I have submitted an application to the Wizard Council and received their confirmation. In two years, we will follow Jade Shadow Star to launch a World War. All members of Blood Bone Tower who have reached the rank of Third-Tier Apprentice may sign up."
The moment the Headmaster's voice faded, the entire Blood Bone Tower erupted into a frenzy.
"World War? Did I hear that right?"
"A Star Wizard is leading the team! That's a Star Wizard!"
"Third-Tier Apprentices can sign up? I'm Second-Tier now, but there are still two years left. I can make it!"
"Crazy, they've all gone crazy. Do you know what a World War means? It means filling the gaps with your life!"
"What's there to fear? Fortune favors the bold. How many resources are in a world not yet controlled by the Wizard Council? Even a few scraps would be enough to cultivate to an Official Wizard!"
"I've been a Third-Tier Apprentice for over seventy years. This time, I'm going to take the risk."
Ethan's gaze fell on Old Wright's face. "Old man, what exactly is a World War?"
Wright looked up at him. "A World War. Simply put, it's a territory grab."
"A territory grab?"
"Lord Wizard Jade Shadow discovered a world not controlled by the Wizard Council and is leading a force to conquer it. To use a mortal war as an analogy, the Wizards are the generals, and the Third-Tier Apprentices are the grunts."
He paused, a look of reminiscence flickering in his clouded eyes.
"The Star Wizard handles the strongest local existences of that world. The First, Second, and Third-Tier Wizards each deal with enemies of their respective levels. As for you Third-Tier Apprentices, you're there to clear the battlefield, loot resources, and deal with the common natives and low-level supernatural creatures."
Ethan didn't interrupt, listening quietly.
"Do you know what a world not controlled by the Wizard Council means? It means all the resources in that world—from magical beast materials to rare Spirit Plants, from mineral veins to various forms of supernatural knowledge—are all up for grabs. Whoever takes it, keeps it."
He turned his head, his clouded eyes fixed on Ethan.
"Of course, whoever dies, stays dead."
Ethan was silent for a moment. "Will many people die?"
Wright scoffed, his smile carrying a hint of mockery. "Kid, it's not a matter of 'many.' It's about throwing lives into the grinder until that world can't take it anymore, until the local resistance is wiped out, and until Lord Wizard Jade Shadow decides the profit outweighs the cost. Only then does the war end."
He held up a finger.
"The last time our District 77 launched a World War was thirty years ago. A Fifth-Tier Wizard led the team, with nearly three hundred academies contributing manpower. Nearly ten million Third-Tier Apprentices were thrown in. As for the cannon fodder legions—the slaves and enslaved beasts controlled by the Wizards—they numbered over eighty billion. In the end, less than ten percent survived."
Ethan's pupils constricted slightly.
This number was far more staggering than he had imagined.
"Scared?"
Wright squinted at Ethan, his mouth curling into a mischievous arc.
On that wrinkled old face, his clouded eyes glinted with a sense of teasing, as if he were looking at a country bumpkin who had just entered the city.
"A little," Ethan admitted honestly.
Nearly ten million Third-Tier Apprentices thrown in, with less than ten percent surviving.
Anyone would have to weigh those odds carefully.
Though he was confident in his strength, confidence and suicide were two different things.
In a meat grinder of that scale, individual power was no different from a drop of water in a vast ocean.
Even though he had a cheat and wasn't afraid of death...
Still, the fact that he could resurrect was something he should avoid exposing if possible.
Wright spoke slowly, "Heh. Well, what if I told you that seventy percent of the surviving apprentices become Official Wizards within three years, and ninety percent within ten years? Are you still scared?"
Ethan's pupils snapped shut.
"That high a ratio?"
In Blood Bone Tower, a Third-Tier Apprentice becoming an Official Wizard within thirty years was rare enough to be called a genius among geniuses.
There were plenty of people who languished in the academy for a century and remained stuck at the Third-Tier.
But now Wright was telling him that ninety percent of the apprentices who survived a World War could cross that threshold within ten years?
This was no longer a matter of probability; it completely overturned his understanding of the difficulty of a Wizard's advancement.
"Heh, did you forget what we Wizards use as the source of our power?"
He turned his head, staring at Ethan as he enunciated every word: "Knowledge, knowledge, and more knowledge."
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