Chapter 321: Interlude?

Deep within the Grey Mire Swamp of the Gray Rain Country, in the Apprentice Zone of the Thought of Truth Branch.

Mila’s radiance once again illuminated this seemingly forgotten, gloomy swamp. The morning mist gradually dissipated, and the entire silent swamp slowly came to life again… Of course, only the Apprentice Zone was lively. For the formal mages immersed in their research, the difference between day and night was hardly significant.

Many apprentices in the Apprentice Zone, especially the newly joined ones, mostly did not use meditation as a substitute for sleep. Having only recently become professionals, their long-standing sleep habits had not yet been corrected. Thus, most mages below the Apprentice-Level would choose to meditate for three to four hours and spend the rest of the night sleeping normally. Although this reduced the efficiency of meditation, it at least avoided the troubles caused by the “drowsiness illusion” that came with immediately eliminating sleep… After all, they did not have a Void Soul like Punk’s, which allowed for constant meditation.

Anya, as one of the apprentices, was no exception. However, she was more diligent than the average apprentice, spending most of the night meditating.

Anya’s diligence was partly because meditation played a significant role in early-stage advancement, and partly because… she found it increasingly difficult to fall asleep!

Since undergoing the “potential excavation” experiment conducted by her mentor—Lord Cyan—Anya could clearly notice her mental state growing stranger day by day. The most prominent symptoms were severe insomnia and endless nightmares during sleep. In Anya’s dreams, there were always countless meaningless roars echoing incessantly in the young girl’s ears. No matter how many times she experienced them, these eerie howls still filled Anya with deep-seated fear.

Although she had the help of the bitter and astringent Magic Potion provided by her mentor, Anya still felt her mind growing increasingly dazed, and her emotions slowly becoming unstable.

She began to realize that her memory was rapidly deteriorating. Apart from things she made a great effort to remember or left a deep impression, many other details gradually became blurred. This included some childhood memories and scenes she hadn’t paid much attention to, which grew increasingly hazy, like ink paintings soaked in water.

At the same time, Anya also felt her emotions slowly becoming less joyful. As a girl who had always been able to maintain optimism, Anya was realizing for the first time that some of her happy memories were gradually losing their ability to bring her joy. The happiness in her mind seemed to be sucked away by an endless black hole, growing fewer and fewer…

“Stop overthinking. It’s normal for the mentor’s experiment to have some side effects. At least you’ve truly become full of potential, haven’t you?”

Sitting up from the soft bed, she shook her head vigorously, trying to forget the nightmare whispers still echoing in her ears. Anya stretched out her fair hands toward the sunlight from Mila streaming through the window…

“Pfft!”

With the end of a gentle incantation, a pale green leaf shimmered with faint fluorescence, fluttering and dancing in Anya’s hands.

This was the spell she had recently learned—the Apprentice Rank Evocation spell—Life Leaf: When applied externally to a wound, it stops bleeding, relieves pain, prevents bacterial invasion, and halts the spread of harmful energy!This is a healing spell, and a rather complex one among the Apprentice Rank spells. It was a reward Anya received for her “outstanding performance” in a recent public lecture. Of course, this wasn’t the first time she had obtained such a reward spell—every reward slot inevitably included her name (who would dare exclude the disciple of a Master-Level powerhouse from the reward list?).

However, none of the spells so far had posed any difficulty for Anya. She mastered them in less than a week, even though most apprentices couldn’t even comprehend them. In her somewhat muddled state of mind, she could somehow “unconsciously” learn a spell and even master it with remarkable proficiency…

While basking in the envious gazes of other apprentices, Anya felt no joy—this situation was far too abnormal. How could she, with her disjointed thoughts, learn spells so efficiently? She wasn’t naive enough to believe this was due to some awakened powerful talent; this eerie circumstance didn’t seem like a good omen at all.

Dismissing the spell in her hand, Anya sighed softly as she stepped barefoot out of bed. She wanted to consult her mentor about this, but… she only knew that Lord Cyan was conducting an important experiment and wouldn’t be seeing anyone for the next year or two…

“Come on, Anya, pull yourself together! You still need to prepare for next month’s selection to become Mage Chachesi’s lab assistant. You can’t afford to be so listless!”

Standing before the mirror formed by magical water flow, Anya patted her fair cheeks, then instinctively averted her gaze from her right eye as she picked up her Mage Robe to dress. Only when she felt the abnormality on her face had completely vanished did she calmly step out of her Room.

“Anya~~ Guess who I am~”

No sooner had Anya stepped out than a pair of cold little hands covered her eyes, followed by a voice as clear and melodious as a lark’s song whispering in her ear.

“Moli, stop fooling around. The mage teaching today’s public lecture is Lady Angita. We’re almost late.”

Gently removing Moli’s hands, Anya stiffly adopted an expression of helplessness and ruffled Moli’s small head.

“Hehe, I know~ Let’s hurry up and go!”

With that, Moli skipped cheerfully ahead toward the public lecture hall, though… her footsteps didn’t appear particularly joyful, and the “cheerful” tone in her voice sounded rather forced!

Watching Moli’s retreating figure, Anya sighed inwardly.

The Thought of Truth Branch was a place where apprentices had little control over their lives, and neither Anya herself nor “innocent and kind” Moli could escape this reality.

In fact, Anya’s luxurious Room was equipped with a perception array outside. Recently, she had noticed that no matter how cold the weather was, Moli would always wait early outside her door to go to class together. Moli also made sure to stay as “inseparable” as possible from her during normal times, and her former young lady temperament during conversations had completely vanished. Eventually, Anya realized she was only ever seeing this constantly “cheerful and happy” Moli who acted as if they were “kindred spirits”—though she couldn’t pinpoint exactly when this transformation had begun.Although Anya’s mental state hadn’t been great lately, she could still easily guess that Moli must have gotten into some trouble she couldn’t handle and was now taking refuge by relying on her status as a “Master-Level expert’s disciple.” In a way, Anya had already been used.

“But… so what? Being able to see a glimpse of warmth in this cold place, even if it’s fake, is still worth protecting!”

Anya murmured softly to herself.

“Anya, come quickly! Let’s go eat together!”

“…Coming.”

Setting aside her complicated emotions for now, Anya jogged to catch up with Moli’s retreating figure.

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(End of Chapter)