6: Chapter 6 This World is Dangerous

Da Huang didn't come in; he lay crouching outside the door.

The furnishings inside the room were simple.

A square wooden table sat in the middle of the living room, while a row of crudely made cabinets lined the right wall, topped with various porcelain bottles and jars.

To the left was a fireplace, and next to it stood a set of wall cabinets.

The floor was made of wood and creaked underfoot.

Potter led him to sit at the wooden table.

Placing two buckets of instant noodles on the tabletop, he stared expectantly at Potter, who was on his right.

Potter's behavior, however, was somewhat unusual, his face full of internal conflict.

After a moment, he finally spoke: "Actually, I find it quite strange how you came to the Lake Kingdom."

"I had relatively good luck." Zhang Mu didn't quite understand what the other man specifically meant, so he responded vaguely before changing the subject. "Mr. Potter,

I have already mastered the Meditation Method. When will I officially begin learning magic?"

Potter's expression became even more conflicted, tinged with a bit of confusion: "Where exactly is your hometown? To think you... don't even have common knowledge about the continent?"

"It's very remote. As for which specific region of the continent it's in, I'm sorry, but I don't know either."

Potter didn't doubt this explanation. Without a map, it was impossible to clearly state the specific location of a city on the continent, even if it was one's own hometown.

After thinking for a moment, Potter asked, "Have you heard of the Posei Empire?"

He shook his head.

"What about the Fran Empire?"

He continued to shake his head.

Potter then listed several other empire names, but Zhang Mu only kept his mouth shut and shook his head.

Potter leaned back, his tone filled with amazement: "It really is far enough away. No wonder you know nothing."

After all that back and forth, Zhang Mu finally caught on. "Teaching magic is difficult, isn't it?"

"I can pay tuition." He reached out and pushed the instant noodles toward Potter.

His gaze lingered on the noodle buckets for a short while before Potter sighed. "The Meditation Method was granted by divine grace and researched by humans themselves, so it can be bought with money. However, magic is different."

He felt awkward in his heart.

When he agreed to the trade yesterday, he hadn't considered at all that Zhang Mu could master the Meditation Method; the matter of subsequent magic instruction was naturally just empty talk.

But who would have thought that Zhang Mu possessed such terrifying talent?

The continent was vast, but Potter had traveled to many places, and he had never heard of anyone mastering the three basic abilities of a mage in a single day.

However, taking a student required more than just looking at talent.

Staring at Zhang Mu for a moment, Potter began teaching him the common knowledge of the continent: "The gods bestowed magic, but living beings were greedy. After mastering magic, they attempted to slay the gods to obtain even greater power.

The gods were angry and bestowed death upon the mortals whose hearts were blinded by greed.

The gods were merciful; they did not take back magic, but they sent down a punishment.

From then on, magic was no longer something that could be taken at will."

A heavy stillness settled in Potter's eyes. "Because it was so long ago, the truth of this history can no longer be verified.

But all the mediums used to record information on the continent—parchment, stone tablets, wooden boards, and so on—indeed cannot be written with magic script."

"Forged weapons and staffs cannot be imbued with magic power either."

Zhang Mu looked at the staff in his hand. "Then where does the current magic come from?"

"The gods took pity, and occasionally, labyrinths appear in the world." He stroked the staff. "Magic books obtained from labyrinths... the content within them gradually disappears as time passes."

"These histories are recorded in the Church's Bible."

Magic was extremely difficult to obtain and was scarce in quantity.

This instinctively led to monopolies. Powerful mages would do anything to seize magic books and strictly control their circulation.

But even the strongest could be overwhelmed by numbers, and they also needed efficient and vast information-gathering capabilities. Ultimately, they had to find some helpers.

It was impossible to deny that sometimes strangers were more reliable than relatives, but those were the minority after all. Thus, power organizations centered around oneself and gathered relatives naturally formed—Magic Families.

Possessing a treasure brings trouble.

Once a Magic Family declined, the resulting outcome was self-evident.

Slaughter seemed to be the main theme of this continent.

Raising his head, Zhang Mu looked at Potter with an inquiring gaze.

Perhaps sensing the meaning in his eyes, Potter nodded. "You are indeed very lucky."

"On the Saul Continent, Adventurer Groups are generally only formed by Adventurers who have faced life and death together. Even so, when encountering rare magic books or weapons,

betrayal still occurs."

"Even Magic Families cannot avoid this situation. For a rare magic book, it is not uncommon for a father and child to fight to the death."

"That you were able to reach the Lake Kingdom alive makes me even wonder if the gods have bestowed a blessing upon you."

Zhang Mu was puzzled. "I'm just an ordinary person, and I don't have any magic books on me. Why would others look for trouble with me? Is there any benefit?"

"Once you experience anything enough, you become numb to it, indifferent, or even obsessed with it." A smile touched the corners of Potter's lips, a mocking one. "Even the deprivation of life.

You talk about benefits? When you crush an ant that crawls next to your finger, do you consider if there's a benefit?

If you're in a bad mood, you just crush it. If you're in a good mood, you might flick it away. As for whether the weak ant will be killed by the flick, who cares?"

Zhang Mu fell silent.

When even fathers, sons, and close friends had to guard against each other for treasures, it wasn't hard to understand why Potter was somewhat reluctant to teach him magic.

And since slaughter had become as commonplace as eating and drinking, it was no wonder the panel had given him a resurrection function.

In an instant, he felt strange again. "I see that the town is very peaceful. I haven't seen any signs of fighting or destruction in the streets."

"The Church stipulates that armed conflict is prohibited in human settlements. No one has the courage to disobey the Church."

He had thought the Church of the Saul Continent was also an organization that was glamorous on the surface but filthy underneath; it seemed he had been biased by stereotypes.

Shaking his head to set these matters aside, Zhang Mu focused on his own problem. "Mr. Potter, I have a reason why I must learn magic."

"Revenge?"

"Salvation." He clutched his chest. "Saving myself.

I have contracted a very serious illness, and magic is my only hope right now."

Zhang Mu did not give up hope because of the Saul Continent's bloodiness.

There were always exceptions to things. Based on the fact that Potter, who was clearly a mage, paid gold coins to buy instant noodles, he felt it was worth trying to ask for help.

Otherwise, the other man could have completely hidden this common knowledge from him, tricked him out of town, and then robbed and killed him.

Potter didn't say whether he agreed or not. He reached out and placed a hand on Zhang Mu's shoulder, magic power surging.

After a few seconds, he withdrew his hand, his expression solemn. "It is indeed very serious..."

After a period of silence, he stood up. "As for whether to teach you magic, I need some time to consider."

"For now, follow me and slowly learn about magic. As for your illness, I can help you delay its deterioration."

"Alright, Mr. Potter." Zhang Mu stood up joyfully.

Potter seemed to have a decisive and vigorous personality. Once he had temporarily agreed, he didn't dawdle on anything else and went straight to the wall cabinet to pull open the door.

"For your tuition, how about one bucket of instant noodles a week?"

"No problem."

Watching him rummage through the cabinet, knowing it wouldn't be finished in a moment, Zhang Mu pondered the information he had just obtained.

Objects in this world couldn't be written with magic script, but what about those from Blue Star?

He would have to find some free time to try it out.

And then there was the Church. Logically, the Church must possess healing magic. He wondered why Potter hadn't suggested he go to the Church to try.

"Come over here."

Potter was holding a large pile of crude porcelain bottles and jars, standing at the foot of the stairs leading to the second floor.

"Coming." Zhang Mu hurriedly followed.

The two of them went upstairs, one after the other.

There were two rooms on the second floor, with doors facing each other on the left and right.

They entered the room on the left.

Zhang Mu looked around.

It was very spacious. Opposite the door was a closed wooden window, and on the right was a row of low cabinets acting as a workbench, topped with an earthenware stove and some stone bowls.

Stepping closer to look, he saw the bowls contained thick solutions of various colors.

Potter arranged the bottles and jars from his arms onto the workbench. "A mage cannot be without magic potions."

"Your path as a mage begins with learning how to concoct potions."