Indeed, Fitch's face twisted sinisterly as soon as Gene had finished speaking, almost as if someone had stepped on his face with a dirty shoe. He quickly glanced at the dumbly smiling Han Shuo, but proceeded to speak to Gene, "Master Gene, this outrageous errand slave dared to trip me. How can I not teach him a lesson?!"
Fitch rolled up his sleeves as he spoke, and hit Han Shuo on the head with his grey magic staff. Han Shuo actually breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Fitch wasn't using magic, but merely his staff instead. Although Fitch was tall, he didn't have much strength. Han Shuo saw that the blow was descending without too much force, and decided to ignore it entirely. He stood there and made no attempt to dodge, just continued to smile in a silly, honest way.
Pow!
Han Shuo suddenly experienced acute pain when the magic staff knocked against his forehead. He gave a bloodcurdling "aiyo!" and grimaced in pain from the magic staff in Fitch's hands. Who would've thought that although the staff looked like it was made of wood, it had the heft and hardness of metal. Han Shuo could only feel that his brain was buzzing with agony, and that a huge lump had already formed on his forehead.
"Damnit, why is this magic staff so hard and so heavy? I've miscalculated this time!" Han Shuo thought as his forehead was bashed again, before his brain had had a chance to recover from the first hit. He felt his head grow heavy, and he stiffly fainted dead away onto the ground.
When Han Shuo came to, he found himself on a large, soft bed. Faint medicinal scents floated in the air. He noticed that the two big lumps on his head had already faded, and there seemed to be some type of ointment applied to them. It had a cooling effect and felt very comfortable.
"You're awake?" A face suddenly came near him. Light purple, wavy, long hair, sparkling clear eyes, fresh white teeth, and sexy red lips blew out a breath of slight fragrance onto Han Shuo's face.
"Eh, Fan… Master Fanny!" Han Shuo's gave a soft gasp at the sight of the pretty face in front him, and his heart began pounding. He pulled himself up into a sitting position on the bed and glanced around, taking in his surroundings.
The room was 20 square meters, and a large upright drawer was nearby. It contained a variety of medicinal vials, as well as some bones from magical creatures on the side. The walls were filled with magical drawings and text. In the middle was a pedestal made of darkly colored rocks, with a simple magic matrix formed on top of it. One glance was enough to tell Han Shuo that this was Fanny's laboratory.
As Han Shuo was observing his surroundings, Fanny was also scrutinizing him with a great deal of surprise. It wasn't until Han Shuo's sight had made a full circle and looked towards her, that Fanny extended a slender finger and lightly tapped his forehead. A small exclamation of bewilderment followed shortly thereafter, "Eh? The bumps went down so quickly? There wasn't even any bleeding under such a heavy staff thumping… How is this possible?"
Han Shuo's heart lurched when Fanny's finger touched him, and his nose greedily took in a deep breath. His lips curved up slightly in satisfaction as a whiff of fragrance drifted towards him.
Fanny, on the other hand, was stunned by Han Shuo's behavior. His actions just now bore a few obvious hints of wanton seduction, and was a marked difference from Bryan's typical timid and cowardly behavior. This made her pause in incomprehension, but a low sigh of understanding followed thereafter. She murmured lightly, "I didn't believe them before, but it does seem that Bryan has gone a little crazy. I can't believe an Agony of the Soul has turned him into this, sigh!"
Although Fanny had murmured in an exceedingly low voice, Han Shuo clearly heard everything. He laughed wryly inside, and thought that here was yet another person who truly believed that he had gone mad.
Suddenly, an expression of heightened curiosity appeared on Fanny's face and she said earnestly, "Bryan, the bruises and bumps on your forehead healed so quickly; there's nothing there now. Is this an aftereffect of the Agony of the Soul? Aiya, this is really too incredible. I have something to research further again. Necromancy magic is truly wondrous indeed!"
Han Shuo could only smile wryly with some resignation, as he watched Fanny 'pilipala' rifle wildly through her things with great excitement. Han Shuo was just a crazy person to her right now. He naturally couldn't explain that training magical yuan was the reason behind his body's oddities.
Fanny was not wearing her glasses again today, and was exuberantly rummaging through magical items on all sides. After a while, she sashayed towards Han Shuo, holding a light green ball the size of her palm. The light green ball lit up with a soft, green glow, and after she abruptly said an incantation, she placed the ball on top of Han Shuo's forehead.
Strong magical undulations rippled out from the ball. It was like a magnet, firmly glued to Han Shuo's forehead as the light green ball sucked out the last bit of mental strength from his mind. The light green ball suddenly flickered like a broken green light bulb.
"Oh… this is too inconceivable! Bryan, you have mental strength in your mind! Oh my gosh, what's going on? Can it be that the Agony of the Soul has the ability to bestow ordinary people with mental strength, after they have been baptized by magic? This is too unbelievable!" Fanny suddenly hollered, astonishment and fright written all over her face. It seemed that discovering that Han Shuo's mind had mental strength was more than a small shock to her.
"I've decided, this will be my future research topic. If the Agony of the Soul doesn't turn someone crazy and can leave traces mental strength within a body, then even an ordinary person can become a mage. Oh… this is too unimaginable!"
Gurgle.
It was at this moment that Han Shuo's stomach protested with hunger. The excitement still had not receded from Fanny's face as she breathlessly to Han Shuo. "It's getting late today, go back and rest first. I'll come find you often in the future. I'll go discuss with the school authorities to lighten your workload appropriately and increase your rations, until I've finished studying this topic."
Joy blossomed in Han Shuo's heart as he heard Fanny's words. Evil thoughts kept crossing his mind as he watched the glamorous Fanny. He thought that good luck was unstoppable when it came; not only did his workload suddenly lighten and food rations increase, but he had an excuse to get closer to Fanny. It looked like Fitch had actually helped him a great deal with this beating.
When he left Fanny's lab, Han Shuo lifted his head and saw that it was dusk when he noticed the fading light in the sky. He rubbed his forehead and discovered that apart from a bit of light pain, there wasn't much else wrong with him now.
He completed his afternoon duties with lightning speed, and bumped into Jack at the place where bread was given out. Jack was extremely surprised to see Han Shuo, and cast weird glances at him. He asked doubtfully, "Bryan, I heard that you had two huge bumps on your head and fainted because of Fitch's magic staff? How come there isn't a trace of that now?"
"Master Fanny smeared magical reagents on me, the bumps naturally faded away quite quickly. Heh heh, Master Fanny is beautiful and gentle!" Han Shuo laughed happily at Jack.
"Bryan, this is your food for the day!" A voice called out from the dining hall window. Han Shuo swiftly ran over and received a piece of white bread, a small cup of milk and a fried egg.
"Eh? Brother Gotha did you make a mistake? Bryan should get the same food as us, and even a smaller piece of bread than mine!" The boy who Han Shuo had beaten up last time — Carey, waved a piece of black bread in his hand and yelled loudly at the fatty who was in charge of dispensing errand boy rations — Gotha.
Gotha cast a cold glance at Carey and lightly snorted, "This is correct, it came straight from the school authorities. This will also be Bryan's rations in the future. Go talk to the school authorities if you have opinions about it. Hmph. But you're just a small errand boy, you'd be making life difficult for yourself if you said anything."
Han Shuo gave a large shout of laughter as he saw Carey and Borg's angry expressions while holding his white bread, milk, and egg. He purposely smacked his lips loudly when eating the bread, and kept up a long litany of praises. "Mm-mm, this white bread definitely tastes different from black bread. Ah, There's even milk and eggs. Oh goodness, this is such a happy day."
"Eh… Bryan, can I drink some milk? That milk looks so delicious!" Little fatty Jack licked his lips and looked enviously at Han Shuo.
"There's still half a cup left, take it!" Han Shuo generously passed it to Jack and pulled him away, smiling merrily as the two walked away, leaving Carey and Borg behind casting disgruntled looks.
Han Shuo took a look at the small skeleton later that night, back at the warehouse. He noticed that the small skeleton was still laying in the wooden bucket, but that the seven swirls in the bucket had stopped moving. He understood with a glance that this was because the magical yuan had run out, and extended a hand to coalesce more magical yuan into the seven bone fragments. It was only when the seven swirls had reformed around the bone fragments that he stopped and went to bed.
The "Yin Magical Concentration Matrix" was just one method in refining demonic treasures. According to instructions, one infusion of magical yuan should have been enough to maintain the matrix for a full 36 days. However, this expected result hadn't been achieved partially due to the weaknesses of Han Shuo's magical yuan, and also because he had randomly scavenged various ingredients together.
Han Shuo felt that the magical yuan within his body had become much stronger after a bit of meditation and training on the bed. A sudden thought struck him, and he wondered if he could use the magical yuan to practice the combative magics that Chu Cang Lan had left behind in his mind.
Han Shuo's eyebrows knit together in deep thought as he started down this path of thought. He could vaguely feel that there were numerous training methods in his mind, but that many of these secret demonic techniques were a bit fuzzy, as if a thin layer of opaque paper prevented clear understanding.
His brows furrowed as he slowly searched through his memories. He realized that the memories in his mind seemed to be in great disarray, and that he could not fully recall all of them. He could only fully remember three topics, one of which was the basics of training magical yuan, and the other was the "Yin Magical Concentration Matrix" for refining demonic treasures. Apart from this two, there was another cantrap called the "Mystical Glacial Spellfire".
The "Mystical Glacial Spellfire" was a way of using magical yuan, and its power would increase according to the practitioner's level. The practitioner would be able to create red and purple spellfire on his palm if he circulated his magical yuan in a particular fashion amongst the meridians. The red flame was searingly hot, and the purple glacially cold. If the magical yuan and practitioner level was high enough, then he would be able to coalesce his magical yuan into two huge red and purple spellfires on his palms. This attack would be both searingly hot and glacially cold.
It was as if Han Shuo had received a precious treasure after he had fully understood all this. He decided to ignore all the indeterminate, obstructed memories and started circulating his magical yuan according to the "Mystical Glacial Spellfire" method. He slowly concentrated his magical yuan into his right hand, but his right hand meridian felt like it was on fire as the magical yuan flowed through it during this process. His right arm became sore, numb and stiff as that thin, wispy meridian felt like it had been electrocuted.
The magical yuan would be able to easily and quickly flow to the hand if he hadn't been circulating it according to the "Mystical Glacial Spellfire" method. But each time he circulated the magical yuan according to the spellfire's instructions, it was as if the magical yuan had met significant obstacles. Each tiny bit of progress was accompanied by almost unbearable pain and discomfort. It wasn't until midnight that Han Shuo was able to finally circulate some magical yuan from shoulder into wrist, but his entire arm prickled in pain and was useless.
He understood that only by guiding all the magical yuan into his palm and fingertips would he be able to truly make use of the "Mystical Glacial Spellfire" method. It hurt so much now because he was clearing miniscule meridians, acclimating them to magical yuan. Short term pain was inevitable, and it would all go away once all the meridians were cleared.
Han Shuo's eyelids grew heavy, as he was uncommonly tired, and he decided to flop onto the bed and sleep when he thought about his duties tomorrow. He wouldn't be able to finish magic training in one night either.
Han Shou had a strange dream that night, one in which the little skeleton obeyed his commands, and beat up that Fitch who had knocked him on his forehead, getting revenge for Han Shuo.