"You're such a useless apprentice. I've taught you so many times, yet you still can't produce a perfect specimen!"
"After wasting so much material, I think you'll make a fine addition to my experiments."
"Oh! Fresh flesh and blood. My little Rada will be very pleased with you, hee hee hee!"
Master Colonso laughed hoarsely as he gripped the neck of a male apprentice in the classroom below.
His bulging eyes were filled with madness and malice.
The unfortunate reason for the apprentice's predicament was that he had ruined his own specimen.
On the stage, Sain, Colonso's assistant, had a complete apprentice body as a sample.
Due to the limited materials available at the Dark Magic Academy, or perhaps because of concerns about apprentices wasting them, the dissected materials in front of the other apprentices in the classroom were only some limb fragments.
In front of the male apprentice was only half an arm, and because of nerves or some other reason, he had accidentally punctured three blood vessels in a row, turning his dissected specimen into scrap.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak!" A sharp squeak came from the black magical robe sleeve of Colonso's wrist.
A balding, ugly rat with three-quarters of its fur missing and chilling red flesh jumped out of it.
The moment this rat appeared, not only did all the apprentices in the classroom fall silent, even Sain on the stage felt a chill in his heart.
In his ten years at the Dark Magic Academy, Sain had seen this rat devouring humans many times, and he had been awakened from his sleep countless times by nightmares.
It's not an exaggeration to say that over seventy percent of the apprentices at the Dark Magic Academy have lived under the shadow of this rat.
Having witnessed the battle between two official Dark Magicians, Sain vaguely felt that the rat's fighting power might even surpass Master Katherson's plant giant in the plantation.
A cruel crimson glow emanated from the rat's eyes.
In the moment when the other apprentices couldn't react, the originally palm-sized red-skinned mouse suddenly leapt up and transformed into a silhouette over two meters tall, swallowing the apprentice in front of it whole.
As the mouse landed again, it shrank back to its original size and returned to Colonso's sleeve.
The sound of "squeak squeak squeak" faintly came from within Colonso's sleeve, and the other apprentices in the classroom seemed to see two glittering red lights staring at them.
It was a greedy gaze, like a predator looking at its prey.
"Gulp." One of the apprentices swallowed saliva, and the others immediately lowered their heads and dared not look at Colonso again.
The specimens in front of them were being handled as carefully as possible, even if they made mistakes or small errors, they tried to cover them up, hoping to deceive the eyes of a formal Dark Magician.
At this moment, Sain was not distracted.
Just as Colonso praised him at the beginning, Sain handled his experimental materials perfectly.
Perhaps Sain really had talent in this area.
If he could become Colonso's apprentice, he might become a top apprentice like the Death Hand Mike in the academy.
But considering Colonso's personality, and his tendency to use his apprentices as experimental materials...Sain did not regret his initial decision.
While Sain was inspecting his experimental specimens with his head down, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that a female apprentice in the front row of the classroom was trembling slightly, and her face was turned towards him, with a pleading look.
Sain did not know this female apprentice, only that he had seen her before.
She seemed like a novice apprentice who had come to the academy two years ago.
With a youthful face, it was evident that this female apprentice was probably not even ten years old yet.
The specimen she was handling was a palm, but from a professional standpoint, Sain could tell there were at least two obvious mistakes in her handling of it.
No wonder the apprentice had a trembling and frightened look on her face.
Master Colonso had just let his pet devour an apprentice, and it had scared these little ones once again.
If three obvious mistakes were a death sentence, then two mistakes meant she had already stepped into the gate of death.
Only apprentices who had made just one obvious mistake could be tolerated by Master Colonso.
Sain, on the other hand, was a nearly perfect apprentice in the whole Dark Magic Academy, having made no mistakes even in the process of dissection.
It was as if she were born for this.
With guidance from a superior mentor or proper knowledge inheritance, Sain might have a chance to become an expert in necromancy among the Dark Magicians in the future.
The plea from the female apprentice made Sain feel uneasy.
He could tell that there were two obvious mistakes made by the female apprentice, and one of them could indeed be rectified.
But Sain knew he didn't have the authority to help another apprentice in front of a formal Dark Magician.
This female apprentice had black hair with several unique small braids, giving her a special beauty that other female apprentices did not possess.
Her pleading gaze reminded Sain of Merry, an entry-level apprentice several years ago who had asked him for help sitting next to her.
At that time, Sain was just a low-level apprentice.
Perhaps it was Merry's pleading gaze that had influenced him, or maybe it was because he had just arrived in the Shadowy Territory and had not yet fully adapted to the atmosphere of the Dark Magic Academy. Nevertheless, he had chosen to help Merry.
Would Sain help this female apprentice this time?
Sain glanced over at Master Colonso, who was still inspecting the apprentices' work.
As he was checking them while standing, it would be a while before it was the female apprentice's turn to be evaluated.
Taking a deep breath, Sain picked up the surgical knife from the lectern.
Instead of personally intervening to help the female apprentice, he used his complete specimen in front of him as a carrier to gently gesture something in the air.
All the apprentices in the classroom were nervously watching their specimens, so no one noticed Sain's small movements except for the girl who had sent him a pleading look for help.
No apprentice could survive for two years in the Dark Magic Academy without being clever.
When Sain demonstrated again in mid-air for the second time, the female apprentice immediately realized what to do and quickly picked up the surgical knife to make the repair.
Making a specimen with just one hand didn't take much effort, to begin with.
By the time Master Colonso arrived at her station for inspection, the female apprentice had already completed the repair and was sitting there respectfully.
"Oh? Not bad, you actually used the 'Cross Stitching Method' to fix the mistake." Master Colonso remarked.
"But did I teach you this method, you newbies?" He asked while looking puzzled.
"Hmm, have I become too old and my memory declining?" Shaking his head, Master Colonso moved on to the next apprentice.
Although it was a brief incident, both the female apprentice and Sain on the lectern were drenched in cold sweat.
"I was too reckless, after all!" Sain thought to himself.
If Sain had known beforehand that Master Colonso had not taught the "Cross Stitching Method" to this batch of novice apprentices, he would not have intervened so readily to help the female apprentice.