When Han Shuo woke up, he found himself lying on the small wooden bed in the warehouse, covered in ice-cold water. In front of him, Little Fatty Jack was holding a wooden bucket in one hand and climbing onto a stool with great difficulty. He intended to dump the ice-cold water directly on Han Shuo.
Han Shuo was already freezing to death as it was a bit chilly that day. He let out a loud scream when he saw Jack about to tip over the bucket, "Jack, what are you doing?!"
Little fat Jack was stepping on a stool that had been wrecked. It wasn't the sturdiest to begin with, and his legs wobbled in surprise when he heard Han Shuo's scream. His hand jerked and the entire contents of the bucket came crashing down on Han Shuo's head as the bucket flew and smashed into Han Shuo's chest.
"Ugh... I say Jack, are you trying to kill me?"
Han Shuo began to shiver uncontrollably after the second bucket of ice-cold water. Not only that, but it hurt like hell when the bucket itself hit him. He immediately began to curse loudly.
"Sorry Bryan, I thought the first bucket wasn't enough to wake you up. Your chair was wobbly to begin with and I was surprised when you screamed, so my hand slipped and I dumped the water all over you!"
Little Fatty Jack was extremely apologetic and started wiping Han Shuo's neck with a random rag he had found on the floor.
Who would have thought that this would cause Han Shuo to scream like a pig being slaughtered? He hastily scrambled away and said, "Uh, Jack, that rag in your hand is covered in bone dust that was transformed during the necromancy experiments. It feels like little needles are pricking me, are you trying to stab me?"
"Ah.... sorry Bryan, I didn't mean to, I really didn't!"
Jack was horrified as he quickly threw the rag far, far away. He was thankful that there was no bone dust on the side he had been holding.
"Achoo... Achoo... ah forget it. Jack, why am I here? Didn't I get hit by Lisa's Agony of the Soul because that idiot Bach used me as a scapegoat?"
His neck erupting in red blotches, Han Shuo sneezed again and again as he hurried to peel off his soaking wet clothes. He quickly grabbed the black towel that Bryan had used and dried himself.
"Bryan, you have so many scars all over your body!"
Han Shuo took a good look at his new body for the first time when he heard Jack's words. There wasn't a single inch of unmarked skin on his body as far as his eyes could see. He sighed inwardly, feeling pity for Bryan's circumstances once again.
"Scars are a man's memories and medals of honour, what the hell do you know about them? Hurry up and tell me what happened after I passed out?"
"Classes happened to start after you fainted from the Agony of the Soul. Lisa said a few words and ran off to class. I called for Uncle Saru and we both carried you back!"
"So Uncle Saru was there... Oh yes, what did Lisa say before she left?"
Han Shuo nodded as he continued to wipe himself. Uncle Saru was the Necromancy Major's oldest runner, some fifty years old and quite kind to Bryan and Jack. By the time Bryan had arrived at the Academy, Saru had been a runner for more than ten years.
"Lisa said it was too bad for you. If the Agony of the Soul had landed on Bach, he would have been fine after three days of suffering, because he's a magical apprentice. But you're not a necromancy student, and you have no mental strength at all. You'll probably suffer for a month. She said you disturbed her while she was sleeping last night and hurt her foot by putting stones in your trousers, so she won't dismiss the torment of the soul!"
"Damn it, how dare Lisa treat me like that! I'll take care of her one day!"
Han Shuo's face darkened as he listened to Jack's words and began to curse. His actions startled Jack as he thought, "This is not the first time Lisa has treated you like this, I've never seen you do anything to get back at her.
When Han Shuo had finished venting his spleen, he thought briefly, "Bach has mental strength because he's a magician's apprentice. He only has to suffer for three days, and I have to suffer for a month? Heh heh, my potential is great. If I learn some necromancy, maybe I can get better in three days".
"Bryan, you're a runner, how could you learn magic?"
"Then how do the students learn magic?"
"They must first meditate and learn to sense the magical elements. When they've cultivated their mental strength, they need to study the knowledge contained in the magic books and practise the magic incantations. They ask the teacher if they have any questions!" Jack said matter-of-factly after thinking for a moment.
"Well, I can meditate. If I've cultivated mental strength, can't I look into the books of magic to learn the incantations written there?"
"But you don't have a book of magic?"
At this point in the conversation, Han Shuo had sneaked up to Jack and suddenly put a friendly arm around him, smiling winningly at him, "But I have you, don't you clean the library?"
Jack was shocked and promptly put some distance between them. He said with a panicked expression, "Bryan, you want me to steal books for you?"
"How vulgar! How can that be stealing? I'm just asking you to borrow some books for me. You can put them back when I've finished with them. Nobody reads these basic books anyway, who would know? Jack, I'm in trouble today because I tried to help you. Shouldn't you help me now?" Han Shuo said seriously to little fat Jack.
Jack hesitated when he heard Han Shuo's words, but finally agreed to "borrow" some magic books for Han Shuo after Han Shuo gave him a puppy dog look.
Later that night, Jack sneaked up to Han Shuo and took out copies of "The Foundations of Necromancy" and "A Magical Dictionary" to give to Han Shuo. He warned Han Shuo to be careful and cautious at all costs, before finally sneaking out.
As an errand slave, Bryan had no right to learn to read. However, as an errand slave who had to do anything and everything in the course of his work, he had picked up quite a few words over the past six years. All this knowledge had been left to Han Shuo, and he was able to read the words in the two books.
Han Shuo closed the storeroom door after Jack had left, turned to the first yellowed page of 'The Foundations of Magic' and began to read with great interest.
Magic was a method of communicating with the magical elements of the world by using mental power. There were four ways to use magic, through incantations, magic scrolls (or objects), hand seals and magic matrices.
Necromancy was once a flourishing branch of magic. At the height of its popularity, all dark magic was categorised under necromancy. It was a pity that after its fall from grace, necromancy had instead become a subcategory of dark magic.
Necromancy was a branch of magic that had begun with the simple control of souls and skeletons. As it evolved and its practitioners experimented, its repertoire of spells grew. It slowly evolved into a school of thought and became the representative of dark magic.
Mental strength was the basis of all magic. The only way to cultivate mental strength was to meditate on the magical elements that ordinary people could not perceive. One was only considered a magician's apprentice if one cultivated mental strength through meditation.
Thus, the first thing Han Shuo did after studying the 'Fundamentals of Necromancy' was to meditate and try to get a grasp on mental power. However, after seven days of meditation, he came up empty-handed. There was no trace of mental power to be found.
Han Shuo could only meditate at night for those seven days, he had to be the hardworking and clumsy Bryan during the day. He had to continue to perform the daily tasks of an errand boy, cleaning, disinfecting, killing bugs and taking out the garbage, otherwise he would have no place at the Academy.
Thanks to the agony of the soul, Han Shuo's brain would suddenly spasm in pain a few times a day. The first two times, he would pass out instantly, but after that, he might have gotten used to it and managed to stay on his feet.
Han Shuo's reputation as a half mad, half village idiot also spread during this time. However, despite looking like a blundering madman, he still carried out his assigned duties every day. So the Babylon Academy did not kick him out when they saw that his work was still done.
As for what the necromancy students thought of Han Shuo's crazy eccentricities, they were of one mind. Han Shuo had gotten into the habit of running errands after working for six years. Even though he was a bit crazy, some habits were hard to break, so he still went about his duties every day.
Except for one thing. Han Shuo always had a 'headache' when the students approached him for experiments these days. He became even more out of control when his head hurt, sometimes wrecking the lab completely. There was nothing the students could do, for they knew that he had been hit by Lisa's Agony of the Soul and had gone a bit mad.
Even now, no one knew why Lisa had given Bach such a beating, but Bach was still depressed. He often beat up Han Shuo on the flimsiest of pretexts. Bach was a magician's apprentice and stronger than Han Shuo, so Han Shuo always ended up in much worse shape, even when he pretended to be crazy and hit back.
Every night when Han Shuo returned to the camp, he would curse loudly. "Bach, you scum, just wait. One day I'll beat you so bad that even your parents won't recognise you."
He'd been beaten by Bach again today, and the latter had a little skeleton for support. Of course, Han Shuo was no match for the two of them, and even now he was covered in black and blue bruises. The difference was that Han Shuo felt that his strength was growing stronger these days, along with his appetite. Whenever he was still hungry after his rations, he would ask Jack for more food.
Although it hurt like no other every time Bach beat him, Han Shuo would train according to the principles of the solid realm when he returned to the camp. All his pains would disappear during the night and he would be in good spirits the next morning. The next time he got into a fight with Bach, he noticed that Bach's blows hurt less and less.
Han Shuo would return to the camp immediately after each beating and start training. The small amount of magical yuan in his body was also unconsciously growing during this time.
It seemed that his body was slowly reforging itself after each cycle of beating and training, and the magical yuan was slowly changing from the size of a thumbnail to the mass of a thumb.
This both excited and frightened Han Shuo. He was excited that the magic yuan was getting stronger and that his body and mind were improving. He was frightened that, seemingly because of the growing strength of the magic yuan, he was finding it harder and harder to control his temper. Han Shuo would easily do things he would later regret.
He retrieved the 'Fundamentals of Necromancy' from under the small wooden bed and, after a brief glance at the book, began to meditate as usual. He circulated the magic yuan randomly throughout his body. Places that were aching were greatly relieved after the Magic Yuan passed by.
The sliver of Magic Yuan slowly travelled from his neck to his brain as Han Shuo meditated. It was at that moment that a familiar pain began to emanate from his brain. Han Shuo knew immediately that Lisa's soul torment was about to strike again.
Suddenly, just as Han Shuo's brain ached, the magic yuan slipped into the centre of the pain. This was the first time the Magic Yuan had moved into his brain when the Agony of the Soul had also moved into his brain when the agony of the soul also flared up. Han Shuo felt as if a cannon had gone off in his brain and passed out again after another round of intense pain.