Saul didn't even know how he managed to walk all the way back to his dormitory.
He closed the door with a bang and threw all the books and crystal balls onto the bed, while he himself leaned on the foot of the bed and slowly slid down.
"Why can't I perceive much dark element? Is it the uneven distribution of elemental particles in the classroom?"
Thinking of this, Saul immediately opened his books, picked up the crystal ball, maintained his sitting position on the floor, and just began to meditate and immerse himself.
This time he perceived dark elemental particles, but they were still pitifully small, not even as much as the white ones.
"The white ones are light, how is that possible? When I tested it was clearly the dark element that had the highest perception."
"Could it be that Cid made a maneuver at that time? Unlikely, what's the point of tampering with elemental perception if he doesn't want me to pass?"
Although not very willing, Saul finally thought of Kong Sha.
The image in his mind was fixed on the bottle of healing potion Kong Sha had given him.
"If the element I perceive the most isn't the Dark Element, that bottle of medicine most likely temporarily altered my spiritual power."
Saul knew from the start that Kongsa must have some sort of purpose in helping him become an apprentice, and now he was just confirming that more.
He let out a long breath, dropped the crystal ball, and looked up to see that it was almost time for afternoon classes.
He couldn't find Kongsha to question him about the meditation now, so he could only take a step forward.
Going out again without seeing Korrie.
The plan to ask her about her meditative state fell through, and Saul could only walk towards the 15th floor of the East Tower alone.
Mentor Kaz had an exclusive lab right there.
Most of the ordinary apprentices who wanted to be taught by their mentor needed to go to the lab – the mentor might answer a few questions for them while doing experiments there.
But more often than not, apprentices were less inclined to go to their mentors before hitting a bottleneck.
The answers they get are more likely to be "It's that simple and you don't know it?" , "Haven't I covered this before?" "I don't think you need to wait for the next test, you're out now."
Only newcomers who haven't yet seen their mentor's tantrums are excited about meeting them up close.
Saul didn't feel excited at all when he went to the fifteenth floor because he had a lot of things weighing on his mind.
He arrived at Mentor Katz's lab, and as soon as he pushed the door open, he locked eyes with a pair of eyes.
The owner of those eyes instantly staged a rich change of emotions of surprise, anger, fear, and forced composure.
Saul looked at Duke and scraped his chin with his white-boned knuckles.
Duke immediately averted his eyes.
After all, he still had slightly purple five-finger marks on his face right now.
Don't dare to mess with it, don't dare to mess with it ...
There weren't many apprentices who chose Kaz, only three of the twenty or so newcomers.
Saul, Duke, and the other was a pretty cute looking girl named Angela.
She seemed to be unaware of the conflict between Saul and Duke, with a pair of big eyes fluttering, and a quiet smile hanging at the corner of her mouth.
Inside the lab there was also a youth wearing a second level apprentice medal packing up his things.
Seeing the three standing quietly in the lab, he went up and greeted, "Tutor Kaz usually doesn't come this early in the afternoon, so you guys can come over around 3:00 in the future."
He let out another laugh, meaning nothing.
"Of course, it's okay not to come."
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the lab was quiet once more.
The second level sorcerer apprentice turned back to his busy schedule, having little interest in continuing his conversation with the group.
Seeing that Mentor Katz had no intention of showing up early, Saul simply took his book and found a table that didn't have any clutter on it and sat down to study.
Seeing this, the other two also found a spot to read.
The three were spaced apart from each other, clearly separated.
Because there were too many things weighing on his mind, Saul wasn't able to focus on his book this time. Every so often, he would look up to confirm the time.
Finally, when the hourglass came to three-thirty in the afternoon, the door to the lab was pushed open once again.
Everyone put down the workstations in their hands and got up.
"Mentor!" The second level youth apprentice greeted them with a smile on his face.
Following his line of sight, Saul saw a thin, dry old man with white hair.
The other party looked very old, and his wrinkled skin and slightly cloudy eyes made Mentor Katz look to be in his nineties.
Kaz walked in slowly, his footsteps were quite steady.
He didn't respond to the second level apprentice, only his eyes swept around the lab.
Saul noticed that the second level apprentice seemed nervous. "My request is simple." Kaz coldly said to that second level apprentice, "Put the used things back in their original places. If you can't even do that, you don't have to come to my lab in the future."
The second level apprentice couldn't hang on to the smile on his face and his expression snapped, "Yes, mentor, I'll clean it up today."
"When is your next test?"
"A month from now."
"Good, then we'll test if you can clean up the lab."
"Yes."
Saul noticed that upon hearing Kaz's test request, that second level apprentice instead even breathed a sigh of relief.
After that, Kaz then looked at the three newcomers, "Come over here and stand in front of me, do you still want me to walk over as an old man?"
The three people hurriedly went over and stood in a row in front of Kaz.
Kaz's gray pupils swept over the three people one by one, and when they finally landed on Saul, he suddenly asked in a bad tone, "Why is your magic power so low?"
Duke, who was standing on the other side of Angela's face, saw his eyes light up, and he seemed to be hesitating whether or not to take the initiative to help Saul "explain" a little.
Just as he was about to open his mouth, the wound on his face ached, and he couldn't make a sound.
Saul knew that he could not hide his situation from the official wizards, and took the initiative to say, "Mentor, my magical talent is not good, but my spiritual talent is not bad."
Katz, however, did not buy it, "Empty spiritual power without magic, that's a scholar, not a sorcerer. Sorcerer, it's not just about being able to read."
He muttered again in a low voice, "Can't you even find a decent apprentice out there now?"
Saul had been mentally prepared and wasn't struck by Kaz's words. But if even his own mentor couldn't look at him, how would the future studies go on?
"Mentor, I will work hard to improve my magic power, please give me a chance."
Kaz rolled his eyes, "How hard? Witchcraft transformation? Fine, as long as you raise your magic power to 10 joules in three months, I'll count you as having passed the first test, otherwise ... my lab is never too full of materials."
Jiao, is the unit of measurement of magic power.
During the sorcerer apprentice test, that black crystal was responsible for measuring the magic power that came with a person's body.
It was usually a requirement to reach 10 joules before the age of fifteen to be considered talent qualified.
However, Saul's magical talent was definitely less than 10 joules, and probably even less than 5 joules, or else Mentor Katz wouldn't have thought that he didn't stand a chance at all.
It was indeed difficult to accomplish in three months what originally took three years to accomplish.
Saul took half a step forward, and had the intention to ask his mentor for some leniency.
But Kaz raised his hand and didn't let Saul speak again.
Turning to a gloating Duke and a sympathetic-eyed Angela, he said, "You two come with me."
"You," he glanced at Saul, "learn from Mark first."
Mark, that's the second level apprentice in the lab.
After Kaz finished, he left the lab with the other two newcomers, not knowing what or where he was going.
Mark wasn't surprised, and was sent all the way to the door.
When Mentor Kaz and his group left, he closed the door and went back to his locker to organize his things.
After all, he didn't pay any attention to Saul.
Saul didn't get frustrated, there was still a Kongsa behind him.
Now that he had met Kong Sha's requirements, he had become Tutor Kaz's student.
It was thought that she would soon convey her next order to Sol.
It was just that Kong Sha was utilizing Saul mostly.
She forcefully affected Saul's elemental perception despite his situation, most likely in order to make Saul choose Mentor Katz.
If Saul wanted to use Kong Sha's momentum to walk on the path to becoming stronger, then he could no longer let the other party treat him as a cannon fodder that could be discarded at any time.
He had to carefully navigate between refusing the other party's dangerous commands and obtaining the other party's shelter.
First of all, the study of sorcery must not stop.
"Senpai," Sol volunteered, walking up behind Mark, "can I help you clean up with me?"
Mark turned around, completely unsurprised by Saul's choice, as if he had been waiting for him to ask.
"Alas, you newcomers have no magic crystals and no credits, so you'll be able to do manual labor. For the next month, you'll be in charge of cleaning the lab, and I'll take an hour a day to teach you."
Saul looked around the small, but stuff-filled lab and said hesitantly, "Cleaning the entire lab? Senpai, I don't know if I will delay you with my current abilities."
"Of course I won't give you all the work. I'll tell you the do's and don'ts, and you'll just be responsible for the final finishing touches."
Mark suddenly raised his hand, and a mouth split open in the center of his hand, sticking out a bright red tongue that nearly licked Saul's face.
"If you don't concentrate on your work and make any oversights, I'll rip your skin off!"
(End of chapter)