"In the Wizard World, strength is revered, and knowledge supreme," mumbled Lucien as he closed the book in his hands at the Greybone Academy Library.
This was his third day since arriving in the Wizard World. Combining the memories of his predecessor and the information he had gathered from the library in these past few days, he had gained a rough understanding of the Wizard World and of the wizard organization he was now part of.
Wizards, simply put, are a group of scholars who use knowledge as a lever to pry at the rules and gain power.
Rational yet cold-blooded, wise but mad.
The relationship between wizards was even more estranged and brutal than in the world Lucien had come from before crossing over, almost perfectly embodying the law of the jungle where the strong prey upon the weak.
If you want to protect yourself, the only way is to become stronger!
"From a certain perspective, my 'system' is actually quite suitable for the Wizard World. After all, using the knowledge you have to 'exchange' for more advanced knowledge is a very cost-effective deal for a wizard," Lucien thought.
"For a wizard, knowledge is power, the lever that moves the rules, the core competitive strength among wizards."
A gleam of brilliance flashed in Lucien's eyes, but it quickly dimmed.
"It's just a pity that before binding a student, the system is of negligible help to me. And to bind a student, they must be willing from the depths of their heart."
Lucien couldn't help but smile wryly.
In these days, he had considered finding a "back door" in the system, a way to bypass the rigid condition of binding a student, but all attempts had ended in failure.
What a headache.
Lucien took a deep breath and then gently exhaled.
Under normal circumstances, Lucien's desire to improve his strength was not particularly strong. After all, as long as he could get through the toughest time at hand, it would be relatively easy to find a student once his strength was recovered in the future.
But the current situation was somewhat peculiar.
His mentor, the Formal Wizard Pinor, had died. This also meant that his greatest backing in the academy was gone.
According to the rules, every three years, Third-level Wizard Apprentices are assigned a mandatory task, and Lucien's next mandatory task was less than a year away.
By that time, without the protection of a backing, Lucien could easily be assigned to the most dangerous tasks by the Formal Wizards who organize the mandatory missions.
According to the memories of his predecessor, the death rate for Third-level Wizard Apprentices on such mandatory tasks generally exceeded 50%.
And Lucien? His situation was even worse.
You see, the original owner, to suppress his injuries, had already sold most of his battle-used Witch Tools and some resources he temporarily could not use for potions and Magic Stones.
Although the injuries were now under control, the potions and Magic Stones were nearly exhausted, and aside from his Wizard Robe, he hardly had any other Witch Tools for battle left. His combat power compared to his heyday could be said to have been reduced by ninety percent.
If he couldn't improve his combat power before the mandatory tasks arrived, he could basically start wondering if there would be another crossing over to look forward to.
Therefore, he must recover his strength as much as possible before the mandatory tasks were assigned to him.
But with the Magic Stones running low and his resources nearly depleted, the only key Lucien could think of to break the deadlock was his system.
Only the system could provide him with knowledge or other assistance in the short term to potentially enable a step-like enhancement of his power in a brief period.
Therefore, Lucien urgently needed a student now!
Of course, Lucien also considered himself an excellent mentor, one that was hard to find in the Wizard World even with a lantern in hand.
After all, in the Wizard World, there was no so-called mentor-student affection. The relationship between the mentor and the student was more about mutual exploitation.
Most often, mentors played the role of exploiters, squeezing benefits from their students in exchange for limited knowledge and protection.
Even some unscrupulous mentors would use contractual loopholes or information asymmetry regarding knowledge to mislead their students through partial concealment and suggestive means, leading them astray so they became unwitting subjects for their mentors' experiments.
But Lucien was different; he taught students truly to educate them, with genuine care, responsibility, patience, and attentiveness.
Yet without any students, it all amounted to nothing.
Moreover, the apprentices in Greybone Academy, where Lucien belonged, had mostly been through the cruel trials of the Wizard World. Even if Lucien told them how much better he was than other mentors, they were unlikely to believe him and might even suspect that he had some ulterior, malicious intent.
They were unlikely to sincerely take him as their mentor, which did not meet the basic condition of the system, so recruiting them would be pointless.
"So, there are essentially only three ways for me to get a student," Lucien said, lifting his head slightly to look out at the somewhat gloomy night sky.
The first one was to start with a commoner who lacked the talent for wizardry as a transition. Although they lacked the potential to become wizards, they should have no problem learning the most basic knowledge, which could help me through the current hardship.
However, this method would certainly waste a spot for a bound student and might even... lead to the system becoming unusable in the future.
Lucien frowned slightly; this option was the easiest he could think of, but its disadvantages were significant—killing the goose that lays the golden eggs would not be an overstatement.
The second was to purchase a slave of the Wizard Apprentice level! Those slaves, their souls implanted with enslavement runes, displayed absolute loyalty from the depths of their being. There certainly wouldn't be a problem with them taking a mentor.
But, the downside was the exorbitant price! Even the weakest First-level Wizard Apprentice slave cost thirty Magic Stones... my entire assets, if completely converted, amount to around a hundred Magic Stones. Spending thirty Magic Stones on a Wizard Apprentice slave would be too much of a burden.
Lucien was also somewhat dissatisfied with the second option, since those enslaved apprentices often had poor aptitudes, and the wizards who bought them did so usually for a precious, completely obedient, and compliant experiment subject, gritting their teeth over the purchase.
Buying slaves for teaching? That was a bit too preposterous. Besides, Lucien didn't have many Magic Stones left to begin with.
The last method was to target the new blood among wizards.
New blood meant a blank canvas easier to paint on, and easier to... well, not deceive, but guide and educate.
More conveniently, the airship that Greybone Academy used to recruit new blood, if nothing unexpected happened, should already be on its way back.
In at most a week, they would arrive at Greybone Academy. Whether they would become great wizards in the future or part of the natural cycle of Greybone Forest remained to be seen.
The only problem was how I could recruit a student, a good student, from the new blood.
Realistically, at this stage, my competitiveness was surely inferior to that of Third-level Wizard Apprentices, not to mention competing with Formal Wizards. If the new blood were free to choose, I might not be able to recruit any students.
However, since conventional methods were either ineffective or my competitiveness was too low, naturally Lucien began to consider some alternative strategies.