This morning, Jesse came to the mage quarter. After resting for a few days, he considered himself presentable again.
Although there were still some bluish-purple marks on his face and he still walked a bit unnaturally, at least he had removed the bandage on his arm. On the surface, he looked like a normal person and was ready to plunge back into life.
When he arrived at the mage quarter and knocked on Eden Marin's door, Master Marin wasn't inside. A young woman in her twenties was cleaning the room.
She glanced over here. Her somewhat heroic square face had distinct facial features with sharp edges. Her short dark brown hair was neatly combed back. As soon as Jesse saw her, he felt that she looked very much like Marin.
"Hello, are you Mr. Jesse Setho? My father has gone to Redridge Mountains. He might not be back for a week. He mentioned that you might come recently, but he didn't say that you were so young..."
"Are you Master Marin's daughter?"
"Yes, I am Amy Marin, an apprentice mage at the Wizard's Sanctum. Speaking of which, you encountered gnolls at Westfall Keep a few days ago, and it was at night, right?"
"Yes. If it weren't for Master Marin, I might have died."
Amy Marin said worriedly, "I didn't expect the gnolls to make a comeback at this time. When the orcs invaded this land, they also caused serious damage to their tribes. They were also beneficiaries when the orcs were repelled. I didn't expect them to turn around and start attacking us. It's really hateful."
"Perhaps with their intelligence, they can't reach the level of gratitude or cooperation." Jesse said.
Amy said, "I also hope to regard them as pure beasts. But gnolls also have warlocks. Even though black magic always accepts everyone who is willing to accept it, at least a certain degree of wisdom is needed to understand spells. Sorry, I digressed. Maybe the experience that day made me a little scared and worried that my father would be injured. He told me that when you came, I should help you get familiar with the work. Let's start from here..."
Watching Amy put down the things in her hand and wash her hands in the wooden basin beside her, Jesse said, "Actually, I came today to discuss the treatment."
Amy wiped her hands and asked, "Don't you know the treatment for mage assistants here at the Wizard's Sanctum? By the way, you are from the north, right? Judging from your accent, you seem to be from the Kingdom of Lordaeron."
Jesse responded with a sound. When he first came to this world, he learned the common language while retaining the memories of languages like Chinese and English. In order to avoid a strange accent, he had put in a lot of effort. At that time, he didn't expect that when he grew up, everyone would be able to tell that he was from Lordaeron.
Amy said, "Then let me briefly introduce it and see what you think. Six silver coins per month. For meals, you can enter the Wizard's Sanctum and go to the dining hall with the mages. As for accommodation, there are free dormitories in the mage quarter for apprentices and assistants. They are usually full, but because of the expeditionary force, some apprentices have also gone to Nethergarde Keep with their mentors. Maybe there will be vacant rooms. I will pay attention for you. You might be able to move in as soon as next month."
"Thank you. It's really troublesome for you."
"No, on the contrary, I should thank you for helping my father."
"Is the food also free?"
"Yes, it's free. But it might be very monotonous. There are only a few pastries and bread. If you want to eat better, you can go to the tavern outside. It's best not to go to the Slaughtered Lamb. I don't recommend it. The atmosphere there always feels strange."
According to Amy's description, this is almost what Jesse expected. It's just one more month of renting a house. He can afford to pay one more month's rent. Don't forget that from now on, he can live in a free dormitory all the time.
However, he originally expected a higher monthly salary, especially considering working in the mage quarter. But six silver coins is already better than many places in the city.
Most importantly, he has obtained an opportunity to become a mage.
"Next is the work." Amy picked up the mop and said, "Every morning before my father comes here, around this time, you need to clean my father's study. This includes mopping the floor and removing dust. After the ogres came here, there is a lot more dust than when I was a child. As for books, generally you don't need to organize them. My father will put them away by himself. Compared to me organizing the library... it's much easier."
For Jesse, cleaning the study and removing dust are of course not problems. When he was in middle school, he was the hygiene committee member for several years.
"For specific work, my father will explain it to you in detail when he comes back. Today you can clean here first." After saying that, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and breathed a sigh of relief. She said, "Speaking of which, finally someone is helping me. Since my father sent his apprentice to Redridge Mountains, all these tasks have been left to me."
"These are all fine, madam." Jesse couldn't help but ask, "Actually, I want to ask, when can I become an apprentice?"
"Apprentice?" Amy was stunned for a moment, then asked, "You mean, a mage apprentice at the Wizard's Sanctum? Become my father's apprentice?"
"Yes."
"An assistant is not the same as an apprentice... An assistant only helps with the mages' daily work. An apprentice has to learn magic."
Listening to Amy's matter-of-fact tone, Jesse felt as if he had been struck by lightning. How come becoming a mage's assistant can't turn into an apprentice? What's the reason for this?
So that's it. So this is the reason why he was willing to be hired. Marin just wants someone to help with physical work. He's not looking for a disciple at all.
Then why ask those mysterious questions? Jesse felt a sense of being deceived, but it was really strange to have such a feeling for an old man.
Seeing that the boy seemed very surprised, Amy asked, "How old are you?"
"Seventeen years old. I'll be eighteen soon."
Amy shook her head and said, "To become a magic apprentice, one either needs to start training at a very young age. One should enter school around the age of eleven or twelve. If you are at your age and don't have extremely strong talent, it might be impossible to train to become a qualified mage. According to my father's instructions, I entered the Wizard's Sanctum to study at the age of twelve. Now I'm twenty-six years old and still haven't become a full-fledged mage. If I still haven't been promoted by the age of thirty, my father might be very disappointed."
She sighed and continued, "But there are quite a few apprentice mages in their thirties in the Wizard's Sanctum. Most of them became apprentices before they were fifteen years old."
"Just in case." Jesse said, "I mean just in case. What if I have very strong talent? Extremely strong talent."
Amy asked, "Have you never tried casting spells? Master Medivh was already able to skillfully use magic of multiple schools when he was ten years old..."
Is he cheating? Huh?
Is it great to have the Demon King, the Dark Titan Sargeras possessing him?
Is it great to have an 800-year-old Guardian of Tirisfal as a mother?
Jesse clenched his fist and felt the pain of not having a golden finger. He was being completely outmatched by the mindless bloodline geniuses of this plane.
He took a deep breath and calmed his emotions. He said, "For someone like me... of course I can't compare with the strongest mage in human history. But I also want to try. Is there any way to test my talent?"
"Of course there is." Amy said, "The foundation of all arcane abilities, establishing a connection with the ley lines."
As she spoke, she took out a book on arcane runeology from the bookshelf and flipped to the page of one of the runes. Jesse recognized it as an arcane rune.
Amy drew the rune on another blank scroll paper skillfully. It seemed that she was about to complete a rather complex new rune.
Now Jesse was a bit nervous. He felt that it might take him ten years to reach such proficiency.
While the female mage was drawing, Jesse even glanced at the top of her head to see if she had secretly cast an Arcane Intellect or some other buff on herself. Otherwise, this apprentice mage was too outrageous.
After finishing drawing, Amy handed the unrolled scroll to Jesse and said, "Please make it glow."
"What?" Jesse looked at the rune scroll in his hand and asked, "Isn't there any instructional method?"
Amy said, "A talented child will understand the ability to resonate with the ley lines during their growth and habitually practice this resonance. It's like biting nails. This is not a pain but an addiction... So it's very difficult for a child to deliberately restrain it. High elves can be said to be the extreme manifestation of this habit. If you don't know what to do, it may mean that you are really not suitable to become a mage."
"Really?"
Jesse was a bit unhappy. He grabbed the scroll and tried to close his eyes to feel the existence of the so-called "ley lines".
The ley lines can be understood as the bloodline of Azeroth.
Azeroth is actually an unborn infant titan. What flows in the veins of a titan is not blood but extremely pure arcane energy.
The Well of Eternity guarded by the ancient elves was the wound accidentally caused by Aman'Thul, the leader of the titans in ancient times and the commander of the Pantheon, when he tried to remove the evil aberration parasitizing Azeroth.
It can be said that every living being born on Azeroth is influenced by the ley lines to varying degrees. And these living beings who can utilize the ley lines will in turn affect the ley lines and even Azeroth itself.
Jesse firmly believed that he could resonate with the ley lines.
Perhaps the golden finger is here - Awaken, the supreme magical talent.
He concentrated intently, even ignoring the faint pain in his lower abdomen caused by concentrating too hard. That was the place where Hogger had kicked.
However, after concentrating for a long time, the scroll didn't change at all.
Is there a problem with your rune drawing, apprentice mage?
He wanted to ask directly but didn't have the nerve to.
Amy took the scroll and glanced at the rune on it. Immediately, the arcane rune glowed with a slight whitish magical light, casting a faint purple glow on the walls and all the objects in the entire room.
"This is it." Amy raised her eyebrows and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Jesse Setho."
Jesse felt a buzzing in his head. He didn't want to believe that this was the result.
What kind of time travel is this?
Not only does he not have any talent, but he is even inferior to ordinary apprentices?
But this feeling of dissatisfaction was only fleeting. In the past ten years or so, he had become accustomed to such disappointments.
In fact, when he was a child, he also did a similar small arcane test. It wasn't as reliable as this one, but it could also explain some things to some extent. It was just that he hoped there would be some changes this time.
In the end, there really was no change.
He realized that the path of becoming a mage was likely not possible.
"Thank you, Ms. Amy." Jesse said, "Actually, when I want to become an apprentice, it's not necessarily to learn magic. I just want to broaden my horizons and learn some knowledge that I don't know."
Amy narrowed her eyes and smiled and said, "I'm glad to hear you say that. The library is open to everyone working in the mage quarter. Come here in the afternoon. I'll give you the badge that can prove your identity. With this badge, you can freely enter and exit the Wizard's Sanctum."
"Great. This is exactly what I expected."
As Jesse said this, an idea had already formed in his mind. He had to go to the Slaughtered Lamb again... No, more than once.
He had to go again and again. Not just for making money, but for something more important.
Black magic is not arcane magic. Just as Amy said, "Black magic accepts everyone who accepts it."