“In the bedside drawer,” Number Nine replied.
Qu Weichen let out a sigh of relief.
She opened the drawer and took out the worn cloth bag.
The water pouch and the rock-hard black bread were both there, and the source crystal card she’d carefully hidden at the very bottom was there too.
She put the crystal card into the storage compartment and returned the cloth bag to the drawer, feeling a little more at ease.
She decided not to touch those potential points for now.
Since she was about to awaken as a Warrior, she’d probably be learning about weapons or combat skills soon, so it made sense to save the points until she hit a bottleneck.
As for the two skill points… learning new skills wasn’t enough, but she could upgrade her existing ones.
[Skeleton Soldier Summon] and [Bad Luck Curse] each only needed one skill point to level up.
The former just increased the max number of skeletons by one and shortened the cooldown by a minute per level, while the latter… could only be leveled up once, raising the trigger chance to 10% and shortening the cooldown to twenty minutes.
Neither of these skills was all that useful! Besides, she was in the Prison Sanctuary now, so necromancy summoning skills were basically useless.
As for curses… Qu Weichen glanced at the [Slow Curse] unlocked after [Bad Luck Curse] and sighed.
[Slow Curse]: 5% chance to reduce target’s agility by 10%.
Skill cooldown: 1 minute.
Even if the cooldown was only a minute, that’s still a long time in a fight! And it wasn’t even guaranteed to work! Yeah, she’d better focus on becoming a Warrior.
Sensing her thoughts, Number Nine hurried to explain, “[Necromancer is a growth class, it needs time to develop.] [And these curses are really useful, Bad Luck Curse can even change someone’s luck for a short time.]”
“I’m not saying Necromancer is bad.” Qu Weichen hesitated, then admitted, “It’s just… I really don’t seem like someone with good luck.”
Number Nine fell silent.
…
Not long after the Hall Master left, a female guard in a white uniform brought her three sets of the same uniform.
The uniforms here seemed to be all white, since the Hall Master also wore white robes.
The gold trim probably signified rank—hers was just plain white with black edges, and the knee-high boots were black.
As for food, guards even brought her meals.
Qu Weichen was new here and didn’t want to wander around, so she thought someone would take her to a “cafeteria” or something, but when she got hungry, someone just delivered food to her.
The meals here were really lavish! On the Floating Continent, there wasn’t really a “Chinese” or “Western” food concept, since so many races lived together and their cultures blended in Uweino, the city of freedom.
So, she could have soy milk and buns for breakfast, or bread and milk—the taste was spot on, too.
For three whole days, Qu Weichen mostly just wandered around the courtyard and never left it.
She only did squats or push-ups in her room, never exercising outside.
The Hall Master seemed to have completely forgotten about her.
Other than the female guard who brought her meals, Qu Weichen didn’t see anyone else.
Until three days later, when someone knocked on her door again.
“Qu Weichen, fourteen years old, ordinary person?”
The moment the door opened, a huge shadow completely blocked Qu Weichen from the light.
She looked at the towering figure in the doorway, momentarily at a loss for words.
This person had to be over two meters tall, standing in the doorway and blocking it completely.
She wore an oversized uniform, but even the slightest movement made it obvious there were muscles about to burst out underneath.
“Fourteen, not too late.” The woman held a black leather notebook, which looked tiny in her massive hand.
“Let’s get acquainted.
I’m Constanze, Chief of the Guards, Giant race.”
“Hello.” Qu Weichen reached out to shake her hand, feeling tiny for the first time.
The huge hand gave hers a gentle squeeze and let go.
Constanze looked her up and down, frowning.
“You look a bit malnourished.
I’ll be in charge of your diet from now on.
Come with me—we’ll test your magic aptitude and then awaken you as a Warrior.
After that, you’ll train with me.”
Malnourished… Qu Weichen thought she’d probably lost five or six pounds on the way to Uweino.
Back in the village, she didn’t eat meat every day, but at least got some every month.
Of course, compared to this giant, she was definitely malnourished.
Magic aptitude test? Didn’t Number Nine say the Hall Master already tested her… just for show? Or did they want to see her reaction? Qu Weichen pushed down her suspicions and quietly followed Constanze out of the courtyard.
Constanze led Qu Weichen to a small house.
Inside, a mage with a huge hat covering most of their face looked up as they entered.
“Testing? Just put your hand on the crystal ball.”
“Okay.” Qu Weichen put her hand on it without hesitation.
Testing magic aptitude, she didn’t hesitate at all when she touched the crystal ball.
Emotion: anticipation, curiosity.
Constanze faithfully recorded Qu Weichen’s reaction, even though she didn’t really get the Hall Master’s quirks.
The magic ball lit up right away, but the brightness… was hard to describe.
“She has magic aptitude.” The mage lifted her hat and took out a long metal box from a drawer.
Inside were strips of transparent crystal, each with a colored label underneath.
“One at a time, put your finger on each.”
Qu Weichen did as told.
When her finger touched the first crystal strip, it glowed green.
“Wood affinity, but not very high.”
So these colored stones were for testing elemental affinity? Affinity, huh? Wood… Qu Weichen recalled her locked magic aptitude chart—she seemed to have two stars? [Magic Overall Potential: 3] [Wood: 2] [Water: 2] [Fire: 1] [Earth: 3] [Wind: 1] [Lightning: 1] [Light: 5] [Dark: 3] Looking at the highest, Light at 5, Qu Weichen couldn’t help but sigh—this was fate.
She touched each crystal in turn, and the light matched the chart exactly.
“Your Light affinity is pretty good, the highest among all your elements.” The mage finished testing and said, “With this talent, if you meditate and study hard for ten years, you could be a decent Light Priest.”
Constanze carefully recorded the process, reactions, and results.
She glanced at Qu Weichen and saw the kid didn’t look excited.
But since she was from some unknown village with no association, no one would have taught her magic basics, so no reaction was normal.
Constanze thought this, wrote it down, and added, “Being a priest isn’t bad.
If you get hurt, you can heal yourself and save a ton on medical bills.
Come on, let’s go awaken you as a Warrior.”
“Okay.” Qu Weichen deliberately acted curious.
“But I have affinity for other elements too.
Can’t I become a different kind of mage? Or study more than one?”
Constanze: “…”
“There are people like that, and some geniuses can train in multiple elements.
But the cost for multi-element mages is unimaginable—you probably won’t have the resources to keep up.
Besides, even for Light, your talent isn’t outstanding, just average.
If you want to train in multiple elements with that…” Constanze didn’t finish, just gave Qu Weichen a huge thumbs up.
“Our Hall Master is overly kind, but she’s not a sucker.”
“Got it.” Qu Weichen answered obediently.
Still, she never would have guessed that in the Chief Guard’s eyes, the Hall Master was “overly kind.” From saving her, to hiring a priest to heal her, to offering to pay for her Warrior awakening… and if she had talent, the Hall Master even promised to keep supporting her.
If not for the weird things Number Nine mentioned, the Hall Master really did seem like a saint.
Maybe she was overthinking it? Either way, the Hall Master was her savior.
“As long as you understand.” Constanze reached out and pulled Qu Weichen over.
Like an adult leading a child, she steered Qu Weichen out of the small house and into another building.
As soon as they entered, Qu Weichen saw three rows of wooden stakes and three rows of iron stakes on the right, with quite a few people practicing.
On the wall behind the training dummies was a weapon rack full of gear.
Next to it was a big cabinet, and she saw people taking out weighted sandbags or heavy armor to put on.
So this was a training area? “This is the training hall.
You’ll get used to it.
Of course, if you fail the Warrior awakening, you won’t need to.” Constanze tailored her approach—if this scrawny kid couldn’t even get through the awakening, even if the Hall Master insisted on training her, Constanze would just go through the motions.
She led Qu Weichen deeper inside, past several private training rooms and a staircase, and stopped at a dead end.
She felt around on the wall and pressed something, revealing a hidden passage going down.
“Awakenings are done in the basement.
It’s more soundproof and convenient.”
The passage wasn’t actually dark, since glowing crystals were embedded in the walls.
Qu Weichen didn’t know much about Uweino’s prices or specialties, but seeing all those glowing gems, she instinctively felt they weren’t cheap.
[These aren’t rare.
With your assets, you could buy a couple.] Qu Weichen: …
Surprisingly, the basement was divided into separate rooms, each far apart, with arrays and energy stones set into the doors.
The rooms were simply furnished, just a made bed and an iron nightstand.
“Pick any room you like.” Constanze said, taking a metal box from a big iron rack at the entrance.
She opened it to reveal a bottle of fiery red potion, glowing like lava.
Around it were six white balls, looking just like marshmallows.
