Deep in the desolate Dark Forest, there lay a bizarre place. The sky here was perpetually shrouded by thick dark clouds, beneath which stood a cluster of low stone huts and crumbling structures.
At the very center, an ancient tower rose tall.
This was the Tower of Shadows—a wizard's tower located in the Dark Forest, west of the "Ancient Ruins Land" on the southern coast of the Wizarding Continent. Though it only had three rings (a measure of a wizard tower's power), it was already one of the most powerful forces in this remote corner of the Wizarding Continent. It dominated the entire Dark Forest and stood as one of the three rulers of the seven human kingdoms in the region, governing tens of millions of people.
Early morning.
The sky was just dawning, and all was silent. The forest was wreathed in a hazy gray mist, making the ancient tower under the shadows look serene yet eerie.
Most apprentices were still fast asleep at this hour, but a faint fire had already lit up inside a stone chamber on the edge of the Shadowlands.
Through a tattered wooden window, one could see a young boy busily working at a wooden table.
He was around 12 or 13 years old, thin and small, with messy short black hair. He had a straight nose, thin lips, and a delicate face, still tinged with the baby fat of childhood. His eyes were lead-gray—bright with the vitality unique to teenagers, yet they held an unusual calmness and depth that belied his age.
His name was Carter Bill. He hailed from Frosthold, a barony in the northern part of the Kingdom of Putan (one of the seven kingdoms), and was once a serf on the estate of the Morton noble family.Besides his parents, he had an older brother and a younger sister at home.
Two years ago, on the Calling Day, he was identified as having wizarding talent by a wizard at the lord's castle. Since then, he had been brought to this tower for training, becoming a probationary apprentice with a focus on biological modification.
At that moment, Carter was conducting a biological modification experiment at the wooden table.
On the workbench lay a lizard the size of a palm, pinned down by several iron wires. Next to it stood a round glass container, holding a pair of spread-out bat wings soaked in a yellowish-brown liquid.
Carter was attempting to fuse the lizard and the bat wings together.
"Hu…" He took a soft breath and picked up a small knife from the side.
"Hiss! Hiss!"
Sensing something was amiss, the lizard on the table let out sharp hisses. Its round eyes were filled with fear and unease, and its bound body thrashed violently.
Carter pressed his left hand against the lizard's back, clearly feeling its scales tensing tightly inward. Then, with his right hand gripping the knife, he aimed at the upper-middle part of the lizard's back—where two pre-marked lines were drawn—and gently stabbed down.
"Crack… crack…"
Against the knife, which had been enchanted with a Sharpness Spell, the lizard's scales might as well have been paper. The blade quickly sliced two five-centimeter-long incisions in the lizard's back.
"Splurt."
Dark red blood oozed out, soon staining the entire back red. The lizard thrashed even more violently.
Carter picked up a white handkerchief from the side and quickly wiped away the overflowing blood. Then he took the bat wings out of the container, aligned them with the gaps in the incisions, and inserted them in. Finally, he picked up an apprentice's wand from the table and tapped the wings lightly.
A row of runes was inscribed at the joint of the bat wings. At that moment, these runes seemed to come alive—twisting and extending black tentacles that burrowed into the lizard's incisions, like thin black threads rapidly stitching the two together. The web-like nerve veins on the bat wings began to pulse, and red, thread-like nerve fibers quickly spread across the lizard's entire body, eventually burrowing into its brain to establish a connection.
"Did it work?"
Carter wiped the sweat from his forehead with the handkerchief and eagerly admired his creation.
The lizard had a triangular head with round, bulging eyes. Its fine dark red scales were tightly arranged, like a sturdy suit of armor. Its limbs were long and powerful, with sharp, curved claws that looked remarkably strong. Adding to this, the pair of large bat wings on its back—bigger than the lizard itself—made it look utterly extraordinary, like… like a legendary dragon!
"Next is the control test…"
Regaining his composure, Carter untied the iron wires binding the lizard's back, setting it free. Then, through a mental mark he had planted earlier, he urged the lizard to control its new wings.
The lizard, which had just endured torment, clearly had no idea what was happening. But under the influence of the mental mark, its body moved involuntarily, trying to use the new organ on its back.
Slowly, the folded wings began to spread outward, flapping up and down. As the flapping speed increased, the air around it stirred.
"Plop!"
Without warning, the lizard spat out a mouthful of black blood. Immediately after, its body went limp and collapsed onto the wooden table.
Carter frowned.
He picked up the lizard and examined it carefully. Blood was seeping out from between its scales, and it seemed to have no signs of life—only its muscles and nerves were twitching faintly.
Carter stroked his chin, analyzing calmly.
"Did it fail?"
"That can't be right… I used the best material—a fire salamander. It should have been able to withstand cell fusion…"
"Is it a rejection reaction?"
"No…"
"I can't jump to conclusions yet."
Just then, Carter noticed that the lizard still had faint signs of life. When he placed his hand on its belly, he could feel a weak heartbeat.
Carter soon figured out the reason: "It's a fusion adaptation reaction!"
Forcibly fusing two completely different species was never easy. Issues like cell rejection and bloodline backlash would inevitably arise, and all these factors were collectively called a "fusion adaptation reaction" in the field of biological modification.
Carter let out a sigh of relief. A fusion adaptation reaction was bad, but there was still hope—if the lizard could survive it, the awkwardness between the two species would fade, and they would fully fuse into a brand-new life form.
"Please let it pull through," Carter prayed silently.
Fire salamanders were not cheap, and coupled with the cost of cultivating the bat wing cells, he had invested nearly all his savings into this experiment.
The apprentice assessment was fast approaching—a crucial test that would determine whether he could obtain a Meditation Method and become an official apprentice. This experimental creature was supposed to be his main work for the assessment.
"Was it too ambitious to attempt this level of biological modification with only Level 2 Basic Modification? Should I have waited until I reached Level 3, the final stage…"
"If this doesn't work, I'll have to use the 'Pea Shooter' for the assessment this time… But then I'll miss out on the extra rewards…"
Lost in thought, Carter opened an iron cage nearby and placed the lizard inside.
There was no good way to deal with a fusion adaptation reaction. If he had money, he could use high-grade potions or rare materials, but for a poor apprentice like Carter, those were impossible luxuries.
"Yawn～"
Having finished all this, Carter yawned and sat back in his chair. He had stayed up all night, and now he was really sleepy.
[Basic Modification Proficiency +3]
[Basic Modification Lv2: 968/1000]
At that moment, a cold, mechanical notification sounded in Carter's ears.
His drowsy mind suddenly perked up, and the frown he had worn due to the experiment's setback smoothed out.
Carter rubbed his brows. With a thought, a faint blue virtual status panel appeared before his eyes.
Name: Carter Bill
Attributes: Strength 0.6, Agility 0.9, Constitution 0.6, Spirit 1.3
Skills:
Basic Modification Lv2: 968/1000 —> maxMental Guidance maxRune Language maxWizarding World General Knowledge maxBasic Magical Plant Encyclopedia maxBasic Magical Creature Encyclopedia maxAncient Ruins Geography Guide maxHistory of the Wizarding World max
Unique Talent: Effort Guarantees Growth
Looking at the status panel in front of him, the tiredness in Carter's body faded suddenly. No matter how difficult the experiments were or how many failures he endured, seeing the rising numbers on this panel always lifted his spirits quickly.
This panel was his greatest reliance for surviving and growing in this dangerous, unfamiliar world.
Yes, Carter was not originally from this world. He had been an ordinary office worker on Earth.
He couldn't quite recall what had happened. All he remembered was that two years ago, on a stormy night, he had stayed late at work. He was so tired that he fell asleep 趴在 his desk—and when he woke up, he had been transported to this world, inhabiting the body of this wizard apprentice.
At that time, the original owner of this body had just finished his first biological modification experiment, trying to transplant petrified mushroom cells into a ghost-faced spider.
The process had been going smoothly at first, but someone had secretly swapped his materials—replacing the basic petrified mushroom cells with high-grade gargoyle cells.
Even with Carter's current level of Basic Modification, fusing high-grade materials like that was impossible. For someone as inexperienced as the original owner, who had just entered the tower, the outcome was predictable.
The biological modification failed, and to make matters worse, it triggered a terrifying energy backlash.
The last thing the original owner remembered was seeing a crack open on the spider's abdomen. From that crack, a single eye flipped out and shot a beam of light at him. Then his body had stiffened like stone, losing all feeling until darkness engulfed him…
When he woke up again, the original owner was gone. In his place was Carter from Earth—along with this status panel in his mind.
"Rustle…"
Outside the window, the sun had risen over the mountains. Orange sunlight gradually illuminated the forest; as far as the eye could see, there were only ancient trees. A gentle breeze blew, making the leaves rustle, and the swaying trees looked like a rippling green ocean.
Carter tore his gaze away from this endless sea of green, rubbed his brows to chase away the last of his drowsiness, then opened a cabinet and took out a magical plant—preparing for his next modification experiment.
Basic Modification was on the verge of leveling up, and he could barely contain his eagerness.
...
Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye. Through unremitting effort, Carter finally upgraded Basic Modification to Level 3—the final max stage—on the last day.
At the same time, the tower's assessment arrived as scheduled…