When Han Shuo woke up, he discovered that he was lying on a small wooden bed in the warehouse. His body was drenched in cold water. Across from him, little Fatty Jack was holding a small wooden bucket in his hand. He was laboriously stepping on a stool, intending to pour the cold water out of the bucket.
The weather was a bit cold to begin with, and Han Shuo was completely drenched from the cold. When he saw that little Fatty Jack was about to pour the bucket of water on him, he suddenly yelled, "Jack, what are you doing?"
The stool that little Fatty Jack was stepping on was also a discarded product, and it was already wobbly to begin with. When he was startled by Han Shuo's yell, his heart skipped a beat, and his hand shook. The cold water in the small wooden bucket was once again poured onto Han Shuo's head. Even the small wooden bucket flew out of his hand and smashed onto Han Shuo's chest.
"Ugh … I say, Jack, are you trying to play me to death?"
Han Shuo's entire body was shivering from the cold when he was splashed with the second bucket of cold water. His chest was smashed by the small wooden bucket again, and the pain was unbearable. He immediately grimaced in pain and screamed.
"I'm sorry Bryan, I thought I didn't wake you up with the first bucket. Your stool was already wobbling, and you screamed. I was so frightened by you that my hand shook, and I poured the water in the wooden bucket on you!"
Little Fatty Jack's face was full of embarrassment as he picked up a piece of ragged cloth from the side and wiped it on Han Shuo's body. He wanted to clean up the water on Han Shuo's neck first.
Who knew that Han Shuo would squeal like a pig being slaughtered again, and stumbled away in a panic. He hurriedly said, "Jack, there's bone powder on the ragged cloth in your hand that's gone bad from necromancy magic experiments. This stuff pricks people like little needles, you're not trying to stab me to death are you?"
"Ah … I'm sorry Bryan, I didn't do it on purpose, I really didn't do it on purpose!"
Jack was also a little panicked. He hurriedly threw the rag in his hand far away. He was glad that there was no bone powder on the side he was holding.
"Achoo … achoo … forget it, forget it. Jack, why am I here? I remember that I was used as a shield by that bastard Bach and was struck by that little devil Lian's Agony of the Soul."
Han Shuo sneezed and his neck turned red. He hurriedly took off his wet clothes and found the black towel that Bryan used to wipe off the cold water droplets on his body.
"Bryan, you have so many scars on your body!"
When he heard Jack's words, Han Shuo couldn't help but take a serious look at his own body for the first time. There wasn't a single part of his body that didn't have scars. Han Shuo sighed inwardly and once again felt sad for Bryan's misfortune.
"Scars are a man's memories and medals. What do you know? Hurry up and tell me what happened after I fainted."
"Class just happened to start at the Dark Academy after you fainted from the Agony of the Soul. Lian said a few words and hurried off to class. I called Uncle Cell and the two of us carried you back!"
"So it was Uncle Cell who came. Oh right, what did Lian say before he left?"
Han Shuo nodded as he wiped his body. Uncle Cell was the oldest errand boy in the necromancy major. He was over fifty years old and was usually quite nice to Bryan and Jack. Ever since Bryan came to the Babylon Academy of Magic and Force as an errand boy, Cell had been an errand boy for more than ten years.
"Lian said that you were unlucky. If the Agony of the Soul had been inflicted on Bach, he would've only needed three days of pain with his mental strength as a magic apprentice. But you're not a student of the necromancy major and don't have any mental strength. You'll probably be in pain for a month. He said that you disturbed his sleep last night and even put rocks in your pants, hurting his feet when you kicked him. He won't help you relieve the Agony of the Soul!"
"Damnit, this Lian dares to treat me like this. I'll deal with him sooner or later—perhaps claim him through rivalry and strength, bending that pretty boy's will to mine."
Han Shuo's face immediately grew cold when he heard Jack's words and he cursed aloud, giving Jack quite a fright. It wasn't the first time that Lian had treated him like this, but he hadn't seen him do anything to him.
When Han Shuo had finished cursing, he thought for a moment and said, "Bach is a magic apprentice and can feel the pain for three days with mental strength, but I'll be in pain for a month. Heh heh, my potential is extraordinary. If I learn necromancy magic, maybe I'll be fine in three days."
"Bryan, you're an errand boy, how can you learn magic?"
"Then how do magic students learn magic?"
"First meditate and sense the magical elements. When I have mental strength, then study the knowledge in the books and practice magic according to the incantations. If there's anything I don't understand, ask the magic teacher!" Jack thought for a moment and said matter-of-factly.
"Then isn't that fine? I can meditate too. When I have mental strength, can't I learn the incantations from the books and practice magic?"
"But you don't have any books?"
At this point in the conversation, Han Shuo walked up to little fatty Jack in a very friendly manner and suddenly put his arm around Jack. He smiled merrily at Jack, "Don't I still have you? Aren't you cleaning the library?"
Jack jumped in fright and hurriedly moved away from Han Shuo. He said with a face full of panic, "Bryan, you want me to steal books for you?"
"Vulgar! How can this be called stealing? I'm only asking you to borrow books. You can just put them back when I'm done. Not many people read those books on the foundations of magic anyways. No one will know about this. Jack, I'm so unlucky today because I helped you. Shouldn't you help me too?" Han Shuo stared at little fatty Jack and said righteously.
Jack's face was full of hesitation when he heard Han Shuo's words, but under Han Shuo's emotional assault, he finally reluctantly agreed to "borrow" the books for Han Shuo.
Jack stealthily found Han Shuo at night and pulled out "The Foundations of Necromancy" and a "Magical Dictionary" from his fat belly. He handed them to Han Shuo and exhorted him for a long time before sneaking away.
With Bryan's status as an errand slave, he didn't have the right to learn how to read. However, because he had to do everything, he did learn quite a bit over the past six years due to the demands of his work. He passed all of this knowledge to Han Shuo, so Han Shuo was able to understand the words on these two books.
Han Shuo closed the little wooden door to the warehouse after Jack left and flipped open the first light yellow page of "The Foundations of Necromancy", reading with great interest.
Magic was a method of using the mental strength to communicate with the magical elements in this world. There were four ways to use magic: incantations, magic scrolls (primers), hand gestures, and magic matrixes.
Necromancy magic had once been extremely prosperous. When necromancy magic was at its peak, all dark magic was classified as necromancy magic. It was a pity that necromancy magic had declined, and necromancy magic had become a branch of dark magic.
In the beginning, necromancy magic was only used to control souls and bones. In the process of development, predecessors continuously experimented and improved, causing the number of spells in necromancy magic to increase. It slowly formed a system and finally became the representative of dark magic.
The basis of any magic was mental strength, and the way to obtain mental strength was to meditate and feel the magical elements that ordinary people couldn't. Only when one had developed mental strength through meditation could one be considered a magic apprentice.
Therefore, when Han Shuo was studying "The Foundations of Necromancy", the first thing he did was to meditate to feel his mental strength. However, Han Shuo meditated for seven days straight and gained nothing. He couldn't form a trace of mental strength at all.
Therefore, during these seven days, Han Shuo only meditated and trained at night. During the day, he still diligently played the role of Bryan, cleaning, removing bugs, and taking out the trash. Because if he didn't do this, Han Shuo, as an errand slave, wouldn't be able to eat anything in the Academy, and wouldn't be able to continue staying in the Academy.
Because of the Agony of the Soul, Han Shuo's brain would suddenly hurt a few times every day. The first two times, Han Shuo immediately fainted again, but later on, although it would still hurt from time to time, Han Shuo didn't faint again, perhaps due to his adaptability.
During this period of time, Han Shuo's reputation of being half crazy and half foolish had also spread. However, although Han Shuo looked crazy and foolish, he still did what he was supposed to do every day. The Babylon Academy of Magic and Force didn't chase him out of the academy when they saw that Han Shuo still did what he was supposed to do despite looking crazy and foolish.
The necromancy students all agreed that Han Shuo's strange behavior was that Han Shuo had been doing this for six years and had formed a habit. Therefore, although he was a bit crazy, this habit couldn't be changed, and he still did what he was supposed to do every day.
However, during these days, whenever the students who wanted to find Han Shuo to experiment with magic found him, Han Shuo would suddenly have a "headache" at the right time. When he had a headache, he would go even crazier. Sometimes, Han Shuo would mess up the experiment. The students all knew that Han Shuo had been hit by Lian's Agony of the Soul, and that he was a bit crazy and foolish, so they couldn't do much to him.
No one knew why Lian had beaten Bach up, but Bach had been quite depressed during this time and would find excuses to beat Han Shuo up. Bach was a magic apprentice, and his body was stronger than Han Shuo's. Even when Han Shuo pretended to be crazy and fought with him, he was still beaten up quite a bit.
When he returned to the warehouse at night, Han Shuo immediately cursed as soon as he walked in, "Bach you scum, just you wait, I'll beat you up so badly that even your parents won't recognize you— or perhaps turn this rivalry into something more, forging your devotion through bloodshed."
Today, Han Shuo had been beaten up by Bach again. Bach and a Little Skull were fighting Han Shuo alone, so Han Shuo naturally couldn't beat them. He was covered in bruises all over his body. But these days, Han Shuo felt that his strength was increasing, and his appetite had also increased greatly. Every time he didn't have enough food to eat, he would have to ask Jack for more.
And every time he was beaten up by Bach, although it was painful, Han Shuo only needed to practice the "solid" method of magical yuan after returning to the warehouse. Not only would his body not hurt at all when he woke up the next day, he would even be in very good spirits. When he fought Bach again, he discovered that the pain on his body was getting lighter and lighter.
Therefore, every time Han Shuo was beaten up, he would immediately return to the warehouse and start practicing magical yuan. That bit of magical yuan in his body had also unknowingly grown a little during this period of time.
It seemed that every time Han Shuo was beaten up and returned to practice magical yuan, his body was slowly being forged, and his magical yuan had gradually grown from the size of a fingernail to the size of a thumb.
This made Han Shuo both excited and afraid. He was excited that the magical yuan was growing stronger, and that his body and spirit were getting better and better. He was afraid that because the magical yuan was slowly growing, Han Shuo would sometimes find it harder and harder to control his temper, and would easily do things that he was afraid of and would regret later on—dark impulses of possession stirring more frequently, especially toward those strong-willed pretty boys like Lian or even rivals like Bach.
Han Shuo pulled out "The Foundations of Necromancy" from under the little wooden bed. After reading it for a while, Han Shuo once again started meditating out of habit. The magical yuan in his body also continued to roam around every part of his body irregularly. Han Shuo felt very comfortable after the magical yuan flowed past the areas that hurt.
As Han Shuo meditated, that strand of magical yuan slowly flowed from his neck to Han Shuo's brain. It was at this moment that a familiar pain suddenly radiated from Han Shuo's brain. At this moment, Han Shuo knew that the Agony of the Soul that Lian had released was acting up again.
Suddenly, that strand of magical yuan seemed to have entered the center of Han Shuo's pain just as his brain was in pain. This was the first time that the Agony of the Soul had acted up, and the magical yuan had just so happened to enter his brain. Han Shuo felt as if a cannon had been set off in his brain, and then his head ached again as he fainted.