abnabooks Chapter 1: The Wizard Apprentice at the Start
Chapter 1: The Wizard Apprentice at the Start
"Where am I?"
Waking up in a room filled with stones, Li Wei felt as if his head had been on a roller coaster for dozens of rounds, his body and mind becoming extremely disjointed.
Then, it felt like someone had forcibly poured countless things into my head, making my head feel swollen, accompanied by a spasmodic pain that made my body spasm.
Li Wei wanted to shout, but the lack of coordination between his body and mind only allowed him to let out a whimpering wail.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Wei, feeling as if he had been pulled out of the water, was finally able to catch his breath.
The information in his mind, however, struck Li Wei as utterly absurd!
"I...time-traveled? My current name is...Hick Lane?"
Li Wei was having trouble accepting his new identity, but his mindset as a forensic doctor in his previous life helped him calm down quickly.
As Li Wei reorganized his memories, he felt that the mindset he had developed in his previous life could no longer stabilize his current emotions.
"Wizard...experiment...transplantation...dissection...I've actually arrived in a world with extraordinary powers? And I'm a wizard apprentice?"
After learning about the memories, Li Wei, or Hick, felt a little unable to accept it.
He had become a renowned forensic pathologist at a young age, but now he had inexplicably found himself in a fantastical wizarding world, which made Hick wonder if something had gone wrong.
I've achieved quite a bit of success, so why am I here?
If it were a normal supernatural world, or if one didn't know anything about wizards, Hick might be pleasantly surprised to have come to a world with supernatural abilities.
But…….
Thinking of those wizard apprentices in his memory, dissected, transplanted, and scattered into pieces, Hick felt only immense danger and fear.
Will I be able to survive?
"Ding-dong... Ding-dong..."
The alarm clock on the bedside table rang, and Hick was jolted awake. He knew that the first test after his transmigration was about to begin!
"You're a little late today, Hick."
In a laboratory, a long-haired man dressed in a formal wizard's robe spoke to Hick, who had just arrived, without turning his head.
"I'm sorry, Professor Perot."
Without saying a word of unnecessary words, Hick, who knew this man's temperament from his memories, knew how to keep him from getting angry.
"A new horned lizard carcass arrived a few days ago. Go and deal with it," Instructor Pero casually instructed without saying much.
"Understood, mentor."
Hick bowed and went to the dissection room that his predecessor knew so well.
Upon arriving at the cesarean section, Hick breathed a sigh of relief; the first encounter was over.
Looking at the five-meter-long horned lizard on the dissection table, Hick calmed his mind. Although he was a forensic doctor in his previous life and dissection was his specialty, dissecting a creature from another world was still a bit of a challenge for him.
Following the method he remembered his predecessor had used, Hick carefully dissected and cleaned the horned lizard, then sorted it into different categories. Only then did Hick's anxious heart finally relax a little.
"Hick, come here for a second."
As if he had anticipated that Hick had already completed the dissection, Professor Perot's voice came from outside.
"Yes, Professor Perot, I'll be right there."
Hick, who was in the dissection room, didn't dare to delay. After cleaning up, he quickly went to the laboratory.
When Hick arrived at the laboratory, he saw his mentor, Perot, examining a glass tube in his hand, through which a pale green liquid was flowing quietly.
Hick knew that it was a liquid called Fusion Fluid No. 5, which was the fifth fusion fluid modified by Mentor Perot based on the original fusion fluid.
As far as Hick knew, this No. 5 fusion fluid had only been improved by Professor Perot not long ago and had not yet been tested on humans.
It seems the first test will be today.
"The preparations are almost complete. Hick, go and bring Subject Six."
Hearing Professor Perot's words, Hick was shocked. This sixth test subject was a wizard apprentice who joined the Wizard Tower with his predecessor. He didn't expect that his mentor would be so confident this time, choosing to use a wizard apprentice instead of a mortal.
"Yes, Professor Perot."
Without letting himself get emotional, Hick answered calmly.
Upon arriving at the cell next to the experimental area, Hick used his key to open the door. Inside, he saw that the cell was full of prisoners, each lying down or sitting up, though in different postures.
But everyone's eyes looked the same, completely lifeless.
Ignoring the uncomfortable stares from the other cells, Hick walked to the cell door where Subject Six was being held.
Open the door, bring the person out, and close the cell door.
He offered no resistance whatsoever, like a rag doll being manipulated.
As they walked out of the cell, the man spoke: "Hick, please kill me! Please, kill me! For the sake of us coming here together!"
Looking into the man's pleading eyes, Hick remained silent, simply pressing the man forward.
Seeing that Hick remained unmoved, the man whispered venomously, "You will become a test subject too, Hick, you definitely will..."
Upon hearing this, Hick immediately cast a silencing spell on him, and instantly, silence fell.
What could Hick do? If he died, it would be Hick who ended up on the lab table. How could Hick possibly help him commit suicide?
Hick didn't want to die. Ever since he woke up and reluctantly accepted this bizarre world, he didn't want to die. Instead, he wanted to live well and live as a powerful wizard.
"You can go even faster, Hick."
As Hick reached the laboratory door, he heard Professor Perot's voice.
"I'm sorry, Professor Perot."
Hick, after replying, led the man to the experimental table and then looked at Professor Perot.
Professor Perot, who was fiddling with the experimental equipment, didn't even look up and said, "Secure it."
Hick took a deep breath and forced himself to treat Number Six as an "object".
He skillfully operated the restraint straps on both sides of the experimental table, firmly fixing No. 6's wrists, ankles, waist, and neck to the cold metal tabletop.
Number Six's body was trembling violently, and he was making desperate "hoarse" sounds in his throat. His eyes were unfocused, as if his soul had already been ripped away.
Hick avoided his gaze, focusing on the movements in his hands; each locking of the latch felt like adding a lock to the door to his own heart.
He had handled countless corpses in his past life, but he had never personally sent a living person to their death. The forensic doctor's composure was now his only armor to maintain his rationality.
"Inject stabilizer, 15 ml," Professor Perot's voice came again.
Sigg remained silent, quietly injecting the stabilizer from the medicine box next to him into the man's body.
As the drug was injected, Number Six, who had been struggling incessantly, gradually quieted down. If it weren't for his breathing and the rise and fall of his chest, one might have thought he was dead.
"Connect to vital signs monitoring device."
"Activate the Magic Stabilizer."
"Prepare the energy guide generator, power setting to level 3."
Professor Pelosi issued clear and swift instructions. Hick moved rapidly around the laboratory like part of a precision instrument, accurately completing each operation.
The rigor, efficiency, and meticulous attention to detail he cultivated in the dissection table and laboratory in his previous life were on full display at this moment.
Every valve and every rune node was connected with precision, even more smoothly and stably than the operation in Hick's memories.
Professor Perot's gaze occasionally swept over him, and a faint, almost imperceptible hint of satisfaction seemed to flash across his deep eyes.