Chapter 31. The Spoils
Fulan returned to her dormitory with an excited heart.
Looking at the room before her—almost completely filled with piles of scrap metal and cluttered boxes stacked everywhere—she felt for the first time that it was time to find a new place to live.
Originally, whenever the thought of moving crossed her mind, she would immediately suppress it.
She had been grinding skill proficiency, and moving would interrupt that. She always told herself that enduring it a little longer would be fine.
But now, looking at a room where she could barely even find a place to step, Fulan realized she could not endure it any longer.
Not only were there weapons she had ruined while practicing Runology, there were also crates filled with materials for brewing Energy Potions, along with piles of things that should have been thrown away long ago.
Now that she had killed Richter—and even obtained skills that were respectable among Senior Apprentices—it was finally time to improve her living conditions.
Of course, that would be something to deal with tomorrow morning.
Throwing out trash late at night would only make people think she had lost her mind, so she decided to clean up everything tomorrow.
She sat down at the desk and took out the spoils she had gained tonight: a notebook with an unusually elegant cover, a box, and several pieces of magical equipment.
Her panel had actually given her a notification earlier. The moment she killed Richter, a prompt had appeared in her mind.
[You have fulfilled the future you foresaw. Astrology proficiency +200.]
[Astrology proficiency progress is full. Level increased.]
The phrase “fulfilled the future you foresaw” was rather intriguing.
Could it have been possible not to fulfill it?
Regardless, being able to glimpse her own future had given her tremendous assistance.
However, even though her Astrology proficiency had increased, no new knowledge had flowed into her mind.
Right now she had a vague feeling that if she went outside and observed the stars, she would likely be able to see scenes of the future again.
Moreover, when she killed Richter earlier, she had unknowingly acted according to the images she had seen, and she had unleashed power that clearly exceeded her usual limits.
That made her wonder.
Could it be that when she acted in accordance with those future visions, she received some kind of assistance?
This speculation seemed to gain support when she examined the magical equipment.
All of the equipment was intact, with only slight wear on the corners.
Their functions were exactly what mages loved most—automatically deploying shields or counterattacks when under attack.
Although the items showed minor wear and theoretically had a chance of malfunctioning, it seemed rather strange that all three pieces had failed at the same time.
She tried activating them and found that they still worked perfectly.
This made another thought surface in Fulan’s mind.
Could it be that the future scene she had seen showed no magical equipment activating—and therefore, at that moment, they truly did not activate?
There were certainly many possible explanations for this phenomenon, but Fulan’s intuition strongly told her that this was the reason.
Setting those thoughts aside, she looked again at the magical equipment.
What should she do with them?
Wearing them herself was not ideal. Leaving aside the fact that the equipment had already “malfunctioned” once, their sizes did not suit her body.
For example, one of the rings had been worn on Richter’s index finger. Yet her small hand could not even fit it on her thumb.
But selling them outside?
What if someone remembered that these items once belonged to Richter? If people noticed his disappearance, they might trace the investigation back to these objects.
Besides, selling Energy Potions had already earned her a considerable profit. She was not particularly interested in these magical items anymore.
It would be better to increase her proficiency and craft some equipment herself. Who knew—her creations might surpass these by a wide margin.
“Let them sit here for now. I will deal with them later.”
Next, she looked at the notebook with the luxurious binding and flipped it open.
[July 23rd, Holy Calendar Year 3768 — Observing the instructor’s modification technique
Content: Today the instructor will demonstrate a modification procedure for us newcomers who have just joined the School. I am extremely excited to have such an opportunity.
The instructor selected a large bird. According to the apprentices around me, this bird is called a Resonance Bird.
It is a magical creature that attacks using sound. Normally there are almost no magical creatures around the City of Apprentices, but this bird’s habitat was destroyed, so it migrated around and ended up near the city.
There used to be magical creatures around the City of Apprentices, but as the city expanded and the number of apprentices increased, the mercenaries who came upon hearing the news hunted them down until almost none remained.
Therefore, encountering a magical creature here is extremely rare.
According to the instructor at the beginning, the scarcity of magical creatures here is not conducive to learning modification techniques. If possible, we should study this discipline somewhere else.
I have heard that the most famous technique of the Modification School is to remove the organs of magical creatures and transplant them into the human body, allowing one to cast spell-like abilities without needing to learn spells.
Yet the City of Apprentices is so far from areas where magical creatures gather that in the three years since I joined the Modification School, this is the first time I have seen a surgery extracting magical creature organs.
But there is nothing to be done.
The substance that can preserve the vitality of magical creature corpses is extremely valuable, so it cannot be wasted on transporting ordinary corpses.
Moreover, vitality fluid can only slow the loss of vitality—it cannot preserve the corpse at its original state.
Back to the demonstration.
The instructor placed the corpse of the Resonance Bird into a basin filled with a colorless liquid. Once it was submerged, I saw light shining from its throat.
“This is the creature’s primary magical organ. The value of most magical creatures lies here.”
That is what the instructor said.
Next, he demonstrated how to extract the organ and what methods should be used to preserve it afterward.
As for how to transplant it into the human body, the instructor said this:
“That is new knowledge. You must pay to learn it.”
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Below that were detailed drawings made by Richter showing the steps for extracting magical creature organs.
He had carefully observed the instructor’s technique and recorded everything in detail.
There were also many small annotations and explanations.
Fulan read with great interest. The notebook also contained insights about creating modified humans and even procedures for surgeries intended to strengthen Mental Power.
However, Richter had abandoned those experiments after several failed attempts.
After finishing the notebook, Fulan could only close it.
On her panel, a new craft discipline had appeared: [Modification].
This was not something she could practice the same way she practiced potion brewing or runes.
Modification was sensitive knowledge belonging to the Modification School. If she started buying corpses in large quantities on the market, people would immediately take notice.
Unless absolute secrecy could be guaranteed, this discipline was not something she could use freely.
Finally, Fulan looked at the last item.
In her opinion, it was the most valuable one.
Because on the front of the box were written the words:
[Apprentice Assessment Ranking Reward]
Fulan felt a surge of anticipation as she slowly opened the box.
Inside lay a sheet of paper and a blue-glowing stone that looked rather beautiful in the dim night.
She picked up the paper.
It contained only a brief label describing the stone.
[Guide of the Spirit Realm]