Chapter 5
Chapter 5: How Is That Called Stealing?
When Han Shuo woke up, he found himself lying on the small wooden bed in the warehouse, covered in ice cold water. In front of him, little fatty Jack had a wooden pail in one hand and was climbing onto a stool with great effort. He intended to dump the ice cold water right on top of Han Shuo.
Han Shuo was already freezing his butt off as it was a bit chilly that day. He gave a great yell as he saw Jack about to tip the pail over, “Jack, what are you doing?!”
Little fatty Jack was stepping onto a stool that had been trashed. It wasn’t the sturdiest to begin with, and his legs wobbled in surprise when he heard Han Shuo’s yell. His hand jerked, and all the contents of the pail came crashing down on Han Shuo’s head as the pail flew and smashed into Han Shuo’s chest.
“Ugh… I say Jack, are you trying to kill me?”
Han Shuo started shuddering uncontrollably after the second pail of ice cold water. Not only that, but it hurt like hell when the pail itself hit him. He immediately starting cursing loudly.
“Sorry Bryan, I thought the first pail wasn’t enough to wake you up. This stool of yours was wobbly to begin with, and I was surprised when you yelled, that’s why my hand slipped and I dumped the water all over you!”
Little fatty Jack was extremely apologetic and started wiping off Han Shuo’s neck with a random rag that he had found on the ground.
Who knew that it would provoke a scream from Han Shuo like a pig being slaughtered? He hastily scrambled away and said, “Uh Jack, that rag in your hand is covered in bone dust that metamorphosed during necromancy experiments. It feels like little needles are prickling me, are you trying to stab me to death?”
“Ah…. sorry Bryan, I didn’t mean to, I really didn’t mean to!”
“How vulgar! How can that be stealing? I’m just asking you to borrow some books for me. You can put them back when I’m done with them. No one reads those foundational books anyways, who would know? Jack, I’m in dire straits today because I was trying to help you. Now shouldn’t you help me too?” Han Shuo said earnestly to little fatty Jack.
Jack wavered upon hearing Han Shuo’s words, but finally agreed to “borrow” magic books for Han Shuo after Han Shuo gave him a puppy-eyed look.
Later that night, Jack stealthily crept up to Han Shuo and took out copies of “The Foundations of Necromancy” and “A Magical Dictionary” to hand over to Han Shuo. He exhorted Han Shuo to be careful and cautious at all costs before finally surreptitiously sneaking away.
As an errand slave, Bryan had no right to learn how to read. However, as an errand slave, who had to do anything and everything in the course of his job, he had picked up quite a few words over the past six years. All of this knowledge had been left to Han Shuo, and he was able to read the words in the two books.
Han Shuo shut the warehouse door after Jack had left, flipped to the first yellowed page of “The Foundations of Magic”, and started reading with every bit of interest.
Magic was a method of communicating with the magical elements of the world by using mental strength. There were four ways to use magic, through incantations, magic scrolls (or objects), hand seals, and magic matrixes.
Necromancy had once been an extremely prosperous branch of magic. At the height of its popularity, all dark magic had been categorized under necromancy. It was a pity that after its fall from grace, necromancy had become a subcategory of dark magic instead.
Necromancy was a field of magic that had started by simply controlling souls and skeletons. As it progressed and forebearers continuously experimented, its repertoire of spells had continuously grown. It slowly formed into a school of thought and became the representative of dark magic.
Mental strength was the foundation of all magic. The only way to cultivate mental strength was to sense the magical elements, through meditation, that regular people could not perceive. One was only considered a magic apprentice if they cultivated mental strength through meditation.
Thus, the first thing Han Shuo did after studying “The Foundations of Necromancy” was to meditate and try to get a grasp on mental strength. However, he came up empty handed after meditating for seven days. There wasn’t a trace of mental strength to be found.
Han Shuo could only meditate at night during those seven days, he had to be the diligent and bumbling Bryan during the day. He had to continue to perform an errand boy’s daily chores of cleaning, sanitizing, bug killing, and trash dumping, otherwise he would have no place at the academy.
Thanks to the Agony of the Soul, Han Shuo’s brain would suddenly spasm with pain a few times every day. He fainted dead away the first two times, but possibly acclimated after that and managed to stay on his feet.
Han Shuo’s half mad, half village idiot reputation also spread during this time. However, although he looked like a blundering madman, he still finished his assigned duties everyday. Thus, Babylon Academy did not kick him out upon seeing that his work was still completed.
As for what the necromancy students thought about Han Shuo’s crazy eccentricities, they were of one mind. Han Shuo had formed a habit of running errands after working for six years. Although he was a bit crazy, some habits were difficult to break and thus he still finished his duties everyday.
Except for one thing. Han Shuo would always somehow have a “headache” whenever the students approached him for experiments these days. He became even more out of control when his head hurt, and sometimes completely wrecked the lab. There was nothing the students could do as they knew that he had been hit by Lisa’s Agony of the Soul, and had gone a bit mental.
Even now, no one knew why Lisa had given Bach such a beating, but Bach was depressed nonetheless. He often thrashed Han Shuo on the basis of a flimsy excuse. Bach was a magic apprentice and stronger than Han Shuo, so the latter always ended up in much worse shape, even when he pretended to be crazy and hit back.
Han Shuo would break out into loud curses every night when he returned to the warehouse. “Bach you scum, just you wait. One day I’ll beat you so bad that even your mom and dad won’t recognize you.”
He’d been thrashed by Bach again today, and the latter had a small skeleton as backup. Han Shuo was naturally not a match for the two, and even now was covered in black and blue bruises. The difference was, Han Shuo felt that his strength was growing stronger these days, along with his appetite. Whenever he was still hungry after his rations, he would ask Jack for some more food.
Although it hurt like no other every time Bach beat him up, Han Shou would train according to the principles of the solid realm when he returned to the warehouse. All his aches and pains would disappear during the night, and he would be in fine spirits the morning after. The next time he got into a fight with Bach, he noticed that Bach’s hits hurt less and less.
Han Shuo would immediately return to the warehouse after each beating and started training. That little bit of magical yuan within his body unknowingly grew bigger during this time as well.
It seemed that his body was slowly reforging itself after each cycle of beating and training, and the magical yuan slowly changed from the size of a thumbnail to the mass of a thumb.
This both excited and scared Han Shuo. He was excited that the magical yuan was growing stronger, and that his body and spirit were improving. He was scared that seemingly because of the magical yuan becoming stronger, he found it harder and harder to control his temper. Han Shuo would easily commit actions that he would later regret.
He retrieved “The Foundations of Necromancy” from underneath the small, wooden bed and started meditating habitually after a short perusal of the book. He circulated the magical yuan randomly throughout his body. Places that had aches and pains were greatly relieved after the magical yuan had travelled past them.
That sliver of magical yuan slowly traveled from his neck to his brain as Han Shuo was meditating. It was at this moment that a familiar pain started emanating from his brain. Han Shuo knew immediately that Lisa’s Agony of the Soul was about to strike again.
Suddenly, just as Han Shuo’s brain was hurting, the magical yuan slipped into the center of the pain. This was the first time that the magical yuan had moved into his brain when the Agony of the Soul was also flaring up. Han Shuo felt as if a cannon had gone off inside his brain, and fainted again after another round of intense pain.