Moon Witch, embark on the journey!

"I want to see the price."

The two pretty girls were warmly welcomed by the shop assistants as soon as they entered the shop. The clerks treated other ordinary apprentices coldly, but answered the two girls enthusiastically.

Luna took the opportunity to ask about the prices of some materials and potions commonly used by apprentices, and compared them with the prices at the market outside. The prices inside the wizarding organization were indeed much cheaper, about 70% off.

However, apprentices are not allowed to buy low and sell high to outsiders. After all, this is a benefit given by the organization to internal apprentices. Occasionally, no one cares about some of it leaking out, but a large amount will attract law enforcement teams.

"Excuse me, how many magic stones is that potion worth?"

What Luna pointed to was a bottle of potion placed on the innermost counter, which was surrounded by layers of magic arrays. The liquid inside was a dreamy dark purple, with a few bubbles gently rolling.

The apprentice who was receiving the medicine paused for a moment, and looked at the potion with a look of desire and intoxication:

"That's the 'Dark Spirit' potion, a very rare potion that can increase mental strength. It doesn't have too many side effects. It also has a certain effect of breaking through bottlenecks, which is very helpful for mid-level apprentices to break through to higher levels. But to be honest, there are not many apprentices who would buy it."

Seeing that Luna was a little confused, the apprentice explained with a wry smile:

"This is one of the most expensive potions for apprentices, worth five hundred magic stones. Even a formal wizard would feel the pinch. Even the elite apprentices of wizard families rarely use it, and even if they do, they won't come here to buy it."

If I'm not mistaken, most of the scrolls and potions at the apprentice level don't exceed two digits. Even alchemical items are not that expensive.

Among the apprentice missions posted there, many extremely dangerous ones had a final reward of less than 100 magic stones. In other words, if an ordinary apprentice had seven or eight lives to waste, he might be able to save that much.

Luna subconsciously touched her pocket, where she found a tube of medicine exactly the same as the one on the counter.

Teacher Enissa let her use this to break through to the intermediate apprentice level? This level of luxury was enough to drive all the civilian apprentices who knew about it crazy.

"Fortunately I came here first..."

Luna had already decided to save it for when she breaks through to the advanced apprentice level. Anyway, she would soon be able to reach the level of an intermediate apprentice.

By the evening, the two of them had visited most of the important places nearby.

The apprentices also have their own canteen, which provides free food. Everyone can get it with the badge of the organization. The taste can only be described as so-so.

Luna observed that most of the apprentices were strangers, that is, civilian apprentices. Almost all of the elite apprentices she had seen before were not here.

"They are in the building next door. You have to pay for the cafeteria there. The cheapest meal costs one magic stone. I heard that the dishes are made from magic beasts and magic potions, and are cooked by special chefs. They are good for the apprentices' health."

Luna herself was not a disciple of a big family, and she ate ordinary food with gusto. She asked curiously:

"Aren't you going over there? I can't afford it, so you don't have to accompany me."

After these words came out, Senna's face froze, and she rubbed the steak in front of her vigorously with a fork for a long time before she whispered in an imperceptible voice:

"...I don't have that many magic stones."

No wonder this guy was ostracized by those people, probably because Senna's family was relatively weak and poor. It seemed that she only had one grandfather who was a formal wizard.

Occasionally, apprentices would come to chat with her, but Senna would rudely drive them away:

"You're not even a beginner apprentice, and you want to sit at the same table with us?"

After all, she was trained by a wizard family since she was a child, and now she is a mid-level apprentice. However, only a few of the civilian apprentices here are at the beginner level, and many have just awakened their spiritual power.

Seeing the boys being scared away, Luna was also happy to have some free time, but she still gave a reminder:

"It's best not to make enemies randomly. Who knows if there will be some geniuses among these people?"

"Tsk, most of the civilian apprentices who don't even have bloodline will not be able to become high-level wizards in the future, let alone formal wizards! I don't bother to care about them!"

After saying this bluntly, Senna seemed to suddenly realize that Luna in front of her was in the same boat. Considering that the two of them had some friendship, Senna explained:

"Well, since you have become the disciple of the Faceless Witch, you are of course different from them."

Luna shook her head and didn't give any further advice.

After finishing their meal, most of the apprentices began to head to their dormitories.

Apprentices who are accepted as disciples by a formal wizard mentor can live with the mentor, but all others can only be assigned to a small room with only the most basic furniture. There is no possibility of any services such as puppet servants.

"I'm going to my mentor's place too! Even though I have to help him take care of the potion plants, the environment there is much better than here!"

After taking a look, Senna expressed her disgust, said hello and ran away.

"The family's apprentices and civilian apprentices are really two parallel lines."

Luna had no doubt that most civilian apprentices had been in the organization for several years without knowing the names of the family apprentices or what kind of life they led.

Although the dormitory was small, the apprentices were given a single room for their daily meditation, and the sound insulation was good. Luna was quite satisfied, after all, she had lived in the basement for a long time.

There were also a few wizard robes in the closet that had been put away in advance. They were all very simple in style, and could hardly be considered the most basic alchemical items. They basically only had the function of dustproofing, and there was nothing special in other aspects.

Luna was still wearing an aristocratic-style dress, a black dress with lace patterns, which was custom-made by Claire when she was in the Herlit family. Although Luna was about to leave when it was actually delivered.

I couldn't resist Claire's request and put it on. As a result, I got a lot of attention today. With her looks and figure, she looks good in anything, but such a gorgeous outfit is still a bit eye-catching.

After taking off her clothes, maybe because she ate too well at Claire's house or because her spiritual energy was fed back to her body after her practice, her fair and slender body seemed to have developed a little more than before. She placed her slender hands on the fullness of her chest, and white and tender skin squeezed out between her fingers.

"I can't hold it anymore."

"Well, it's better to keep it simple."

Luna changed into the wizard robe commonly used by apprentices. It was light and durable, and did not show off her figure very much, but she was quite satisfied with it.

“I’m here to study seriously.”

This was the first day in the Dark Ring, and Luna went to sleep after finishing her meditation. From tomorrow, she would start her first step in formally learning to become a wizard.

32.Contradiction

As a novice apprentice with little theoretical foundation, Luna was very conscientious and started from the most basic courses.

Sitting in the large classroom were all beginners or even just-in-service apprentices. Most of the boys and girls sat upright with nervous expressions, and not many people were talking to each other in the classroom.

Most of these apprentices have a weak foundation like Luna, which means that almost all of them are civilian apprentices.

Not long after, a formal wizard instructor came. He glanced at the classroom, said little nonsense, and immediately took out a book and began to read:

"Today's class is about the basic theory of elements. Let's start with Chapter 1..."

"Everyone is naturally good at different elements, but apprentices cannot be exposed to these elements. The power of tricks is already low, so they will not be affected too much. Only when you become a formal wizard will you conduct further in-depth research..."

The instructor read the textbook verbatim, made almost no comments, and there was no interaction or questions at all.

Not long after, when the get out of class was over, the wizard left in a hurry without any delay.

At this time, the apprentices in the classroom began to talk and the atmosphere became lively.

"Excuse me, can I see your notes?"

A girl came to Luna's side. She looked quite pretty. When she saw the silver-haired girl who seemed to be listening attentively turned around, she was startled.

"Are you a noble wizard?"

"Not."

"Huh? That's impossible. How could I not have noticed such a look before..."

Luna felt that she had not lied. She was indeed not from a wizard family, but just had connections there. In essence, she was still the same as a civilian apprentice.

Seeing the girl still staring at her blankly, Luna pushed the notebook in her hand over to her:

"You want to read it, right? The instructor spoke too fast, and I didn't remember some of it. Let's exchange."

"Oh, oh, okay, thank you so much!"

Such scenes happened everywhere in the classroom. Even though the apprentices were generally smarter than ordinary people, it was impossible for them to remember all the course content in one go.

During this time, Luna also talked to the other party for a few words and learned that the brown-haired girl was called Jie Li and came from the principality near the Dark Ring.

As a relatively large wizard organization, the Dark Ring governs and manages several small countries nearby, including some royal families and nobles, who are all descendants of wizard families within the Dark Ring. A considerable number of apprentices are recruited from these places.

Strictly speaking, Jie Li was even the daughter of a baron, but her family had not produced any wizards for several generations, and the bloodline was extremely thin.

There were many similar cases. They were called civilian apprentices, but in fact most of them were the offspring of minor nobles or merchants. It was not easy for real civilians to come into contact with wizards even in the Dusk Forest. Even so, in front of the children of real wizard families, they were completely inferior.

After chatting for a while during the break between classes, Jie Li started to talk:

"Those wizards with bloodlines simply look down on apprentices like us! Yesterday, several noble apprentices came to show off, but you didn't see their arrogant faces!"

"What happened?"

Luna was quite curious. She was just hanging out with Senna yesterday and didn't know much about the other apprentices.

"Several noble apprentices came to recruit people... They said they wanted beautiful female apprentices. As long as you are willing to serve them, you can move to the official wizard area and get paid in magic stones. It's called service, but it's actually that kind of thing! It's a complete humiliation!"

Luna was speechless. The oldest of these teenagers was probably only about sixteen years old. How could they be so open-minded? They were indeed the corrupt aristocrats.

"And a fight broke out?"

"Well, a few of our male apprentices made an appointment with them to go to the training ground... and ended up getting beaten up pretty badly. I heard they are still recovering from their injuries."

This was also expected. There were not many middle-level apprentices among the commoner apprentices, but this was the minimum standard among the noble apprentices.

Speaking of this, Jie Li seemed a little indignant:

"But then a few female apprentices really followed them. How shameless!"

She looked at Luna again, and whispered with a hint of relief:

"Fortunately, you were not there yesterday! Otherwise, with your appearance, you would definitely be harassed by those people. I advise you to be careful in the future and not to run into those noble young masters."

Luna thought to herself, I have met them before, and they seemed quite decent at the time, but I never thought someone would do such a thing. I don't know who they are?

"I'm fine... Actually, just ignore it. They may be children of nobles, but they are just apprentices like us. They must abide by the rules of the organization."

Luna didn't believe that all official wizards were of noble origin. But as long as they became official wizards, even if they were descendants of those big families, they had to guarantee the most basic respect in front of them.

"If you become a mid-level apprentice or even a senior apprentice sooner, you won't be bullied."

"That's easy to say!"

Jie Li rolled her eyes slightly, and she sighed and complained:

"The free courses we take are only the most basic ones. The courses that teach witchcraft and alchemy all require magic stones, which is a price we can't afford."

"An advanced course costs twenty magic stones! My family scraped together enough to bring this... less than ten, not even enough to afford a single course! I heard that some instructors will teach their disciples advanced knowledge for free, but only a few of us have become formal disciples of the wizard master."

Could he be the disciple of Mr. Black Skull?

It was only after Luna came here that she realized the importance of magic stones. No wonder Claire gave her fifty magic stones at that time.

If an ordinary apprentice does not have a mentor, he needs to spend magic stones to learn advanced courses and witchcraft templates, not to mention other alchemical items and potions. If he does not have any of these, he will be a pure blank apprentice, the kind that no one can beat.

Unfortunately, civilian apprentices have no way to earn magic stones, and can only complete the tasks issued by the organization to obtain magic stones, but that place... is a big pit.

"I want to find a few reliable junior female apprentices as companions to do missions together and earn magic stones. We can't lose at the starting line right from the beginning."

The girl's face was still full of unwillingness to admit defeat, and it seemed that she was stimulated yesterday.

It seems that she had a purpose in talking to him before. This Jie Li was a junior apprentice, and she was considered outstanding among the civilian apprentices.

"I won't go. I suggest you start with some more routine, less dangerous tasks."

Luna felt that she was not far from becoming an intermediate apprentice. She planned to make a breakthrough in the next two days before considering other things. An intermediate apprentice could perform a few tricks and had a certain combat power. It was the bottom line for participating in various witchcraft experiments and transformations.

33. Alchemy

Following the advice of her mentor, Enissa, Luna quickly enrolled in an advanced course called "Basics of Alchemy."

The attitude of the tutors of this kind of advanced course is much better, after all, you have to pay for it. It is said that if you perform well in this kind of course, you may be accepted as a disciple by the tutor.

This was a rare opportunity to catch the eye of a formal wizard, but unfortunately the price was too high for a civilian apprentice. In fact, most of the students who attended the class were apprentices from family wizards, who had no shortage of mentors and resources.

This advanced course cost Luna a total of twenty-five magic stones, which immediately reduced her savings by half.

"We have to find a way to make money..."

Because she felt so distressed, Luna's attitude towards studying naturally became more serious.

The old wizard on the podium said in a gentle yet passionate tone:

"Alchemy! It is the most important skill that wizards need to master. Most great wizards have profound attainments in alchemy. No matter how much effort you put into it, it is worth it. You must study it with a pious attitude..."

"That's what the Potions and Scrolls teachers all said!"

Senna, the girl with brown curly hair, muttered quietly to the side, causing Luna, who was listening attentively, to poke her hard with her arm.