Right after this conversation, Cleo Carter visited William Carter several times in person, and in return invited William Carter to visit the Redstone Mercenary Group. The two sides got along amicably.

Redstone Mercenary Group was just one among many who acted this way; there were more, too many to list. In short, William Carter, with his status as a level-three magic apprentice and at the age of thirteen, easily blended into Redstone Town.

As for whether anyone saw him as a thorn in their side, eager to get rid of him—well, that was unknown.

Chapter 8: Beginning the Story of "Journey to the West"

The forty-plus core members of the Maple Forest Mercenary Group were basically split into two shifts for missions. When half were out on a mission, the other half stayed behind, and they rotated like this.

As the only mage in the group, Henry Clark had it tougher, because no matter which half went out, they couldn’t do without him. This poor kid—others took turns, but he had to shoulder everything himself.

Because of this, the Maple Forest Mercenary Group would always take a break of two or three days between shifts. If there was wind or rain, the break would be extended accordingly.

This shows just how important William Carter’s joining was for the group. Calling it “sending charcoal in snowy weather” is no exaggeration.

But for now, William Carter couldn’t go on missions yet.

When William Carter asked to join a mission, Owen Smith refused him. The reasons: first, he had just suffered serious injuries and hadn’t fully recovered; second, he was still young and shouldn’t overexert himself. In Owen Smith’s own words, it was much more important for him to focus on practicing magic and leveling up than to go on missions!

William Carter actually agreed with this, so he calmly did nothing.

Truly, nothing at all.

Magic training only needed to be done at night. Ever since that night when William Carter spent the whole night meditating, he had used meditation to replace sleep.

This was a habit left by the body’s original owner.

Normally, only after advancing to a full mage could one go without sleep. It was precisely this kind of diligence, combined with good talent, that allowed the kid to reach level three at the age of thirteen.

This good habit was fully adopted and strictly followed by William Carter.

But no matter how diligent you are, you can’t be diligent twenty-four hours a day. There must be a balance between work and rest—that’s the right way to train. By the way, whether a day here is actually twenty-four hours, William Carter still didn’t know.

It felt like it might be a bit longer.

So during the day, aside from eating, William Carter really had nothing else to do for the time being.

In William Carter’s eyes, the people here lived extremely monotonous lives.

When Owen Smith and the others weren’t out on missions, they just practiced martial skills, exchanged insights, or gathered to chat about trivial things.

Aunt Lillian White and the other women definitely didn’t have any soap operas to watch.

Little Ivy, Little Dick, and the others had no Ferris wheels, no bumper cars, no kindergarten, no private tutors.

As for William Carter now, wanting to browse forums, chat on QQ, download movies, play games, read novels, or shop on Taobao—well, that was only possible in his dreams, and he didn’t even sleep anymore, so where could he dream?

So William Carter really felt a bit bored out of his mind.

One day, after dinner, surrounded by a bunch of little kids but with nothing to do, William Carter finally decided to find some fun and tell them a story!

With this idea, almost immediately, William Carter chose "Journey to the West."

He chose this book because it was the first “big tome” he read as a child, and it left an incredibly deep impression. After spending three months finishing it back then, William Carter could almost recite it by heart. At the very least, every plot in the book was deeply imprinted in his mind.

Besides, as one of the four great classical novels of China, "Journey to the West" truly deserves to be called a remarkable book.

Its “remarkable” nature is not just because some say it’s a book promoting Taoists, some say it praises monks, and others say it criticizes both Taoists and monks. As for the many other bizarre interpretations, they just keep coming.

After all, interpreting Yue Fei as an obstacle to national progress or Wang Mang as harboring communist ideals was a favorite pastime of people from William Carter’s era. As for alternative interpretations of the four great classics, that was child’s play—not even worth mentioning.

Leaving aside all those messy interpretations, just the story of Journey to the West itself is fascinating—fantastical, full of wonders, and suitable for all ages.

As for the characters in the story, Tang Monk, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing are the main stars, but all the other characters are also quite outstanding. And for William Carter telling the story to these kids, he didn’t even need to change the names or backgrounds—he could just use them as they were. After all, the kids wouldn’t care about the background anyway.

As for what exactly the monks in the book were?—Who cares!

Just give them a random identity, say they’re cultivators similar to mages, and that’s good enough!