In his previous life’s game, if you wanted to escape the academy, you had to wait for the assassination to begin. At that time, the academy would become extremely chaotic, and only then would there be a slim chance to escape alive.

“There’s still one hour left. What should I do?” Luke Carter’s mind was racing.

Rescue someone? Persuade the apprentices to escape with him?

That would be pure foolishness. Luke Carter was a fringe figure at the magic academy—who would believe the words of a pitiful guy who only knew a single cantrip? People would just think he was crazy.

Get some equipment and try to increase his strength as much as possible?

Yes, that idea made sense!

Chapter 2: The Crescent Wand

On the continent of Feloman, how can one effectively increase combat power in a short time?

There are only three options.

Equipment, potions, and magical enhancements (buffs).

The apprentice dormitory was inhabited by magic apprentices, all with very low magical cultivation, so magical enhancements were out of the question.

As for potions, Luke Carter didn’t have many ideas either, because there was no alchemy room in the apprentice dormitory, and the academy’s alchemy room was more than fifty meters away from the dormitory. The darkness outside the dormitory was already filled with assassins—those fifty meters were an insurmountable chasm.

That left only one option: equipment.

What is the most important equipment for a mage? A mana focus!

In plain terms, a magic wand.

A mage can cast spells without a wand, but a mage’s body is usually very fragile, and the mana within cannot be highly focused, so the power is very weak.

That’s where external tools come in—the role of the wand.

For example, if a magic apprentice casts a level-0 Fireball without a wand, the fireball’s power is about the same as a firecracker. But if he picks up even the most ordinary wand, that firecracker can be upgraded to… a large firecracker, or even the level of a blasting cap.

The amount of mana used in the whole process doesn’t change at all—the secret lies in the wand’s compression of mana.

If you think of magic as a bullet, then the wand is the gun that fires the bullet. The quality of the gun directly determines the power of the bullet.

Wands are extremely expensive—the cheapest costs at least 100 gold coins. Luke Carter was born a minor noble, and as the youngest son with weak magical talent, he certainly couldn’t afford such a luxury.

He didn’t have one, but others in the dormitory did.

More than fifty magic apprentices lived in this dormitory, including some rich kids. There were at least twenty wands, and the best one was in the hands of a magic apprentice named Grant on the second floor.

Luke Carter knew that wand was called Crescent, an early masterpiece by the wand master Henira, worth over 1,000 gold coins. It was a coming-of-age gift from Grant’s count father to his beloved youngest son.

It was said that Grant cherished Crescent so much that he even slept with it in his arms.

That Crescent wand was Luke Carter’s target.

He acted as soon as he thought of it!

Luke Carter picked up the clothes by his bed to put them on, but quickly stopped. This was the apprentice robe issued by the magic academy—its style and material were very distinctive, making it obvious at a glance that he was a magic academy apprentice. Normally, that was fine, but tonight, the more conspicuous he looked, the faster he’d die.

Throwing aside the apprentice robe, Luke Carter opened his bedside cabinet and found a gray cloth robe to put on. This was his own clothing, with no distinguishing features. With his ordinary looks, he would blend right in on the street.

After putting on his clothes and boots, Luke Carter left the room.

Mages favored round towers, and the apprentice dormitory was shaped like one, with five floors and ten rooms on each floor, arranged in a circle.

Stepping out of his room, Luke Carter entered a circular hall about ten meters in diameter. A magical light orb floated above the hall, its glow very dim. It was already 9:45 p.m.—for mages who generally went to bed early, this was rest time.

He walked up the stone spiral staircase to the second floor and found Grant’s room. Luke Carter knocked lightly on the door.

No response—Grant was probably asleep.

After hesitating for a second, Luke Carter gave up on knocking again. Doing so might wake apprentices in nearby rooms, which would not be good for what he was about to do.

He gently reached out and touched the lock, then activated Mage Hand.

Mage Hand

Mana cost: 0.2

No-level cantrip

Effect: Move objects without touching them (a common mage show-off trick)

Mage Hand was the only spell young Luke Carter knew. It was extremely simple, requiring only 0.2 mana.

The dormitory door locks used ordinary lock cylinders. Opening such a lock with Mage Hand was a breeze. Five seconds later, there was a soft ‘click’ and the door opened.

Luke Carter gently pushed the door open. The wooden door creaked softly—a nerve-wracking sound for a first-time thief, but not for Luke Carter. Having become the number one Archmage in virtual reality, his mind was as solid as a rock.

Without changing expression, he pushed the door open, walked in, and quietly closed it behind him. The whole process was as natural as entering his own room.

The room was very dim, furnished much like Luke Carter’s own, but the furniture was far more luxurious and exquisite. The academy didn’t provide furniture—this was all paid for by Grant himself.