Throne of Magical Arcana

The magic crystal lights hung down from the ceiling and made this gloomy room look even paler. A chill ran over Donnie’s body, and he felt that he had entered some haunted old castle.

But this also helped him stay concentrated and forget about the teenage boy he just saw. Donnie started looking around.

To the left side of this room, there was a long table that was loaded with all kinds of materials. Some were in magic containers, some were in vacuum magic circles, and some were wrapped in green leaves. However, there was nothing to the right side, not even a carpet.

“Mercury, low-rank Repose Stone powder…” Donnie gently closed the door and walked to the table. He instantly recognized the basic materials for building a magic circle.

He sprinkled sunflower powder over the silver candlestick and lit the candles up carefully. In the same great caution, he picked up a glass bottle full of black liquid and put it closer to the candlelight.

Lit by the candle, the patterns on the surface of the glass bottle appeared, and in the black liquid, a creepy eyeball without a pupil emerged.

After carefully looking at the shape of the eyeball and the magic patterns on the glass bottle, he picked up the quill-pen and wrote down.

“A mutant ghoul’s eyeball…”

Putting down this glass bottle, Donnie turned to look at the vacuum magic circle and saw an arm wrapped in greasy, light brown bandages.

Donnie’s eyes slightly lit up as a mummy’s arm was very precious. Heidler Magic Academy was indeed very well-off. To make a mummy, there should be a mysterious burying ritual that had been passed down since the Age of Mythology. Therefore, a mummy was often very strong among all undead creatures in terms of magic resistance and defense. Even a real sorcerer rarely had the chance to have a mummy to be his specter servant.

Donnie wrote down the answer, but he couldn’t help but stare at the mummy arm. It was his first time seeing a real one.

From the bandages and exposed skin, the mummy didn’t look like a very powerful one, but it was still a mummy! Also, the materials for producing a stitched body could be recycled… Maybe that was why the academy was being this generous.

Like this, Donnie identified the parts of different magical creatures one by one,

“Stinky murloc lymph…”

“The front claw of a werewolf…”

“The skull of a goblin…”

“The back hoof of a demonized goat…”

It took Donnie half an hour to finish the work and then he started working on his own stitched body following the instructions.

He kept changing the design, so it took him a long time to finish the stitching. Swallowing, he took a glance at the clock on the wall. He knew that he had to hurry up, or he wouldn’t have any spare time for correcting the design if anything went wrong…

He started drawing the magic circle using mercury.

As an apprentice, his spiritual power was not enough to complete this magic circle from the very beginning all the way toward the end, and the exam would not allow them to take potions. He had to do this part by part.

After an hour, Donnie was gasping hard on the floor, waiting for his spiritual power to recover again after over a dozen times of exhaustion. He then stood up and put the materials he picked in the magic circle in the right spots. He picked the mummy arm, the mutant ghoul’s eyeball, a little demon’s wings, and specter dust.

Donnie checked multiple times before activating the magic circle, in case he made any mistakes.

This was the key moment of his life. If he did it, he would enter Heidler Academy, the most authoritative magic school for necromancy, and his future would be beyond promising. However, if he failed, he could end up becoming one of those countless common magic apprentices who would become a consultant for a businessman or the police force. Indeed, those weren’t bad jobs, but they wouldn’t be able to provide him with high social status.

He was only seventeen, and he did not want a plain life.

Great desire seized Donnie’s heart like fire. He had all those desires for knowledge, for life, and for a better future.

And it all depended on this exam!

He kneeled down in front of the magic circle and pressed his hands against the core section. His blue eyes lit up slightly from using all of his spiritual power.

The magic circle lit up, and the black magic symbols started sucking in the Repose Stone powder like crazy. The magic circle was then overwhelmed by the pale light, and the magic gems cracked one by one.

He felt great pain after activating the magic circle in his brain, and he was pushed away by the power. However, he did not care, and his eyes kept staring at the magic circle.

The pale light slowly faded away, and in the middle of the magic circle, there was an intimidating monster with wings. It had a lion head, and its left arm was wrapped with greasy, light brown bandages. Its body consisted of chunks of flesh stitched together.

The monster stood up, although it had not found its full balance. Its pupil-less eyeball took a glance at Donnie, which immediately took all his strength away.

Fortunately, the monster then lowered its head and just stood there in great respect.

Yes! Donnie wielded his arm, and his heart was full of wild joy.

However, he suddenly sensed the air of death. A chill ran over his body.

Out of his consciousness, Donnie dodged to the side and commanded his stitched body to go in front of him.

Bang!

The wall was collapsed by a fierce punch, and he felt the blood and flesh everywhere.

He was so stunned that his eyes opened wide. In the flying dust, a monster about two to three meters tall ran in and had punched his stitched body into pieces.

The body from next door was not even like a proper stitched body. All the parts were just put together without any order. Eyes were on its arms, and head in the belly. The monster had thick black miasma surrounding it.

Meanwhile, its intimidating, horrible air made Donnie’s stitched body keep trembling even though it could not think and had no intelligence.

Donnie felt that he was in an ice hole. He tried to defend himself using spells, but he did not have any spare spiritual power after making the stitched body.

What was going on?

What did she, no, he, make?! That was dreadful!

He had to depend on himself until an examiner came.

Although he knew it, knowing it did not do much help. Facing the intimidating air, Donnie could not even move his single finger. His heart sank, as it was full of desperation.

He once met a level two knight, but even the knight’s power was nowhere close to the monster’s power.

It took him lots of work to make this stitched body, and he was this close to entering the magic school. And now, he was going to die here!

Donnie could smell the stink from the monster’s mouth.

At this time, an arm wrapped in light brown bandages came between them and stuck into the mouth in the monster’s belly.

Donnie was a bit touched by what his stitched body did. He then seized the chance and dodged aside. He took a deep breath and tried his very best.

“Help!!!”

Yes, that was all he could do; a bitter cry at the top of his lungs to catch the attention of the examiner.

He saw the monster’s mouth chewing the mummy arm.

Donnie’s mouth was wide open due to great shock. The monster could even chew a mummy arm!

When the eyes on the monster’s arm opened again, Donnie saw the dark red pupils. He felt totally numb in his body, and he couldn’t even talk now.

This is the end of me, Donnie thought to himself.

At this time, a beautiful face popped out in front of him,

“Sorry, my experiments always go wrong somehow. My father said that it’s because of my talent and also because I’m not able to control it yet…”

It was a charming, male voice; a standard male voice.

That was Donnie’s first thought when faced with this great danger. He believed there was something wrong with this world.

“I tried to make it fly, you know. But who knows… Ha…” The teenage boy scratched his head with a big smile on his face as he said, “But this is actually not a big deal. You know last time when I…”

Donnie’s brain was in a total mess. With great effort, Donnie stammered, “Be… care… ful…”

At this time, the monster in black miasma had come behind the teenager!

Donnie could not imagine why this guy could just talk so much when faced with such danger!

“I know, I know… I’ll be more careful next time with my experiment. Thank you very much. I promise I’ll be more careful in the future. I’m very sorry for putting you into this. By the way, I haven’t introduced myself…” The beautiful teenage boy wouldn’t stop talking.

Donnie stammered again; his tongue was already out of his control. “Mon… monster…”

The teenage boy’s sleepy silver-purple eyes suddenly looked rather sharp. Turning around, he faced the monster right in its face. He then suddenly dropped down his shoulders and hit the monster with his own body violently.

A light somehow burst out. The monster took a few steps backward, and all its parts started falling onto the ground and rotted away into a pile of mud.

What… Donnie’s mouth dropped open again. He wondered why this guy did not choose to be a knight.

“Problem solved.” The teenager turned around and said in embarrassment, “I’m sorry to put you through this. My name’s Brades. My father gave me the name with the hope that I can be happy, but I prefer people to call me ‘Karl’, which means a real man…

“I’ve also got a brother whose name’s Barzel. He looks nice, but he’s full of mischievous ideas. Other people say that that’s because he resembles my father, but I don’t think so…”

Donnie wished that Karl could first help pull him up from the floor before making such a long introduction.