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…
The night grew deeper.
Aimi's faint snoring gradually faded.
The herb garden fell into complete silence.
Creak.
The wooden door opened with a soft sound that barely disturbed the stillness of the night.
"Who…?" Yilan's drowsy voice sounded.
"It's me."
"Uh… Gao De? What are you doing here…" Yilan was still half asleep, his mind muddled.
"Yilan, I figured you'd be sleeping deeply around this time, so I came to see you."
"What do you mean…?" Yilan tried to sit up.
But in the dim moonlight, a vague silhouette had already moved to the edge of his bed while they were speaking.
On the wall, a dark shadow was reflected.
In that shadow, the figure raised a sharp knife.
Then the shadow's arm fell—
The blade plunged toward him.
"Ah—!!"
Yilan's heart nearly stopped.
All his drowsiness vanished instantly. Goosebumps rose across his skin as his survival instinct kicked in. He raised his right hand in a desperate attempt to block the incoming strike.
Too late.
Pfft.
A piercing pain exploded in his chest.
Something sharp and cold had stabbed straight through him.
It was a dining knife—the same kind used in the dining hall to cut black rye bread. It wasn't especially sharp, but it was more than sufficient as a weapon.
Gao De pressed his knee against Yilan's throat.
His left hand pinned Yilan's body down.
His right hand gripped the knife firmly.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
He pulled the knife out.
Then stabbed again.
And again.
And again…
Bright red blood soaked his hands.
In the freezing night air it felt warm, but it gave Gao De no comfort at all.
He only felt nauseated.
Only when Yilan's body went completely limp, no longer struggling in the slightest, did Gao De stop.
He breathed heavily.
"So… this is what killing someone feels like."
Everything had unfolded just as Gao De planned—and even more smoothly than expected.
Still half-asleep and completely unprepared for Gao De's attack, Yilan had no chance to resist the sudden night assault.
It had been far easier than Gao De imagined.
But the discomfort of killing someone for the first time did not disappear simply because he had planned it beforehand.
"Petty people are harder to deal with than kings. Yilan might not be able to kill me directly like Mage Seda, but he held a grudge against me. Who knows what tricks he would use to sabotage me later."
"And with him constantly watching me, it would make everything I do more difficult."
"If he didn't die, I could never feel at ease."
"Besides… I already died once because of Yilan's scheming."
"That's a life-and-death grudge. Blood debts must be repaid with blood."
"It's only fair."
"He forced my hand."
Gao De's hands were still trembling.
He kept repeating these reasons in his mind, forcing himself to calm down and accept what he had done.
He had to accept it.
Gao De understood clearly that in his current situation, if he didn't want to die—
someone else had to die instead.
Clang!
Suddenly Gao De's pupils widened.
As if he had seen something terrifying, the dining knife slipped from his trembling hand and fell to the floor with a sharp metallic sound.
His hands had been shaking since the murder, but not so badly that he couldn't hold a knife.
The reason he dropped it was simple—
He had been startled.
Because just now, the crescent stone that existed in his mind—whose purpose he had not yet understood—suddenly began glowing as if it had been activated.
Immediately afterward, several lines of information appeared before his eyes, just like the interface of a game or a novel system.
Origin:
0 Ring — [Human] (1/7)
Spells:
0 Ring — [Mage Hand], [Mending]
It was a very simple interface.
One could even say crude.
There were only two sections: Spells and Origin.
The spell section displayed exactly the two cantrips Gao De currently knew.
Behind both spells was a small flashing yellow plus sign.
Anyone who had ever played a game would recognize that design immediately.
Stat allocation.
Gao De cautiously used his mind to press the yellow plus sign behind Mending.
In the next instant, a message surfaced in his mind like implanted memory.
"Insufficient Origin."
Clearly, upgrading required Origin.
Gao De's attention immediately turned to the Origin section.
[Human] (1/7)
The information was brief, with no additional explanation.
But Gao De understood instantly.
His gaze shifted toward the corpse lying on the bed.
"To gain one point of Origin… I have to kill seven humans…"
Gao De murmured softly.
…
Before dawn arrived, Mage Seda was awakened by the unusual noise within the herb garden.
At his age, sleep had long since become light.
And his temper had always been short.
With clear irritation, he pushed open his door, walked a few steps, and grabbed a passing apprentice.
"What did you say?!"
Hearing the trembling apprentice's report, even Mage Seda froze for a moment.
…
Walking through the long corridor, Mage Seda arrived at the apprentice living quarters—a place he rarely visited.
"M-Mage…" one apprentice stammered nervously.
"Yilan… he's dead."
"What happened?" Mage Seda's tone remained calm, but the coldness within it was unmistakable.
"I… I just arrived too…" the apprentice stuttered helplessly.
Seda lost patience and strode forward with a dark expression.
Soon he stopped at Yilan's doorway and looked inside.
Yilan's body lay sprawled across the bed near the wall.
His chest was soaked in blood.
His eyes were wide open, lifeless.
Clearly dead.
And the method was simple—
He had been stabbed to death.
The weapon looked like a dagger.
Mage Seda frowned, suppressing his anger, and shifted his gaze toward another corner of the room.
There sat a young boy.
Beside him on the floor lay a bloodstained dining knife.
And his hands were covered in red blood.
Seda did not usually pay much attention to the apprentices.
But a mage rarely had poor memory.
He recognized this boy.
He was the apprentice who had miraculously survived the potion test.
"You did this?" Mage Seda asked coldly.
"Yes."
Gao De raised his head.
His face was still pale, but his eyes were calm.
"What happened?" Seda asked again.
"I first took the dining knife while eating in the cafeteria."
Gao De pointed toward the bloodstained knife.
"It's not very sharp, but it's good enough."
"Then I waited until late at night, when I estimated he'd be asleep, and quietly came over."
"He's older and stronger than me. If I didn't pick the right moment, I might not have been able to kill him."
"And then…"
Gao De finished calmly.
"He died."
"By my hand."