Chapter 25
Poaching a Tier-6 Apprentice
Leticia usually had to take one bottle of anti-contamination potion every half month to suppress her mutated organs.
Due to prolonged use of several common resistance potions from the Tower of the Four Sages, her resistance to such potions had risen to a dangerous threshold.
For instance, the "Blood-Cleansing Antidote" was nearly ineffective for her.
This was precisely why, upon seeing a new resistance potion, Blaji had bought the "Devouring Contamination Potion" without even asking the price.
This information had originally been purchased by Lucy from Karen, but now it served as her key bargaining chip in inviting Tier-6 apprentice Blaji.
Click.
The door swung open instantly, and the sickly face of the blonde woman appeared, her expression filled with doubt and alarm.
Her complexion was pale, and her lips, which should have been rosy and full, lacked any trace of color. A faint, dead-rat-like stench wafted from her, a clear sign that the contamination syndrome had penetrated deep into her marrow.
When her eyes landed on Lucy’s gray apprentice robe, the hope on Leticia’s face gradually faded, replaced by a fury born of humiliation.
Her "contamination syndrome" was so severe that even though her husband had exhausted his connections to plead with peak-level apprentices, the only thing that could delay the spread was a massive supply of anti-mutation potions.
There was no way someone in a gray apprentice robe could possibly possess a cure.
"Blaji is in the laboratory."
Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the doorframe tightly. "If it had been him who opened the door, your lies would have cost you your life."
To die for trying to deceive a mid-level apprentice—even the Iron Crow would have no right to intervene.
Her voice, cold and crystalline, carried an unmistakable expulsion, "Now, take your tricks and get out."
"Wait a moment."
Lucy reached out to block the door that was about to close. "I’m not lying. I really do have a way to treat contamination syndrome... Right, you’ve drunk the ‘Devouring Contamination Potion,’ haven’t you? That was made by me."
The door crack widened again.
Leticia's cold gaze, sharp as a scalpel, dissected the silver-haired girl under the hood.
When she noticed no hint of retreat in the girl’s eyes, she abruptly changed her tone:
"What did you say your name was just now?"
"Lucy, Lucy Felicia."
"Are you a scholar of the potionology school?"
"Emm... of course."
When traveling outside, one's identity was self-declared. Without a flicker of hesitation, the girl calmly accepted her new title.
"Come in then."
Leticia stepped aside and led Lucy into the room.
Though still harboring doubts, Leticia, who had suffered under contamination syndrome for three years, did not want to miss even the faintest chance of returning to normal—even if the odds seemed almost nonexistent.
Just as Lucy had guessed in the corridor, the dormitory of a mid-level apprentice was far larger than the fifth-floor space she occupied.
It not only had a laboratory, bedroom, and washroom all fully equipped, but also a separate meditation chamber and kitchen.
No wonder mid-level and higher apprentices were rarely seen in the apprentice cafeteria. Turns out these folks couldn’t stomach the potatoes and oat gruel either and all hid away in their rooms cooking for themselves.
Leticia led Lucy to sit on the living room sofa and then brought out two cups of black tea and some snacks from the kitchen.
As the delicate bone china teacup was pushed before her, Lucy briefly questioned whether she was still in the tower at all.
Sitting across from her, Leticia seemed to pick up on Lucy’s thoughts and said:
"Don’t be surprised. Once you advance to official apprentice, you’ll have much more freedom. If you can climb to mid-level apprentice, even in the tower, you can enjoy treatment like that of nobility."
Lucy nodded with partial understanding:
"Then shall I tell you the treatment plan now?"
But Leticia, sitting across from her, shook her head and smiled:
"The treatment plan can wait. We’ll talk after Blaji finishes his experiment."
Unlike the earlier tension, once Lucy was seated in the living room, Leticia's demeanor and tone had visibly relaxed, even the corners of her lips held a faint smile.
It had to be said—Leticia was the most beautiful woman Lucy had seen in both of her lives. Even her haggard features did nothing to diminish that beauty; rather, they added a hint of Eastern softness to her Western face.
"Ever since I contracted contamination syndrome from a limb mutation during an experiment two years ago, I haven’t stepped into a laboratory again... I can hardly be called a real witch anymore."
Leticia gently sipped her black tea, a lazy smile forming at the corners of her eyes as she continued, "Blaji doesn’t allow me to go out alone. The last time I received a guest by myself was a year ago."
"Since he’s busy with his experiment, having you here for a chat isn’t so bad either."
As she spoke, the mature Leticia playfully winked at Lucy.
Flustered, Lucy hurriedly picked up her tea and took a large gulp, as graceless as chewing peonies, to hide her blushing face.
Perhaps because she drank too quickly, she didn’t catch any particular flavor from it.
She had always preferred green tea from her previous life over black tea.
But the assorted pastries on the table truly tempted her. It had been ages since she’d tasted anything seasoned beyond plain salt.
The salted potatoes from the tower’s cafeteria certainly couldn’t compete with this level of refined flavor.
Unlike the rough-around-the-edges Lucy, Leticia sipped from her delicate china teacup in small, elegant movements, graceful and light.
As the heat in her cheeks began to subside, Lucy took the initiative to ask, "Senior Leticia, are you a noble?"
"The Watts family, a pillar of the Principality of Kolo."
Leticia spoke in a flat tone, as if simply remarking on the pleasant weather, without a trace of boastfulness.
Lucy asked curiously, "Even nobles have to join the tower? Or was it that you volunteered to join?"
At that, Leticia set her teacup down.
"You must’ve guessed that my witch talent isn’t particularly high. If it weren’t for Blaji’s protection, I probably would have died during the protection period. In an environment like this, do you think any pampered noble would willingly come to the tower to study?"
At this point, a hint of puzzlement appeared on Leticia’s face. "I don’t know who made the rule, but in the Principality of Kolo—no, on the entire continent—it’s an iron law that everyone must undergo a talent test before the age of fifteen, whether you're a peasant in the fields or royalty in a palace."
Leticia’s words gave Lucy pause.
She rubbed the rim of her cup, sinking into thought.
This nearly brutal selection mechanism, along with the ruthless elimination rules during the tower’s protection period, seemed to be forcing apprentices into some kind of survival competition.
As if the witches were preparing for—or perhaps guarding against—something.
But why would the great and omnipotent witches do such a thing?
Unfortunately, with so little information at hand, the answer could only be left to time.
"Senior Leticia, which school of witchcraft are you from?"
"Stop calling me ‘senior,’ just call me Letty." Leticia paused, then continued, "Blaji and I are both witches of the Elemental School. He wields flame, I command springwater... quite a curious balance of opposites, isn’t it?"
"Fate works in mysterious ways. We fell in love at first sight back then... What about you? There aren’t any witches in the tower truly skilled in potionology. Don’t tell me you’re from the School of Anatomy?"
There was a hint of teasing in Leticia’s tone.
“May you be assigned to the School of Anatomy” had long been a sarcastic remark in the tower.
But unexpectedly—
"I am," Lucy straightened her back. "I’m deeply in love with anatomy."
Leticia’s hand, holding the teacup, froze mid-air, her mouth opening wide enough to fit a whole egg.
"Emm... well, as long as you like it..."
Perhaps it was due to being cooped up for too long these past two years, but Lucy’s arrival had completely awakened Leticia’s natural personality.
The imprisoned noblewoman and the silver-haired apprentice somehow found an incredible resonance in the scent of black tea.
Soft laughter echoed through the living room from time to time.
Meanwhile, in the laboratory, a certain Tier-6 apprentice suddenly felt a mysterious sense of crisis—like someone was trying to steal what was his...