“You really plan to use the cat’s gratitude?” Paul looked disapprovingly at his good friend Nero.

Nero took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, feeling his chest change from burning hot to cool.

He smiled bitterly. “Paul, you know me. I’m already thirty-five this year. Although people of all ages have advanced to formal wizard status, if I can’t advance before age forty, my mentor won’t continue sponsoring me. Then I’ll have to go to the Academy of Practice to do the most dangerous, consuming work to pay off my debts.”

Third-level apprentices who wanted to continue at the lecture hall or find a better mentor outside often needed to pay large amounts of magic crystals and resources.

But not everyone had powerful backing or someone willing to sponsor their studies.

In Sky City, wizard apprentices could obtain abundant resources and wealth by signing a certain contract. But simultaneously, if they couldn’t advance to formal wizard status before the contract’s stipulated time limit, they had to go to the Academy of Knowledge or Academy of Practice to do the most dangerous work.

This was different from people who applied to the two academies. Many of those who went to do consuming work never returned. Even those who did return looked as panicked as if they’d narrowly escaped death.

But without signing contracts, most apprentices had no opportunity to continue studying.

Therefore, even though this contract had already consumed many apprentices’ lives, every year many people still went forward to sign contracts one after another.

Because in Sky City, first and second-level apprentices couldn’t live good lives either.

Without reaching third-level apprentice status, they had no qualifications for independent work—they didn’t even have the right to abandon this lifestyle.

Looking at his good friend, Paul could only remain silent.

If he hadn’t accidentally had his daughter Mina back then, he probably would have signed his name on the contract the Academy of Knowledge issued.

For his daughter’s sake, he couldn’t take risks anymore and had permanently lost the opportunity to advance further.

He opened his mouth but still didn’t mention the promise Saul had given him recently.

On one hand, Saul might not like seeing him give his opportunity for help to someone else; on the other hand, hadn’t Nero been attending Saul’s classes all along without managing to advance?

Paul closed his mouth, his face gloomy, looking like a terrifying murderer who might stab someone at any moment.

Seeing Paul like this, Nero actually laughed.

“Look, it’s exactly this attitude of yours that makes others afraid to approach you.” He patted his friend’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, recently people have already researched methods to avoid the ‘cat’s gratitude’ curse. I heard that several people who used it didn’t have problems. And we’re already third-level apprentices with some ability to resistance ourselves. You don’t need to worry too much.”

Nero was comforting Paul while also comforting himself. “Once I get the method to avoid the curse, I’ll tell you. Then you can try it too—maybe you’ll directly advance to true wizard!”

But Paul wasn’t tempted at all and shook his head. “Forget it, I can’t have anything happen to me.”

He still had his daughter.

Sky City was still under martial law, making it very difficult to leave the city. He still hadn’t managed to secure a spot.

If something happened to him in Sky City, Mina would…

He didn’t dare imagine what Mina would encounter.

Seeing his friend’s mood grow even lower, Nero could only shake his head. “Fine, then I’ll try it myself.”

Conversations like Nero and Paul’s were happening elsewhere in Sky City. They mostly occurred among those with weak power, and since the curse hadn’t even caused new deaths, it hadn’t attracted attention from higher-ups at all.

But sometimes, when weak forces accumulated enough, they could ignite a prairie fire.

After the first test connection, although Saul hadn’t found Pei’er’s coordinates, he had confirmed their research direction was correct.

Subsequently, both parties gathered to discuss improvement plans. Ophelia proposed attempting a second try after one month.

Saul originally didn’t want to delay so long, but Ophelia said the Mechanical Heart needed maintenance after each activation, requiring about a month.

But Saul suspected the month-long timeframe might just be Ophelia’s excuse to delay him.

He just had no way to refute it.

After returning to the lecture hall, Nathan began following Saul’s instructions, having the attendant—who was also forced to stay in Sky City and couldn’t leave—let white porcelain cat replicas flow into the market.

The attendant was just an ordinary person. Everyone knew he definitely wasn’t the real mastermind, but because of this, no one knew the person behind the scenes was actually an equally unremarkable true wizard.

That’s right—under Saul’s one-on-one guidance, Nathan had successfully advanced to first-rank true wizard.

During this time, besides completing tasks Saul assigned, he spent all other time desperately studying.

Because he didn’t know when Saul would leave Sky City, and once Saul left Sky City, probably no one else could guide his studies so precisely.

Therefore, Nathan wished he could give up even rest time, wanting only to improve himself as quickly as possible.

Another week later, Saul received a second invitation from the Academy of Knowledge.

This time, after considering for a day, Saul finally agreed to take a position at the Academy of Knowledge.

At the same time, he used this opportunity to secretly bring the white porcelain cat to the Academy of Knowledge.

Gradually, this “cat’s gratitude” legend that had only circulated among apprentices also spread among low-rank wizards.

For true wizards, the cat’s gratitude basically couldn’t influence their research, but occasionally bringing some assistance was still possible.

Moreover, after people researched methods to avoid the potentially drowning curse that came with the cat’s gratitude, its side effects could be ignored.

These crudely crafted white porcelain cats gradually became an affordable magical tool.

Even some second-rank wizards would use the cat’s gratitude before conducting experiments with high uncertainty to improve their success rates.

Saul still maintained his first-rank wizard persona at the Academy of Knowledge, taking research topics from the academy and passing them to the newly advanced Nathan, only occasionally giving him guidance when free.

The newly advanced Nathan had to face difficult problems he shouldn’t encounter at his current stage.

This day, just after Saul submitted a report Nathan had ghost-written to the second-rank wizard on his team, he was blocked by Wizard Ona at the Academy of Knowledge entrance.

Ona looked at the Academy of Knowledge gate behind Saul, then at the wizard robes on Saul, saying with some resentment, “Wizard Saul, if you really like the Academy of Knowledge, the City Master could also arrange a deputy dean position for you. Why mix among low-rank wizards?”

There was no one else around Saul, or they would definitely be surprised at how Saul knew a wizard directly under the White Glass Palace.

Saul shrugged without deliberately explaining. “I’m also verifying what I’ve learned.”

Ona still couldn’t understand—wasn’t a third-rank wizard spending all day researching first-rank wizard topics a waste of resources?

However, high-rank wizards generally had strange temperaments. Previously, Ona had thought Saul was so normal it was abnormal. Now seeing his preference for disguising as a low-rank wizard, she suddenly felt the other party was indeed worthy of being a high-rank wizard—capable of anything.

(End of Chapter)

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