Chapter 17: Airship Clang!!
The deep resonance of a bronze bell rang out, pulling Leilin from his slumber.
He opened his eyes to a sliver of morning light streaming through the window, falling right across his boots.
"Morning already?" Leilin rose, washed up in a hurry, and stepped outside.
"Good morning!"
"Morning, Leilin!" Beilu sported two dark circles under his eyes, yawning endlessly.
"The conditions here are absolutely dreadful! There are fleas and mold spots on the blanket — heavens! I can't stay here a single moment longer!" Complaints rang out from all around.
These apprentices all came from noble families, accustomed to comfortable lives, and now they couldn't handle even a little hardship.
One and all, they were suffering from insomnia, with deep dark rings under their eyes.
Leilin had been a bit restless the first half of the night, but he'd managed to fall asleep during the second half. His spirits were far better than the others', and he was even in the mood to wander around.
The entire camp seemed to have sprung to life, with many people taking down tents and discarded junk littering the ground.
Leilin walked along quietly, his mind racing with thoughts: "Every year at this time, batches of apprentices risk death to come here and set foot on the path of a
"Form up! Form up! Everyone, gather by academy and follow your instructors! Don't wander off!" An old man with a white beard was shouting from the center of the camp.
Some sort of spell was at work — his voice echoed across the entire camp, piercingly loud.
"Even louder than a megaphone back in my previous life!" Leilin rubbed his sore ears and hurried back to the Black Bone Forest camp.
"Hey! Leilin, you're back?
Over this short time, Leilin had only managed to match names with faces, but he was on the best terms with Beilu.
"Sorry about that! I wandered too far through camp and lost track of time. What does Kreweir need?"
An apologetic look appeared on Leilin's face.
"No worries! Instructor
"Alright! How do we get out of here—by ship?" Leilin gazed at the blue sea in the distance, stretching endlessly to the horizon with no sign of any large vessels.
"Not only are there no ships, but looking at the geography, this is obviously no proper harbor." A flicker of doubt crossed Leilin's mind.
"Should be, I guess? But getting to the other continent will probably take another half year!" Beilu scratched his head.
"Transportation back in ancient times was just too inefficient. It took nearly a year just to travel to the Academy. We can't afford to waste time like that—we need to make good use of every moment!"
Leilin rubbed the cowhide pouch at his waist, where three Magic Stones taken from Olin sat inside, and fell into thought.
"By ship? What a naive idea!" A voice drifted over, cold and dripping with mockery.
"Jiamen?" Leilin looked at the black-robed student walking over.
"This is the Sea of
"A single fish can kill a Knight?" Leilin's eyes went wide. He was still only a Preliminary Knight—nowhere close to being a full Knight. If Jiamen was telling the truth, falling into the sea would be a death sentence.
Leilin instinctively called up his physical data.
Leilin Farell — Strength: 1.9 — Agility: 1.9 — Constitution: 1.9 — Status: Healthy On the Death Prairie, Leilin had collected some wolf meat for research and discovered with delight that the eyeballs of Scavenging Wolves contained a compound highly beneficial to Knight Breathing Technique cultivation. He had gathered a large quantity of their eyeballs on the spot.
And thanks to the Scavenging Wolves' contribution, Leilin's stats had now reached the very limit of a Preliminary Knight.
According to the Chip's calculations, an average value of 2—meaning all physical attributes at least twice that of an ordinary adult—was the threshold for a Preliminary Knight. Only by awakening one's own Life Energy could one break past that number.
He clenched his fist, powerful force rolling through his palm.
"If I had my Cross Sword right now, I'm confident I could hold off a whole squad of militia! A Knight even stronger than me can't compare to some fish in the Sea of Death?"
Leilin felt a wave of doubt. "Jiamen might be exaggerating, but the fact that the Sea of Death holds enormous danger—danger enough that even Wizards can't traverse it freely—is true."
"Chip! Can you scan the surrounding waters?"
"Ding! Too many radiation sources around the host, chaotic unknown force fields causing interference, scanning impossible!" The Chip popped up with a reminder.
"Radiation sources? Unknown force fields?" Leilin glanced over at Duolote nearby and vaguely understood.
"On our original continent, the number of Wizards was small, and all sorts of radiation fields didn't have much impact. The Chip's scanning range could even reach twenty li, but here in the camp, surrounded by apprentices and even official Wizards, the interference is too great! The Chip's scanning function has also been limited!"
"What's the specific scanning range now?" Leilin asked, his expression serious.
"Ding! Precise scanning range: within three hundred meters of the host! Fuzzy scanning range: within one thousand meters!" The Chip fed back the information.
"Haa..." Leilin let out a long breath. "Good! This distance is enough for danger warnings! But if we go to other continents or academies, this detection range will probably be reduced even further!"
"If you wish to increase the range, please upgrade the Chip!" Just then, the Chip sent another message.
"Can it still be upgraded?" Leilin's face was overjoyed.
"Upgrade!"
"Ding! Insufficient energy, please recharge!" The mechanical voice rang out, casting Leilin from heaven straight into hell.
"Damn! The Chip was already removed from my original body, so how can I take it out to recharge? Besides, even if I could, where would I find an energy device?"
Leilin clutched his head, then quickly recovered.
"Forget it. Since it can upgrade, there will always be a way later on. And its current functions are enough for me to use!"
"What did Jiamen just say to you?" A voice sounded, pulling Leilin out of his absent-minded state.
By the time Leilin came back to his senses, he realized Jiamen had left at some point, and Kreweir had taken his place beside him.
"Him? He just casually mentioned the departure schedule! Probably bored, I guess?" Beilu speculated. "After all, not talking all day is pretty tough for a person!"
"Mmm, true!" Kreweir nodded, then looked at Leilin. "We're about to set off, so don't run around. If you board the wrong ship, it'll cause a big trouble!"
"Ship?" Leilin looked out at the sea again, but still saw no sign of any vessel.
"Haha!" Kreweir laughed loudly. "Who said the ship has to come from the water?"
"Look!"
Following the direction of Kreweir's finger, Leilin and Beilu looked up, involuntarily dropping their jaws.
On the horizon, three enormous white vessels were gradually drifting closer from the distance.
As the ships drew near, their colossal shadows blanketed the entire camp, plunging the ground into sudden darkness.
"Oh! Look at that!" "Heavens!" "How beautiful!"
The crowd in the camp had clearly noticed the anomaly as well. Many people craned their necks upward, letting out all manner of exclamations.
"There you have it! These are a Wizard's means of transportation — floating ships! And we'll be riding aboard them!" Kreweir showed off with a touch of smug pride.
"That's just stuff Instructor Duolote told him. What's there to brag about?" Jiamen appeared at some point and remarked flatly.
"Damn it!" Kreweir stamped his foot.
The three floating ships continued their approach, descending steadily over the flat ground outside the camp before touching down smoothly amid the crowd's cheers.
"Hmm! They're a lot like the airships from my previous world's history. They've got the same massive gas envelopes — though I wonder if the gas inside is hydrogen?"
With memories from his past life, Leilin recovered from his astonishment considerably faster than everyone else, even having the composure to mull over the floating ships' construction.
The pure-white hulls settled onto the ground with a resounding rumble.
The cabin doors swung open, and several robed Wizards stepped out. A stir rippled through the camp, and a few elderly figures emerged to negotiate with them.
"Alright! Everyone, grab your belongings and follow me. Don't get separated!"
Duolote, cloaked in a black mantle that concealed his entire figure, began rounding up the apprentices.
The apprentices of Black Bone Forest scrambled about, rushing back to their wooden huts to pack.
Leilin had very few possessions — a water skin, a leather bag, the Cross Sword hanging at his waist, and a Crossbow strapped to his back. That was the entirety of his belongings.
Under the Wizards' guidance, the apprentices poured out of the camp and assembled on the plain, grouped by academy.
"Alright, listen up! When I call your name, pay attention. Nine-Ring White Tower, Wetland Garden… you'll be boarding the airship on the right — the one marked number 332. Don't get on the wrong one! Instructors, watch the ship numbers; apprentices, follow your instructors!"
"Also, Mesopotamia University, Grittl Academy… your airship is the middle one, number '955'." The voice continued speaking.
"…Black Bone Forest, Gothic Sage's Cottage… your airship is the one on the left, numbered '455' — don't get it wrong!"
Finally, Leilin heard Black Bone Forest called out and looked toward the airship on the left.
Up close, he realized the airship was enormous. Its gasbag resembled a massive white rugby ball, casting a wide shadow across the ground.
"Black Bone Forest apprentices, follow me!" Green flames burned in Duolote's eyes, with two shadowy figures trailing behind him — they looked like servants or subordinates.
Leilin walked in the middle of the group, glancing around.
With his keen eyesight, he spotted quite a few familiar faces from the convoy. Some of them noticed him and responded with a smile, while others were chatting excitedly with companions beside them.
On the far right, it was George's turn to board the airship. He waved vigorously in their direction before stepping into the cabin.
"From today on, the apprentices will all go their separate ways!"
A brief touch of melancholy surfaced in Leilin's heart, but it was quickly suppressed.