Mythology Rebooted-Chapter 33 - 32 Do You Crave Power
33: Chapter 32: Do You Crave Power?
33 -32: Do You Crave Power?
That night,
Wayne enjoyed his dinner, released the doves from his hat for feeding, and took out the basic magic book related to messenger birds to study and reinforce his memory.
He had already memorized the book by heart, but still looked through it every day.
“Coo coo coo———”
On the table, the doves seemed startled by something and cooed as they burrowed back into the hat.
Out of the corner of his eye, Wayne caught sight of a shadow on the windowsill, with cold, merciless golden eyes staring intently at him.
The shadow was about thirty centimeters tall, still and motionless, with something resembling tendrils twisted and curled beneath its eyes.
Wayne jumped in fright, only to realize upon closer examination that it wasn’t some indescribable entity, but a black owl, staring straight at him with a mouse clutched in its beak.
The mouse was alive, and the writhing tendrils were its tail.
“You quirky little thing, you sure look different.”
Wayne complained, waving his hand to shoo away the curious owl, but the bird was bold, flapping its wings and landing on the table, placing the mouse in front of him.
The drab mouse, released by the owl, immediately started playing dead, its tail now still.
Wayne didn’t understand, then saw the black owl push the mouse with its claw and looked at him with a tilted head, its expression almost like saying, “Tonight, Brother Cat is buying, eat all you want, plenty of mice to go around.”
Wayne laughed, the wild owl wasn’t afraid at all and was quite welcoming, in comparison, his messenger bird, the Snowy Owl, deserved a good beating.
“Thanks a lot, but I don’t eat this, I have already had dinner,” Wayne waved his hands, attempting to make the owl leave on its own.
The effect was mediocre, it seemed that the black owl had misunderstood something, it pressed its claw on the mouse’s head and with a snap, the pretending mouse turned into a truly dead one.
After preparing the “ingredient,” the owl pushed it towards Wayne again with its claw.
“It’s not about being dead or not, never mind, you meant well…”
Wayne was quite helpless, he appreciated the gesture, but he really didn’t eat such things, he stood up and raised his hands high, trying to scare the owl away.
It was futile, the owl simply cocked its head, not at all frightened.
On the contrary, Wayne looked like a fool!
“You’re quite intelligent, knowing who’s good and who won’t hurt you.
Too bad you’re late, the Wayne household is fully staffed, I can only offer you one full meal, not a lifetime of meals.”
“Scat, scat, if you don’t leave I’ll make an extra meal out of you.”
Wayne reached out to catch the owl, which didn’t want to be touched by him, and with a push and shove, the black owl stood on the windowsill and vanished into the night sky.
“Quite cute…”
“Maybe, switch to a night-use messenger bird?”
Wayne cleaned up the dead mouse on the table, sat down to continue reading his book, and with a familiar feeling of annoyance, he turned his head to find the same black owl, holding another mouse.
“There are so many mice!”
Wayne complained, spreading his arms to prevent the owl from entering, and as he prepared to close the window, the owl flew away on its own.
Wayne didn’t move, just stood there, curious to see what new trick the owl could pull.
Two minutes later, Wayne was shocked.
The owl had brought back a necklace, and it bowed its head to place it on the windowsill.
The necklace’s overall design featured a Crucifix Star, each feather finely crafted, with the central Crucifix Star hollowed out and a Ruby as well as numerous small diamonds set into it, which looked like jewelry from the Renaissance.
Brother Cat understands me!
Wayne’s heart skipped a beat, he picked up the necklace for a look, and his eyes lit up; the necklace was covered with quite a bit of dirt, as if it had just been dug up.
“You…
ah, spit…
have more of this stuff?”
Wayne gestured with his hands, feeling grateful that good deeds receive good rewards, that what goes around comes around, not unreported, just deferred for something big.
Whether the owl understood him or not, it seemed to understand the difference in Wayne’s treatment of the necklace and the mouse.
After two minutes, it returned with a ring.
Afterward, the black owl brought over various jewelry items such as earrings, bracelets, and bangles one by one.
Wayne was so happy he couldn’t hide his grin.
Switch, switch tonight!
The Snowy Owl was disorganized and undisciplined, lackadaisical with no sense of collective honor or spirit of dedication, and unable to maintain proper communication with superiors, unfit for its current position.
After a meeting decision, the Snowy Owl was demoted to mascot and the Fortune Cat was appointed as the sole night-use messenger bird for the Wayne household.
The black owl brought small items, leading Wayne to speculate that it had discovered a large hidden treasure, and it was semi-exposed to the open air, seemingly one could scrape and uncover a heap simply by clawing at it.
To prevent artifact smugglers from destroying valuable jewelry through careless sales, Wayne decided to take custody of the items himself.
He climbed out of the window, effortlessly jumped from the second floor, and followed the black owl toward the treasure site.
During the journey, he lost sight of his guide several times, but the black owl always came back to lead the way.
Half an hour later, Wayne stumbled into a deep forest and discovered a cave in a crevice between rocks.
With a flashlight in hand, he shone the light into the cave.
It was very narrow at first, just wide enough for a person to pass, then after walking a few dozen steps, it suddenly opened up.
He hesitated a little, but his Supernatural Sensing did not signal any warning.
After pondering for a moment and believing in the responsibility of everyone to rescue precious artifacts, he squeezed into the cave.
The black owl led the way, once the space in the cave widened, it took flight and landed above a shadow.
Wayne pointed the flashlight there, and it was a stone-carved statue in a sitting position, holding a book, wrapped and entwined by vines over the years, its true appearance obscured.
Wayne’s attention was drawn to the book; moving closer, he noticed that the stone-carved hand featured a visible mechanism.
To extract the book, the mechanism had to be triggered.
The material of the book was unknown, as it showed no signs of decay despite the years, the pages clean and new, untouched by even a speck of dust.
Wayne saw the hexagram pattern on the cover and associated it with one of the three iron doors at the gym, guessing that this book was a magic book.
Wonderful, my luck has finally turned!
Wayne had read many novels where the male protagonist struck it rich and rose to power in exactly the same way as he was now, stumbling into a cave by accident, picking up a secret manual, achieving great mastery, stepping out and left-turning his way to defeating enemies, collecting beauties, and ultimately becoming an unmatched hero.
The genre had shifted from martial arts to Western fantasy, but that wasn’t a big problem.
Changing as they may, the essence of the gimmicks on both sides was actually the same, and the Western ones were even more straightforward.
Wayne, holding a flashlight, searched for a mechanism and found a line of text under the stone chair.
“Kneel before me a hundred times, receive my legacy, honor me as your master, follow my commands…”
Translation is a deep and profound discipline; this wasn’t the original wording, but Wayne translated it to more or less this meaning.
“I feel like I’ve seen this setup somewhere before!”
Wayne sneered.
It seemed that to receive the legacy of the magic book, one had to kneel a hundred times and then become the disciple of the master, following the master’s orders.
Kneeling was out of the question.
Besides, one knee for the king, both knees for faith—kneeling to teachers wasn’t the style here.
He muttered, “Teacher above, receive your student’s bow.”
After speaking, he bent at the waist in pretense and then hopped straight up.
He guessed that the mechanism was underground, and jumping a hundred times would have the same effect as kneeling a hundred times.
As expected, after about a dozen hops, he successfully triggered the mechanism.
The vines entwined around the statue spread out like snakes in all directions, and the stone figure holding the magic book slowly stood up, appearing to be a female wearing a hooded magic robe.
The black owl spread its wings and flew away, emitting a spooky hooting sound.
The statue stepped down from the chair, and with a stiff gesture, handed the magic book to Wayne, who felt a sense of solemn ritual in the act of the legacy’s impartation.
Wayne hesitated a moment, pondering that the person was already dead, so kneeling on one knee was the least he could do as a gesture of respect for his cheap new master.
Then he thought, since the person was already dead, kneeling or not made no difference; some respects could be kept in the heart without stressing over the outward form.
He shamelessly took the magic book, juicy with anticipation and about to open it, when he heard the statue start to speak slowly, “You’ve taken my magic book, from now on you are my student, and you must obediently follow your teacher’s orders, no regrets allowed.”
Holy moly, you can talk! novelbuddy.cσ๓
Wayne’s eyes widened as he clutched the magic book and nodded repeatedly, thinking, ‘Teacher, please go on your way, your student won’t see you out.’
Why aren’t you leaving, Teacher?
Come on, off you go!
Leaving was evidently not on the agenda; the statue shed the particles of sand and dust from its surface, revealing a delicate and enchanting figure – a living female mage dressed in a hooded long robe, with a body temperature and breathing.
The black owl landed on the mage’s shoulder, ducked its head, and disappeared into the robe.
The mage lifted her hood, and with short hair and a delicate face, it turned out to be the face of Slyphy.
Wayne: (-`д´-)
He didn’t believe it and shone his flashlight to confirm the fact, it was unmistakably Slyphy Valentine.
You’re a mage?!
“Wayne, this apprenticeship was a bit hasty and you severely lacked sincerity, but you passed my test earlier, proving your character, and by accepting this magic book, you are now my student,” Slyphy said, smiling softly and tempting him in a lowered voice, “So, how about it?
Now that you’ve seen the truth of this world, do you start to crave power?”
Young man, do you desire power?
This plot was still old school, Wayne rolled his eyes, and as he waved his hand before Slyphy’s eyes, a pure strand of Magic Power spilled out, abruptly disrupting her pretentious disciple-recruitment rhythm.
“You’re late, someone’s already told me the truth of the world.”
“You’re a mage?!”
Slyphy stood dumbfounded; she hadn’t detected any trace of magic power from Wayne during the day they’d spent together.
This wasn’t surprising, as many excellent mages could conceal their presence, appearing just like ordinary people.
She was astonished by Wayne’s magic power; though it wasn’t much, it was absolutely pure.
The scant amount of magic power suggested that Wayne had only recently come into contact with magic.
The concealment was hard to observe, but the purity indicated he was a genius!
Excellent teachers, parents kneel and beg for connections.
Excellent students, schools offer scholarships to snag one.
Seeing as it was that way, it was time to change the apprenticeship routine.
Slyphy thought to herself that it might be difficult; she might even have to exert pressure to snatch Wayne from another mage.
Would it impact her reputation negatively to start grabbing people as soon as she arrived in Lundan?
Slyphy waved her hand, erecting an earthen wall to block the cave’s exit.
Her eyes flickered with a luminescent green flame as she spoke sternly, “Wayne, tell me the truth, who is your teacher, who led you onto the path of magic?”
“I don’t have a teacher.”
“Impossible…”
“Indeed, I don’t have a teacher.
A cursed wretch planted a Magic Seed inside me, and then I found my own magic power,” Wayne explained truthfully, omitting the cursed wretch’s name.
At the moment, he was still surprised by Slyphy’s identity as a mage: a fashion designer and a mage, could she manage both?
“How long have you had control of magic power?”
“Not too long, just this week.
If I weren’t leaving Lundan, I’d be signing up for night school.”
“…”
What kind of weird place is night school, and does it deserve you!
Slyphy remained silent, the induction of magic power was absurdly crude; the straightforward method clearly wasn’t from a powerful mage.
Good, since the other party left Wayne to his own devices, allowing him to wander cluelessly outside, she wouldn’t hold back.
Goddess above, this disciple has potential!
