Wizard: I devour the stars with swarms of insects.

Now, the girl in front of me reached out and tucked a strand of blonde hair that had fallen beside her ear behind her ear.

With youthful energy and beautiful eyes, she smiled at Wayne and took the initiative to greet him.

"Hello, classmate. My name is Erza, and I come from the 'Starry Sky' Wizard Tower. I don't think I've seen you around the academy before. You must be a new student, right? Which wizard tower are you from? What brings you to such a boring lecture?"

Wayne frowned slightly upon hearing the greeting.

I don't understand the other party's intentions.

However, out of politeness, Wayne still answered.

"Hello, I come from the Natural Symbiosis Wizard Tower. Wizard Morse, who is teaching me today, is my direct mentor."

"Oh, this..."

The wizard apprentices were stunned for a moment, their faces turning embarrassed.

Erza, the girl who had just said that Professor Morse's class was boring, looked a little embarrassed, her cheeks slightly flushed.

"What's wrong? Is there something you need?"

Wayne asked.

"Ah, cough cough~~ It's like this, you know, normally for us wizard apprentices, although we have a magic stone subsidy that the academy regularly distributes, it's really very little. It's not enough at all. Even buying a little bit of recovery potion or meditation materials makes us very strapped for cash."

Erza coughed, trying to regain her composure.

"Therefore, many wizard apprentices will spontaneously unite to form small mission teams similar to bounty hunters, taking on missions occasionally issued by instructors or first-class wizard apprentices in the academy to earn magic stone bounties. Hmm... the rewards are quite considerable."

"Of course, the rewards vary depending on the difficulty of the task. Some are hunting-related, some are material gathering-related... and some tasks, due to their high level of danger, also have requirements on the apprentice's level and qualifications."

"Our 'Night Song' wizard team, although it has only been established for a short time, has several level three wizard apprentices who are about to be promoted to second-level wizard apprentices, making it a formidable force."

"Oh, right, I almost forgot to ask you. I wonder what kind of witchcraft you learned when you were promoted to a third-level wizard apprentice?"

Erza blinked and asked.

"The Threads of Spirit Binding"

Wayne replied.

"Ah...I see..."

Erza seemed somewhat disappointed upon hearing Wayne's answer.

Furthermore, the other members of their group were now looking at each other with obvious disappointment, as if they had lost interest in recruiting.

"Well, the Spirit Binding Silk is indeed not a very powerful sorcery trick. Even when it is used with the team on hunting missions, it is not very effective."

Among the group, another person spoke up, his tone becoming somewhat indifferent.

"However, given our current shortage of people, here's what we'll do: although your sorcery is somewhat useless in the team, if you're willing to pay the team 3 magic stones per month, we can try to talk to the other members and make an exception. We might reluctantly agree to let you join our team when we're on a mission."

"How about it? This is a rare opportunity!" Erza said. "After all, with your 'Spirit Binding Silk' sorcery, almost no other team would want you. It's only because we're a newly formed team that we can barely make an exception for you and accept you..."

"Thank you, but I'm not considering it at the moment."

Before Erza could finish speaking, Wayne shook his head and refused.

Then, after saying goodbye, he left them behind and turned to leave.

I wasn't interested in their so-called "small team" to begin with.

When I answered Erza's question, it was purely out of politeness that I did so because they approached me.

Unexpectedly, these guys had a high opinion of themselves and claimed they were willing to lower their "requirements" to let them join their team, but they would need to pay a certain amount of magic stones.

Normally, I don't even have enough magic stones to spend.

These guys think they can just get me to hand over some magic stones every month for free with just a few words?

You must be dreaming!

The guys on the other side were clearly surprised that Wayne would refuse so readily and leave them behind.

Erza, in particular, after a brief moment of astonishment and stunned silence, had a flash of shame and anger in her eyes.

With her beautiful face, stunning figure, and gorgeous looks, recruiting such a new wizard apprentice would have been a piece of cake.

The other party should have obediently come up to you like a lapdog, just like the other members of the team.

Unexpectedly, he was turned away by this simply dressed newcomer whose mentor was not well-known, and was rejected in a straightforward and blunt manner.

The other members of the team were somewhat surprised and taken aback when they saw Wayne's decisive refusal.

The team remained silent for a moment as they watched Wayne's departing figure.

One of them couldn't help but scoff and said coldly.

"Hmph! What are you pretending for? Everyone knows that 'Spirit Binding Silk' is a useless skill, and it's one of the least popular skills in Morse's Wizard Tower."

"Exactly! Miss Erza took the initiative to invite him, and he still acts so arrogantly. He really doesn't know what's good for him..."

"Who else would want him besides us? If our wizard team hadn't just been established and we didn't have enough spots, who would even look at this guy?"

"Miss Erza, let's ignore this guy. How normal can someone be who chooses Wizard Morse as his direct mentor? He's probably got something wrong with his head."

Listening to the comforting words from the others in the group, and their mockery of the wizard apprentice.

Gradually, Erza felt much more at ease.

Seeing the direction Wayne left in, Erza took one last deep breath, couldn't help but stomp her foot, and said reproachfully.

"Hmph! Let's go find someone else... That ungrateful bastard will regret this someday!"

Next, several wizard apprentices turned and left the classroom.

......

After leaving the White Elephant Tower teaching building, Wayne returned to the Natural Symbiosis Wizard Tower along the paths inside the Wizard Academy.

When Wayne returned, he saw that Lord Morse's laboratory on the rooftop was lit up.

Thinking about what Professor Morse talked about today regarding the theory of biological evolution of "use and disuse".

After thinking for a moment, Wayne went up the spiral staircase to the top floor and knocked on the door of Morse's mentor's laboratory.

"Knock knock knock~~~"

After the knocking, a whirring sound immediately came from inside, which seemed to be the voice of the modified canine creature "Snoopy".

"Lord Morse, someone's coming! Someone's coming!"

Who is it?

Soon after, Morse's voice rang out from inside.

"It is I, mentor, your student, Wayne."

Wayne replied.

Then, the door in front of them creaked open gently.

"Come in."

Morse's voice came from inside the room.

So Wayne went inside.

Upon arriving at the lab, I saw that Professor Morse was processing a bloody, dripping, biological tissue, which looked like a stomach that had just been cut off from some kind of creature.

The tentacle monster "Poco" next to him was helping out, handing over various tools and materials from time to time.

"What's wrong? Is something the matter?"

Without turning his head, Professor Morse asked.

"Well... it's like this, Lord Morse, regarding the theories about biological evolution that you discussed in class at the 'White Elephant Tower' today, I have some..." Wayne looked up, paused, and continued, "...different opinions."

"Oh?" Upon hearing Wayne's answer, Instructor Morse stopped what he was doing, a hint of surprise in his goat-like vertical pupils: "Tell me about it."