Reincarnated as a blue dragon, he collided head-on with a wizarding civilization.

One week later, on the appointed day.

Matthew stood before Calder once more, in the center of the cold stone chamber filled with the stench of medicine and decay.

He covered the left side of his face with his hood, but the deformed marks still showed through his collar and cuffs.

The growth covered Matthew's entire left lower jaw and extended to his left ear. Even when he tried his best to close his nails, they were noticeably longer than normal, presenting an unnatural curve and sharpness.

His posture was slightly more upright than when he last came.

The unique magic of the advanced apprentice surrounded him, his aura mixed and fierce, yet far more powerful and profound than before.

Like a thin, almost invisible, cold mist, it slowly circulates throughout the body.

Calder paced slowly around Matthew, the soles of his black boots making a regular, monotonous clattering sound as they rolled over the cool, smooth stone slabs.

Each sound carried a sense of scrutiny and weighing.

He walked slowly and deliberately, completing one lap and then a second, his demeanor calm and indifferent.

Like a meticulous craftsman carefully examining a freshly made, unpolished piece, scrutinizing its strengths and weaknesses.

After a long while, he finally stopped in front of Matthew, and without warning, raised his hand and yanked off the other man's hood.

When he saw the distorted patterns spreading across the other person's scalp and neck, Calder's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, and a clear look of surprise flashed across his eyes.

The extent of the mutation, erosion, and alienation within his disciple's body had far exceeded his initial expectations.

Matthew's left side of his face was almost entirely covered by gray-green, rough-textured, jagged-edged scaly growths.

His left eye had been completely transformed into a vertical pupil like that of a reptile, with a dark yellow pupil and an unnatural, eerie green ring around the edge, like that of rotting plants.

However, at the edge of that proliferating tissue, Calder keenly spotted an extremely faint, pale green halo.

That was the energy characteristic of the Green Dragon bloodline, stubbornly using the pressure of its high-level biological status to suppress the further spread and deterioration of the Swamp Poison Lizard's mutated power.

This is undoubtedly a costly advancement with endless hidden dangers, and it may even sever the path to becoming a wizard in the future.

But at least he survived.

Moreover, he was conscious and able to enter the laboratory on his own.

Calder lowered his hand, turned around, and walked slowly back to his messy and dangerous obsidian lab bench.

"It's better than I expected. At least you survived."

Matthew hung his head, his hood pulled back, revealing his deformed left face to the cold air. He did not speak.

"You killed Arnold, didn't you?"

Calder spoke again, his voice flat.

It's not a question; it's a statement.

Matthew's body stiffened almost imperceptibly for a moment.

His lips moved as if he wanted to defend or explain, but in the end, he simply lowered his head further and chose silence.

"You fused the green dragon card within him, using it as your second bloodline to balance and even suppress the swamp lizard mutation after you advanced to advanced apprentice."

With his back to him, Calder fiddled with the glassware on the lab table while speaking in a tone as analytical as if dissecting a lab report.

"In the absence of stable energy from Thunderwood, the bloodline of a higher-level creature is introduced to forcibly dominate..."

The approach wasn't wrong, and what's more, you actually succeeded.

He slowly turned around, and his eyes, filled with the weight of time and indifference, fell upon Matthew.

"But have you thought about this?"

His voice remained steady, yet it carried an invisible pressure.

"Arno is also my student. Strictly speaking, that green dragon rune card is the property of the laboratory."

You have no right to dispose of it privately.

Matthew lowered his head even further, almost burying it in his chest.

His shoulders began to tremble slightly, uncontrollably.

It wasn't fear, but a violent emotional fluctuation mixed with anger, humiliation, and a sense of powerlessness.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Professor."

His voice was unusually hoarse, as if it had been repeatedly sanded.

"I...I was truly...desperate. Please...please give me some more time. I'm willing...to do anything to make up for the lab's losses..."

Calder remained noncommittal about his promise, not even raising an eyebrow.

He turned around and took something out of a locked drawer under the lab bench.

It was a fist-sized, alchemical device with a cold, hard metallic sheen.

Its shape resembles a curled-up metal spider, with eight slender, articulated tentacles tightly folded under its flat, oval abdomen.

The back of the device is etched with a dense array of extremely fine runes, which are connected by silver, neural network-like energy patterns.

The edge of the device clearly shows several standard card slot interfaces.

Its interface is exactly the same as the rune cards that Matthew used before, including Arno's green dragon card.

In the wizarding system of Calder's lineage, these cards, inscribed with different runes and bloodline information, serve as the medium for carrying power and skills.

This device is essentially a portable, highly precise sensor for collecting and monitoring physiological data.

"Now that you have been successfully promoted, you are no longer a worthless reject."

Calder handed the metal spider device to Matthew, speaking as if he were assigning a routine experimental tool.

"Wear it. It will continuously record all your key physiological data, including vital signs, magical fluctuations, and changes in the activity of aberrant tissues."

Successful promotion of aberration samples... is rare.

Matthew reached out and took the cold metal device.

His fingertips trembled violently the moment they touched the metal spider's shell!

It was a hatred that surged in my chest like magma, almost bursting through the dam of reason!

The hatred was so intense, it seemed to have turned into scalding poison, seeping out from between his fingers and from every pore of his body.

This intense emotion was burning his nerves, making his hands tremble uncontrollably!

He recognized the device!

He even personally dealt with experimental magical beasts wearing similar devices for Calder!

This so-called data collector is simply a standard tool used in laboratories to treat live samples that have been captured, kept in captivity, and subjected to various cruel tests!

The purpose is to monitor every physiological response and every energy change of the sample under different stimuli in order to collect the most perfect and effective data samples.

He never imagined that he would go through so much hardship, pay such a heavy price, and even have his hands stained with the blood of his relatives and friends before finally becoming a high-ranking wizard apprentice.

In the mentor's eyes, they were no different from those monster organizations that were soaked in culture medium and at the mercy of others!

Humiliation, anger, resentment, despair...

A variety of emotions gnawed at his heart like venomous snakes.

However, faced with a registered wizard from the Holy Blood Tower who was at least level two, he had no other choice at this moment.

Matthew closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, all that remained in his eyes was a dark, lifeless stillness.

With trembling hands, he pressed the metal spider device forcefully against his left chest, above his heart.

"Buzz..."

The array of runes on the surface of the device suddenly lit up with a faint light!

The next second, the eight metal claws that were originally curled up suddenly sprang open and straightened up like venomous snakes that had just awakened!

The sharp tip mercilessly pierced Matthew's skin and clothing, digging deep into his flesh!

"Well--!"

Matthew couldn't help but let out a suppressed groan of pain!

He could clearly feel those cold, hard metal tentacles crawling and drilling slowly and steadily beneath his skin, like living things!

They penetrate the fat layer, squeeze through the muscle fibers, pierce the fascia, and extend deeper into the chest cavity, towards the meridians, blood vessels, and even the vicinity of the heart that are so closely related to life and magic!

A sharp pain exploded in my chest and instantly spread throughout my body!

It felt as if someone had driven a red-hot iron spike deep into his heart!

Matthew clenched his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.

He forced himself to stand firm, refusing to kneel due to the excruciating pain.

After a few breaths, the deep, stinging pain gradually subsided and transformed into a persistent, dull ache and discomfort, like a foreign object embedded in the bone.

The monitoring device has been fully integrated into his chest cavity.

The runes on the surface dimmed, and the metal shell strangely merged with the surrounding skin tissue, leaving only a tiny, light-colored scar in the shape of a cross on the chest.

But Matthew knew it was inside.

He could clearly feel the presence of the eight metal tentacles, feel their every tiny wriggling movement, and feel the cold, tight connection established between the end of each tentacle and his own meridians and blood vessels.

They are like the most greedy parasites, constantly extracting, recording, and transmitting data from his life activities.

Calder seemed completely unconcerned, as if he had simply completed a routine equipment installation.

He had turned back around, picked up the slender metal probe, and continued to probe the silent, wriggling biological tissue in the culture container.

"Go ahead. You're free now. Go find something you enjoy doing."

His voice came from the lab bench, flat and emotionless.

"Your life is useful to me."

Matthew stood there, like a petrified statue, silent for a very long time.

His gaze was fixed on Calder's slightly thin figure, dressed in a dark red robe.

The other person's gray hair was neatly combed, and their thin shoulder blades were clearly outlined under their long robe.

Matthew watched silently and for a long time.

His deformed claw, covered in gray-green scales and curved into a hook shape, hung at his side, gleaming with a cold and deadly light under the cold white rune light.

His breathing became heavy and slow, his chest heaving noticeably beneath his robe, as if a storm was brewing within him.

Time, in the cold standoff, ticked away second by second.

Calder, however, kept his back to his disciple, shaking the metal probe in the vessel as if he were completely unaware.

In the end, however, Matthew did nothing.

He simply turned around slowly, very slowly.

Their steps were heavy and slow, one step at a time, as they walked towards the exit of the stone chamber.

"Thump."

The heavy stone door slammed shut behind him with a dull thud, temporarily isolating him from that cold world.

Outside the door was a narrow, dimly lit corridor illuminated only by a few runestones in the corner.

Matthew's footsteps echoed lonely in the empty corridor, each step sounding exceptionally clear.

His right hand silently slipped deep into the sleeve pocket of his robe.

My fingertips touched something.

It was a small strand of hair carefully tied with thin hemp rope.

The color is the light brown with a natural curl that Arnold had during his lifetime.

This is the only thing he kept from Arnold's remains.

It's not an important organ or tissue, just a strand of hair.

He kept it close to his body, deep inside his pocket.

His fingers gently, with a complex emotion, caressed that cool, supple strand of hair.

Then, he withdrew his hand, stopped lingering, and quickened his pace.

At the end of the corridor was a heavy stone door leading to the ground.

A sliver of golden, warm sunlight, belonging to the outside world, leaked in through the crack in the door.

Matthew stopped in front of the stone door, raised his hand, and placed it on the cold, rough doorknob.

His left side of his face was shrouded in the shadow of his hood, making it impossible to discern any expression. Only his exposed, dark yellow vertical pupil gleamed with an indescribable eerie light in the dimness.

He pushed the door open forcefully.

"Whoosh—"

The intense and warm sunlight, like a flood bursting its banks, rushed in instantly, completely enveloping him from head to toe!

The sunlight relentlessly illuminated everything about him.

Beneath the hood was a distorted and deformed face, half of which was covered in gray-green scales; and a deformed left arm covered in scales of the same color, with curved claws.

And beneath his clothes, there was a newly added, tiny cross-shaped scar, a symbol of restraint and surveillance.

He stood at the boundary between light and darkness, pausing for a moment.

Then, he stepped into the dazzling yet unfamiliar sunlight.