The tiered classroom fell silent for a minute.

Saul frowned with a disappointed expression.

“Can’t any of you understand such a simple question?”

Saul’s words rang like a bell, jolting awake all the apprentices in the tiered classroom.

Only David, who had just had his locator modified, remained seated with his eyes closed, meditating seriously.

He understood this might be his only chance to advance to true wizard status.

Combined with Saul’s recent reminder, he naturally wouldn’t be distracted by other matters.

But under Saul’s prompting, a third-level apprentice finally raised his hand.

“Instructor Saul, is it about choosing a locator suitable for oneself?”

Several more people subsequently provided answers—attribute matching, accommodating one’s nature—but Saul kept shaking his head.

At this point, the apprentice in the middle of the back row suddenly spoke up, “Instructor, are you trying to say we need to clearly understand ourselves?”

Although the person answering wasn’t Saul’s target, it didn’t matter.

“Exactly. If you can’t recognize yourself clearly, then there’s no point discussing compatibility or attributes…”

Saul briefly explained how to understand one’s own attributes and know what one excels at.

“…Of course, everyone’s situation is very complex. The methods I’ve mentioned might not suit everyone, but this is exactly what you as wizard apprentices need to think about. If you only rigidly receive information, even cats could become wizards.”

“Meow?”

Kate, perched outside the lecture hall window, felt offended.

Perhaps seeing that Saul could joke around and wasn’t as serious and unapproachable as other instructors, an apprentice sitting in the front row cautiously raised his hand to ask a question.

“Instructor, could you give more examples about how to understand ourselves?”

Saul walked into the aisle with his hands behind his back, pausing briefly beside the questioning apprentice, whose forehead immediately beaded with sweat.

Saul thought to himself, “I haven’t even started intimidating you yet.”

He continued walking forward. “I hope you genuinely want me to give an example, not use examples as a substitute for your own thinking process. If that’s the case, even if you advance to true wizard status, you’ll quickly develop mutations.”

Saul walked all the way to the back row and suddenly pointed at his target. “Let me randomly choose someone for an example. What’s your name?”

The target apprentice seemed somewhat surprised that Saul would choose him.

After all, previous instructors never bothered with the apprentices in the back row.

However, he still stood up. “Instructor, I’m Nathan.”

Saul nodded, deliberately not looking at him, as if he had truly just randomly selected an apprentice.

“Wizard Laura already told me that the apprentices in the back row all have good prospects for advancement, so they usually don’t monitor your progress. But precisely because of this, using you as an example won’t interfere with your own thinking, since you’ve already thought through most things.”

Saul waved his hand. “I’ll examine your situation. Don’t resist.”

Without giving Nathan any chance to respond, Saul used his mental power to scan him from head to toe.

Nathan appeared somewhat dazed.

His expression was strange—seemingly surprised, but mixed with a hint of sudden realization.

Saul noted Nathan’s emotional changes in his mind, “He’s somewhat surprised, but it doesn’t seem like surprise at being used as an example. There’s also some certainty about this happening. Could he have already sensed I would do this? Or sensed that today’s events would occur?”

The white porcelain cat!

Saul understood—this Nathan had probably also used the white porcelain cat’s ability!

“So I’ve become his stroke of luck? Or he was lucky to appear before me when I was waiting at the broken tower.”

No wonder Saul had encountered Nathan after only two days of waiting.

So it was mutual attraction!

Saul smiled and began following the white porcelain cat’s luck, describing Nathan’s situation to him.

“Your talent is quite good, your mental power is stable, and your magical reserves are sufficient. Your locator also suits your body quite well.”

Naturally, Saul couldn’t reveal all of Nathan’s details to others. He only explained several aspects from which Nathan could understand his own situation.

All the apprentices in the classroom turned around, including the other two in the back row, and began taking notes.

After Saul finished explaining several general methods, he waited briefly.

Nathan’s face showed some anxiety.

Clearly, Saul’s explanations were valuable, but still couldn’t satisfy his needs.

Saul became even more certain of his guess and continued, “Your locator proves your self-understanding is sufficient, but…”

A single “but” made Nathan tense up again.

“Your locator is very domineering, and you are too lazy.”

“Instructor Saul, Nathan actually works very hard.” The apprentice from the back row who had answered earlier spoke up for Nathan.

“Not enough.” Saul denied the others’ thoughts. “I think you might be too lucky—you only tried hard a few times and got quite correct answers. This led to you getting the problems right without summarizing the true patterns contained within them. So now… you can barely suppress your locator anymore, right?”

Saul smiled. This time he didn’t help Nathan modify his locator, but walked leisurely back to the podium with his hands behind his back.

In stark contrast to Saul’s relaxed demeanor were the other apprentices’ shocked expressions.

They all looked toward Nathan.

Saul’s final words clearly warned Nathan that his condition was already dangerous.

Could one of the class geniuses actually be a pitiful soul about to mutate?

Of course, no one dared voice their thoughts, but their occasional glances back at Nathan exposed their true intentions.

Nathan clenched his fists, his face alternating between red and pale, but he explained nothing, simply sitting back down after Saul left.

Although a class session lasted an entire morning—nearly four hours—no instructor actually lectured continuously.

So after this explanation, Saul had the classroom apprentices examine themselves while forbidding them from asking questions.

Saul meditated with his eyes closed while contemplating how to continue communicating with Pei’er from the Prismatic World if he had Ophelia’s help.

This was obviously his true purpose for coming here.

He waited until noon when he heard a special bell sound, like bird calls.

Only then did he rise and leave the classroom.

After Saul left, the apprentices in the classroom immediately began quietly discussing this new substitute instructor, praising his real abilities while feeling both fear and gratitude.

At this moment, a middle-aged man hurried into the classroom and went straight to the back row. “Nathan, lend me some money.”

Nathan had originally wanted to immediately chase after Saul, but being stopped by the newcomer, his face showed delight without any impatience.

“Paul? You’re not following the airships anymore?”

Paul was the same third-level wizard apprentice who had once questioned Saul on the airship.

He looked expressionless and somewhat gloomy.

“There was a death on the airship, so now it’s detained for investigation. I can only stay in Green Shade Alley with Mina for now.”

While taking out money, Nathan asked strangely, “Why does someone dying now require detaining the airship?”

Paul shook his head. “I don’t know either. It’s just that Sky City seems to be under martial law now—easy to enter, but strict searches are required to leave.”

Nathan’s expression shifted, though he quickly said nonchalantly, “Whatever happens, it’s the big shots’ business and has nothing to do with us wizard apprentices.”

Paul said, “Let’s hope so.”

After leaving the lecture hall, Saul didn’t immediately return to the inn.

He walked around the nearby area and encountered Wizard Laura.

Laura seemed to have already heard about Saul’s class content from other apprentices and appeared somewhat surprised.

It was rare for true wizards to lecture about locators.

First, this was essentially a closely guarded skill, and second, even first-rank true wizards had limited understanding of locators—being stumped by apprentice questions would be embarrassing.

“Wizard Saul is truly impressive. I think you’ll be able to enter the Academy of Knowledge soon.”

Saul was about to respond when he suddenly detected a familiar magical fluctuation approaching, so his response became…

“I hope so, but sometimes I really… lack a bit of luck. Coming to Sky City this time hasn’t been as smooth as I previously envisioned.” He smiled bitterly.

With complete sincerity.

(End of Chapter)