"Ding-a-ling--"
As the wind chimes at the door gently swayed, a slender, fair hand softly pushed open the thick, heavy door of the Lu Jiao Alley Tavern, which was covered in elk graffiti.
The morning wind was biting, mixed with the dampness carrying the scent of early spring grass, causing the few young men dressed as mercenaries sitting by the door to shiver involuntarily.
"Are you the one who posted this quest?"
The voice was cold and clear. As the person who pushed the door gradually approached the bar, Luke, the bartender with a quarter elf bloodline, finally saw the plain face hidden beneath the hood of a light green wizard robe.
"You... hello..."
Fair skin, smooth black hair, exquisite features comparable to a pure-blooded elf – just a simple glance made Luke feel his cheeks burn and his chest tighten as if struck hard by an elk.
"I am Jia Na, a Wizard Apprentice from White Coral Academy. This quest to purify dark sun contamination, you posted it, right?"
Seeing the other person's flustered expression, Jia Na, who was already used to such reactions, calmly placed the quest notice in her hand on the table and repeated what she had just said.
"Oh... oh, so it is a respected Wizard. This quest was indeed posted by the Lu Jiao Alley Tavern on behalf of someone... I didn't expect you to arrive today, as I only gave the quest to the Raven Messenger yesterday."
Looking at the Wizard girl of only fourteen or fifteen years old in front of him, Luke, who was only a few years older than her, barely managed to steady his mind.
Especially when he saw the White Coral embroidery on the left chest of her wizard robe, the astonishment in Luke's eyes quickly turned into awe towards the White Coral Wizard Academy.
"Please wait a moment, Milady. I'll go upstairs and call the quest applicant down for you."
"Mm."
Quickly putting down the crystal goblet he had just half-wiped, even when facing an extremely young Wizard Apprentice, Luke, who had been rooted in the Tier 3 Wizard Gathering Place - Turin for several years, dared not show the slightest neglect. He practically ran up the wooden stairs around the corner behind the bar, stirring up dust.
"Has it been half a year already..."
Looking at the dust dancing beside the stairs under the refraction of sunlight, Jia Na's expression beneath her hood was one of daze.
It was as if a photo sealed at the bottom of a box had been rediscovered; a long-forgotten memory suddenly surged into her heart.
...
Jiang Bai, 28 years old, an office worker in a certain second-tier city with an 8-to-9 schedule, passed away suddenly due to a traffic accident.
Opening her eyes again, she found herself reborn in a bizarre Wizard World. And the object of rebirth was a fourteen-year-old girl from another world - Jia Na-Luo Lan.
Jia Na-Luo Lan was originally the illegitimate daughter of Viscount Roland in the Lower City. Because she was found to have Wizard Talent, she was accepted as a Wizard Apprentice by the Wizard organization in the Tier 3 Wizard Gathering Place, the City of Turin - White Coral Academy.
Unfortunately, while Jia Na was traveling to the City of Turin aboard a magic steamship, she encountered a magical beast attack.
The level of the magical beasts that attacked the ship was not high; just a few shots from the magic power cannons on the magic steamship successfully dispersed the disturbance.
However, Jia Na, who had been timid and cowardly since childhood, was literally "scared to death" by witnessing the ferocious and brutal appearance of the magical beasts on the deck.
And the "Jia Na" who woke up again was Jiang Bai, an otherworldly soul with a new core. The traces of consciousness in the original owner's soul completely disappeared, turning into scattered soul memory fragments that merged into Jiang Bai's soul.
It was precisely because of this that the reborn "Jiang Bai" not only directly mastered the common language of the Wizard World but also gained a superficial understanding of some basic common sense...
"Whoosh--"
Gently exhaling, memories of her previous life flashed quickly through Jia Na's mind like a series of greyed-out photos.
Although she had only been reborn for half a year, the memories of her previous life were becoming increasingly distant in Jia Na's mind.
Like a clear yet unfamiliar history, deeply engraved but unable to be mentioned again.
"Isn't it a kind of luck to be reborn into a transcendent world? In this life, I only want to explore the mysteries of Witchcraft, seek the path to eternal life, live a solitary life, and cultivate myself..."
...
"Thump, thump, thump, thump--"
The bartender Luke had not been upstairs for long when a rush of footsteps sounded from the stairs. In just a few breaths, three young men dressed as mercenaries quickly walked up to Jia Na.
"Greetings, respected Wizard. I am Blood Fang, the captain of the Demonic Wolf mercenary squad. This quest to purify dark sun contamination was commissioned by me through the Lu Jiao Alley Tavern to White Coral Academy."
Hearing this, Jia Na's dazed expression quickly returned to calm. She slowly removed her wizard hood, and her eyes, showing no trace of emotion, quietly looked at Blood Fang, the captain of the mercenary squad who was speaking in front of her.
Brown hair and eyes, short stature. Apart from a strange black lizard tattoo on his neck, this captain named Blood Fang was much more inconspicuous compared to the two bald, muscular men behind him, who seemed to have troll blood and were nearly two and a half meters tall.
"Hello, I am Jia Na, a Wizard Apprentice from White Coral Academy. Can you take me to see the contaminated person now?"
"Of course, no problem. This is exactly what I hoped for!"
"Creak--"
Led by the few people, Jia Na quickly arrived at the door of a guest room on the second floor. Gently pushing the door open, she saw a sturdy young man in knight's attire, with a greyish-blue complexion, lying on a wooden bed with his eyes closed. His breathing was weak, almost imperceptible.
"Take off his upper clothing."
"Yes."
Hearing Jia Na's words, the two bald mercenaries standing behind Blood Fang strode to the side of the bed and quickly removed the leather armor from the unconscious young man.
"Hiss--"
When the last layer of cotton clothing was removed from the young man, a large amount of skin flakes could be seen shaking off with the clothes.
His skin was greyish-white, covered in a layer of keratin that looked like fish scales. The skin covered in these grey scales resembled burnt tree bark, and just a glance made Luke, the bartender who had followed them upstairs, gasp and turn away, unable to look further.
"Tell me about his condition in detail."
Seeing the grey skin flakes scattered by the bed and the dense dark element aura on the chest of the unconscious young man, Jia Na couldn't help but frown.
"Respected Wizard, the four of us had just returned from the Mist Forest three days ago when Wolf Fang suddenly started having a high fever. The next day, his body began to grow these terrible scale-like things!"
"Seeing him like this, the three of us immediately went to ask for a Turin apothecary. However, that apothecary diagnosed that Wolf Fang was affected by some kind of contamination, and his potions couldn't cure it. We could only ask for a Purification Wizard to remove the contamination for him..."