“In those days when I drank day and night to numb myself, I could hardly find any meaning in life.”

“All the regulars at that library knew one thing.”

“That strange fellow who hid in the corner reading books every day, after finally achieving his wish and becoming a mage, chose to drown himself in alcohol day and night instead.”

“After I wallowed in that state for a year.”

“That teacher who had expelled me from the Mage Tower, after inadvertently hearing news of me, actually came to see me…”

“The first thing he said upon seeing me was, ‘Congratulations on becoming a mage!’ What a dramatic scene that was.”

“I almost broke down sobbing as I told him I had wasted a full forty years!”

“He stood to the side without saying a word, just looking at me, utterly broken, with a face full of relief…”

“After I had cried my fill, he took me back to his Mage Tower.”

“The next day, after casually tossing me a book filled with various spells, he smiled and drifted away.”

“He left me with only one sentence: he was going to travel the Star Realm, and told me to watch over his Mage Tower…”

“Forty years had passed, and he was already a powerful Legendary Mage.”

“In the Mage Tower, only I remained, along with some extraordinary puppets my teacher had created with magic.”

“The sixteen apprentices who had stayed in the Mage Tower back then had all left after becoming Fourth Stage Mages to pursue their own paths of magic.”

“At first, alone in the Mage Tower, I continued my downward spiral. Every day was just drinking, and once drunk, I’d just sleep…”

“I had nowhere else to go.”

“Forty years of being lost in books left me with no friends, and I had lost my family too.”

“My parents passed away in consecutive years, when I was fifty-two and fifty-three respectively.”

“I lived like this for a few more months.”

“Until, one sunny noon.”

“That noon, I woke up from a hangover and, as usual, wanted to get up to buy more wine.”

“Then, I subconsciously felt my pockets.”

“My face changed drastically!”

“I discovered I had no money left. The salary from forty years of working at the library, after being squandered for over a year, was finally gone!”

“I had no money to buy wine!”

“So, wanting a drink, I thought of finding some useless things in the Mage Tower to sell.”

“Once I had money, I could go back to drinking.”

“But, just as I was about to act!”

“I discovered the extraordinary puppets in the Mage Tower had all been given an order by my teacher: to guard all the Tower’s property!!”

“Being only a First Stage Mage, I couldn’t even defeat a First Stage extraordinary puppet left by my teacher!”

“After trying for half a day, I gave up on selling off the useless stuff in the Mage Tower.”

“I planned to leave the Mage Tower, go to the Professionals’ Guild to find some work, earn a bit of money to buy wine.”

“And then, I discovered those extraordinary puppets saw me as a thief!”

“Because of my attempt to take things to sell for money, their orders had changed!”

“I was no longer the Tower’s caretaker! I was now a thief!!”

“They intended to trap me, the thief, inside the Mage Tower, not allowing me to leave! Until my teacher, who was traveling the Star Realm, returned!!”

“Those powerful extraordinary puppets blocked my way out of the Mage Tower!!”

“After starving for a day, I was forced to open that spellbook my teacher had left me!”

“I planned to learn some First Stage spells to defeat that First Stage extraordinary puppet guarding the Mage Tower’s kitchen!”

“If I didn’t get something to eat soon, I, a mere First Stage Mage, would starve to death inside the Tower!”

“Of course, the main thing was that damned physical talent of mine made me get hungry exceptionally fast!”

“While learning First Stage spells, I noticed something different about myself compared to before.”

“My speed at learning First Stage spells was abnormally fast. I could almost learn a spell after reading it just twice!!”

“Starving as I was, I didn’t think too deeply about it!”

“I just figured that old man, my teacher, still had a shred of conscience and had finally left me spells that were easy to learn!”

“In one hour, I learned all the First Stage spells in the book! A total of nine First Stage spells!”

“Having learned the spells, I eagerly went to the kitchen in the Mage Tower and launched a magical assault on that First Stage extraordinary puppet guarding it!”

“After a hard-fought battle, that puppet was defeated by me. I exhausted its energy, turning it into a motionless decoration!”

“I charged into the kitchen and made myself a meal!”

“In the Mage Tower’s kitchen, there was a spatial storage inscribed with a preservation array, filled with all sorts of ingredients.”

“At least I wouldn’t have to worry about starving to death.”

“After eating my fill, I lay on the floor outside the kitchen, pondering the changes in myself!”

“However, I had only just lain down to rest for a while!”

“The extraordinary puppets in the Mage Tower gathered around me, their eyes emitting a terrifying red light!”

“Because I had forcibly entered the kitchen, my status changed from thief to intruder!!”

“That day, those extraordinary puppets beat me black and blue! I couldn’t get up for a long time!”

“And the more terrifying thing was, every time I entered the kitchen to make a meal, I would get ganged up on and beaten by those extraordinary puppets!”

“At first, I thought about just hiding in the kitchen and not coming out.”

“Then, I discovered! That old man, my teacher! Had actually set up a teleportation array inside the kitchen!”

“The kitchen actually had designated meal times! I could only stay inside for two hours each time! Once the time was up, I’d be teleported out by that array!!”

“To face the inhuman beatings from the extraordinary puppets!”

“Later, I thought about taking out a lot of food at once!”

“Then, I discovered again! The old man had also set up a restraining array in the kitchen! Once food reached the kitchen door, it would be forcibly restrained by space!!”

“Let me say it again! That damned physical talent of mine! Made me get hungry especially easily! And when the hunger hit, it was especially hard to endure!”

“And so, I was practically ganged up on and beaten by those extraordinary puppets every single day!!!”

“After being beaten enough times, my body gradually grew accustomed to the pain.”

“So, gritting my teeth against the pain, lying on the ground, I started flipping through that spellbook again!!”

“Incidentally, I also learned a profound Meditation method from the spellbook.”

“The days that followed became quite regular.”

“I’d eat a meal, then get ganged up on and beaten once! Then, I’d lie on the ground grimacing, start Meditating! After Meditating, I’d start learning spells above my current level!!”

“Three years later!”

“In this year when I was fifty-eight! I finally walked out of that terrifying Mage Tower!”

“By then, I was already a Fourth Stage Mage, and a Fifth Tier Warrior!”

“Those damned extraordinary puppets! Without me having any contact with any warrior legacy! Had literally beaten me into becoming a Fifth Tier Warrior!!!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep