"This taste, ugh..."
After drinking the potion, Roy let out a burp.
It had the smoothness of milk tea, yet the consistency of a thick soup, sticky and greasy, with only a slight salty fishiness and no other flavor.
However, as the liquid slid down his throat and esophagus, a cold sensation seemed to spread from his stomach, causing him to shiver involuntarily.
The mysterious Aberrant Power made his skin crawl and his hair stand on end.
Naturally, it also surged toward his scalp, making it tingle.
A few minutes later, his hair began to grow rapidly.
Roy, who had previously kept his hair short for convenience as an apprentice, now found it growing down to his waist, unusually thick and dense.
The astonishing volume of hair would make all those suffering from baldness and hair loss green with envy, wishing they could pluck every strand and transplant it onto their own heads.
But even at this point, the hair continued to grow, showing no signs of stopping.
Roy watched as it spilled over the bed and began to cascade onto the floor.
Soon, it reached several meters in length, spreading across the room like black water, covering the ground.
Amid the smoky, fog-like black cloud, an eerie chill permeated the air, and within the dense black hair, several enormous shadowy figures, like pythons, seemed to writhe.
They were pitch black with a hint of red glow, slowly raising their heads, revealing their ferocity.
This was the permanent Animation Energy at work, the Aberrant Power from the Hair Ghoul Residue beginning to awaken within the hair!
Roy started to try and control it with his mental energy.
These were also the secrets of mastering the Animation Art, which were universally applicable.
Under the control of Wizardry, the hair suddenly shot out like tentacles in all directions.
Tables, chairs, beds, clothing racks, bottles, and jars...
All were entangled by strands of hair.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Glass shattered, and wooden boards creaked and deformed.
Suddenly, with a loud crack!
The tables and chairs broke apart, splinters flying everywhere!
Even the metal rod of the clothing rack twisted and bent under the force of the long hair.
"Indeed, the hair is incredibly tough, and when bundled together, it possesses several degrees of strength!
An ordinary person, without any enhancement, would never be able to break free from such entanglement!"
Roy thought to himself, impressed.
However, the hair was too long for practical use, so after a moment of contemplation, he began to try and retract it.
With a thought, the several-meter-long black waterfall of hair shrank back, stopping at waist length.
But he couldn't make it any shorter.
Roy ran his fingers through his sleek, jet-black hair, feeling a bit helpless.
He could only tie it up with a cloth band and then clean up the mess in the room.
...
"Roy, what happened to your hair!"
"It's so beautiful! What kind of hair growth potion did you drink? I've been staying up late recently, and my hair is falling out like crazy!"
Changes in appearance are hard to hide from those around you.
The next day, during another gathering, Renien and the others couldn't help but ask in amazement.
Niya, the female apprentice, was especially wide-eyed with envy.
Fortunately, the Wizard World is full of strange and bizarre things, so they didn't press for details, assuming he had just drunk the wrong potion.
Failed experiments leading to explosions, disfigurement, or various irreversible bodily harm are common.
Growing hair is nothing compared to sprouting extra arms or eyes, which is also considered normal.
"By the way, Tali has been pushing all sorts of mandatory tasks recently!"
Soon after, the group shifted their attention.
As the year drew to a close, the repercussions of last year's Forbidden Experiment continued to linger.
It was said that the Wizard Tower was preparing to amend its rules, mandating that all apprentices complete at least four missions annually.
They even encouraged exceeding the quota, offering additional rewards for doing so.
This back-and-forth increased the likelihood of various combat losses, even fatalities.
Roy, with his advantageous location like the apple orchard, had visited it several times over the past half-year while studying the Animation Art, so he wasn't too worried about such matters.
But others couldn't escape this trend.
"Sigh, I've only manifested up to the twelfth Willpower Rune, still several short."
"I'm worse off than you, only eleven!"
"Next June marks another Tower Purge, this time targeting second-year intermediate apprentices.
If we don't meet the requirements, we might really end up in the deacon's sequence just to retain our residency rights."
"That's like making mandatory missions a norm, consuming a lot of time and energy on things outside of our studies."
"What can we do? We can't catch up, and we can't shake it off..."
Others, lacking such convenience, were more or less concerned.
"By the way, Roy, you always seem to pass the tests smoothly...
You should be manifesting the fifteenth Rune by now, right?"
Renien posed a question.
"More or less," Roy replied vaguely.
"You're always like this, evasive no matter what we ask."
Renien wasn't foolish; he could tell Roy wasn't being serious in his response and couldn't help but express his frustration.
"But if you ask again, you better answer honestly... Do you have the strength of a low-level knight now?"
Roy said, "Of course, why?"
The strength of a low-level knight was something from a long time ago; he didn't mind revealing this to his companions to update their impression.
"That's great, we've all recently strengthened our physiques.
Why don't we just take on that high-level mission to hunt Magic Creatures together?"
Renien suggested happily.
"Five knight-level combatants should be enough to handle that Fishman tribe!"
"Five? Fishman tribe?"
"Exactly, the four of us, plus Celine...
Don't underestimate her, she now possesses the strength of an intermediate knight, much stronger than us!"
Renien briefly explained.
It turned out that while Roy was deeply engrossed in studying the Animation Art, they had each undertaken some mandatory missions for intermediate apprentices and had suffered minor setbacks at a Fishman tribe on the west coast.
But it was those experiences that revealed the tribe's considerable wealth.
If they could join forces to eliminate it, they could fulfill their mandatory missions while also bolstering their meager savings.
Roy, being penniless, was inevitably tempted.
He inquired in detail, seeking more information.
The Fishmen were a fierce, low-level Magic Creature species that often proliferated in large numbers near coasts and islands in the sea.
Since they frequently gathered marine resources, the great Wizards hadn't exterminated them but rather confined them to certain areas as training grounds for apprentices.
The Wizard Tower issued extermination missions annually to prevent their overpopulation.
But recently, there seemed to be some anomalies...
The related missions had increased.
Renien said, "Let's just take on the mission to exterminate them and wipe out the Fishman tribe!"
I've investigated, and the sea cliffs over there are abundant with Bitterheart Fruits, Pearl Clams, Azure Scale Lantern Fish, and other ocean produce.
Besides that, the tribe has a history of killing apprentices and the like, so there might be some inheritances left behind. If we deal with them, all of that will be ours!"
(End of Chapter)