The Wizard's Pursuit of Truth
Chapter 6: Widespread Panic, Fighting for Food

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Widespread Panic, Fighting for Food

The food choices were limited to bread and dried Sea Beast Flesh, along with a barely tolerable sweet sauce. With no other options, Wang Ya had no choice but to stock up in large quantities.

He was supposed to prepare for seven days, but Wang Ya quietly doubled that amount. That way, even if some unforeseen disaster left them adrift in the Endless Sea, he could hold out for a while.

After that, Wang Ya remained in his room, focusing on his Meditation practice with the Vast Sea Meditation Method.

[Prompt: Analyzing the second Wizard Rune of the Vast Sea Meditation Method. Estimated time to completion: 6 days, 3 hours.]

His pupils glimmered with a faint light. ’Compared to the game in my past life, where all information was analyzed instantly...’

’...the Eye of Truth in the Wizard World is much weaker.’

Still, its effect was a fundamental improvement for a Wizard.

Researching various types of Extraordinary Knowledge and conducting experiments all required a massive amount of time and energy.

Many Wizards became failures simply because they ran out of time, unable to perfect their own Wizard Path.

While deep in his Meditation practice, he also let Harak go out to forage for itself. However, he set a strict boundary: it was not to venture beyond the Wizard Ship’s hundred-meter safety perimeter.

But on several occasions when he viewed the world through Harak’s senses, he saw the dark, oppressive masses and peering eyes beneath the water’s surface... Even as an Extraordinary Creature, Harak trembled instinctively.

Those were Extraordinary Creatures far more powerful than Harak.

Wang Ya realized this fragile balance held steady; the hundred-meter radius was exceptionally safe.

The Wizard Ship must be under the protection of the Tuta Wizard. Even the powerful Extraordinary Creatures of the sea dared not trespass.

The only issue was that the amount of catchable food was dwindling, a fact that would surely be reflected in the automated cafeteria’s supplies.

Normally, a special trapping device on the ship’s hull would emit pheromones to attract low-tier Sea Beasts, which were then automatically hunted and processed in one seamless operation.

With so many terrifying Sea Beasts congregated just outside the hundred-meter perimeter, the lesser ones’ fear of death now outweighed the lure of the pheromones.

Those Sea Beasts hid deep beneath the waves; without careful observation, one would see nothing out of the ordinary.

Harak’s Extraordinary vision, however, saw the anomaly with perfect clarity, and its biological instincts screamed a warning.

’Still, that’s a problem for the higher-ups. As long as the Wizard Ship itself is fine, the situation hasn’t hit rock bottom.’

The memory of the Tuta Wizard’s terrifying aura that night was still fresh in his mind.

「A week passed.」

The social gatherings among the Wizards could no longer be held. The food shortage was becoming apparent, and the Wizard Freshmen were beginning to run out of their personal supplies.

The Tuta Wizard remained in the Captain’s Room, offering no response.

None of the Wizard Freshmen dared approach the Captain’s Room. One who tried was immediately overcome by an extreme, oppressive fear the moment he stepped onto the red carpet, causing him to drop trembling to his knees.

’I’ll die! If I go any further, I’ll die!’

Panic spread like wildfire through the ranks of the Wizard Freshmen.

Then, conflict arose—over food.

Without a command from the Tuta Wizard, the automated ship would not lower its gangplank.

The ship’s hull was a good ten to twenty meters above the heaving expanse of the Endless Sea. Anyone with the courage to jump possessed only a fool’s bravery.

So what could they do if there wasn’t enough food? The only option was to take it from others!

Easy times foster a semblance of civility, but when true hardship strikes, all pretenses fall away.

A kicked-open door revealed a ransacked room.

A young man with a bruised face clung to Rovena’s leg, desperation etched on his features. "Lord Rovena, I’m begging you, please don’t take my food! It’s all I have left! Please, show some mercy!"

"They already took my other food! If you take this, I’ll starve to death!"

A look of hesitation crossed Rovena’s face, and his movements faltered.

The hope on the bruised youth’s face was instantly crushed. A large hand forcefully snatched the white bread from his grasp, and a heavy kick sent him to the floor.

It felt as if his ribs were about to shatter. He collapsed onto the floor amid scattered books and papers, coughing violently.

His intermittent voice continued to plead, "Lord Rovena... Lord Arthur... please... I beg you, have mercy... My food..."

Rovena stared in shock at Arthur, who simply wore a mocking expression. "A Wizard Freshman with such low-tier aptitude was destined to be weeded out at the Dark Wizard Academy anyway," Arthur said.

"Food is precious right now. It belongs to top-tier freshmen like us."

"But!"

"Rovena, the four of us are different. We have a higher status. There’s only so much food, and who knows when we’ll reach the Wizard Continent? Every extra bite of food is one less moment of hunger."

Arthur kicked the young man in the head, knocking him out instantly. He then sneered, "Besides, didn’t he agree?"

"What are you two doing? Not done yet?" Ossen walked over, a look of impatience in his eyes from under his purple bangs. He was already carrying several bags of food.

"Almost," Arthur said, handing the food to Ossen. "We’ve checked everyone on this deck. Anyone who wasn’t in their room has probably run down to the lower levels to hide."

"Those cowards run fast," Ossen grumbled. "But we need to hurry. Who knows if some idiot low-tier freshman will decide to eat all their food at once or just destroy it."

Arthur clapped Rovena on the shoulder, smiling. "There, you see? The four of us are a team. These other low-tier freshmen don’t matter."

Rovena slowly nodded, falling into step. ’At worst, we can leave them just enough to survive,’ he thought. ’Our lives are what’s most important.’

"Hey, why didn’t Anna come?" Ossen complained.

"Anna’s a girl. We can handle this dirty work," Arthur said with a magnanimous laugh, the image of a certain fiery-red silhouette flashing through his mind.

’He had never wanted a woman so badly. For Anna, he could afford to be generous.’

Ossen’s brow furrowed, but when he saw Arthur’s expression turn cold, he gave up and headed deeper into the ship.

Their top-tier aptitude made the four of them stronger than the other Wizard Freshmen, even though none had yet mastered their first Newborn Witchcraft.

Under the influence of the ambient Particle Energy radiation, the improvements to their Physical Strength far surpassed those of the low-tier freshmen.

Clearing the second deck was much slower than the first.

The Wizard Freshmen had begun to mount organized resistance, but they were all suppressed by the combined force of the three top-tier freshmen.

No matter how they fought with all their physical Power, they couldn’t withstand a single punch backed by their opponent’s Power Dao. The gap between them was just that obvious.

A few Wizard Freshmen, who had attended fewer of the social gatherings and spent more time on their Meditation practice, actually gave Arthur and his cronies a bit of trouble.

"There’s still not enough food. If the four of us eat this, it will only last a month at most," Ossen said with a frown.

Rovena suddenly recalled something and blurted out, "That day... I think I saw a couple of Wizard Freshmen take a lot of food."

Arthur’s eyes lit up. "It was those two fools," he said.