In Nidhogg’s small dwelling, he opened his eyes and instinctively thought about the wild night he had shared with Nina. The exhilarating sensations drove him to indulge repeatedly, reaching the verge of madness. Even now, Nina's soft breathing seemed to echo around him.

"What a feeling..." Nidhogg closed his eyes, savoring the reckless abandon of the night before. The pleasure rivaled the thrill of delving into deeper layers of wizardry knowledge, a joy that seemed to emanate from the depths of his soul.

Suddenly, Nidhogg jolted awake!

No, this was merely a bodily instinct. Wizards are beings driven by the pursuit of absolute wisdom and the quest for truth—how could they yield to base instincts like beasts? With this thought, Nidhogg quickly sat up, shaking his head vigorously.

Yet, when he turned to see Nina still sleeping beside him, her body partly covered, the sight of her stunning curves, smooth and fair skin, and vibrant, full figure made Nidhogg swallow involuntarily.

Who hasn’t been young once?

"Gulp... Ah, forget it. I'll give myself a half-day off today."

With this in mind, Nidhogg gently snuggled closer to the sleeping Nina, embracing her alluring form from behind, feeling her warmth and beauty.

“Mmm... again?” Nina’s voice, soft and alluring, came from deep in her throat.

As she opened her eyes, a thought seemed to strike her. She quickly turned, her long lashes framing eyes as beautiful as stars, staring intently at Nidhogg as though trying to see through him.

Feeling slightly uneasy under Nina's gaze, Nidhogg blushed and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“You’re finally all mine. From now on, you belong solely to me!” Nina exclaimed joyfully, playfully threatening him. She held Nidhogg tightly against her chest, nearly suffocating him with her exuberance.

After a while, Nina finally released Nidhogg, looking into his eyes with a teasing grin. “Listen, you are mine and mine alone. If I catch you with another woman, well... you know what will happen!”

“Uh...”

They stayed in bed until noon, something unfathomable for Nidhogg in the past.

Nina wandered around Nidhogg's room and lab afterward, gently caressing his cheek. “Now I know where you live, so no more disappearing on me. But…”

After a brief pause, she continued, a bit shyly, “We’re still apprentice wizards. Our goal is to become full-fledged wizards. Love is wonderful but merely a long-life companion and seasoning. Let’s not get too lost in it.”

Encouragingly, Nina added, “Your priority now is to survive the trials. I don’t want to lose the one I love so soon and have to attend your funeral.”

Feeling a bit awkward under Nina's strong persona, Nidhogg could only agree, “Yes, you too.”

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“Mm-hmm,” Nina hummed, stealing a final kiss before leaving without looking back.

Nidhogg steadied his emotions.

He hadn’t expected that attending a Bloodsail Alliance meeting right before the trials could lead to all this.

His keen Hunt Nose detected traces of Nina’s scent all over him—a sweet and fulfilling sensation. Was this what they called love?

Maybe someday he would bring Nina to kneel at Old Nilo’s grave.

With these thoughts, Nidhogg shut the door and returned to his research.

In recent days, Nidhogg had made new discoveries, both concerning the Life Code Forbidden Zone and an unexpected breakthrough in elemental magic runes.

For now, he shelved his investigation of the Life Code Forbidden Zone.

This was because his most recent hypothesis required a precious experimental material—a living human!

Conducting wizardry experiments on civilians, if discovered, would immediately brand him as a notorious dark wizard, hunted across all wizarding academies, and pursued by witch hunters.

Nidhogg wasn't willing to take such a risk.

Performing experiments on a wizard apprentice was slightly less severe but would still provoke retaliation from the apprentice’s academy and other affiliated powers.

While killing another wizard was permissible by rule and competition, capturing one for experimental purposes invited certain retaliation.

Clearly, Nidhogg lacked both the capability and the desire to breach his ethical boundaries as a wizard.

Still, he considered an alternative solution many wizards employed: purchasing human-like slaves from other worlds through powerful wizards.

Such slaves, not considered human by wizard laws, were not protected by their world’s rules.

This would save Nidhogg a lot of trouble.

With the Life Code Forbidden Zone experiment on hold, Nidhogg turned his full attention to the newly discovered magic rune.

Magic runes, apart from the twenty-six standard ones, included many rare runes, though acquiring them was exponentially harder than improving a magic array.

Take the demon flame spell wielded by Dilara, a first-level wizard—its power sufficed to force a second-level wizard like the Faceless Mask to strategically exhaust his opponent’s magic through monstrous sea creatures before seizing their ship, attesting to the rare rune’s formidable might.

Thinking about this, Nidhogg’s heart surged with excitement as his gaze fell on two branches on his desk.

These branches, dark and almost charcoal-like, were originally a single piece Nidhogg stumbled upon at a market stall on the first floor of Black Tower.

The vendor claimed it was struck by lightning and contained residual storm power, though he found no practical use for it. Due to its uniqueness, he sold it for two magic stones.

Nidhogg bought it out of curiosity, intending it as cheap alchemy practice material, without much thought.

However, upon cutting the branch open in his lab, Nidhogg noticed something unusual.

Instead of splintering, the cut was smooth as glass, and the compacted storm power within remained stable, without dispersing.

Intrigued, Nidhogg abandoned its alchemical purpose and began investigating the nature of the trapped storm power, attempting various extraction methods for use in alchemy and potion-making.

Yet each attempt failed—if it were possible, wouldn’t the vendor have done it himself?

Nidhogg nearly gave up until one day, during meditation, he glimpsed a complex rune in the branch's cut surface.

The rune appeared fleetingly before vanishing, leaving Nidhogg questioning his own vision.

Astonished, he kept watch over the branch, eyes peeled for days.

After nearly two hours, the rune flashed again...

Over the span of several days, Nidhogg confirmed one thing: this accidental discovery was a rare magical rune.

The find thrilled Nidhogg. His magic studies taught him that rare runes were invaluable, incapable of being documented through physical means like drawing or carving, communicable only through soul perception and partitioning for legacy purposes.

Realizing the treasure he had found, Nidhogg set a daily routine to observe the fleeting rune, hoping to grasp it soon.

Yet, he estimated it might take a decade to fully comprehend the rune within his soul.

Meanwhile, Nidhogg kept the branch close, observing it each day at the designated time.

As time flew by, the date for his cohort's trial exam—dubbed the "Bloody Millstone" by past apprentices—drew near.