Surgeon

  "Apprentice! Put away the specimens and materials, the experiment is over."

  It was a dimly lit basement, and the faint light of the magic lamp didn't illuminate much except for the door where a strange-patterned lantern hung, casting an eerie glow. A cold voice came from the lantern's mouth, followed by the soft sound of the door closing, and the crimson robe disappeared from the black-haired boy's line of sight.

  The young man adjusted his black robe and began to clean the room. His skin was slightly pale due to the rare sunlight, and his features were delicate. Although his face shape was not quite in line with Ferran's aesthetic, it could be said that he looked good. If he smiled, he might have a sunny boyish charm. However, the thing in his hand greatly reduced the charm of this young face. The large pool of blood on the experimental table reflected the pale light and added a bloody hue, creating an eerie effect.

  In the eerie light, the Selkie script on his robe's chest plate was visible - Pennae Sien. In this Red Robe Academy located by Lake Paak in Sel'kor, this specially patterned plate could guarantee his life safety to a certain extent - only to a certain extent.

  The youth walked out of the narrow and strangely smelling laboratory, countless busy and gloomy-faced apprentice mages passing in front of him. These apprentices were mostly around ten years old, much younger than the youth, casting scornful and envious glances at him, as if resenting why this fourteen-year-old waste, who couldn't even touch the inner magic net, was so favored by the instructors.

  It's said that in this academy, if one hasn't obtained the qualification of a wizard by the age of 12, they will be 'demoted' or 'promoted' to experimental materials. Although this academy belongs to the Cursed Magic Department of the Eight Great Schools, the experiment content is not as terrifying as those of the Necromancy and Demonology departments, but there are still many experiments that make one's hair stand on end just by hearing their names.

  So all the six-year-old apprentices exerted their utmost efforts, putting every bit of energy into studying the magic web, just to escape that disaster.

  But Penny Si?n was able to escape this fate, thanks to some strange abilities, such as being able to dissect any living thing with her eyes closed without making a single mistake.

  It all started with Penny Xien's journey before crossing over. In fact, it has been proven that being a surgeon is a profession that is in demand everywhere, not only can you sit in the hospital and collect red envelopes, but also have a special skill set when you arrive in another world, which is quite practical.

  In this world of Ferren, such a feat was apparently difficult even for many high-ranking mages who had reached the 5th or 6th layer of the mana net, so he became the favorite experimental assistant of many instructors - these meticulous researchers were usually lazy, especially when it came to some strange creatures.

  He was therefore well-liked by many high-ranking instructors—at least on the surface. They thought it was just too wonderful that an apprentice with such a strange talent wasn't in the necromancy department, where his talents would be put to good use, but rather in their own spellcasting department.

  This undoubtedly made many apprentices indignant and jealous, as they thought that if they had the opportunity to be an assistant to the instructor, they could have flattered and fawned their way into getting stronger spell records or casting techniques. However, this good opportunity was repeatedly wasted by Panini, a useless person. As a result, Panini Xien has been subjected to multiple sneak attacks, ambushes, framing, and even assassination attempts over the past two years.

  But for Panni, a middle-aged man who has lived nearly 40 years in total, including his past life, the amateurish tricks of a group of much younger people, most of whose lives were spent searching for dull secrets and thus had relatively simple thinking, were naturally no match for him. In this low-level academy, he was more than enough.

  Here is Ferelden's northeast, the mountainous highlands west of the endless wasteland, the remnants of the ancient Tevinter Imperium, Thedas under the rule of the Red Templars.

  Having lived here for fourteen years, combined with his past life experiences, Panni had a deep understanding of the survival rules in this place.

  Conspiracy, deceit, no trust, cold-bloodedness, this is the world of the Red Robe Master.

  Here, being too stupid is useless, experimental materials and gunpowder are the best destinations for fools.

  Similarly, being too smart is not good either, because excessive excellence, apart from making it easier to get opportunities to climb up, also increases the chances of being envied by peers. Many excellent apprentices have unexpectedly "accidentally" died in bed, at the dinner table, in toilets, ditches, gardens...

  Perhaps there are geniuses so exceptional that they excel in both the study of mysteries and the plotting of intrigues, seeming to be on the verge of greatness, but Penny knew better.

  Two years ago, there was such a figure. All the apprentices of the same year were convinced by his cunning and genius, even Penny thought that guy was an extraordinary existence, always suspecting that he was also a time-traveler, but in the end, he still failed - In one class, he was used as a material for live transformation experiment by the instructor.

  That corpse which had been experimented on until it was deformed was also dissected by Penny herself.

  This incident told Penny that in an organization where coups and violent power seizures are a common occurrence, murdering colleagues is even encouraged by unwritten rules, it seems that the core idea of the policy of nurturing talent is that most of the red-robed ones who like to control their subordinates with terror and high pressure will not allow excellent guys to emerge under their command to challenge their authority, even if it's just a tiny sign.

  Then Pannie honestly shrank back, using this skill to maintain this subtle position - for the mentor above, this experimental assistant was very useful and would not be wasted as experimental material. The apprentices below, due to their huge age and mental gap, although they didn't like him, were completely no match for him.

  Pan Ni didn't have big ambitions, he was indifferent to fame and wealth from his previous life. After being exhausted by the smell of the hospital every day, his greatest pleasure after work was a cup of instant coffee after dinner, listening to music on his computer, reading occasionally, and sometimes watching brainless dog-blood dramas shot by sticks. For him, it's hard to be reborn once, having enough money to spend, mixing food and waiting for death, and being able to play with several pretty girls is the right way to live a happy life.

  He didn't come here of his own accord, but he had no choice.

  He, who knew nothing about the world, was reborn in a rich merchant's family and grew up to be six years old. He had been enjoying a carefree life, thinking that it would continue like this forever. However, everything changed on that morning when two red-robed guards suddenly took him away from home to the local Red-Robed Mages Association. After a series of tests, Panni was initially thrilled to discover he had magical abilities and thought he could become a great hero, mastering both magic and martial arts, becoming a god of war, marrying many sisters, and achieving greatness. But as soon as he learned more about the situation, he realized that this place was 90% likely an evil cult, dark and ominous, where one's life was in danger at all times. He had no choice but to survive first before thinking of anything else.

  "When can I finally leave this place?"

  He didn't expect to be promoted, because promotion would mean leaving this relatively safe college, and his opponents would become more cunning and treacherous formal red robes, the daily consumption of energy would naturally rise exponentially, which was obviously not suitable for Penny - as mentioned earlier, with his personality, he didn't want to put his limited brain cells into the endless internal struggle of the red robes.

  Pang Ni let out a sigh, taking advantage of the students' classes to head to the cafeteria, where he got a serving of vegetable and egg soup along with some dry crackers. After a simple check to confirm they weren't poisoned, he rubbed his palms together in anticipation and dug in. Gobbling down food was one of the few pleasures he had left, reminiscent of the feeling of gazing out the window during recess at his old boarding school. Even his usually tense nerves could relax a bit at times like this.

  As soon as he relaxed, his eyes slightly closed, and the wind blowing through the grass within tens of meters entered his senses. Perhaps it was because he had two souls attached to him since birth, making his perception much more acute than ordinary people. When he slept, he could still sense the people coming and going in front of his bed, a feeling that was both asleep and awake at the same time. It felt wonderful, as if another half of his soul manipulated a supernatural tactile sensation around him, giving him an extraordinary sensitivity far beyond others. Even for some unfavorable things towards him, he could produce a faint sense of foreboding.

  However, this extrasensory perception has some limitations - 1. It only works on living organisms. After he received magical education, he also discovered that this perception can target magic and other supernatural forces, but it is completely ineffective against inanimate objects. 2. When he is fully awake, the effect is greatly discounted, only about twenty percent of when he is asleep. Closing his eyes and meditating can enhance it to some extent, but at most only half of when he is asleep.

  Although there are restrictions, as a superpower, Penny has benefited greatly. Many assassination attempts that could have been fatal were dodged using this abnormal sensory ability.

  Sometimes using this power to secretly observe the college's wind and grass movements is also a very interesting thing, just like now, he closed his eyes to savor the food, but his perceptive tentacles went around the wall of the cafeteria, seeing in the clump of grass at the entrance garden, a dirty gray robe wrapped around a thin small body curled up into a ball, and the shaking shoulders let Penny know that this was not a dead person.

  Pannie opened his eyes, scattered the sensory tentacles, and put a piece of food in his mouth. This behavior indicated that he was not interested in this scene at all. In the Red Robe Master's Institute, although there was no rule prohibiting crying, it did not prevent some temperamental masters and apprentices from killing annoying crybabies on the spot.

  Even if Hongpao doesn't believe in tears, there are always a number of apprentices hiding in the corners of the college crying.

  Pannie didn't want to look anymore, he was afraid that he would develop sympathy for them, which would bring trouble. In this place, such a personality would be quickly replaced by ruthlessness, but after all, it was something brought from his previous life, a character formed over a decade longer than ordinary Red Robe disciples, and it wasn't so easy to erase, so he could only avoid any place that might touch the soft spot in his heart.