Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Nyoi-Bo Studio

  The next morning, everyone woke up precisely when the tower bell started chiming. The first thing that they did was to change into the gray robes of a wizard apprentice then they hurried to the wizard tower on the precipice.

  White stone steps led to the summit, like a path to heaven. All of the apprentices looked up as they ran toward the tower and by the time they reached the top, they were all out of breath. The full glory of the tower could only be felt when they stood at its apex!

  The tower had been built by a thousand ant-people workers, laboring day and night without rest for half a year. It would be impossible to calculate how much labor and time would have been necessary, should the tower have been built by humans instead.

  Gradually, the apprentices passed the main hall on the first floor, entering into a room that faced the sun on the second floor. The room was a bit like a small theater, large and comfortable, with seats surrounding a lectern. Each apprentice then settled into their seat.

  Lu Zhiyu appeared before the lectern and scanned the room of apprentices in front him. He saw that all 46 students had arrived, and were being distributed their textbooks. Each apprentice soon had a stack of heavy textbooks, covering the subjects of: language, mathematics, and geometry, as well as the philosophy of being wizards, the magic network, and mind power!

  Lu Zhiyu stood at the podium. “In the future, I will give a lecture to you all once a month. Feel free to raise questions during them. For the rest of the time, you will conduct self study with these books and carryout your own research. The library on the fifth and sixth floors are open to you, however, the one on the seventh floor is off limits to you unless you obtain permission first.”


  He continued, “The ninth floor is a botanical garden, housing both common plants and specially cultivated specimens. The eighth floor contains the beast menagerie, filled with all sorts of animals and magical beasts. I will take you there later for relevant classes. The tenth and eleventh floors are laboratories. When you become official wizard apprentices, they will also be opened to you. In fact, each person will get their own laboratory.”


  “The second to fourth floors are all classrooms, multi-purpose rooms, and conference rooms. Use them freely as you wish. Beware, though, there is absolutely no fooling around allowed anywhere above the seventh floor. Oh right, from the fifth floor on, each floor will be guarded by magical beasts. Please wear your apprentice badges at all times, or they will attack you. I will not save you, if you get eaten.”


  After all the students took in Lu Zhiyu’s introduction, it was time to get to the core of the first lesson. “Our first topic explores the definition of being a wizard. Specifically, how does one become a wizard?” Lu Zhiyu asked rhetorically, before continuing the lesson.

  “Wizards are seekers of the truths of the world. We do not perform tricks, nor do we seek to learn superpowers. We are the prophets of truth and the seekers of knowledge. Witchcraft is nothing more than the application of our understanding of the world, as well as a byproduct of the manipulation of the world’s rules. The all-knowing is the all-powerful. If you understand the weather, then you can control the wind and thunder as you please. If you understand the structure of life, then you can create life. Thus, if you can understand the truths and laws of the world, then you are a god!”


  Lu Zhiyu continued, “What are gods? Gods are the all-knowing. What I will teach you is how to step onto the path to become a god. That is what it means to be a wizard!”


  Immediately following these words, Akkad stood up and called out, “Tower Master Anthony, I must disagree. This is blasphemy toward gods!”


  Wendy of the elves also stood up. “The Lord of the natural order will not tolerate your teachings!”


  Lu Zhiyu started laughing. ” Disagree?! Who do you think you are? What do you think gods are? Do you see yourselves as being the followers of gods? Do you think gods need your prayers? To gods, you are nothing. The gods up above do not need veneration from mere ants on the ground. You think the gods would care about whether ants looked at them with respect or rage?”


  Lu Zhiyu continued his lecture. “Your beliefs and prayers to gods are what a beggar’s offering of two moldy pieces of bread from a trash heap is to a king. To gods, all of you are worth less than a copper coin, because you are nothing in His eyes. The entire Maria’s world, you included, is like a mere pebble on the ground to gods. You all are nothing but a bunch of self-deceiving idiots, living in a bubble. A group of liars, touting the name of gods!”


  Lu Zhiyu didn’t let up as he continued. “To me, you are all trash as well. Your only redeeming quality is your intelligence. Without your intelligence, you are no different from rotten meat on the side of the curb. What do you have? Beauty? A noble background? Endless wealth? No! To me, you have nothing! Your existence only has value based on your knowledge and wisdom!”


  Lu Zhiyu’s opening speech shocked all of the apprentices to the core of their souls. After listening to the speech that was so filled with vitriol, like the words of the Devil himself, the apprentices trembled in fear. Quite a few students wished to rebut Lu Zhiyu, yet none of them could muster the strength to stand up to him.

  Become a god? Not a single man, orc, or elf had dared proclaim this sort of blasphemy. Yet Lu Zhiyu had dared to do so. He needed these people to disregard everything and open up the path in front of him.

  Lu Zhiyu was countless steps ahead of them. And with the exceptional advantage brought by the Scroll of the World, which was like a cheat code, by the time they became gods, he would have walked even further along the path. If he could figure out the source of the Scroll of the World, he would be able to cross freely between dimensions and create worlds. The Scroll of the World would become useless to him!

  Lu Zhiyu had daring and ambition. The further a person dared to venture, the more profit they could hope to achieve. Without the daring to try and change the two dimensional space into the painting world, Lu Zhiyu might still be using the Scroll of the World as a portable pocket dimension alone, and he might have become a downtrodden smuggler, earning a few million per month.

  If he had not stepped outside of the box time and again, Lu Zhiyu would have most certainly died of cancer by now. And, even if he didn’t die from cancer, he would be over 50 years old by now, and would eventually die of old age, as the body became too feeble to move more than few steps at a time.

  So, what if one had the Scroll of the World? One would still age and die. Lu Zhiyu rejected this future. Even outside of the existence of the Scroll of the World, he wanted to be a god! That was what he desired.

  Don’t be afraid of the excellence of others. Have the self-confidence that no one can surpass you. Even if no one surpasses you in the krynnspace world, what about beings outside the universe? In another dimension? What about higher beings that go beyond the laws of the world? Are there no secrets on Earth? There are always existences stronger than you. Rather than trying to put other people down, it is much better to further yourself. This was what Lu Zhiyu believed.

  Rather than hiding away as the king of a tiny krynnspace world, Lu Zhiyu wanted to see how far the evolution of life could go. For instance, he wanted to figure out the limits of knowledge and wisdom. That was why he had built the wizard tower, to collect the intelligence of the masses, so that he could walk a path of evolution!

  Furthermore, this was a path built completely on materialism and knowledge. Hence, no one could reach the summit alone via a sudden epiphany, to become a god and suddenly surpass Lu Zhiyu.

  As the situation stood, Lu Zhiyu could observe the accumulation of knowledge around the world. He also controlled the wizard tower. Under these conditions, no one could accumulate knowledge faster than him!

  Lu Zhiyu’s first class was about explaining the concept of wizardry to the apprentices, so that they knew what wizards did, how to become one, what mind power and the magic network were, what meditation was, and how to obtain mana by accessing the magic network through meditation. Lu Zhiyu talked for an entire morning, then personally handed out a small pamphlet to each student.

  “This is a basic introduction to meditation. Once you are done reading the three books ‘Introduction of Being a Wizard’, ‘Basic Knowledge on the Magic Network and Mind Power’, and ‘Introduction to Geometry’, you can try meditating!” he instructed.

  “Also, all these books are written in Phinks. For those who do not speak Phinks, the wizard servants will be hosting language lessons tomorrow. You can also go to the library to borrow books on languages. Please learn the language within a month. Every day the servants will host all sorts of classes. They are all electives. You can choose whichever classes you wish to go to, but my classes are mandatory. There will be no absences or tardies. Violators will be heavily punished. If there are multiple violations, the individual will be expelled from the tower!”


  Lu Zhiyu concluded his instructions by saying, “If you have any questions, ask me next month. All of those who cannot master basic meditation and connect with the magic network to awaken their mind power within three months will be expelled from the tower!”


  After Lu Zhiyu finished speaking, he left immediately. All the apprentices present suddenly felt a sense of urgency. Many of the students that did not understand Phinks were quite anxious. Individuals like Bohr, who could understand both Phinks and Sofawk, were quickly surrounded by people looking for their help and guidance!