This wizard only wishes to be a teacher

Lucien stood before a group of Formal Wizards, silently watching the frenzied crowd before him.

Three months later, it’d be good if one-tenth of these Wizard Apprentices survived. And by that time, the entire Greybone Academy would be dead silent...

With this thought in mind, Lucien gently closed his eyes.

But even with his eyes closed, he could still hear the passionate cheers and shouts of the Wizard Apprentices at that moment.

...

"Mentor Lucien."

"Teacher."

"Lord Lucien."

In his residence, Lucien silently observed Carly, Edison, and Gagarin before him, his eyes gently closed, pondering how to begin speaking.

"Mentor Lucien, rest assured, we definitely will not let you down!" Carly, representing the students at the time, took a small step forward and made her promise.

Although she didn’t care much about the resources in the blood battle, she was eager to prove herself in front of Lucien, so at that moment, she seemed a bit impatient, her eyes filled with a fighting spirit.

Lucien opened his eyes and looked at Carly, suddenly sniffing a scent of danger from the young one’s gaze.

No, he must quickly snuff out this dangerous sign!

With this in mind, Lucien opened his eyes, looked at Carly who seemed to have a blazing will to fight in her eyes, and slowly shook his head.

"No, this blood battle is extremely dangerous, involving too many powers at the Formal Wizard level," said Lucien as he looked at Carly, "I don’t want you taking such risks. My greater hope is for survival to be your primary goal. Just survive in the secret realm for 30 days, make it to the end of the blood battle."

Survival – that was the core strategic concept in Lucien’s plan.

Naturally, Lucien preferred to call it following the heart’s guidance.

"Ah?" Carly’s mouth gaped slightly.

Because Lucien summoned them quite late, by then other apprentices had already received summons from the Formal Wizards, and they were most often encouraged, gifted items, and made to sign promises. However, the purpose of all this was to make the Wizard Apprentices slaughter more in the blood battle to gain more profit.

Those chosen Wizard Apprentices had no choice as they needed the boons from Formal Wizards to increase their survival chances, though deep down, they harbored some resentment.

Carly was different, though. She was ready to fight for Mentor Lucien, as he had given her so much before. If she couldn’t assist Mentor Lucien in this critical moment, she would feel incredibly uneasy.

She wanted to fight, to make a stand before other Formal Wizards and Wizard organizations, to prove Mentor Lucien’s teaching ability, and to help Mentor Lucien gain attention and acclaim in such an occasion!

It could be said that at that moment, Carly was prepared to sacrifice herself.

"Mentor Lucien, please believe in us..." Carly’s voice carried a tinge of pleading.

Lucien’s lips twitched, it was Carly’s manner that worried him!

"It won’t do." Lucien slowly shook his head, then turned to look at Gagarin and Edison, "Once you enter the secret realm, you two keep an extra eye on her."

Seeing Carly about to say something, Lucien tapped her on the head.

Yes, he applied a bit more force.

Carly: (-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩___-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩)

Lucien looked at Carly, who had finally quieted down, and nodded in satisfaction.

He paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the three main dependents before him, and Lucien slowly began to speak.

"In the next three months, I’ll prepare a ’gift’ for each of you. But my message remains the same: life is your own. As long as you’re alive, resources, treasures, even Bloodline, strength... there will always be ways to deal with those things later. But if you lose your life, then truly, there’s no coming back."

Lucien scanned the three of them once more.

At this moment, Carly’s eyes still held some stubbornness, Edison’s gaze was incredibly clear, while only Gagarin slowly nodded, seemingly in full agreement with Lucien’s words.

Seeing this, Lucien rubbed his head with some headache.

He remembered a saying from before he crossed over that seemed very apt to describe Carly and the other two.

It’s not the laid-back attitude or the lack of effort that’s frightening, but the obsession to prove oneself.

"Forget it, let’s provide them with additional protection from external items." Lucien patted his head lightly, suddenly understanding the helplessness those college professors before he crossed over felt when grading students’ final exams.

But what kind of assurance would be more appropriate for Carly and the others?

Lucien slightly furrowed his brow.

Give them first-level Witch Tools?

It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford them, but he felt if he were to give such tools to Carly and the others, they would likely go looking for other Wizard Apprentices to risk their lives against, which was not his intention at all.

If possible, Lucien hoped Carly and the others could just play it safe and smoothly make it out alive...

Among them, he was actually most confident about Edison—the boy’s robust recovery abilities were no joke, with such a condition, his survival ability would be greatly guaranteed...

Suddenly, Lucien seemed to have thought of something, and his expression brightened instantly.

To increase survivability, apart from playing it safe, the best strategy seemed to be to stack armor.

For instance, the idea of Wizard Heli, who used Puppet Silken Thread to form his "head," and the thought of protecting oneself with external Witch Tools was very much worth learning from...

Once the brainstorm began, Lucien thought of more things, and his thought process also became more agile.

Then, he turned to Carly, his lips slightly curving up.

Carly tilted her head in confusion.

"Carly, did you know? There’s a very special armor, it’s named Jarvis," Lucien said with a smile.

Carly looked at Lucien somewhat blankly.

Jarvis?

What kind of ghost is that?

Is it someone’s name?

Seeing Carly, who hadn’t caught on to his point, Lucien didn’t get annoyed but shook his head smilingly, "I’m going to specially craft some Witch Tools for you guys during this period, and all three of you will need to come help."

"Okay, no problem, Instructor Lucien!" Carly finally understood.

Lucien nodded with a smile, but in his heart, he silently gave a thumbs-up to his own plan.

Defensive potions combined with a full set of defensive armor, along with a series of third-level apprentice peak defensive Sorcery Scrolls, and Carly’s own defensive methods...

If it weren’t for the limited time, Lucien would have even considered getting Carly a Wizard-version armored vehicle.

At that time, the enemies might tire themselves out before even breaking through Carly’s defense.

Offense is the best defense?

No! Defense is the best offense!