"That's not right!" Leilin suddenly thought of something.
"You... you didn't give him the resources your family gave you, did you? No wonder you're still a First-rank Apprentice — otherwise, with your aptitude, you should have advanced long ago!"
Biji belonged to a small wizard family. Though its scale was modest, it could still occasionally procure resources and Magic Stones, and as the family's hope, Biji naturally received a certain allocation every month.
Her aptitude was nothing to scoff at either — she had arrived a year before Leilin. By all rights, she should have become a Second-rank Apprentice by now, yet she was still First-rank, and Leilin was nearly catching up to her.
"N-no!" Biji hurriedly shook her head.
Looking at Biji's reaction, Leilin slowly shook his head. "Forget it. There's nothing I can do to help you with something like this, but remember — be careful!"
Leilin's words carried a hidden meaning.
"Come on! Let's go to the second-floor dining hall together! I heard the honey cake there is really good..." Biji smiled, clearly not wanting to discuss the matter any further.
The second-floor dining hall was a specialty restaurant. Unlike the free grand dining hall on the third floor, everything here required payment in Magic Stones, but the food was far more delicious — and there were even some rare ingredients that could aid a
It was Leilin's first time here. He ordered two servings of honey cake, a grilled steak, two glasses of juice, and a portion of horned lizard meat, which cost him one Magic Stone — enough to make his heart ache.
"I've heard this lizard meat is specially treated and very beneficial for Wizard meditation. I want to try it today!"
Leilin cut off a piece of the lizard meat with his knife, lifted it with his fork, and placed it in his mouth. A rich, sweet flavor of meat spread across his taste buds, making his eyes light up.
"Ding! Beneficial components detected for the host! Effect: slight increase in meditation speed. Note: continuous consumption for over ten days required before a noticeable boost appears!"
"I..." Leilin was speechless. "Something fancy but impractical — where would I get that many Magic Stones? I can only enjoy the taste!"
On the other side, Biji was eating her honey cake with a visibly delighted expression.
After the meal, Leilin parted ways with Biji and headed to the trading district.
He was already low on Magic Stones. Now he planned to sell his Stamina Potions — with Guofate's endorsement, he could earn Magic Stones by crafting them.
Weaving past the messy market stalls, Leilin arrived at Wus's shop, where he had first bought potion ingredients.
"Leilin! You again! You've spent over a dozen Magic Stones here in the last six months! Still not giving up?" Wus was as fat as ever.
"Alchemy is so beautifully fascinating, I just can't let her go!" Leilin said, half-joking.
"But today, I'm not just here to buy ingredients." He handed the Stamina Potion to the fat Wus. "Take a look!"
"This is..." Wus's mouth hung half open. "You actually succeeded?"
"Of course!" Leilin smiled.
Wus examined the potion next, and once he was completely certain of its authenticity, his eyes seemed to light up.
"A hundred-some times! You only tried a hundred-some times before successfully crafting a Stamina Potion!!! That talent... that talent, even compared to
Since Leilin had bought most of his ingredients from the fat shopkeeper, he could quickly gauge just how talented Leilin really was.
"Hardly! I owe it all to Instructor Guofate's guidance!" Leilin said, a touch of modesty in his voice.
"Oh! Guofate again! He already has Merlin — why does the heavens keep sending him more, now a Leilin too?"
The fat man clutched his forehead, letting out something close to a groan. "Why not consider switching instructors? My own instructor, Wulankiz, is also an excellent Potionology professor... He would definitely take a liking to you!"
"I'm sorry! I haven't considered that at all!" Leilin quickly refused. Putting aside that Guofate had treated him reasonably well, even if the man hadn't, rashly switching instructors would offend a formal Wizard — it was a risk he simply wasn't willing to take.
"What a shame..." The fat man shook his head. Clearly, he already knew the chances were slim.
"Alright then! For this Stamina Potion, I can offer you four Magic Stones. How does that sound?" Wus asked.
Although the retail price for a Stamina Potion was five Magic Stones, one still had to account for the shop's profit margin. Four Magic Stones was a very fair price.
"That's fair. Exchange all the Magic Stones for Stamina Potion ingredients!"
"Deal! From now on, whenever you want to sell potions, I'll buy every one at four Magic Stones!" A glint flashed in Wus's small eyes.
An apprentice whose alchemy talent was only slightly below Merlin's was like an unmined Magic Stone vein. If he could win his favor now, it meant a steady stream of profits in the future!
"Of course! Pleasure doing business!"
Leilin and Wus shook hands, and Leilin tucked the four black wooden boxes away before stepping out of the shop.
"Come, have a look! Fresh mountain cat eyeballs! Great for aiding meditation!"
"Refined Cross Swords, and military crossbows — shipped all the way from the Deep Blue Empire!!"
"Firebird feathers! Absolutely precious experimental materials — only five Magic Stones!!"
The cries of various apprentices rose and fell around the trading area. Leilin spotted a black-robed apprentice waving a huge, five-colored feather and shouting at the top of his lungs, clearly drawing a crowd of onlookers.
"Chip! Scan the feather!"
"Ding! Database comparison in progress! Similarity to Ground-runner tail feather: 83%. Domestic peacock: 64%. Sharp-billed crane: 34%."
Leilin looked at the apprentice still bawling his wares and felt somewhat speechless. Firebird feathers were indeed precious, but the feathers of the three birds the Chip had identified were the kind no apprentice would bother picking up off the ground. Clearly, this hawking apprentice was peddling fakes.
This sort of thing was common at the small stalls. Although prices at street vendors were lower, fakes were equally abundant. Leilin generally preferred to purchase his materials from the wooden buildings at the center of the trading district.
Besides, Wizard Apprentices were all shrewd and cunning. The chances of scoring a real find at a street stall were about the same as stumbling upon a Wizard ruin out in the wild and striking it rich beyond imagination.
Leilin shook his head and left the trading area.
Three days passed. In his dormitory, Leilin stared at the sixteen pale-blue potions neatly arranged on his desk and fell into deep thought.
His current success rate in crafting Stamina Potions was already approaching Guofate's level — nearly forty percent — but selling all of them was still a death sentence!
"At best, I can only maintain a marginally profitable situation. I can put out two at most. The rest, I have to keep hidden away."
Leilin sighed, tucked two potions into his waist pouch, and placed the remaining fourteen into a concealed compartment beneath his bed.
"Selling in large quantities inside the Academy is out of the question. I'll have to look for channels outside — ideally a black market. I've heard prices there can be a bit higher!"
"The world outside is dangerous. I need to become a Second-rank Apprentice at the very least before I can even think about giving it a try!"
"After that, I can use the money earned from potions to purchase advanced knowledge from Mentor Guofate and accelerate my push toward Second-rank!"
"Once I reach Second-rank Apprentice, I can attempt to cast spells, take on commissions outside, and see if I can find a way in…"
Leilin mulled things over, then asked: "Chip, pull up my current profile!"
"Ding. Leilin Farell. First-rank Apprentice. Strength: 2.1. Agility: 2.3. Constitution: 2.5. Spiritual Power: estimated at 2.5 times that of a normal human. Condition: healthy."
"After so much meditation, my constitution has increased the most. Strength and agility have gone up a bit too. But Spiritual Power?" Leilin looked at the numbers before him and frowned.
"Chip, is it possible to quantify Spiritual Power data and express it precisely!"
"Insufficient data. Spiritual power information collection and calculation in progress!" the Chip responded.
"How long will that take?" Leilin asked.
"Estimated time: 155 days and 21 hours."
"About half a year, then? That's roughly the same as the time needed for my advancement to Second-rank Apprentice," Leilin nodded. "I wasn't planning on leaving the Academy during these six months anyway, so it doesn't matter!"
In the time that followed, Leilin returned to the life of an ascetic.
Every day, aside from helping Teacher Guofate with experiments, he was either concocting potions to sell for money or purchasing knowledge to study.
Beyond Stamina Potions, he had also acquired recipes for Staunching Blood Potion and Basic Antidote, and began attempting to formulate potions of other types.
Thanks to the Chip, his success rate was quite good, but he kept this fact hidden from everyone.
During this period, Leilin also heard some bad news. The small team that had taken tasks with
Leilin had long anticipated this outcome. As a First-rank Apprentice with only a single point of spell resistance, daring to venture out for adventures, casualties were an extremely common and expected occurrence.
After this incident, Kreweir's team finally seemed to understand. They settled down peacefully inside the Academy to study, no longer accepting tasks outside.
In the blink of an eye, Leilin had grown taller, and his face held a more mature flavor.
"I'm fourteen years old now!" Leilin looked at his somewhat larger hand, a sudden wave of emotion rising in his heart.
The Black Bone Forest Academy seemed to have a Wizard Array that maintained a constant temperature. Wearing his Apprentice Grey Robe year-round, Leilin never felt the heat or the cold.
"Teacher, I'd like to purchase a crystal ball for constructing Spell Models!"
Leilin approached Guofate.
"Oh? Planning to study Zero-level Spells?" Guofate picked up the white porcelain cup on the table, which was emitting wisps of white steam, and took a small sip.
"My
Leilin replied in a mild voice.
"I'm very pleased that you've managed to advance your Meditation Method to this degree while simultaneously studying Potionology!" Guofate said, glancing toward Biji in the distance.
Biji had only just been promoted to Second-rank two days ago, and she hadn't shown any remarkable talent in Potionology either. By her aptitude, this pace of progress was quite slow.
"The Academy's price for constructing a basic Spell Model is thirty Magic Stones, but I can give you a discount — twenty Magic Stones!"
"I could simply give you the knowledge for free, but I want you to understand that only effort brings reward!"
Guofate wore a smile. This was the privilege of a mentor — whether to offer an apprentice a discount or even teach them for free was entirely at the mentor's discretion. Clearly, Guofate was quite satisfied with Leilin.