Chapter 294 – 25 For One, 40 For Two

Who was this Yao Zi brat?

She looks like a timid idiot, but why is she so scary when she’s serious? She can casually cast an extra-strong ice comet that was at least twice as strong as Lin Tian’s, even without needing a magic circle. That kind of exquisite magic control should be difficult even for a sixth-level magician.

Then Hebrew suddenly remembered that there was a rumor that Yao Zi had the Wizard’s bloodline, he thought it was a boast, but it looked like it was true!

However… hehe, no matter how strong she is, she can only obediently pay up.

“Why, why doesn’t it work…”

The stone doll shook and made a thumping sound and then sat stably on the ground. It still sat stably even though its surroundings was covered in a layer of ice.

Yao Zi was completely dumbfounded, the white disappeared from her eyes as she stepped back in hopelessness and almost fell over.

She originally wanted to give it a shot to help her brother pass, and that awoke her slumbering bloodline’s power. She successfully cast the magic, yet still completely failed… what should she do?

“Brother, I…”

Yao Zi looked at Lin Tian with teary eyes like she wanted to beg for forgiveness. Just as expected, Lin Tian ran over angrily and grabbed her hand!

“I’m so useless, sorry, um…”

“Sis, what did you just do? Are you hurt? Strange, how did you suddenly cast such powerful magic? How did you do that? Is it a magical tool?”

He wasn’t blaming her like she expected and he held her hand with concern and was worried about whether she was injured and also curious on how she did it.

“Um, I…”

Yao Zi stopped and looked at Lin Tian and laughed. She could only explain that she was in a trance and instinctively cast it, probably signs of her wizard’s bloodline awakening. After hearing that, Lin Tian frowned and couldn’t stop muttering how he couldn’t believe how an idiot like her could have the wizard’s bloodline, then jealousy and sulking.

“Cough… okay, then it looks like you both failed.” Hebrew coughed gently to interrupt the siblings and got down to business, “Given that you guys failed, I can’t certify you. If you want to challenge it again, please come back in half a month.”

“What, half a month? But after half a month, we can’t accept the recently issued S-rank mission!”

“That can’t be helped, you didn’t pass.” Hebrew regrettably shook his head and glanced at the anxious Lin Tian, then said, “But, it’s not like there’s no way to get certified today.”

“How?”

“A donation!” Hebrew chuckled, “Recently we need to fund raise for renovations, so if you guys could lend a helping hand, then naturally I can make an exception and hep you get certified.”

“Renovations again? He’s used that shitty excuse for two years already, right?”

Lin Tian didn’t hear the quiet discussion the audience members were having, he nervously gulped and calculated his response.

“How much… do you need?”

“Not much, just twenty-five gold coins per person! If it’s the two of you… hm, how about just forty for you both.” Hebrew chuckled and raised four fingers.

“Ah? That much? W-we didn’t bring that much money…” Lin Tian lowered his head and his tone was unnatural.

It’s not that he didn’t bring it, he didn’t even have that much money!

Forty gold coins was a huge expense for them, although they won some in the tournament before, but they spent most of it on repaying debts and medical expense.

“No money? No problem, I do!” Hebrew already anticipated it and patted Lin Tian’s back, “Did you forget, you get your first pay when you get certified, so I can just deduct it from there!”

“That’s a good way, but… how much is it?”

“Forty gold coins each! So in total you guys can get eighty gold coins!”

“Wow, that much?” Lin Tian gasped in surprise and was overjoyed, but frowned when he thought about it.

Eighty gold coins and they had to give half to Hebrew for ‘renovations’, Lin Tian felt like it wasn’t worth it and was reluctant.

“How about it? Kid, just think about it, even if you give me forty coins, you still have forty coins left. Since it’s free money anyways, does it matter if it’s a bit more or less?” Hebrew put on the air of an experienced person and placed his elbow on Lin Tian’s shoulder, and earnestly advised him, “Young people shouldn’t be too greedy, it’s a give and take. Otherwise, even if you come back in half a month, you still might fail, and wouldn’t that just be a waste of time?”

“That, seems about right…”

Lin Tian was being completely duped as he nodded his head. He turned to look at that detestable blackish stone doll and couldn’t help but silently curse it.

It would have been great if he could have successfully passed the challenge, but he didn’t have enough strength, so it wasn’t too bad just to pay some money.

However, Lin Tian secretly resolved himself, he’ll definitely work hard to complete missions after getting certified to get stronger and not let something similar happen for the second time!

“Okay, I agree!”

“Hehe, since you decided, then follow me.” Hebrew wanted to strike when the iron was hot when Lin Tian agreed, so he quickly wrapped his arms around his neck, but Lin Tian was pulled back by Yao Zi.

“What’s wrong? I know you’re worried about the money, but getting certified as soon as possible is important, it’s our fault we didn’t pass and Hebrew is already giving us a discount so he’s already taking care of us.”

“No, that’s not it, I just feel like something’s weird… c-come over here.”

Yao Zi smiled and forcibly dragged him away from Hebrew and began quietly whispering to him.

“Brother, it feels like he’s tricking us!”

“Eh? No way, he feels like a good person.”

“Uh… but something doesn’t feel right, it felt like there was something wrong with that stone doll. He clearly said that fifth-level magic was enough to knock the doll over, but neither of our magic worked, was it a problem with our magic? Or was there something wrong with that stone doll…”

“What do you mean?” Lin Tian stopped and carefully thought about what happened and realized it, “He secretly tampered with the doll so that we couldn’t pass!”

“I-it’s possible…” Yao Zi nodded and secretly glanced at Hebrew that was waiting impatiently.

Although she doesn’t remember how she was able to cast the ice comet, but she was a hundred percent sure that ice ball had the power of a genuine high fifth-level magic!

That was the inherent judgement of Yao Zi’s wizard’s bloodline, even if she looks like an idiot that doesn’t know anything about magic circles and theory, but she could see a magic’s intrinsic nature through light and shadows and explosions, just with one look, she could read its direction and trajectory.

Thanks to her gifted insight, to her surprise, she noticed that the reason their magic didn’t knock the doll over wasn’t that it wasn’t strong enough. It was because the refined magic stone could absorb magic far greater than the fifth-level! So even if the explosions looked terrifying, but it was like a normal punch or kick to the doll.

That kind of power wasn’t enough to knock over the heavy stone doll.

“Damn, how dare he use that kind of method to cheat us out of our salary, how shameless!”

Lin Tian finally understood the full story.

Hebrew somehow tampered with the doll so that no fifth-level magic could knock it down, then he tricked them into the challenge so that when they failed, he could use renovations as the excuse to ask for money. Since they had the salary, he wasn’t worried about them not having money.

“But, we don’t have any evidence…” The cautious Yao Zi helplessly shook her head and didn’t know what to do.

Hebrew was the manager here, since they had no proof, they couldn’t expose his schemes!

“Damn, that bastard!”

“Eh? Lin Tian, w-what are you doing?”

“I’m going to get even!”

“D-don’t be impulsive… hey!”

Unlike Yao Zi who swallowed her anger, Lin Tian angrily stormed towards Hebrew like he wanted to pick a fight.

“You bastard, how dare you trick us!?”

“Kid, you must be out of your mind, who’s tricking you?” Hebrew already anticipated it and instantly changed his earnest expression to one of disdain.

“If you didn’t trick us, why couldn’t fifth-level magic knock down the doll?”

“Hmph, that’s simply because you’re incompetent and can’t cast true fifth-level magic, how can you blame that on me?” Hebrew coldly snorted and denied it as Yao Zi expected, “You two hicks from Bamboo Academy, this is Winterless City, not your raggedy village, this is no place for you to throw a fit!”

“W-what did you say?”

“Just get out if you don’t have the strength, don’t waste my time… tsk, what bad luck. Okay, you two good-for-nothings can come back in half a month, now, get out!”

Hebrew impatiently muttered while driving the two of them outside, because he used too much strength, he accidentally knocked the frail Yao Zi over and sent her falling to the ground.

“Yao Zi!”

Lin Tian quickly ran over to help his sister up, he was enraged and wanted to chop Hebrew’s hands off!

At that time, there was a commotion inside the office.

There was several voices followed by a series of slow footsteps and a youth with black hair and black eyes walked into the backyard.

“Excuse me, is this the place to get certified?”