Chapter 252

Chapter 252

"Little Garrett? Gone?"

The Lord of Thunder paused at his fingertips. In front of him, in the porcelain cup, a strand of pure white foamy milk rose from the side and skillfully poured into the coffee cup. Interrupted like this, the perfect swan spreading its wings pattern in the cup skewed, and immediately, an extra tail appeared at the outer edge of the swan’s wing.

To the left of the legendary mage, a silver-white feather pen was busy writing on its own. As the pattern failed, the feather pen also stopped moving, with a snap, lying on the paper like a normal pen.

"Tell me the details of the matter." The legendary mage took a sip of coffee and slowly spoke. Carlisle the Archmage dared not delay and immediately reported to his teacher. The Lord of Thunder listened quietly, then chuckled:

"Useless."

"Tea... teacher?"

"He wants to enter the Black Crow Swamp, he entered it long ago. If he still hesitates after a year, it means the School of Necromancy isn’t interesting enough to attract him. As for occasionally playing with corpses, it’s not a strange hobby for healers to play with corpses, so don’t bother him."

Carlisle the Archmage nodded obediently. The Lord of Thunder ignored him, pouring the failed latte art into the sink. With a wave of his fingertips, everything on the table began to move by itself, coffee beans started grinding themselves, milk started frothing and pouring into the foam cup, and then started to be whipped...

In the coffee cup, the pure white swan finally spread its wings. The Lord of Thunder showed a satisfied expression, took a small sip, and nodded:

"Well, but we can’t completely ignore it, making it seem like we don’t care at all. So, I think the little guy is really going down the path of a healer. Both times he advanced, there was a breakthrough in healing magic—"

"When he’s had enough fun, urge him to quickly finish the mithril task and then find another healing-related task to keep him busy. This way, we can distract his attention and see if there’s anything else he lacks, just put it in the rewards for the mithril task."

So, when Garrett came to his senses from the joy of dissecting corpses and was about to return to his normal routine, he received an urgent message:

"Has the mithril refining project been completed?"

"Ah... isn’t it too early?"

Garrett glanced at the leaden clouds outside.

In winter, Nevis City was shrouded in winter rain. Eight out of ten days it rained, and on the rare days when it didn’t rain, it was still gloomy. It was a face that seemed to say, "I’ll rain as soon as you step out."

But for Garrett, who was a bit of a homebody, bad weather meant he didn’t want to go out.

"It’s not early!"

Aurora Worton, tasked with delivering the message, looked frustrated.

Her boss was really generous when he wanted to be, but also really lazy. Clearly, the results were already there, but he insisted on delaying the submission for a month. What was he thinking?

Submitting the results meant getting rewarded!

"Boss, my senior brother has already written the part about electric current refining; I’ve also written the part about refining with the fire element. A few days ago, I even went to the mine. The current monthly output is ten times higher than before you took over the project..."

The boss just started it and then left it, leaving poor Aurora, a kinetic mage, to squat in the mine for half a month, collecting materials, making records, and being plied with alcohol by dwarves. Wasn’t it hard enough for her!

With such resentment, Aurora brought a thick stack of papers and slammed them in front of Garrett:

"Boss, take a look. If there’s nothing to change, can we submit it for completion?"

Garrett skimmed through the paper—table of contents, abstract, conclusion. Then, he casually closed the paper:

"We’re still missing the final part."

"Still missing?!"

"Of course, we’re still missing!—Well then, tomorrow, accompany me to the forge district. I want to see if the dwarves have come to their senses."

The dwarves had indeed come to their senses. Garrett, wearing a full set of magical defenses—not because he was afraid of danger, but mainly to keep dry—arrived at the entrance of the forge district, and as soon as he asked, he saw Master Talbert’s eyes light up.

Next to him, the bearded dwarf guarding the entrance to the mithril area seemed eager to rush forward and hug Garrett’s legs:

"Yeah! The production volume can’t go up anymore! We’re in desperate need of ore, and even the idle hands have gone to mine, but it’s still not enough!"

So, we lack ore?

The mining efficiency isn’t high enough, is it?

"Ah, Boss!"

"Is there a place here to test spells? Um, preferably, free..."

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Aurora jumped up, freezing halfway through her jump: "For free? Boss, the free places don’t have any protection. We’re not exactly broke right now, so why scrimp on these few points?"

Are you kidding! With the power of the Dragon’s Breath he displayed, he could produce a fourth-level effect with a first-level spell. If he tried out a new idea this time and accidentally created a high-level spell, and it exploded...

His teacher would skin him alive!

Despite Aurora’s persuasion and coercion, Garrett finally dragged his boss to the fifth floor of the Energy Shaping Tower. This floor was specially reinforced with spells and was dedicated to mid-level mages—those between level 5 and 9. It was divided into ten different-sized rooms and a hall, with different prices and facilities to accommodate the needs of different mages.

The hall was divided into ten shooting lanes. After raising defense barriers, they could be used without interference. The price wasn’t high, only 10 contribution points per lane per hour. The downside was that whatever you did might be seen by others...

Because Garrett wanted to save money and didn’t care much about confidentiality, Aurora took him to the hall. By this time, nine lanes were already occupied. Aurora dragged Garrett over, just brushing the last lane.

"Boss, boss, over here! Hurry!"

"Uh, wait a minute!"

Someone behind them urgently shouted. Aurora had already pressed the badge, confirming their right to use the lane. The man hurried over, but still missed a step, stomping his feet in frustration:

"Why are you so quick to snatch—really now!"

He turned around, squeezing in before the barrier closed. Perhaps he was in too much of a hurry, his forehead was already covered in sweat, shining brightly on his bald head. He didn’t bother to wipe it, sighing to Aurora:

"I thought you were using it, but since you’re not, you’re letting him use it? What a waste! A second-level mage like him... would you mind switching with me? The teacher’s exam is tomorrow, and I haven’t mastered my new magic yet! How about this, I’ll give you 20 contribution points, and you take him to the lower-level area?"

Garrett: "..." I’m just too busy lately to refresh my badge, okay? I’m already a third-level mage! Third level!

He ignored the guy, pulling Aurora and walking to the end of the lane. There were stones of various hardness piled up on the lane, serving as targets for the mages. Garrett picked a medium-sized one, let Aurora drill a hole with magic, stuffed in the cotton soaked in nitric acid, and then inserted a long rope. Then, they exited the lane and threw a Spark over...

BOOM!

A muffled sound. The stone split into pieces.

Very good!

Successful trial!

Garrett happily waved his fist. Beside him, the bald mage continued to stomp his feet:

"Come on, buddy! That’s such a small amount of power, much weaker than the Flame Sphere, and you’re still worth coming to the mid-level area... Hey, please let me have it! Really, I’ll give you 40 contribution points! 40! That’s four times as much!"

This guy was so annoying... Garrett and Aurora glanced at each other. Aurora signaled:

Should we give it to him? Are you okay with that?

No way! I’m going to take up the whole hour! Well, should we make a bigger fuss?

Garrett pondered for a moment. A spark of inspiration arose, and he carefully put on crocodile skin gloves, grasping the black cotton through the gloves. Concentrating, he manipulated the spell model, using the cotton soaked in nitric acid as the casting material, releasing the magic—

Flame Sphere!

Second-level Energy Shaping magic! Just learned after leveling up to a third-level mage!

A rolling fireball the size of a head shot out quickly. Garrett was about to command it to rise and continue forward—

BOOM!

The fireball shrank, expanded, and exploded. A fierce shockwave swept in all directions!

Garrett instinctively threw himself down! Aurora looked terrified, unable to block the shockwave even with two consecutive barriers. The bald mage also threw up a force field wall in a panic, barely stopping the shockwave from spraying hot gas onto his face. In the midst of the chaos, the shiny sweat beads on his forehead were flung away:

"For Mysteries’ sake! What kind of magic is this—It’s not even as strong as a third-level Fireball!!!"

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