Chapter 323: The way to a Sofia’s heart

Chapter 323: The way to a Sofia’s heart

After Sofia explained more of the skills quirks and downsides to Shaily and made sure the girl knew what she was getting into, Shaily led Sofia and Pareth to a deep part of the academys underground. The damp and dimly lit corridors looked abandoned but they were far from it, even so early in the morning, there were already a few students coming to and fro this underground labyrinth.

You go all this way every time you need to store something? Sofia asked as Shaily finally stopped in front of a sturdy wooden door.

I cant afford a storage ring so these storage units are the best I can do. At least Lola is sweet enough to lend me her ring so I can bring those here, if not I could only try to sell them before coming back

Her and Guerand are both not nobles, and storage items are expensive. Guerand also carried his golems in a backpack

The iron key in Shailys hand turned in the lock, and after a click, the door was open.

Hueg! This stinks like a rotten zombie.

Shailys nose curled at the fool smell, but she rushed inside. Crap! One of my rituals must have run out!

Following her, Sofia entered the storage unit, in the room about the size of their classroom, only lit by one of Shailys red sprites, five piles of dead monsters were stacked against the walls inside of ritual circles. One of them had indeed ran out of mana and the pile of monsters was now more of a pile of rotting flesh.

Want me to get rid of that? Sofia offered.

The small Exidian looked at her teacher then at the pile of rotten corpses. She was hesitant. Finally, she sighed. Please do

Sofia unleashed Bookie on the rotten mound. Dont worry, thatll be part of the trade, I can still make skeletons out of those. Cant do much about the smell, sadly.

Is- Is this book your storage item?

Bookie? No. Its uh. A living book? He eats corpses to summon skeletons later.

Living Does it speak?

No, hes more like A very dumb dog? The skeletons he helps me summon are much smarter.

Sofia and Shaily stepped out to have a break from the rotten smell while Bookie was having a huge meal. After Sofia explained some more about what Bookie was, omitting to mention the Deep, she questioned the Exidian girl about the piles of dead monsters in the room. There were also a few piles of bones, which had caught Sofias eyes, and a few wooden barrels.

Lola sometimes takes me to her familys hunting grounds so we can train against real monsters. I keep all my kills to make some money. I sell the meat to the tamer students with carnivorous pets and I keep the bones to trade with necromancy and alchemy students who sometimes need them. The furs I sell in bulk to a clothing store near the academy when they arent too damaged

You have a whole business going on. Do you do all the butchering yourself?

I remove the internal organs before storing them like this, and the later parts I actually have someone working in the kitchens help me with for a small cut of the profit whenever they have time.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøv€l-B1n.

Woaw. At her age I was Reading books.

No, no! Im sorry, I shouldnt have been asleep, the student apologized, fixing the position of his glasses, he quickly examined the duo, Are you here to make a reservation?

I had hoped to use the visualizer now, Sofia answered.

Hummm The student cleared his throat, looked through some kind of hole to his side, then opened some kind of ledger and turned a few pages before addressing Sofia again, Sorry, the facility is in use right now, but if you come back in twenty minutes when this class leaves, the next four hours are currently free.

I dont mind waiting twenty minutes. Do you have other classes this morning Shaily?

She shook her head. None, b- but ten minutes shoul-

Then Ill take the four hours, how much is it?

Sofia ignored the shocked, worried looks from Shaily next to her.

Hum Alright so, first of all I need both of your IDs, the name tag, age and level from your status window and your student passes

Ah, Im a teacher.

The student seemed taken aback, Ah, sorry, sorry, I should know but I still havent memorized the list of new teachers Please give me a second. Standing up from his wooden stool, the kid turned around and grabbed a new-looking leather-bound book. Quickly leafing through the pages. At one point he stopped and went back one page. Teacher Sofia Vakaria Aphenoreth?

Well shit. Im not surprised they have my full name but they really went ahead and printed that in a book?! Are they brainless?

Beligenus never even mentioned the Deep, he just always called me Vakaria like Zephir wrote in the introduction letter. Well, whatever. Clearly this guy isnt disappearing. Still, I cant believe they approved of this.

Thats me, yes. Just Vakria is fine next time.

As you wish, teacher Vakaria. So for teachers I only need the ID and room key, for your student its still all I mentioned before. The rate for teachers is ten gold an hour if you can provide the mana to run the machine, twenty otherwise, and ten silver per-hour per-student you bring in with you, the student explained with a straight face.

How much mana would that be? I can probably do it, right?

Im afraid its a bit high. About three Three hundred thousand for an hour of continued use the student worriedly indicated.

Oh, thats it? My regen is well above a million points an hour already.

I dont need to pay extra, then. Heres forty-one gold for the four hours, you can keep the change.

The booths student fumbled to accept the gold all the while processing their documents and failing to understand how a level 249 teacher could possibly pay for the machines upkeep when none of the mage-type teachers and students of this level ever could until now.

Shaily looked just as shocked as the booths student, though Sofia felt that it was probably for different, more pecuniary reasons.