Chapter Fifty-Two: Who Is the Scoundrel?

In less than half an hour, Xu Wen descended from the second floor of the Divine Armory Pavilion.

By then, Lin Qingxuan and the group of young men and women had already finished browsing most of the first floor and were waiting outside. Most of the group had found several items they fancied, but unfortunately, those items did not favor them in return—their purses were far too thin. Only two wealthier youths, each wielding a three-star grade weapon, strutted about, repeatedly brandishing their new acquisitions as if afraid others wouldn’t notice, their faces brimming with pride.

“What kind of treasures are inside?”

As soon as Xu Wen nodded to Manager Wang and stepped out, he was immediately approached by the curious Xiang Nan.

Seeing the eager expressions around him, Xu Wen could only put on a pained look and wave his hand, waiting until they had left the Divine Armory Pavilion behind before lowering his voice to explain, “It was too dazzling; I didn’t dare keep looking... Truly! My heart couldn’t take it! All I know is that even the lowest-grade items start at twenty thousand gold coins.”

A group of children from Blackwater City, no matter how wealthy, could not help but gulp in shock and awe at Xu Wen’s words.

Twenty thousand gold coins!

Even for the richest families in a small city, such a sum was staggering.

The two students from Sillan Academy who had just bought three-star grade weapons had only paid less than two hundred gold coins.

“Heavens!”

Xiang Nan gazed up innocently, “Twenty thousand gold coins—I could never spend that much in a lifetime.”

“You don’t have any money, so why did Manager Wang invite you in?”

Jin Yu asked curiously, having already learned from Lin Qingxuan about the special nature of the Pavilion’s second floor.

“Well, perhaps Manager Wang was overwhelmed by my outstanding presence,” Xu Wen replied, puffing himself up. His boast immediately irked both the inner disciples of the Hortonklin family and the Sillan Academy students.

“You deserve a beating!”

“...Get him! Don’t let him run!”

The group burst into playful pursuit down the street.

Only Lin Qingxuan paused, glancing back at the Divine Armory Pavilion with a hint of suspicion. She happened to see Manager Wang standing at the door, smiling in her direction and nodding slightly.

Her curiosity deepened. How could a six-star expert like Manager Wang so obviously favor Xu Wen?

Carrying these doubts, the group wandered the city until late at night before returning to the Hortonklin family’s inn. After dinner, Lin Qingxuan found a moment to seek out Xu Wen’s room.

“After a whole day out, Sister Lin, aren’t you going to rest?”

Xu Wen paused in undressing, standing bare-chested as Lin Qingxuan abruptly entered.

“Little rascal.”

Lin Qingxuan hadn’t expected Xu Wen to be preparing for bed so soon after dinner. Seeing the boy standing shirtless before her, she instinctively muttered in exasperation.

Xu Wen could only smile wryly. “Sister Lin, are you saying I’m being indecent for undressing in my own room, or is it indecent for you to barge in and see me like this? I haven’t blamed you, yet you’re the one making the accusation.” As he spoke, he nonchalantly slipped his shirt back on.

Lin Qingxuan’s cheeks reddened as she realized her words and actions had been a bit rash. “You brat, I suppose I’m just used to the carriage. Who would have thought you’d be so lazy the moment you step off? Not even practicing, just going straight to bed?”

“I’m lazy?”

Xu Wen replied with exaggerated disbelief, making Lin Qingxuan feel even more embarrassed.

“All right, all right. You’re not losing anything anyway. Let me ask you: did Manager Wang say anything to you today?” Lin Qingxuan, seeing the conversation going nowhere, decided to get straight to the point.

“What could he possibly say?”

Xu Wen looked at her oddly, “I hardly know him.”

Stumped, Lin Qingxuan stood there speechless. She wanted to press for details but worried it would upset Xu Wen—after all, this child’s mind was as shrewd as an adult’s. If he sensed anything amiss and took offense, it would not be good.

“If there was nothing, then that’s that. I was just curious why he invited you upstairs... it’s getting late. Rest well, and if you need anything, come find me next door.”

Suppressing her doubts, Lin Qingxuan wished him goodnight and closed the door behind her.

Once the door was shut, Xu Wen’s gaze regained its usual calm. He silently turned and walked to the bedside.

Today had yielded much: he had bought an exceptional four-star mage robe and established a connection with the Western City family’s trading house. Should he need to handle any financial matters in the future, he could go directly through them—he was confident they’d never leak any business details.

Revealing the “Breath Suppression Pill” today would surely draw the Western City family’s attention.

A five-star elixir, though not of the highest grade, was special enough to command respect. Besides, nothing in their conversation left any leverage against him...

Hmph.

Satisfied, Xu Wen sat on his bed, gazing at the twinkling stars outside the window, his eyes growing deeper as his thoughts drifted to the upcoming enrollment at Azure Cloud Academy in four days.

The most renowned magic and martial academy of the Azure Cloud Empire!

One million students—what kind of place would it be? He could hardly wait.

In the days that followed, Xu Wen kept busy. Not only did he familiarize himself with the area around Azure Cloud Academy, but he also went to the Adventurers’ Guild to register for his own adventurer’s badge.

The Adventurers’ Guild was not unlike the mercenary guilds in games—a hub for all sorts of civilian-commissioned tasks, where adventurers could accept missions for rewards. It was extremely popular!

Anyone faced with a task they couldn’t handle personally would often offer anonymous or named bounties, seeking suitable adventurers to complete the work.

Registered adventurers would see their qualification rank rise with each completed mission, granting them access to higher-reward tasks.

As a two-star, ninth-rank fire mage and a first-time registrant, Xu Wen naturally received the lowest adventurer qualification—an F-rank adventurer.

Low-level mages rarely received tasks with gold coin rewards, but as a skilled alchemist—no, an experienced master alchemist—Xu Wen found several potion-related tasks with no rank restriction.

Task: One hundred bottles of Refreshing Elixir!
Reward: Four hundred eighty gold coins!
Deadline: Ten days.

“So many?”

Xu Wen glanced at the remaining task quota and clicked his tongue in astonishment. There were over a thousand such tasks—meaning the issuer was offering at least 480,000 gold coins for more than ten thousand bottles of Refreshing Elixir.

“Madness,” Xu Wen thought. Who would buy so many Refreshing Elixirs at once?

From what he knew, the going price for a bottle in the imperial capital was less than five gold coins, only slightly above cost, with meager profit. Whoever issued the task certainly wasn’t buying for personal use—a thousand people could use that much for a year.

If this world had experience points or player rankings, and the guild didn’t take a one percent cut per task, Xu Wen might have suspected some bored noble was trying to power-level their adventurer badge.

But for the sake of higher-level tasks, he took the commission anyway. Back at the inn, he borrowed several extra alchemy cauldrons from Lin Qingxuan and shut himself in his room to work.

The grand plan was finally about to unfold...