Chapter 536 – A Bed

Although Eberhard hadn’t found anything wrong with the contract, he worried his own judgment wasn’t sharp enough, so he didn’t sign the card right away. Instead, he left the main tower and made a trip outside Tower Forest.

“There really is a Dawn Gourmet Street!” Eberhard went in and browsed around.

Everything sold there was priced in ordinary gold coins or even silver coins — hundreds or thousands of times cheaper than the cafeteria and restaurants inside Tower Forest, and hundreds or thousands of times tastier too.

He walked in on an empty stomach and walked out holding his waist.

The moment he stepped out, he signed the Dawn Society Invitation.

So many mages had already learned the Dawn Society’s special magic and could summon cards — what was there left to hesitate about?

He stayed up late studying the Dawn Society’s learning materials to complete Trial Task One, then leveraged his connections within the Academy to complete Trial Task Two.

The very next day, Eberhard took the Furniture Card he’d earned as a trial task reward, packed up his important belongings, and found a shared rotating-occupancy dormitory closer to the main tower.

This type of dormitory was privately long-term rented by students who then paid for renovations and sublet the spaces.

It was specifically prepared for students who didn’t want to pay too much rent and only used the dormitory as a place to store things and occasionally rest and wash up.

Inside, there was nothing but rows of beds, rows of storage lockers, and a communal bathroom.

Eberhard didn’t even bother with a bed. He went straight to the student in charge, rented a large storage locker and bathroom access rights, collected his keys, stowed his things, and then turned right around and headed for the main tower.

Since this was private student behavior, it wasn’t mentioned in the 《New Student Handbook》.

That afternoon, a bed appeared in Library Room 1 on the 7th floor of the Psychic Branch’s main tower.

Mo Lan had just finished dinner and was preparing to go to the women’s washroom next door to use the toilet, then use a {Body Cleansing Card} to take care of her hygiene — same as yesterday — when she noticed the tables and chairs in the reading area had been pushed closer together. In the space that had been freed up, there was a bed.

The mage she’d seen yesterday was lying on the bed reading a book.

But the book in his hands obviously couldn’t float on its own like the Grimoire, so he could only read while lying on his stomach, propping his upper body up with his elbows.

Mo Lan: “…”

Call him lazy, and he’d hauled himself all the way to the library room to lie down. Call him not lazy, and he was lying in the library room reading.

That posture — how long could he keep it up? Was it really comfortable?

Mo Lan didn’t understand, but she respected it.

Still though… did the library room’s administrator really not care?

Mo Lan passed by the counter at the library room entrance and glanced at the mage apprentice inside, who was buried in a book.

If it weren’t for the fact that the library room administrator had to organize the bookshelves, return books to their proper places, and clean the library room, she absolutely would have taken on the library management task herself — reading books while earning points at the same time.

Clearly, this administrator didn’t think an extra bed in the reading area was any big deal, because inside his counter area there was a camp cot, and on his desk there was an insulated tumbler.

One glance was all it took to tell — both were Dawn Society products.

They hadn’t been there yesterday. She had no idea who had moved so fast.

Eberhard, who had just gritted his teeth and signed the membership contract to become an official member of the Dawn Society, sneezed. “Who’s talking about me?”

Two materialized non-retrievable cards and one Dawn Society Invitation Card for only 100 points — he’d sold them way cheaper than that advanced mage. McCoy wouldn’t chew him out over that, right?

Eberhard poked his head out to glance toward the administrator’s counter. All he saw was the top of McCoy’s head, and a flash of black robe hem disappearing out the door.

After Mo Lan returned from the washroom, she immersed herself in her books once more.

Three days passed like this. The new students had mostly familiarized themselves with the 《New Student Handbook》 and found their dormitories.

Practical magic courses wouldn’t start for another three months. In the meantime, all the new students had unanimously chosen to spend their time on the Library Floor reading magic books.

What attracted mages most to the Imperial Magic Academy was precisely this vast ocean of magic books.

Mo Lan noticed that Library Room 1 was becoming noticeably more crowded. She even had to wait in line occasionally when going to the washroom.

The washroom next to Library Room 1 wasn’t large to begin with, but this had never happened in the previous few days.

She had originally planned to find an opportunity to recruit a few more mages into the Dawn Society to solidify her identity as both a wild mage and Dawn Society member. But to her surprise, the library room’s administrator — the mage named McCoy — had beaten her to it entirely.

Mo Lan specifically checked: he had started his trial on the third day after she’d arrived at the library room, and joined the Dawn Society on the fourth day.

The camp cot and insulated tumbler probably weren’t things he’d redeemed himself.

And the person who had invited him to join the Dawn Society was named Eberhard.

Eberhard was the mage who had brazenly set up a bed in the reading area — Mo Lan had seen his name on his student card.

As it turned out, she hadn’t managed to recruit any of the new students coming to the library room, nor had Eberhard — who slept right there in plain sight of the entrance — snatched them up either. They’d all been claimed by McCoy, the last one to join the Dawn Society.

He had placed a sign directly on his counter: “For just 1 point, you can obtain a Dawn Society Invitation, allowing you to redeem gourmet cards and Furniture Cards anytime, anywhere — achieving total lying-flat freedom in the library room.”

It appeared he was going for the high-volume, low-margin approach, and business seemed pretty good.

The key detail was the arrow on the sign, pointing toward Eberhard, who was reading magic books while sipping strong coffee to stay awake.

After becoming a Dawn Society member, McCoy had learned what the invitation card actually was.

Something you could buy outside Tower Forest for a single gold coin — or even get for free with the purchase of ten gourmet cards — and Eberhard had actually sold it to him for a hundred points.

After discovering this, he’d nearly thrown Eberhard, bed and all, right out of the library room.

After all, placing a bed in the reading area did genuinely affect other people’s experience using the reading area’s tables and chairs. Accusing him of disrupting library room order would have been perfectly justified.

Eberhard was in the wrong and had no choice but to serve as McCoy’s free “advertising model,” helping him earn points and Dawn Society contribution points in exchange for the right to legally use his bed in the library room.

Eberhard felt deeply wronged. He was the one who’d been scammed — it was just that the one who’d scammed him was an advanced mage. Even if he challenged her in the arena, he couldn’t win, so he could only swallow his frustration in silence.

All the new student resources and points he’d lost, he chalked up entirely to that advanced mage who had swindled him.

As a result, every time Mo Lan went to the washroom, she could feel Eberhard’s resentful gaze following her.

After being stared at one too many times, Mo Lan had had enough. When she felt his gaze on her again as she walked past the reading area, she whipped around: “Stare at me one more time and I’ll gouge your eyes out!”

Eberhard: “…”

Although private fighting was forbidden within Tower Forest outside of arena battles, he was still startled.

Not daring to stare anymore, he could only lower his head and stare at his book, grumbling in his heart.

(End of Chapter)