Chapter 490 – The First Friend

Returning to the Oak Inn, they were greeted by a “Temporarily Closed” wooden sign hanging on the door, its paint still fresh.

The Sorceresses exchanged glances, and Sylph stepped forward to knock on the door.

“The inn is temporarily closed! Try the one across the street!” A voice came from the window nearby.

“Mr. Aramir, it’s us!” Sylph said. “We’ve rented a place and are back to pick up our luggage.”

“Oh! Coming!” Aramir leaned over and unlatched the door.

The moment the door opened, he went right back to sit down and continue reading his materials.

He was now completely immersed in the《Dawn Society Resource List》. Spatial Magic items, a rare sight in Valen, could be directly exchanged for Gem Coins according to this list.

He now understood what Gem Coins were too—any spellcaster could convert the magical energy they possessed into Gem Coins.

He was an Advanced Elf mage and swordsman. The natural energy currently at his disposal within his bloodline, when converted to Mana, amounted to over five thousand Mana.

And this natural energy was recoverable!

Inside the trial card, there was a trial shop containing two grayed-out product display windows.

One was {Temporary Item Card – No. 9 Spatial Planting Pot (3 days)}, priced at 1,000 Gem Coins.

The other was {Temporary Item Card – No. 9 Spatial Planting Pot (9 days)}, priced at 3,000 Gem Coins.

He could easily afford either one.

Unfortunately, the display showed that he didn’t have exchange eligibility.

How to obtain exchange eligibility was all written in the trial missions.

Aramir not only didn’t find it troublesome—he actually thought these trial missions were far too simple.

He had originally thought the two cards in the trial shop were already precious enough. But after reading the《Dawn Society Resource List》, he realized they were merely abridged versions.

Not only were there even larger spatial planting pots, but there were also many other precious resources.

Aramir, who had long since given up on advancing his rank, found himself stirred with the urge to give it one more fight as he read through this list.

At this point, running an inn for profit, meeting different people, enjoying life—he had pushed all of that aside.

Mo Lan and the others went inside, headed upstairs to collect their luggage, then came back down and left, all without Aramir sparing them so much as a glance.

“Mr. Aramir, we’re leaving now. Aren’t you going to check whether anything in the rooms is damaged?” Lilith deliberately asked before stepping out.

“No need!” Aramir said.

He wasn’t planning on keeping this inn anyway.

“Mr. Aramir, goodbye!” Sylph said.

“Goodbye!” Aramir still had quite a favorable impression of Sylph, who had received a Sprite’s blessing. “I wish you all the best!”

Once everyone was on the carriage, they finally couldn’t help but grumble.

“Aramir is like a completely different person compared to yesterday—he can’t even be bothered to talk to us anymore!” Lilith said.

“When Greta completed her first trial mission before, she was pretty much the same way,” Vasida said, unsurprised.

“It’s all because Moira’s trial missions are designed too cunningly. Pulling up a full list of cards from the Card Shop and showing it to people—who could possibly stay calm after seeing that!” Sylph said. “I bet Mr. Aramir will work desperately to complete his missions and join the Dawn Society as soon as possible!”

“That means our society will gain another member at the ten trial stages,” Mo Lan said with a smile.

“I just wonder whether he’ll feel cheated when he works hard to complete the missions and joins the society, only to discover that he doesn’t have the eligibility to purchase most of the good stuff in the《Dawn Society Resource List》, and that he’ll need to keep recruiting people for our society before he even has a chance to spend permanent magical energy to upgrade his purchasing privileges,” Lilith sighed.

When she had first seen that the Gem Coin storage cap’s price had multiplied several times over in Mo Lan’s《Dawn Society Proposal》, she had been shocked beyond measure. She hadn’t expected Mo Lan to also price the card purchasing privileges at the level of permanent magical energy, and on top of that, require sufficient contributions to the society’s growth—recruiting enough people—before one even qualified to purchase.

Originally, they were the ones who needed to earn Mana, but now it seemed like everyone else was falling over themselves to hand their Mana over to them.

“Pies don’t just fall from the sky, and even if they did, every single one would already have a price tag hidden on it! The small price I’m asking them to pay is practically a blessing to them,” Mo Lan said with full confidence. “Just wait and see!”

The main thing was that no matter how rare or precious something was, as long as the Book of Cards had analyzed the materials or she had mastered the corresponding knowledge, it could produce anything. The only cost was Mana.

Many things weren’t unaffordable—people simply couldn’t buy them no matter how much money they had.

Now the Book of Cards had perfectly solved this problem, giving everyone the opportunity to acquire any resource simply by spending magical energy.

That opportunity alone was already immensely precious.

The carriage pulled away from the Oak Inn and paused briefly in front of the Gold Globe Flower Inn.

Lilith lifted the hem of her skirt and hurried into the inn, scanning the dining area with her eyes until she found that familiar figure:

“Greta, I’d like to order a bowl of moss bisque and a portion of honey-roasted suckling pig, packed to go!”

“Sure! Lilith, have a seat here and wait a moment. It’ll take some time,” Greta said.

“Greta, my Instructor rented a place on Apprentice Lane, and we’re moving there today. We probably won’t be coming to the Gold Globe Flower Inn after this,” Lilith said, looking somewhat reluctant.

“Where on Apprentice Lane are you staying? I go shopping over there on my days off—maybe I’ll run into you!”

Although Greta had already completed the final trial mission, she still had trial mission three that hadn’t reached its deadline yet, so she could continue reaping its rewards!

She would proactively deepen her connections with every friendly mage she met.

She did indeed visit Apprentice Lane often to make acquaintances with more mages—the area had a high concentration of them.

“Number 21, Apprentice Lane! When you have a day off, remember to come find me! You’re the first friend I’ve made in Lance City, you know!”

The moment Lilith finished speaking, Greta’s trial card stirred again.

This same kind of stirring had already happened once earlier that morning—that was when the final mission had been completed, though she hadn’t yet found a suitable opportunity to claim the reward.

This time, she didn’t even need to look to know that she had made another mage friend, and that trial mission three had progressed.

The fact that trial mission three had responded meant that this “friend” was one acknowledged by the trial card.

While it might not rise to the level of a close confidant, it was certainly no hollow pretense of friendship either.

Greta hadn’t expected that after just one well-meaning tip—without even truly helping—Lilith would specifically come to tell her the address of her new residence on the day of her departure, and had so readily considered her a friend.

“So not every mage is purely driven by self-interest after all!”

Watching Lilith’s retreating figure as she hurried off with her takeout, Greta couldn’t help but think.