Chapter 494 – The Apprentices at the Inn

One bite after another, and before long, Greta had fished out all the noodles.

“That portion was way too small!” She hadn’t had nearly enough before it was all gone.

Greta stared at the noodle broth still emanating its deadly fragrance from the paper bowl. She was just about to drink it when there was a knock at the door.

“Greta! What are you cooking? How does it smell so good?”

Greta’s eyes darted. She quietly activated her Dawn Society magic, and a semi-transparent light screen floated before her eyes. Carrying the noodle bowl, she went to open the door.

“Jenna, I made some noodles. There’s a bit of broth left — want some?”

Jenna looked down at the vivid red, cloudy broth. The fragrance was definitely coming from it.

It didn’t look like much, but her cravings had already been stirred.

“I’ll just have one tiny sip!”

Jenna did indeed take only a small sip, but she was already dazed by the aroma.

Four more doors opened nearby.

And with that, every mage apprentice working at the Gold Globe Flower Inn had gathered.

All of them lured by the fragrance of the instant noodles.

Greta invited them into her rest room and “generously” shared a little of the broth for them to taste. Then she asked:

“If I sold noodles like these for 50 silver coins, would you be willing to buy a bowl to try?”

“I definitely couldn’t afford to eat it every day, but as an occasional treat, absolutely!” Yurian licked the corner of his lips.

This was just a bit of leftover broth from someone else’s noodles. If it were the actual noodles, he couldn’t even imagine how delicious they’d be!

“Greta, you actually have such an amazing recipe! You could totally open a shop — business would be fantastic for sure!” Jenna said enviously.

If she had this kind of skill, she’d have gone independent long ago!

The others felt the same way.

The Gold Globe Flower Inn’s restaurant did such good business precisely because of its unique recipes.

Greta of course knew this too. From the moment she’d tasted the instant noodles, she’d realized that even the most ordinary tier-one resource cards in the Card Shop were not to be underestimated. Used well, they could earn her a fortune in gold coins, freeing her from ever worrying about food or clothing again.

And what about higher-tier resource cards? They could only be even more precious than she’d imagined!

The people before her were all colleagues she’d spent several months working alongside — mages with no backgrounds, no resources, struggling to get by. Given even the slightest chance to turn their fortunes around, they’d seize it with everything they had.

They were currently her best candidates for invitations, with a success rate of over ninety percent.

Originally, her plan had been to secretly slip invitations into their rooms one by one later — that would have been the ideal approach.

But today, they’d caught the scent of instant noodles wafting from her room.

Greta had never encountered this fragrance anywhere else. Even if she hid it now, once they joined the society and saw the instant noodle cards, they’d figure it out.

Rather than inviting them one by one, she might as well go all in and seize this opportunity to invite them all at once.

After all, the Dawn Society Invitation included confidentiality clauses. She just needed to add one more — prohibiting them from revealing the inviter’s identity.

“If there were a place where you could not only get delicious food like this, but also have the chance to obtain precious magical resources, would you be willing to join?” Greta asked.

“Of course I would! But a place like that — why would they even look at us? Mage apprentices with poor talent, no future, barely scraping by?” Yurian said.

Jenna was equally hopeless: “Greta, has some secret society or organization contacted you? Let me tell you — any organization that charges a membership fee is a scam! All those benefits they promise? Not a single one will ever materialize. I was once as naive as you, and I lost at least fifty gold coins before I wised up!”

“She’s right! Lance City is full of mages who lack magical resources, and plenty of people exploit our weaknesses and aspirations to swindle us. Don’t fall for it!” Yurian added.

…

The five mage apprentices took turns trying to talk her out of it, each sharing their own stories of falling into traps.

Greta seized the opportunity to quietly operate within her card collection album. She casually selected an invitation content template, filled in the blank Dawn Society Trial Invitations, modified the confidentiality clauses, and then materialized them, placing them before her five coworkers.

“Take a look!”

Jenna, Yurian, and the others were startled when she produced five cards out of thin air.

Before they could ask, Greta said, “I don’t have any spatial magic items. What you just saw was an ability granted to me by the society.”

In Jenna and the others’ minds, this meant that the so-called society had given her access to a spatial magic item.

They were all talentless, backgroundless mages. If Greta could obtain such a treasure from this society, couldn’t they as well?

The fact that Jenna had been scammed out of so many gold coins before waking up meant she’d always harbored fantasies of finding a lucky break. Now she was the first to seriously examine the card Greta had pushed in front of her.

Yurian was still hesitant: “How much did you pay for membership?”

Greta shook her head. “I can’t say anything until you’ve accepted the trial invitation. But I promise you, what I’ve paid is far less than what I’ve gained. Just look at the cards and you’ll understand.”

Yurian resisted the urge to look at the card. He was afraid that once he did, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from being duped.

He wanted so desperately to change his circumstances that he was especially vulnerable to falling into traps.

“Yurian! Look at this! With all my experience of being scammed ten times over, I still can’t find a single flaw in this invitation! It really does seem like the terms are entirely in our favor.”

Jenna continued, “It even says the society has spell structures for Advanced magic! An organization this powerful wouldn’t bother scamming a few lowly apprentices like us, right?”

“What do you know! If a scammer doesn’t create a grand and impressive identity for themselves, who’s going to believe them? I could claim I have rare spell structures too!” Yurian scoffed. “There’s only one way to identify this kind of scam — look at what they want to take from us! When they’re targeting poor apprentices like us who have nothing else, what they’re after is definitely the little bit of gold coins we’ve painstakingly saved up!”

Suddenly, Fira beside them exclaimed, “It doesn’t say anything about paying money! It only says not to reveal information about the inviter or the Dawn Society.”

Yurian froze. “No payment required?”

He finally picked up the invitation and read it, growing more incredulous by the moment. “How is this possible?”

But after scrutinizing every last corner of the letter, he found no mention of any payment whatsoever.

All it truly required was their secrecy.

“Everyone can earn the rewards they deserve through their own efforts!”

That line spoke directly to Yurian’s heart.

And the magical resources listed on it… what if this was real?

After a moment, he raised his head and looked at the others’ expressions. “How about… we sign and give it a try? Besides a few gold coins, we don’t really have anything worth scamming anyway.”