Chapter 497 – The Instant Noodle Stand

Chapter 497 – The Instant Noodle Stand

“Huh?” Amy was deeply disappointed at not being able to buy what her master wanted to eat. “I can pay extra—can’t you make a few more portions and sell them to me? My master really wants to try them!”

“I’m out of ingredients.” On Greta’s little pushcart, all that remained was a single tablecloth.

She had anticipated that the instant noodles would sell well, but she hadn’t expected them to sell this well.

She had just used Ignite to heat a small bowl of water and prepared a paper bowl of noodles for Lilith and her two mage friends, whom she had just run into, to sample—and before she knew it, a crowd had gathered around her stand.

Forty-eight portions of instant noodle ingredients, sold out in a matter of minutes.

Only one portion remained, which Lilith, Sylph, and Vasida had gotten to taste.

The reason she was still here was that she had been chatting with Lilith and the others, building rapport.

“Amy? Your master is back from the Mage Tower?” Lilith noticed her and asked curiously.

“Yes! We caught the scent of the instant noodles Lady Moira was cooking, and she told us we could buy some here,” Amy said.

Greta understood immediately—Lady Moira must be Lilith and the others’ instructor, which meant Amy’s master was Lady Moira’s neighbor and also a mage from the Mage Tower.

This was a potential recruitment target! Someone who could earn her contribution points!

She had to seize the opportunity.

“Oh, so you all know each other! How about this—I’ll go prepare some more ingredients later and deliver them to you before dark. How does that sound?” Greta offered.

“That would be wonderful!” Amy breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed a handful of gold coins from her purse, handing them over right away.

“That’s too much!” Greta hurriedly protested. “One portion of instant noodle ingredients only costs one gold coin!”

“The extra is compensation for making the trip,” Amy said, and then she was gone.

With fifty-eight gold coins jingling in her pocket, Greta felt richer than she had ever been in her life.

“Greta, your noodles are so delicious—why are you still working as a waitress at the Gold Globe Flower Inn? Wouldn’t it be better to just rent a shop and sell instant noodles?” Vasida asked, puzzled.

Apprentice-level spell structures sold well, but apprentice-level magic scrolls were a different story.

The three of them had been manning their stall for most of the day and had barely sold any.

If they could open a hotpot restaurant, making money would be much easier.

But they would need to become members of the Dawn Society first before they could “legitimately” open a hotpot restaurant.

So the only option was to find ways to grow closer to Greta and invite her to join the Dawn Society sooner.

Giving Greta money-making ideas seemed like a good approach.

“I’d love to! But I simply don’t have enough money to rent a shop in Apprentice Square. My plan is to first quit my job at the Gold Globe Flower Inn, find an inn to stay at temporarily, come to Apprentice Square every day to sell from a stand and save up money, and then rent a place to live and a shop to sell instant noodles,” Greta said.

She had also realized it was no longer practical for her to stay at the Gold Globe Flower Inn.

Rather than trying to network with mage customers while working as a waitress there, it would be better to be her own boss.

Today, when she was selling instant noodles, the mage customers’ attitude toward her was completely different from when she was a waitress.

If she always remained in a position of weakness, it would naturally be difficult to befriend more powerful mages.

After all, the higher a mage’s rank, the more contribution points a successful invitation would yield!

Moreover, earning money on the side while staying on someone else’s turf would make it harder for her to keep things under wraps.

After all, these instant noodles didn’t actually require purchasing any ingredients. She only needed to meditate to recover her psychic power, then use Gem Coins to buy them from the Card Shop.

In other people’s eyes, wouldn’t it look like she conjured large quantities of instant noodle ingredients out of thin air every day without ever buying supplies?

That wouldn’t do at all!

“Your instant noodles taste amazing—you definitely won’t have trouble selling them. Unlike our magic scrolls… if our stall hadn’t been right next to yours, we probably wouldn’t have made a single sale all afternoon!”

Lilith sighed and quietly nudged Sylph beside her.

Sylph immediately followed up with a sigh of her own. “I know, right! If we can’t sell the magic scrolls, we can’t buy blank magic scrolls to return to our instructor, and we’ll get scolded again when we go back!”

“And even if they won’t sell, we still have to keep trying! We have to scrape together enough money to buy a beginner spell structure before our psychic power reaches the critical threshold! One beginner spell structure costs 100 Magic Gold Coins! Where are we supposed to find that kind of money?” Vasida said with a miserable expression.

“What? A beginner spell structure only costs 100 Magic Gold Coins?” Greta asked in surprise. “Where did you buy it? Can you tell me how?”

In the Card Shop, beginner spell structures were classified as tier-three resources—a Night Observer could only purchase one per month.

Compared to the path of advancing to Night Observer rank before buying a {Knowledge Card – Beginner Spell Structure}, saving up 100 Magic Gold Coins seemed much more achievable.

She had earned over fifty gold coins in just a short while today!

They were only ordinary gold coins, true, but with enough ordinary gold coins, there were ways to exchange them for Magic Gold Coins.

“From our instructor, of course!” Vasida said. “Our instructor has never given us a single magic resource for free—we have to buy everything from her.”

“How wonderful!” Greta said with genuine envy.

Vasida: “???”

She had been performing the role of a pitiful apprentice oppressed by a stingy instructor. Why did Greta look envious?

Was there something wrong with Mo Lan’s script?

Sylph was equally confused. “Greta, don’t you think our instructor is being unreasonable?”

“Not at all! Magic Gold Coins are precious, certainly, but compared to them, magical knowledge is far more precious!”

Greta looked at her three newly acquainted mage friends and counseled them earnestly. “You really shouldn’t take your blessings for granted! Plenty of apprentices can’t buy magical knowledge even if they have the money!

Even mages in the Mage Tower have to perform tasks for the Duchy of Lance to earn corresponding magical knowledge. Yet your instructor only asks you to pay—that’s already about as generous as it gets.

Think about it—has your instructor ever sold spell structures at that price to anyone else?”

Lilith recalled the lines mentioned in the script and shook her head. “No.”

“See? There you go!” Greta said. “You girls have been sheltered under your instructor’s protection for so long that you have no idea what life is really like for a rogue mage. Your instructor may be a rogue mage, but you certainly aren’t!”

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph had a sudden moment of clarity.

So that’s how the scene in the script was supposed to play out—the part where Greta helps them recognize their instructor’s good intentions!

“Apprentice-level magic scrolls actually have pretty good profit margins—they just sell slowly. Don’t be too anxious,” Greta said. “But if you want to earn more money quickly, I do have an idea…”

“What idea?” All three of them perked up.

Here it comes! Finally! Just hand over the invitation already!

“It’s not really convenient to talk about it here. Let me find a place to stay first, and then I’ll fill you in on the details,” Greta said.

The square was bustling with people coming and going—it really wasn’t the best place for a conversation.