Chapter 509 – Goodbye! Greta

Chapter 509 – Goodbye! Greta

Seeing that Alicia didn’t seem to recall the specifics, Mo Lan continued:

“It’s the news about the Imperial Magic Academy recruiting students and training them along the ancient mage path! My talent is actually quite good — it’s just that back then, I missed the magic aptitude test, and having been influenced by the ancient mages, I was unwilling to follow the elemental specialization path that most Mage Towers favor nowadays. That’s why I’ve always been a rogue mage.

“Being a rogue mage may be free, but it comes with its own difficulties. Resources are always lacking, and the higher your rank, the more you feel stretched thin. It’s been a very long time since I’ve managed to obtain an advanced spell structure.

“I never expected the Imperial Magic Academy to also train students along the ancient mage path. I think this might be my opportunity, so I wanted to ask you about it.”

These words were spoken with great sincerity, and Alicia relaxed. As it happened, she actually had looked into this matter in some detail:

“I heard about it from my older sister — she’s a student at the Imperial Magic Academy’s Crimson Flame Mage Tower. According to her, every student in the ancient mage class is a super genius. They don’t belong to any single Mage Tower, but they can freely enter and exit every Mage Tower and attend any Mage Tower’s internal courses.

“As for admission requirements: initial psychic power must exceed 100, affinity with all elemental forces must exceed 60, at least two elemental force affinities must exceed 80, and you must not have practiced any elemental meditation techniques.

“The thing is, the ancient mage class generally only recruits children who haven’t yet begun their magic initiation.

“But there really isn’t a strict age requirement.

“If you’re interested in this, you absolutely must not miss the Imperial Magic Academy’s spring enrollment next year!”

“Great! I understand now! This information is very important to me!” Mo Lan said.

If there was no explicit age requirement, then the identity she was currently disguised as fully met these admission conditions.

To be precise, without this kind of talent, she wouldn’t have been able to learn so many different schools of Elemental Magic — including no small number of intermediate and advanced spells.

Having truly been of help to Lady Moira, Alicia finally had the confidence to eat her fill.

She zeroed in on several food cards she had been eyeing for a while: “Lady Moira, I’d like to try these dishes!”

“Sure!” Mo Lan materialized the cards she had picked, then stuffed the rest into her hands as well. “Take these back and enjoy them at your leisure!”

Alicia: “!!! You’re far too generous!”

Mo Lan: “…”

Oops — she had forgotten about her stingy persona! These cards truly cost her nothing; they were no different from something she’d picked up off the ground.

*

Two weeks later. Apprentice Square.

Greta looked at the empty space before her stall and sighed.

By now, there were a full ten instant noodle stalls like hers in Apprentice Square.

The malatang stall that Lilith and the others ran next door had been doing fine up until a week ago, but these past two days it had also taken a downturn.

There were five identical malatang stalls in the square.

Many restaurants had also started offering Dawn Society tier-one resource food cards.

Dawn Society cuisine seemed to have suddenly flooded the market.

Fewer mages were buying; more mages were selling.

“Business is getting harder and harder… This can’t go on!”

Greta had no good solution for the current situation.

She had played her own part in the Dawn Society’s spread — she was already a tier-3 Night Mist Apprentice now.

Just as she was fretting over her business, she heard Lilith at the neighboring stall say: “Greta, starting tomorrow, we won’t be coming anymore.”

“What? You’re not going to set up stall and earn money anymore?” Greta asked in surprise.

Having shared a stall space with them for over half a month, Greta had truly gotten to know them well.

“That’s right. Our Instructor says that the Dawn Society is no longer a secret among the mages of Lance City. Grand Duke Clara has personally stepped in, and soon practically every mage in Lance City will be a Dawn Society member.

“Earning contribution points and making money in Lance City will only get harder from here, so we’re following our Instructor to the imperial capital to look for opportunities,” Lilith said.

Greta was stunned. Of course!

Wasn’t the flood of Dawn Society food proof that more and more mages were becoming Society members?

During this period, she had indeed found it increasingly easy to hand out Dawn Society invitations.

When encountering unfamiliar mages, she didn’t even need to deliberately befriend them — she only had to mention that the beginner mages in the Mage Towers were all Society members, and they would seriously consider the invitation. After reviewing it, every one of them chose to join.

Every mage undergoing the trial had to invite ten others before they could gain full membership. At this rate, the number of people in Lance City who hadn’t joined the Dawn Society would only shrink further.

Which meant earning Dawn Society contribution points would only get slower and slower for her.

Compared to her instant noodle business, the difficulty of earning Dawn Society contribution points was the far more pressing problem.

No — she couldn’t keep spending all her psychic power on buying instant noodle ingredient cards just to earn gold coins! As long as she raised her membership rank to Beacon Watcher, she would not only be able to purchase {Knowledge Card – Beginner Magic Spell Structure}, but also buy {Item Card – Magic Gold Coin} without limit.

She needed to take advantage of the upcoming knighthood examination, while the city was still full of visiting mages, and hurry to distribute invitations for one last round of contribution points. Then she would save up Gem Coins, use her monthly tier-two resource card purchase allotment to buy a few magic cards for self-defense, and set off for other places to find new mage communities to distribute invitations to.

Once she had maxed out her Dawn Society membership rank, she could settle down somewhere and focus on studying magic to advance her mage level.

“Tonight at the Gold Globe Flower Inn, dinner’s on me — consider it a farewell party!” Greta said. “Once you leave, who knows when we’ll see each other again.”

When they had first met, she was still a struggling waitress. Now she could treat her friends to a meal at the Gold Globe Flower Inn without feeling the pinch.

Although instant noodles hadn’t been selling well lately, the business had already earned her a considerable sum of gold coins.

Seeing that Greta had come to her senses, Lilith was happy for her: “Sure! We’ll definitely be there!”

Lilith and the others packed up their stall and left. Greta, having lost all desire to keep selling, left with them.

That evening, the four of them feasted at the Gold Globe Flower Inn, not heading home until late into the night, each carrying a pleasant buzz.

The next morning, a magic carriage pulled out of Number 21, Apprentice Lane and headed straight for the city gates.

“Is that Greta? She’s come to the city gates to hand out invitations!” Vasida, driving the carriage, spotted Greta through the lookout window — she was among a group of child guides, distributing Dawn Society invitations.

Lilith and Sylph both leaned out of the carriage windows to look.

Greta seemed to have made newly arrived mages her targets; she had already handed out quite a few invitations.

The two of them waved at Greta: “Goodbye! Greta!”

Greta heard their voices and looked up. Seeing them, her eyes filled with delighted surprise: “Goodbye!”