The Wizard Has A Biochip

Numerous acolytes who had been dozing off began furiously emerging from their tents.

Some practically jumped out as if their own beds had caught fire.

— Who the hell is making this shit?!

— Shut up!

— What the hell is going on?!

— Damn the bastard who’s doing this!

The dark circles under their eyes made it obvious how badly they needed sleep. Many had probably stayed awake all night, and now their precious moments of rest were being destroyed by my explosions.

I continued firing my Light Arrows at the enormous stone.

ZOSHH!

BOOM!

When those acolytes finally found me, they all stopped.

I was standing alone in front of a huge stone target, casting one spell after another while explosions illuminated the field.

Some of them opened their mouths to continue cursing.

But no one said anything.

After a few seconds, they simply swallowed their anger.

Then they returned to their houses.

I almost found it amusing.

Shortly afterward, countless magical glows began appearing over the tents.

I watched with curiosity.

The acolytes had raised magical barriers to block the noise and disturbance from outside.

Apparently, they preferred spending mana to protect themselves from my explosions rather than staying awake.

Half an hour later, I finally stopped.

I was breathing heavily.

My chest rose and fell.

I closed my eyes and focused my senses on the inside of my body.

I could feel it.

Deep within my muscles, bones, and flesh, there was still a constant stream of elemental Light energy.

It was slowly being released.

Then it was absorbed by my body.

And subsequently transformed into mana.

The process was much slower than before.

But that was a good thing.

In fact, it was exactly what I needed.

Now the recovery speed had finally reached a pace that my body could withstand.

A deep voice came from behind me.

— George? Do you feel better now?

I turned my head.

Rustil was standing behind me, playing with his two daggers and making them spin between his fingers.

— I’m better.

Rustil crossed his arms.

A smile appeared on his face.

— Do you know how many people in this training camp are dying of envy because of the feast you received yesterday?

— I have no idea.

— What you ate yesterday was a true Mountain Peak Light Dragon feast.

—There are people in this camp who dream of tasting something like that, but they will probably never have the opportunity.

He shook his head.

— And you even received it as a gift from Nople. You should be proud.

I scratched my head.

— I suppose the meat is very expensive?

Rustil fell silent.

For a moment, I had the impression that he was trying to decide whether he should actually tell me.

Then he answered:

— Expensive? Very.

— How much?

— In the market, five hundred grams of fresh Mountain Peak Light Dragon ribs cost around one thousand magical crystals.

— And a cup of dragon blood costs approximately two thousand magical crystals.

My face froze.

— What?

Rustil spoke in an apparently calm manner.

But I could tell that he was practically speaking through clenched teeth.

I finally understood the true value of that meal.

For an acolyte like me, who had received a simple mission because of the war between Black Bull Tower and Arcangrove Tower, each trip to the Subterranean World yielded approximately five merit points and a few magical crystals.

For an elite acolyte like Rustil, a mission could yield around ten merit points and between one thousand and four thousand magical crystals.

After deducting the costs of materials, potions, and basic necessities...

An elite acolyte who had between one thousand and 3,000 magical crystals saved could already be considered a relatively wealthy man.

After the two bets I made, I had practically stripped the savings from a large portion of the elite acolytes present in that field.

If Nople had not given his order...

Perhaps, by the time I left that place, there would have been dozens of people waiting to knock me down and rob me of everything.

But there was something even worse.

I had eaten an absurd amount of that meat.

And drunk dragon blood.

For free.

My face began to contort.

I tried to control myself.

I took a deep breath.

I couldn’t.

I raised my head toward the sky and let out a roar.

— DAAAAAAMN! I SHOULD HAVE EATEN MORE BEFORE I PASSED OUT!

Rustil stared at me.

I stared at him.

Then he started laughing.

I couldn’t help it either.

After some time, we finally calmed down.

And when we looked at each other again, I realized that the distance between us had decreased.

In fact, ever since the first day I arrived at that place, I had secretly admired those elite acolytes.

They had gone through life-or-death training.

They had real experience.

They had survived situations I couldn’t even imagine.

I had defeated two famous Level III acolytes.

But I needed to be honest with myself.

The circumstances of those battles had been extremely favorable.

We were fighting in open fields and under specific rules.

If there had been no limitations imposed by the arena...

I, being only a Level II acolyte, was still very weak.

My strength came mainly from my Golems.

I myself was much more vulnerable.

If I faced Werk Treuz in a dense forest, for example...

He would probably have thousands of ways to turn my life into hell.

That man’s specialty was curse spells.

And if my opponent were Rustil?

I would probably die.

Or, at the very least, suffer serious injuries.

There was no way I could hide underground forever.

Sooner or later, I would have to return to the surface to eat, Drink, Sleep.

And the moment my vigilance dropped...

My enemy could kill me silently.

Therefore, despite my combat ability having earned the acceptance of most of the people in that field, I knew my own limitations.

Perhaps I really was capable of posing a threat to most of the acolytes there.

But being a threat did not mean guaranteed death.

That was precisely why they were able to accept me.

If I let myself be carried away by the glory of my victories and began acting arrogantly...

All I would achieve was hostility.

And hatred.

A lot of hatred.

That was why, when Rustil showed me goodwill, I made sure to return it.

After we talked for a while, Rustil pulled a pouch from his waist and took out a silver card with blue runes carved into it.

He extended his hand and handed it to me.

— This is your share of yesterday’s victory.

I took the silver card.

Rustil continued.

— It was inconvenient to carry so many magical crystals, so I exchanged most of them for a magical crystal credit card.

—It can be used to exchange for magical crystals in all mage towers belonging to the Lumentrix Association.

My eyes lit up.

— Really?

— Thank you very much!

Rustil waved his hand.

— It’s just a small thing. You don’t need to thank me.

— Actually, I’m the one who should thank you.

—If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have managed to make a small fortune yesterday.

— You should have seen the looks on those guys’ faces!

—They were practically crying with envy.

—It was wonderful!

I rubbed my palms together.

I wanted to keep talking.

But I didn’t know exactly what to say.

Being friends with Rustil was great.

The problem was that I had probably made many other enemies in that camp.

Rustil noticed my expression.

— Don’t worry.

He put the daggers he had been playing with back into his belt.

— Nople has already given his order.

—From now on, you will be part of my team.

I blinked.

— My team?

— You probably didn’t know because you were unconscious when Nople mentioned it.

— At that time, you were being taken away to rest.

Despite the joke, I noticed something in his voice.

Envy.

He was probably still thinking about the amount of dragon meat I had eaten.

— Brother Rustil...

— Could you explain what the responsibilities and powers of an acolyte in the camp are?

— Hahaha! No problem!

He placed one hand on my shoulder.

— Come on. I’ll take you back to Kar-Dur Tower.

We began walking.

— On the way, I’ll explain how this training camp really works.

....

1393 Words