Chapter 156

Gao De did not know that while he considered himself obscure, someone had already placed him in a high position he had not even imagined himself.

And the origin of everything was the high regard of He Xi, who could be said to be the highest achiever in the field of "Rune Construction" in the Saint Xi En Principality.

It was very reasonable, yet very unreasonable.

Because, in fact, he still did not know exactly what "Rune Construction" was to this day.

He only vaguely guessed, based on what he had heard, that it should be something similar to the concept of a "set" in games.

But regardless of whether Mentor He Xi was prepared to teach him knowledge in the field of "Rune Construction," or whether he could learn it.

These were not things Gao De should be concerned about at the moment.

Earning money and credits were what he should care about most right now.

Actually, Gao De did not have much pressure: he had no blood feud to avenge, nor any three-year pact.

So theoretically, he could live a slightly more relaxed life.

But when it came to learning, he was instinctively and habitually unable to slack off.

It was both a habit and an enjoyment.

He enjoyed the sense of gain from having a harvest every day, enjoyed the satisfaction of learning new things, and even more, enjoyed the fulfillment of being busy.

Especially in the study of spells and runes.

The positive feedback of gaining supernatural power kept Gao De highly enthusiastic about learning spells.

The latter possessed a unique beauty like art, which made Gao De unable to stop.

Time flew by, Frost Gold passed quietly, and the Fog Frost Month arrived.

A week had passed since Gao De joined the Mutual Aid Society.

Shadi had indeed kept her word and was not just humoring him on the surface.

On the evening of the day he joined the Mutual Aid Society, a 1st-circle magic user member of the society came to his door, asking Gao De to help repair a damaged 1st-circle alchemical creation.

This brought Gao De another 5 gold coins in income.

However, that was the only business; no one else came afterward.

—If it were the Lion Society, there might have been more business; the members of the Mutual Aid Society were mostly struggling students busy with "working to support their studies," and those who owned alchemical creations were few and far between.

Of course, this was only the case within the academy.

Because in the academy environment, there were too many places to spend money and too few places to earn it.

However, once these students graduated, left Ceris Academy, and spent a few years outside, the situation would inevitably be different.

In the outside world, as long as they were willing, they could quickly monetize the knowledge they learned in the academy.

The premise was being able to graduate from Ceris Academy successfully.

During this week, Gao De's life was as regular as before: attending classes and cultivating.

But besides that, there was the addition of going into the mountains to hunt birds.

Gao De knew that as time passed, more and more students would take on the task, and the red-eyed sparrows in the back mountain would only become fewer, so he had to seize this short dividend period.

He was still very proactive about earning money.

Fog Frost Month, 10th.

Gao De, having returned from hunting birds in the back mountain again, was approaching eight o'clock in the evening when he finished dinner and returned to his dormitory.

His habit was generally to exhaust his "mana" almost completely before returning to the academy.

The reason it dragged on so late today was simple: it was becoming harder and harder to find red-eyed sparrows in the back mountain; he had no chance to act, so naturally, his mana could not be used up.

In the end, Gao De only acted twice, but since it had already turned dark, he had no choice but to head back.

"The potential of this task has been exhausted; continuing would be too cost-ineffective. I'll go to the Logistics Department to settle the task tomorrow," Gao De decided secretly.

Then, he habitually walked to the small kitchen and cast 【Create Water+】 on the large ceramic jar.

The next moment, as the water source appeared in the jar, a familiar, light, spiritual fragrance drifted out.

This made Gao De, who was already physically and mentally exhausted, jump and instantly wake up.

"Water of No Leakage!" Yes, after nearly two months, the Water of No Leakage had finally appeared again.

Gao De looked at the liquid in the jar as if he had found a treasure; this time, he would not gulp it down like last time.

"Make it into a fruit drink, drink it in fixed amounts every day; two gallons of Water of No Leakage should last about two months..."

Fog Frost Month, 11th.

Logistics Department, Task Hall.

"Settling the 【Patrol Mountain】 task," Gao De said softly, placing the cloth bag containing the red-eyed sparrow eyeballs collected over the week on the counter.

"Alright."

During this period, quite a few students had been taking on and settling the 【Patrol Mountain】 task.

So the young and pretty counter staff member was exceptionally skilled and did not say a word of nonsense.

She took Gao De's identity badge, swiped it on a special alchemical machine to record it for Gao De, and then opened the cloth bag, poured it onto the table, and prepared to start counting the number of eyeballs.

But what she did not expect was that the weight of the cloth bag far exceeded her imagination.

And driven by inertia, although her brain had already realized something was wrong, her hand still subconsciously continued the action of "pouring."

Clatter, clatter.

This was the sound of eyeballs rolling on the table, forming a continuous stream.

The young and pretty staff member looked at the table full of eyeballs with slight scorch marks and opened her small mouth in surprise.

"A total of 102 eyeballs, half is 51; according to the task reward, you should receive 51 gold coins as compensation," the staff member suppressed the shock in her heart, finished counting the eyeballs, put them back into the cloth bag, and put it away.

Then, she took 51 gold coins from the drawer and handed them to Gao De.

"Please count them."

Gao De nodded and began to count seriously.

While Gao De was counting the money seriously, the staff member couldn't help but glance at Gao De several times, with various thoughts popping into her mind—during this time, the number of eyeballs brought by other students combined did not even equal Gao De's alone.

Could it be that all these red-eyed sparrows were killed by the young student in front of her?

What kind of person is this? A red-eyed sparrow killer? The Ceris Academy bird-hunting king?

"That's correct," Gao De confirmed that the 51 gold coins were all there.

The staff member nodded and returned the identity badge to Gao De.

After settling the task, Gao De left the Logistics Department.

He first went to the academy's trading area and purchased another batch of fresh seasonal fruits and yeast, costing 3 silver coins.

Afterward, he headed straight for the Library.

The first floor of the Library contained general books and some "theses"; the materials on this floor were basically free for him.

As for the second floor, it was the collection place for high-value knowledge such as Ceris Academy spell formulas, cultivation methods, potion formulas, magic array master diagrams, and alchemical creation formulas; it could be said to be one of the most important places in the entire Ceris Academy.

Not only were high-rank magic arrays set up here, but the academy also sent high-circle magic users to sit in charge to prevent outsiders from breaking in and stealing formulas.

After Gao De entered the Library, he went straight up to the second floor via the internal stairs.

As soon as his footsteps stepped onto the second floor of the Library, Gao De felt as if a gaze had swept toward him.

Only, he did not discover the source of the gaze.

However, Gao De considered his visit upright and honorable, so he ignored the gaze in the dark and walked forward with composure.

Compared to the huge bookshelves one after another on the first floor, the structure of the second floor was completely different.

It had a large hall, and behind it were library storage rooms with doors tightly closed.

Passing through the corridor and entering the hall, Gao De saw a decrepit old magic user sitting in front of a wide table, leisurely sipping tea, holding a book with a yellow cowhide cover in his hand.

The fragrant tea aroma drifted through the hall.

As soon as Gao De entered, the old magic user looked at him, put down his teacup and book, and asked kindly: "Young man, what are you looking for?"

"Spell formulas," Gao De said, having already understood the process beforehand, and handed over his identity badge.

(End of chapter)