Chapter 56 : Chapter 56

Chapter 56. Exposure

Emerald Heart Bar.

“That is how it happened.”

Only after Celine drained a cup of fruit wine did she speak.

“So he refused?”

“Of course he did. He already said there was absolutely nothing left at the low tier that could still be learned, so why would he accept our proposal?”

Celine tilted the bottle and poured herself another cup of fruit wine before continuing,

“Then just wait for it. Wait until some genius actually helps him come up with low-tier content first...”

“I know that. Honestly, it feels like we are throwing ourselves at a cold—”

Elan said it with a trace of resentment. He had already prepared himself mentally for it, so being rejected after that left him with a sense of disappointment.

Celine knew he was definitely dissatisfied, so she did not interrupt him and simply let him continue.

“That Habos guy kept stringing us along for two whole years, and only then did that damned genius create low-tier spells. It was like being led around on a leash like a dog...”

“Isn’t that normal? Just improving an existing spell takes a huge amount of time. What he is doing now is even harder, since he barely has anything to refer to...”

Hearing Celine say that only provoked Elan’s contrarian streak, and he retorted,

“What if that genius manages to create one in two or three months?”

Celine smiled, but did not respond. Elan did not press the matter either.

Both of them knew it would be very hard for Habos to trade with them anytime soon. Even improving spells was among the most difficult of tasks. How could a so-called genius be found so easily?

The two fell silent for a while before Celine spoke first again.

“Then when you think back to what Habos said about that ‘genius’... wasn’t she able to understand everything he explained?”

Elan pondered for a moment.

He had no idea how large an area Habos meant by “nearby,” and even now, when he thought back on it, he still could not identify the final candidate with certainty.

First of all, he could more or less rule out the people seated in front. He had clearly sensed that those apprentices were as dull and blank as all the others, with no difference at all.

Then there was Fran, the one sitting right beside that person. She was even less likely. She had been picking at her nails through the first half, though she had become much more attentive once the spell instruction began.

But from the way Fran had looked, she was definitely not the sort who could understand that material. Who could zone out through the first half of the lesson and still understand the rest?

The one he suspected most was Lai, who had come with Fran. Although Fran had blocked his view, preventing him from confirming more details, he still remembered clearly that the other girl had been nervous at first.

After some time, however, she had relaxed, and she had even found time to chat with Fran.

Thinking back on it now, it was hard not to suspect that she had suddenly grasped the crucial point, which was why she had relaxed...

Of course, that was only his guess. Lai had also shown some behavior that did not quite fit that theory, so he still could not be completely certain.

And if Habos’s idea of “nearby” covered an absurdly broad area, then it was also possible that Habos had deliberately been toying with him.

Besides, simply understanding the material was not that useful on its own. To create a spell, one needed inspiration no matter what. Knowledge was only the foundation.

By the time he reached that point in his thoughts, Elan felt much better, and he even joked,

“I think he was talking about me. I am a First-Tier Mage, after all. Maybe he is counting on me.”

Celine was unimpressed and rolled her eyes.

---

Carrying out a task assigned by the Alteration School, Tane arrived at a stretch of wasteland. Looking at the dozens of red marks drawn on the map in his hand, he let out a bitter smile.

“Start digging, brother.”

He directed Shulin, a friend from the Construction School, to get to work.

Looking at the huge open area before him, Shulin could not help complaining,

“You really know how to pick a hard way to earn money. There are so many spots here that just drilling holes to test whether anything is buried underneath will take half a day.”

“It can’t be helped. Our mentor told us to do this job. If I find it, I will not have to slave away preparing for the assessment.”

Shulin used a special pigment to mark a point on the ground. Then he took out a long rod, fixed it in place, and activated it.

The rod began to spin and slowly pressed downward into the earth.

“Then your mentor is actually pretty decent, giving you a reward like this.”

Tane rolled his eyes and said irritably,

“Decent, my ass. The academy investigated this for ages and got nowhere, so our mentor only handed it to us as a gamble. We came here to try our luck too.”

He only took the task because he had nothing else to do. Since the reward was so generous, he figured he might as well try his luck. What if he really did find it?

Originally, he had planned to kill a few high-tier apprentices around his own level to ease the pressure of the assessment. Their corpses would have made for a pile of excellent materials too.

But so far, he had only found Fran, and after his last attempted attack, he had already given up on that idea.

She was too strong. Not only was her physical ability outstanding, but she also had powerful defensive skills.

She could even block corrosive solutions. On top of that, she wielded formidable swordsmanship, and the spells she cast were immensely powerful.

He could not beat her. He was genuinely afraid that if he kept attacking, she might kill him with a single sword strike. No matter how he looked at it, she was not a good target.

And the reason he had specifically brought Shulin here to dig was not because of some sudden whim, nor because he simply guessed that the murderer had buried the corpse underground.

Rather, it was to avoid members of the school repeatedly investigating the same angle. Another mentor had divided the search range among every one of them.

One person was sent to check whether anyone in the market had commissioned corpse disposal. Another was sent to inspect the ownerless bodies found outside the academy with their faces ruined...

As for Tane, since he had no connections whatsoever, he had been assigned the enormous task of searching the land around Cuilan Academy.

Fortunately, even completing his assigned portion would earn him some reward. Otherwise, he would have quit long ago. Searching the surrounding fields at random was like looking for a needle in the sea.

Not to mention that there was no guarantee the murderer had even chosen to bury the corpse. And even if he had, there was no reason he would have buried it somewhere this close instead of farther away...

Watching the rod scrape so hard it was almost throwing sparks, only to drill down a tiny distance, Shulin grew extremely annoyed.

“Brother, you really picked a great spot. It looks like someone from our Construction School compacted the soil here. This ground is seriously hard. You can forget about finishing this place in less than a few days.”

Hearing that bad news, Tane frowned as well.

After a while longer, Shulin determined that the rod had descended about a meter. He pulled it back up and began the inspection.

It was a very simple and effective detection method. Using a specialized device, it checked whether traces of human flesh and blood were present around the rod.

It was an excellent tool for determining whether a corpse was buried below, and it was highly popular with the Necromancy School.

After all, corpses were scarce, and no one could avoid having to go to some remote wilderness to look for materials now and then.

“Hm?”

Seeing the device immediately glow red, Shulin said helplessly,

“Looks like we will have to tear this ground open first, brother. There really is a corpse here... damn it, this soil is so compacted that the body has probably been crushed into sludge.”

Seeing some progress at last, Tane could not help feeling a little excited. He began riffling through the documents in his hand.

“You just need to dig some of it up. We have a way to check whether it is the target... Let me see who filed the work order for this plot of land. The Alchemists’ Association?! Didn’t it already go bankrupt?”