Chapter 92 (1/2)

Chapter 92: An Offer You Can’t Refuse

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Ten days went by like a breeze, and Link had now produced 150 Protective Armor magic scrolls, of which more than half was in Derek’s name. The military’s orders of 800 magic scrolls were completed on schedule as well. Warwick could finally breathe easy now, and he was deeply grateful to Link.

Warwick had made some progress because of this experience too. After 20 days of intense work stretching his own limit by producing a huge number of magic scrolls, he had broken through his progress ceiling and became a full-fledged Level-1 Magician.

He had two options after becoming a full-fledged Magician. The first choice was to become an independent Magician who would go out and fight in battles, while the second was to continue to stay in the Mage Tower. Warwick opted for the first choice. Thus, there was a vacancy in the position of the person overseeing the production of magic scrolls.

Many apprentices were vying for the position as it came with a lot of perks and boons. Because Derek had the power to appoint anyone to the position, a swarm of apprentices waited at his feet ready to do anything for him. Some female apprentices even threw themselves into his arms and became especially affectionate to him. It was a time when Derek felt he was on top of the world, intoxicated by the unctuous taste of power.

However, on the twelfth day, Link suddenly came into Derek’s room and handed him 15 exquisite magic scrolls.

“Mr. Derek, I want to be the head of the magic scroll production,” he whispered.

“What?” Derek was alarmed. It was the first time Link had ever made any special demands. His instinct was to refuse him because he had promised the position to an apprentice named Evelyn. For the simple reason, that beautiful girl had promised to be his lover and she would give him whatever he wanted, whenever and wherever he wanted it.

His impulse to refuse Link was stunted by the sudden realization that Link’s magic scrolls had earned him a fortune. Every day, he brought Link’s magic scrolls with him to Springs City and sold them at the price of 10 gold coins each. Not only did they sell out every day, but people flocked to him looking for more of these marvelous scrolls. Link’s magic scrolls turned out to be much more popular than he imagined. Moreover, the capital city was never in shortage of rich people.

In the last ten days, Link had brought him thousands of gold coins of income. It was an amount of money he wouldn’t even dare to dream about in the past.

An hour in his tutor’s Elemental Pool cost a pricely sum of 100 gold coins, but that was not a problem to him anymore as he now had the money. With Link’s magic scrolls he earned nearly a hundred gold coins a day, so he could afford to spend half an hour in the Elemental Pool every day. Because of that, he progressed rapidly and had now mastered a Level-2 spell, Large Fireball. Consequently, he was now a Level-3 Magician.

In the eyes of the Magicians, nothing was paramount to skills in magic. As a Level-3 Magician, his colleagues started to treat him with much more respect. This had given Derek far more satisfaction than any woman could through carnal pleasure.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Derek, “I’ve decided to appoint you as the man in charge of magic scroll production. I’ll announce it publically tomorrow.”

“Thank you very much, Mr. Derek,” said Link, putting on a reverent tone. He then took out another magic scroll.

“I’ve recently mastered the Level-0 Light spell and made slight modifications to its structure to improve its aesthetics. This way people can use the spell as an ornament. I’m sure magic scrolls of this spell would sell much better than Lesser Protective Armor scrolls.”

Although Derek showed no signs of being annoyed by Link’s demand just now, he still wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings between them. The magic scroll was a present he prepared for Derek to sweeten the deal. But why did he not just offer the present before he made his demand?

Because Link wanted to send a message. He only presented the new magic scroll after Derek had agreed to appoint him to the position that Link desired – hinting that Link would repay him for whatever favor that was given to him. The more requests Derek could satisfy, the more presents he would get.

Derek could sense the message Link was trying to give and it left a bad taste in his mouth—though he was determined not to show it since Link had the upper hand in the current situation. And so, Derek suppressed the nagging anger he felt and proceeded to unfold Link’s new magic scroll.

Derek was startled the instant he opened the scroll, as he was faced with not just simple lines of magic runes, but a horse – a horse carved out by countless lines of flowing Mana that looked so real it seemed it might jump out of the scroll at any moment. What was even more striking was how the body of the horse was glowing and the combination of light and shadow conspired to make it look three-dimensional. The eyes of the horse seemed to shine vividly, they were exactly identical to those of a living breathing horse.

“What is it?” asked the stupefied Derek.

“It’s a horse,” said Link, “But it’s also the structure of the Light spell. I’ve made some minute changes to enable it to display a more impressive and realistic contrast of light and shadow. I’ve also used a magic-preservation spell on it, so it should last for at least fifty years without fading.”