Episode 791
Episode 791
Nilia dodged quickly, as if she had anticipated it. Having seen Gainando get hit several times before, she was well prepared.
"Wind, become my wall!"
"...Why are you using magic to block that?"
Lee Han looked at his friend with an expression of disbelief.
Nilia quickly crouched behind the wind wall, preparing for a second attack. 'Even though she said it was a waste of mana and scooped the water herself earlier...'
"...I thought there might be a second attack. Gainando dodged the first one too, remember?"
"Gainando only gets hit so much because he racks up too many demerits. What's your excuse?"
Lee Han used psychokinesis to flick off the mana aphids that had revealed themselves.
It wasn't particularly difficult, but it was definitely a task that required patience and persistence.
"Wait. Nilia. Can't we have a spirit do this?"
"We could, but spirits hate it. The mandragoras emit faint toxic energy."
While not harmful enough to affect a mage, the toxicity was sufficient to make lower-ranked spirits uncomfortable.
Lee Han felt a slight pang of guilt. 'I thought since it wasn't life-threatening, they could just endure it, but I guess this is the difference.' He wondered if this was part of the reason spirits liked Nilia but were wary of him.
Of course, 99% of it was probably due to mana...
"Then I guess we'll have to use undead."
Poof!
Lee Han summoned the skeleton warrior Gonadaltes and ordered him to clean up the mandragoras.
Though faint toxic energy emanated from them, Gonadaltes dared not disobey the tyrant's command and silently flicked off the mana aphids.
Watching this, Nilia felt a sense of awe. 'Black magic...! It's so much more convenient than I thought...!'
As students trickled in and took their seats, Professor Willow began the lecture when the time came.
"Now, this plant—"
"Barometz, Professor."
Batrek raised his hand and answered confidently.
The peculiar plant, with its sheep-like fruit blooming like a flower, was familiar to Batrek, who came from an eastern alchemy-specialized family.
The sheep-like fruit was packed with nutrients, and the stems and leaves beneath it were also used as alchemical ingredients...
"Well done, Batrek."
When Lee Han praised him from the side, Batrek awkwardly rubbed under his nose.
"I wasn't asking for the plant's name, little one."
"......"
Humiliated, Batrek glared at Lee Han, who shrugged. 'Did I tell you to say it?'
"Knowing the name is good, but as a second-year student, you should know a bit more than that. Now, this barometz—"
"The stems are used as blood-related attribute reagents, and the leaves are used as buffer reagents! There are too many uses for the fruit to list!"
Batrek spoke up again. Lee Han gave a small clap.
"...It would be better to listen to the full question. I was going to ask where it's commonly sold and what its price is. Specifically, the fruit."
"Huh?"
Batrek was taken aback by the unexpected question. The other students were similarly surprised. <Huh! This plant is in the Empire?> While books listed the plant's name, habits, and uses, they didn't include current market prices or availability.
Professor Willow spoke with a slightly mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Most students taking this botany lecture are likely studying alchemy as well. If so, you should know that among the Empire's mages, none struggle with reagents as much as alchemists do."
The alchemy school and botany lectures were deeply intertwined.
Much like how students of transformation magic often took zoology lectures, gathering and managing materials was part of alchemy's domain, making botany practically a necessity.
"Now, how should you obtain reagents?"
"By procuring them yourself... right?"
Batrek answered as he had learned in alchemy class.
Professor Willow shook his head.
"You can't do everything yourself."
"B-but Professor Thunderstep said we should get into the habit of obtaining ingredients ourselves..."
Professor Willow chuckled.
"Well, he would say that in your first year. But as you advance, he'll start telling you to get into the habit of buying them too."
"......"
Surprisingly, the professors at Einrogard were quite adept at changing their stances. A professor who would scold in first year—"Tsk, you call yourself a mage if you buy reagents with money?!"—would, by third year, say, "Tsk, you call yourself a mage if you waste time gathering every single reagent yourself?!"
In the first year, when reagent needs are relatively low, they instill habits of frugality and gathering skills. But by third year, when reagent demands skyrocket, they train students to secure ingredients by any means necessary!
"Now, do you understand? This is why you need to keep track of market trends."
Professor Willow pulled out a small booklet and enlarged it. On the cover was written Imperial Gardeners' Club Journal.
"You mustn't neglect learning in advance where certain plants are trending, what events cause price fluctuations, who sells quality plants... It'll be too late if you try to learn in a hurry later. Mages aren't kind enough to hand over good plants to amateurs."
"Would joining the Imperial Gardeners' Club be a good idea?"
"That's one way, but it won't be easy. The Imperial Gardeners' Club has strict membership requirements... Try other methods. Make friends with mages, cultivate informants..."
The Imperial Gardeners' Club was an exclusive, prestigious organization where only those with outstanding horticultural achievements in the Empire could join.
Rather than suggesting such a difficult route, Professor Willow recommended relatively easier alternatives to the students.
"Now then. Where is it being sold in bulk, and what are the prices?"
"I... I'm not sure."
"I see. Next?"
"I don't know either..."
"How about you?"
After several students, starting with Batrek, failed to answer, the question finally reached Lee Han.
Lee Han was slightly flustered but answered as it came to mind.
"Wouldn't it be the southern Baltane Mountains around this time? The price... about one gold and twenty pennies?"
"Oh? And why is that?"
"The Walpurgis Festival should be happening in the Baltane Mountains right now, and barometz fruits are popular at such festivals. Also, last winter wasn't particularly harsh in the south, so barometz likely grew in abundance. That would mean prices haven't risen much above average..."
"Almost correct. The price is slightly higher. The adventurers harvesting barometz have formed a cartel to negotiate, though that part would be hard to know."
"I accounted for that too, Professor. However, given that the local Adventurers' Guilds are financially strained, I assumed they wouldn't hold out long in negotiations and would compromise."
"......"
Professor Willow opened the Imperial Gardeners' Club Journal to check.
Barometz Fruit
- Current Price: 25 pennies (Southern Baltane Mountains)
"An interesting prediction. But wrong—"
Barometz Fruit
- Current Price: 25... no, 20 pennies (Southern Baltane Mountains)
"A-astonishing!"
Professor Willow couldn't help but be impressed.
"How did you predict this?"
"I diligently read the Imperial Newspaper."
"Excellent. Well done."
"Grr...! That damn Wardanaz!"
Batrek stomped his feet in frustration.
Who would've thought he'd even study something like this in advance?
The gap between the top student and the rest was staggeringly wide.
'That's not it...' Yoner, an avid reader of the economics section in the Imperial Newspaper, felt slightly embarrassed.
Batrek seemed to have gotten the wrong idea.
Professor Willow spent half the lecture time teaching and allowed students to tend to their mandragoras for the remaining half.
Even if they utilized time outside class, students still needed opportunities to ask the professor directly.
"Right. Wardanaz. Want to join us?"
"Join what?"
"Don't mandragoras need extremely strong sunlight to be effective?"
To grow a mandragora, you had to tirelessly water it, remove pests, expose it to intense sunlight, and perform countless other chores.
And even after all that effort, if the mandragora got moody, it could still wither or die—such was the terrifying nature of plants.
'Honestly, basilisks are better.'
Lee Han stroked the baby basilisk. The creature, which had been dozing in the greenhouse air, perked up and coiled its tail around his finger.
"Right?"
"We're going to create that sunlight ourselves."
"......"
For a moment, Lee Han wondered if his friends had lost their minds.
Creating sunlight with solar attributes was on an entirely different level from summoning light or flames.
You'd need to combine not just light and flame attributes, but a dozen or so other attributes symbolizing the sun to even approximate the effect.
"Did you just plan your graduation thesis right now?"
"What nonsense. Wardanaz. We're not you."
"What did you just say?"
"Rumor has it there's an artificial sun artifact in the Headmaster's storage. If we steal it, we're guaranteed full marks for mandragoras this semester!"
"...Hm. If you steal it, let me know. I'll pay to borrow it too."
"Wardanaz! What happened to you this year? Last year, you were so much more daring!"
Lee Han ignored his troublemaking friends' temptations.
With so many dangers and enemies around already, he had no desire to visit the Skeleton Principal's storage.
"So, like this over here..."
"Tch. This doesn't look pretty."
"What are you two doing?"
Lee Han asked curiously when he spotted Ratford and Batrek whispering in front of the garden plot.
The two had been discussing something with extremely serious and cautious expressions.
Batrek hastily pointed at the garden and said,
"It's nothing. Right, Ratford?"
"Ah. We were trying to create patterns on the mandragora leaves."
"Hey!"
Batrek was furious at the betrayal. Ratford, however, remained unfazed.
"We're barely even partners. Who I talk to is my freedom."
"T-this is why Black Turtle Tower bastards are...!"
"What? Patterns?"
"Mandragoras are valuable for their efficacy, sure, but if they have rare patterns, they sell for a fortune."
At Ratford's explanation, Batrek flushed with shame.
Here they were, talking about making gold by messing with patterns in front of the top student!
Unsurprisingly, Wardanaz looked horrified.
"Are you two... geniuses?!"
"......"
"Right. That's how it was. Why did I forget? Damn it. I've been wasting my magic."
Just as there were people like Lee Han who obsessed over efficacy, there were also those who fixated on appearance and beauty.
Imperial collectors would pay exorbitant sums for mandragoras with specific leaf patterns.
"How far have you gotten?"
"We tried using a potion, but it only made dots..."
"That's too common. You need rarer patterns! Batrek. Is this all you've got?"
"S-sorry."
Batrek apologized, then suddenly grew puzzled.
Wait, why did I just apologize?
"Thoughts shift from an instant to a moment, from a moment to a split second."
"Excellent."
Professor Garcia nodded as she observed the spell <Lesser Internal Time Dilation>, which extended the caster's subjective perception of time.
Considering Lee Han's year, his learning speed was unbelievably fast.
Though, of course, he himself seemed dissatisfied...
"Ghk!"
"There's no need to rush..."
"Yes. Understood. Ghk!"
"......"
Professor Garcia considered smacking him.
"Ah, right. Lee Han. Next week is Club Week, so we'll have quite a few outsiders visiting."
"Understood."
"And since you're part of many clubs, you'll be pulled in many directions."
"Underst—... Huh? What did you just say?"
Lee Han, who had been engrossed in magic, jolted.
Did Professor Garcia just say something terrifying?