Chapter 18: Borrowing Money to Develop
Chapter 18 — Borrowing to Grow
"Did he offend someone?" Saul asked.
"I heard he brought a high-level Elven language book with him, thought that just because he became a student, he could study it," Keli leaned in, deliberately lowering her voice to spook Saul. "They found him this morning in the flowerbed. He’d cut his own legs into strips and buried them in the soil like plant roots. Almost bled to death by the time someone found him."
"Can he be saved?"
"Who knows? He was already taken away when I got there." Keli sounded a little regretful.
"You’re not scared?" Saul looked at the young girl beside him in surprise.
Keli rested her chin on her hand and mumbled, "I already had a general idea of the wizarding world before I came. It's not that different from home—people die all the time, just like that."
The mad student was just a passing incident. Keli quickly changed the topic to her experience visiting Instructor Katz yesterday with the bucket.
"…I think Instructor Gudo is actually quite willing to teach me, but he just can't stop throwing up. I brought him a big bucket—almost half as tall as a person—but he filled it up in under an hour. I really don’t get how he eats that much in the first place!"
"Heh..." Saul was both disgusted and amused.
Keli suddenly turned to look at him. "You finally laughed. When you walked in earlier, you looked like a walking corpse."
Saul’s smile faded. He rubbed his face with his hand.
So he really looked that awful? Only someone as blunt as Keli would say it so directly.
The instructor for Fundamental Knowledge of All Things was a second-level student.
He was skin and bones, with sunken cheeks—he looked even more like a corpse than Saul did.
He didn’t care about interaction during the lesson. Just sat there reading the textbook aloud in a flat tone, making Saul drowsy.
So Saul gave up and started reading the textbook himself.
Because of everything that happened yesterday, he hadn’t had time to preview today’s content.
Fundamental Knowledge of All Things was like a chaotic mashup of biology, chemistry, history, and geography.
Anything worthy of being recorded in a wizard’s student textbook likely had some magical significance.
Saul came across a plant that could increase one’s magical power.
But the price? Anyone who took it would lose their will, becoming a mindless puppet—more like a tool for refining magic crystals than a real boost.
The course consisted of ten books, each at least ten centimeters thick—impossible to finish quickly.
Saul focused on the parts that interested him, stretching now and then.
That’s when he noticed Keli’s former sidekicks, Doze and Rocky, whispering beside Duke.
Keli didn’t seem to care.
"What’re you looking at?" Keli noticed Saul's gaze and followed it, spotting Doze and Rock’s sneaky behavior. She rolled her eyes. "They're trying to isolate you. So childish. Like a bunch of kids."
This class had essentially become a self-study session. People even started studying other subjects.
The second-level student up front finished reading the first chapter and then just started reading something else for himself, completely ignoring the rest of the class.
"No wonder we don’t see any older students here. Guess they already knew this class was useless," Keli muttered, regretting not bringing another book.
"Keli, can I borrow some magic crystals from you?" Saul finally gathered the courage to ask.
"What do you need them for?" Keli shot him a suspicious look. "If there’s no return on this deal, I’m not doing it!"
"I want to borrow a couple of books from the library."
"Someone just lost their mind reading the wrong book. You’re not scared?"
"I’ll be careful," Saul said sincerely. "But I really need some special books right now."
Keli didn’t ask exactly which books he meant. After hesitating a moment, she pulled out five translucent black rhombus-shaped chips from her wallet.
"I can only lend you five. You need to pay me back in three months... and..."
"Ten. I’ll repay ten."
"Deal!"
"Need a written contract?"
"Of course!"
Saul tore a blank page from his notebook. The two of them completed their first official financial transaction.
The second class of the day was the much-anticipated Rune Construction.
Rune Construction was the foundation of casting spells.
But to everyone's disappointment, this class was also taught by a second-level student.
This guy was even worse—he explained the most basic rune drawing once, then told everyone to practice on their own.
Most of the new students barely understood. When they asked for a repeat, he said it’d cost money!
As soon as Saul heard that, he gave up on asking again.
He recalled the key points and started drawing the first rune in his mind.
With eyes closed, the image of the rune formed clearly in Saul’s mind.
He opened his eyes, blinking in disbelief.
"I think… I memorized it already?"
To be sure it wasn’t just visual memory, Saul picked up his pen and drew the rune on a blank sheet of paper.
He compared it with the textbook.
Exactly the same!
Even the curves matched perfectly.
Saul closed the book and tried again—this time using special ink and pen, and began channeling his own magic into the pen as the instructor had described.
This time was harder.
Magic had to be released evenly, coordinated with his mental focus to construct a complete rune.
Any mistake would collapse the rune into just a pretty drawing.
Saul focused completely.
And—
He succeeded.
Though drawn on plain paper, the rune shimmered with magical energy.
"You… you succeeded?" Keli stared at him, stunned.
She had been thinking about paying for another round of instruction, but seeing Saul succeed on the first try, she suddenly thought she might be able to manage it too.
Saul didn’t hear her. He was already moving on to the next rune.
Second rune.
Success!
Perfect success!
Third rune.
Success!
Fourth—
…Failure.
Saul frowned.
It wasn’t that he got the rune wrong—he ran out of magic.
He could only draw three runes before running dry?
Or was he using his magic inefficiently?
Saul finally understood how dangerous low magic reserves were.
No wonder Kongsha felt she had him in the palm of her hand. No wonder Instructor Katz didn’t even want to look at him.
Saul’s chest rose and fell sharply before he calmed himself.
"Why panic?" he told himself. "Haven’t you already made your decision?"
He pulled out his crystal ball and the Human-Monster Walking Diagram, beginning to meditate and recover.
The upside of low magic reserves? Recovery was fast.
You had to look at things dialectically.
Saul’s successful rune drawing had already caught the attention of the whole class.
Not just the new students—even older students and the second-level instructor were stunned by the magical fluctuations.
A few new students who were thinking of paying for extra lessons paused, glancing toward Saul.
But seeing him draw only three runes before meditating again, they hesitated.
Maybe his runes weren’t quite right? And they couldn’t interrupt someone in meditation.
Up front, Duke whispered to his two buddies, then brought his rune to the instructor.
Every student from outside brought some magic crystals—just in case.
The second-level student seemed pleased that Duke approached first. He leaned in and gave him a long explanation, drawing envious looks from the other students.
Duke nodded along, throwing in exaggerated reactions like “So that’s how it works!” and “I see now!”
At the edge of the classroom, Angela’s big pretty eyes slowly drifted from the instructor to Saul. A curious look lit up her face.
(End of Chapter)
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