Apprentice magician Bradley is already over eighty years old. His magical talent is so poor that he has made no progress after more than sixty years of apprenticeship. His family's financial situation has also gradually declined from moderate to ordinary. Now, at his age, he still works at the front desk of the Magic Guild.
Magicians have many ways to earn money, the easiest and safest of which is through magic infusion missions. Bradley always imagined that one day, when he would graduate from magic apprenticeship and become a true magician, he would be able to earn money simply by meditating.
Unfortunately, the reality is cruel. As he gets older, his magic recovery ability and total magic power have begun to gradually decrease. He can only watch the magicians make money and envy them silently.
When this elegant, charming, and noble woman offered Bradley a mission, he was thrilled. It held special meaning for him; he could do the same work as the magicians. Regardless of whether she was a boring priestess who only prayed every day, from the moment she entered the room and offered him a mission, he was willing to use the most beautiful words to praise her.
"I'm sorry, ma'am." Bradley wasn't sure what kind of praise the priestess wanted to hear: "I'm still working and can't leave. If you don't mind, you can wait until I finish work." He even spoke a lot faster. Remember, he was eighty years old, which was not easy.
"Okay, what time?"
"Someone will come to take over my shift after 2pm."
Ever since Eryi expressed his desire to hire Bradley to carry out the magic injection mission, he was very happy to answer any questions for Eryi, including the market price of magic injection.
A completely powerless magic coin is traded for 1 gold coin and 90 silver coins. A magician who performs a magic infusion task earns 1 gold coin. Of course, if you can't bear the 10 silver coins difference per coin, you can hire a magician to infuse magic for you, but there's no guarantee that the magician will actually infuse enough magic.
"50% of the actual injected magic power is wasted. It's impossible to store it completely. The Magic Guild has special equipment to test whether the magic power contained in each magic coin is up to standard."
Eryi calculated the price of mana supplements she purchased with her energy points, and concluded that a reasonable price of 50 mana points for every 10 silver coins would be appropriate. One gold coin could buy 500 mana points, just enough to craft a mana crystal. If a mana crystal could be sold for more than one gold coin, she would be making a profit.
"I'd also like to know the price of items like mana supplements."
"Standard magic supplements are sold at the Magic Guild," Bradley said, leading Eryi to the second floor. A few potions were placed in the hall, and inside, a younger-looking magic apprentice dozed off. He was startled awake by the voices and stood up, a little embarrassed. Seeing that the visitor wasn't his superior, he sat down again with confidence.
"Magic coins can also be used as a source of mana replenishment in emergencies, but they're not as useful as mana supplements."
Zero-eight, I'd like to see information on these potions restoring magicka.
"Host, why are you looking at this? The magic power supplement you want is available in the system. It has no side effects and no cooldown." Although Ling Lingba said this, he still listed the results of the system test in front of Eryi.
Light Blue Potion [Poor quality mana supplement: slowly restores 30 mana points over three minutes. One bottle can be taken every ten minutes. The system refuses to recycle it.] Price: 18 silver coins
Blue Potion [General Mana Supplement: Slowly restores 50 mana points over three minutes. One bottle can be taken every ten minutes. The system refuses to recycle.] Price: 35 silver coins.
Dark Blue Potion [A decent mana supplement: slowly restores 80 mana points over three minutes. One bottle can be taken every ten minutes. System recycling price: 1 energy point.] Price: 60 silver coins.
"The potions sold in the Magic Guild aren't very effective, and the prices aren't great, so not many people buy them. Most magicians prefer to mix their own potions or order them from a pharmacist," Bradley explained. "If you need them, you can go to Clive's Pharmacy at 32 Back Alley. They say the potions there are quite good."
"Thank you." Eryi already had a rough idea in mind, and all that was left was the final experiment. "I'll come back at two o'clock."
…
Eryi took some time to go to Clive's Pharmacy. There was only one kind of magic supplement left, and the system gave it a higher evaluation.
Light Blue Potion [Magic Replenisher: Instantly restores 80 magic points. One bottle can be taken every five minutes. System recycling price is 2 energy points.] Price: 85 silver coins.
Compared to the prices in the Magic Guild, it can be considered cheap and good value for money.
"Are there other types?" Eryi asked.
"Does the priest need this too?" the pharmacist apprentice in the shop expressed curiosity and replied, "The more advanced magic supplements are sold out. Please come earlier next time or look for something else."
The shop also sells a variety of miscellaneous items such as magic amplification potions, transformation potions, and weight gain potions, each of which is quite expensive for ordinary people.
After a walk around the pharmacy, Eryi returned to the treatment station. She needed to settle the girls' wages and ask them to change out of their work clothes.
[The prayer room provides you with 56 energy points.]
"Did anyone come in while I was away?" Eryi asked the girls.
"There was an adventurer who came in, took a look, and left immediately." One of the girls with her hair tied up answered respectfully.
"Okay." This was a little worse than what Eryi expected. She thought at least three or five people would come in.
After settling their salaries, the girls left the treatment station one after another. Finally, only one girl remained in the hall, and she was the one who had just spoken.
"Anything else?"
She looked a little nervous and swallowed. "You can call me Judy."
"I noticed the priest is hiring, and I'd like to give it a try. I know a few words and can tell numbers apart." Judy spent a long time in the prayer room, thinking. Although her family worshipped the harvest goddess, since the priest here didn't mind and was so friendly, why shouldn't she give it a try? The main reason was that the priest seemed very generous. Even half of what she was making today would be significantly more than before. She and her younger sister were dependent on each other, and until her younger sister grew up, she had to rely on her own income.
Eryi opened Judy's control panel. Since she had no affinity with holy elements, she could be hired as an ordinary employee to handle some chores for her.
"Do you remember what I said to you before I left?" Before leaving, Eryi explained to the girls how to use the different rooms, including that the elves in the treatment room can heal guests' injuries.
"Yes." Judy began to answer carefully one by one. She originally took some sewing work at home. If the High Priest was unwilling to hire her, she would go home and complete the remaining work.
"Not bad. Can you keep accounts? It's not complicated, just some simple numbers." Eryi spent 1 energy point to let Ling Ling Ba materialize a board with various addition and subtraction of numbers written on it in the common language.
"I know a little." Judy calculated carefully. She got one question wrong out of five, and closed her eyes in frustration.
Eryi, however, didn't mind. She could simply have Ling Ling Ba materialize an electronic board, just like they did in the Doomsday Plane, and automatically mark the price on it. She'd just seen something similar in the Magic Guild, and charging the correct price was always a sure thing.
"The salary is 30 silver coins per month, not including food and lodging. Hours are 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with eight days off per month. Overtime is 20 coppers per hour if you're willing." Currently, there's only one employee, and Eryi hopes she'll come to work every day. Prices in Sunset City are quite high, so this is the salary Eryi considered more suitable.
Judy opened her eyes, slightly surprised.
"My main job is to receive customers and provide services based on their needs. In the future, I may also purchase magic cores and sell other items. You can rest assured that this is not a church, but a shop that provides healing services. It does not conflict with any other beliefs."
"Can you come to work tomorrow?"
"Sure." Judy replied cheerfully.
Judy was heading to a neighbor's house to pick up her young sister.
She wasn't good at math, but she only remembered that she would be paid 30 silver coins per month. This salary was already on par with her normal income from textile work, and it also gave her an extra eight days of vacation. She certainly wouldn't waste these days of vacation. She was willing to stay at the healing station and work overtime every day until the High Priest no longer needed her.
As soon as she left the treatment station, she began counting on her fingers how many extra copper coins she could earn by working eight hours of overtime each day. It wasn't until she brought her sister home and started completing the weaving job she had taken on that she finally had a rough idea.
"May the Harvest Goddess bless you!" she exclaimed, covering her mouth. "That's close to a grown man's salary." In Sunset City, families are typically structured with men earning money, while women care for the family and, in their spare time, do odd jobs to help with the household expenses. The differences in work content and hours mean that, on average, a grown man earns more than a woman.
"Sister?" Judy's sister Dale was standing next to her, holding the Simple Holy Scripture of the Goddess of Harvest and gesturing. Seeing Judy suddenly excited, she also waved her hands.
"Dai'er, I'll take you to the Harvest Goddess's Church during the day. You can play with the other kids. I need to go out to work like I did today." Seeing her sister start to feel lost, she patted her head and said, "I'll buy you new clothes in a month."
"Like this, inject your magic power into it." Eryi took the elderly magic apprentice to the treatment station and was explaining to him how to inject magic power.
[Host, his companion has been following us all the way, sneaking around outside.]
"Okay." Bradley nervously placed his hand on the magic ball. As Eryi had requested, a display panel had appeared above the magic ball, visible to everyone. As long as magic power was injected, the amount of magic power injected would be clearly displayed.
As magic power was injected, the numbers displayed on the panel began to rise slowly, and when it reached 50, it began to flash.
"Okay, stop, take a break first."
Bradley's magic power was too low, only 78. Since Eryi had purchased him at a price of 10 silver coins for 50 magic points, he naturally couldn't let him go.
Bradley was surprised; he had never seen anything like this before. After all, according to the rules he'd heard about mana injection, it was always necessary to fill it up all at once. An empty magic coin could only receive a single injection, until the magic value inside was completely used up. This was why he couldn't complete the task because his total magic power was too low.
After Bradley stopped injecting magic power, he went into the prayer room to meditate until his magic power value recovered to above 50 again.
Eryi carefully observed the speed at which Bradley's magic power recovered and found that his magic power recovery speed was slower than that of several trainee magicians he had met before, recovering about a point every 2 minutes.
After confirming that the magic power injection was successful, Eryi paid the silver coins in full.
"If you have extra mana in the future, you can come back. We'll be buying more mana lately. If possible, please introduce more magicians to us."
Bradley, who originally thought that the mission would only come once and was hiding it for fear that it would be snatched away, paused.
"Are you telling the truth?" He was so excited that he used a respectful title to address a priest who came from nowhere.
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