[Drops, 100.]
The apprentices, who thought Eryi looked like a normal person, tried to sell him magic power. The reasonableness of the magic power purchase price being slightly lower than that of the Magic Guild reassured them.
100 magic points would earn them 20 silver coins, equivalent to the price of four lessons. The apprentices were somewhat dazed at the thought of obtaining the knowledge they desired without risking their lives.
"I hope you can ask more companions to sell magic." Eryi said the plan she had come up with all night: "When the total amount of magic I purchased reaches 500 gold coins, I will prepare something for the lottery." The transmission cost is a bit high. Eryi has calculated that she needs to purchase at least 5,500 magic coins every day to make a profit. She has to let the apprentices promote her themselves.
Perhaps due to the harsh environment, the magic apprentices in Dark Marsh City generally have higher magic power than those in Sunset City. If we can consistently have more than 60 apprentices selling magic power every day, we can basically achieve our goal of increasing income.
"Lottery?" asked the magic apprentices. The word sounded quite new.
"Yes." Eryi took out the lottery machine that she commissioned the carpenter to make.
The appearance is an octagonal circle with a handle next to it. When you shake the handle, a ball will be spit out from it.
"The prizes can be magic books, specially customized magic wands, and some magic tools." Eryi spent some time today asking the magic apprentices in Sunset City, who claimed that they would like to get these things.
Eryi has also thought of the most important consolation prize - baked cookies made by Mrs. Eddy, with only two pieces in a package.
"Sounds good?" Upon learning that Eryi needed a large amount of magic power, the magic apprentices who had been worried that Eryi would only be buying for a few days were relieved.
The young apprentices consulted with each other.
"I can have the blacksmith's daughter on the corner sell her magic. During previous tests, I heard she has a good elemental affinity. But her parents don't have enough money for her to study, so she hasn't even registered at the academy."
As Evelyn and his friends passed the academy gates, ready to seek the guidance of their instructor, Eryi sat in front of the magic carriage, eating fried chicken. She felt that the price sign she had displayed wasn't big enough, that it wasn't obvious enough.
The magic carriage was so conspicuous that anyone passing by could see it.
"She's here today too." Evelyn remembered the day before when the 'magic merchant' who bought magic power—he didn't know what to call her—had asked him if he needed treatment.
His companions also remembered this: "Look, doesn't the fallen sign next to her table say that treatment services are available?"
"Ask? She said 30 silver coins yesterday." This was exactly the price they could afford. They had not had time to spend the coins they got from selling the black stone yesterday.
While the magic apprentices were dawdling and discussing, Eryi also saw them. She opened the data panel to check their status.
Evelyn
HP 87%, Fatigue 68/100, Mana 135, Increased↑
[A slight curse from the abyss, health points continue to decrease.]
Their wounds have healed, but judging by the data, their health is still decreasing, which doesn't look good.
Because Eryi was always looking at the magic apprentices, it was inevitable that his eyes would meet theirs.
"Do you want to sell magic power?" Eryi knew that their magic power was very abundant now.
One of the magic apprentices glanced at the price tag and said, "We don't quite understand what the magic value of 25 is."
Evelyn glared at his companion, as if blaming him, but now was not the time to talk about this.
Watching them flirt with each other for a long time without getting down to business, Eryi sighed and tossed the chicken bones into the trash can. "Did anything bother you? For example—" Her eyes darted meaningfully between them. "A strange curse."
Several magic apprentices instantly perked up and took a few steps back cautiously.
Eryi tugged at her native attire and said, "Don't look at me like this. My main job is a priest. Coincidentally, the deity I serve, Maria, is skilled in curses and exorcism." She tapped the nearby cash box and said, "Thirty silver coins each, and I'll solve your problems."
The magic apprentices looked at Eryi with suspicion. Dark Marsh City was unlike other places. The people here were less willing to pledge their faith. They claimed that believing in the gods had brought them no benefits, and life remained difficult. Various churches had attempted to establish influence here, but all had failed. The churches in this city were little more than decorations.
Besides, they had never seen a priest who went to the magic academy to collect magic power without wearing a priest robe.
"I'll try." Mien was the first to break the silence. If there was any other way, he certainly wouldn't want to go to the academy to seek help from the instructors. Although they didn't believe in gods, the image of the priests was still positive.
"Here are 30 silver coins."
Eryi casually threw the coins into the cash box and chanted a spell in front of everyone.
Mien's healed wounds began to ache, and a purple mist rose around him. On the roof of the car, Fluffy suddenly straightened up alertly, staring at Mien intently, as if ready to jump out at any moment.
As the spell ended, the mist dissipated with a snap, and the strange scar on Mien's body disappeared along with it. A strong feeling of dizziness came over him, and he almost lost his balance.
Eryi checked Mien's condition. After the curse disappeared, his wounds remained healed, but his health remained unchanged. Interestingly, his magic power increase was still continuing.
"Your dizziness is the result of yesterday's injuries not fully healing, coupled with the aftereffects of the curse. If you want to recover on your own, it will probably take a long time." Er Yi knocked on her cash box again: "30 silver coins, I'll help you solve it now."
“…”
There are 5 people in their team. If each person spends 60 silver coins, the money is not enough.
"Master Priest, let's solve the curse problem on them first." Mien signaled his companions to pay.
After a few minutes, the curses on all of them were lifted, and most of the gold coins they had earned from Eryi the day before returned to Eryi's pocket.
"How come being a priest is so profitable? I want to change my career." One of the magic apprentices muttered.
"I wish I could sell some mana," Evelyn said. He was reluctant to spend 30 silver coins to cure his dizziness. It was impossible to go out and take quests in this state, so any money he could earn was a good deal.
The apprentices followed Eryi's instructions and injected magic power into the magic storage ball.
[Drops, 125.]
[Drops, 150.]
[Drops, 100.]
…
Perhaps because they often go out, the average magic value of this team is not low.
After paying the coins to the apprentices, Eryi habitually opened the magic savings ball and checked the properties inside.
I saw an extra column inside.
Dark Elements: 86, unextractable. [Click to confirm and use 86 points of Holy Elements to purify it.]
Before the apprentices strayed too far, Eryi quickly checked their status bars. He saw that their magic amplification properties had disappeared, and their maximum magic points had decreased. The total decrease in the magic points of the five magic apprentices was exactly 86.
[Are you sure you want to use 86 points of Holy Elements to purify it?] Suddenly, a pop-up window appeared before my eyes.
"Zero Zero Eight, what's going on?" An abnormal prompt pop-up window appeared on the system, which is very rare.
[Reply to host, the dark element is incompatible with the holy element in you. It is recommended that you purify it as soon as possible.]
Thinking that 86 points of holy elements were not a lot, Eryi decided to try purification.
[Successfully purified the dark elements, obtaining 86 points of void elements.]
"Strange! I haven't injected any holy elements into this magic storage device, so how come there are dozens more? Fluffy, did you do this?"
Fluffy sneezed, and it had nothing to do with it.
Among the magic apprentices in Dark Marsh City, there are a few humans with an affinity for holy elements. Because there are almost no churches settled here, they don’t even know that they can become priests.
One of them was Evelyn who had just left.
Inside a castle in Anze City.
"Holy element? Aren't there few normal priests here?"
"Which troublesome church is here again?"
"It doesn't matter. The connection to the abyss has been opened. Apart from the slight influence of the God of Light on us, nothing else matters."
"That's true."
A man dressed in seemingly clean clothes tossed a black stone up and down with disdain: "Low-level abyss creatures are just not very easy to use. They all died in an instant."
"The curse has been spread, isn't that enough?" A woman whose expression couldn't be seen chuckled softly in her throat.
Inside a certain residence.
"Can magic be exchanged for silver coins?" The strong girl wielding the sledgehammer stared with wide eyes, sweat dripping from her forehead. The heat in the room was so intense that it made her want to evaporate on the spot.
"Yes, I just exchanged 15 silver coins today. This is just the amount I'd have gotten from meditating for half a day. I remember when we tested it, your elemental affinity was stronger than mine." The frail-looking girl paced excitedly around the room. "I've always felt it was a pity..."
"But... I have decided to inherit my family's blacksmith shop." The strong girl turned her head and continued to hammer on the unformed knife in her hand.
"This has nothing to do with whether you inherit the blacksmith shop or not," the thin girl shook her head. "You can use the coins earned from selling magic to buy better materials, replace your equipment... and even learn how to enchant weapons."
"You need to know who forged the most powerful weapon in the world!"
The strong girl's eyes lit up: "You're right, I'll go with you after I finish this fight."
"The merchant who buys magic power should have gone home by now," the thin girl said, dismissing her idea. "She said she would come to the entrance of the Magic Academy every other day from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM to buy magic power."
"Okay, so you mean she won't come until the day after tomorrow?"
After Eryi realized that the acquisitions from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM weren't working well, he decisively changed the time to the morning. Morning was the beginning of the day, and the apprentices' magic power must have been plentiful and unused.
To reduce transportation costs, she changed her daily mana procurement schedule to once every two days. The magic apprentices felt a sense of urgency, and more of them came. By her fourth trip to Dark Marsh City, the daily mana procurement had reached over 6,000, and was steadily increasing.
Considering the need for treatment in Dark Marsh City, Eryi decided to carry one of each type of energy storage device. After all, she would lose system protection once she left the treatment station. All her fatigue points should be used for her shield and mental weakness skills. This was also the reason she brought Fluffy with her; she was acting as a bodyguard.
It has to be said that the security situation in Anze City is not very good. In just a few days, Eryi had been ambushed three times on the road and had nearly been robbed more than ten times.
With Ling Ling Ba's all-around detection and the combat power of the quasi-third-level Warcraft Mao Rongrong, Er Yi was certainly able to escape unscathed.
Those hooligans were not fools. They knew she was a tough guy, so they didn't dare to confront her head-on. Afterwards, they finally lived in peace for a while.
The news that Eryi would purchase magic power and magic cores at the entrance of the Magic Academy on time spread not only among magic apprentices but also among the Adventurer's Guild.
After all, she was willing to purchase broken magic cores and some strange black stones, which made her stall very popular.
Eryi would occasionally acquire small black stones in Dark Marsh City, often accompanied by strange scars and curses on adventurers. She began to speculate about the connection between these stones and curses, and would ask the injured, "What caused these wounds?"
What’s interesting is that the injured were all trying to cover up their injuries: “It was just something they did casually.”
They had their own selfish motives. Such an easy-to-kill little monster could drop such valuable stones. They were afraid that if they revealed the source, Eryi would no longer be willing to pay such a high price for these seemingly useless items.
However, Evelyn had sold magic power many times, and after getting acquainted with Eryi, he mentioned that strange monster to her.
Strangely enough, after Evelyn encountered this monster for the second time, he was no longer cursed when scratched. He thought he had developed resistance and happily led his companions to make a killing.
As a result, all the other companions fell into the curse and could only obediently put the coins into Eryi's cash box and ask her to help expel the curse.
In just ten days, Eryi met the conditions for upgrading to a level eight plane healing station.
Use Curse Removal to cure 100 cursed humans. Completed.
[Level 8 Plane Healing Station: Basic status recovery speed in the station is increased by 14%]
[Use healing skills in the post station to increase skill effects by 14%]
[System management range expanded to 70 meters around the treatment station.]
Conditions for upgrading to the ninth-level plane healing station:
Turnover: 3.5 million/3.5 million energy value
Number of people treated: 50,000/50,000
The total number of believers reaches 10,000: 1350/10,000
Reward: Hidden Skill [Maria's Sigh]
Eryi gazed at the total number of believers, lost in thought. The number of believers had been growing without her knowledge, and it was likely not in areas she was familiar with. After all, fewer than sixty people attended daily prayers at the healing station, and fewer than a hundred worshippers.
She suddenly remembered the letter Baroness Bernice had sent her. She hoped to build branches of the Maria Church in other cities. She also had a beautiful piece of land in the capital that she hoped to donate to the church for a church.
After looking at it, she felt that there was nothing wrong with it, so she put it away. Now that she thought about it, Bernice had disappeared for so long and seemed to have done something big.
Inside a castle.
"Do you feel that the spread of the curse is not ideal?"
"A priest has come to the city. He is said to serve a new god named Maria and is good at cursing and exorcising."
"I've never heard of a new church moving in?" the man suddenly stood up from his chair. "I didn't grant any land. The Faithful Union here is only slightly larger than an average house."
"She didn't build any branches here. She just teleports here from other cities every other day. It costs a lot of gold coins."
"This won't work."
"It is said that she acquired a lot of black stones dropped by abyss monsters."
"Really?" a woman piqued her interest. "What's the point of acquiring these? I've personally tested them, and they don't contain anything detectable."
"Heh." An old magician with a ferocious face laughed. "Thanks to her high purchase price, many adventurers are taking the initiative to go and encounter those little monsters."
"What's the use? She's dispelled all the curses."
"If the curse doesn't spread, there will be no better carrier, and the power of the abyss cannot rise."
"Don't make a fuss. Let her go, lest you attract the attention of the Church." A woman said grimly, "If we don't use humans, we can use monsters. Monsters are more compatible with the Abyss, and their bodies are more stubborn and can withstand the torment."
"...Alright." The man sat down again, holding his forehead. "But with abyssal monsters like these, communication is impossible, and the uncontrollable factors increase too much."
The strong girl successfully found the magic carriage her friend had mentioned.
"Hello, are you buying magic power here?" The girl's face was rosy and her voice was rough.
After Eryi confirmed the girl's information several times, she said, "Yes." She thought she was a shield warrior from some clan.
"I'm not quite sure how to inject magic power." The girl had never been to a magic academy, so even if she had magic power in her body, she didn't know how to use it.
"Do you remember what happened when you tested your magic power before?" As far as Eryi knew, magic testing also required injecting magic power into the tester, and its usage was the same as that of a magic storage ball.
The girl scratched her head embarrassedly: "That happened four years ago, I forgot about it a long time ago."
Eryi taught the girl step by step to meditate and touch magic.
…
The girl happily took her silver coin and left, telling Eryi that she would come again next time.
Similar things were happening repeatedly. The oldest elemental affinity holder Eryi had ever seen who hadn't learned orthodox magic was 32. Young people had less access to older people, and their messages couldn't be passed on.
"Are you really not considering treating your problem?" Eryi once again asked the familiar adventurer. He had come several times in a row, and each time he came, he would sell her a lot of small black stones.
His own health had dropped from 91% at the beginning to 12% now, but he looked perfectly normal, able to walk and jump, and speak coherently.
"I believe I have no problems, thank you." The adventurer felt that he was fine, and even felt that Eryi was very nosy by asking this every time he came.
Taking the black pebble from the adventurer, Eryi gave him two gold coins. "You're already terminally ill, but for just one gold coin and twenty silver coins, I can completely cure you. There's already a lot more here, so why don't you spend some money to make yourself feel better?"
"No." The adventurer, considering the good harvest, didn't show any bad look and waved to Eryi cheerfully: "See you in two days."
"See you in two days?" Er Yi murmured, "Can we still see each other in two days..."
The adventurer's health dropped from 12% to 11% in front of Eryi.
When the numbers jumped, a dark fragment appeared in her mind, like an old and broken memory.
My body moved involuntarily.
An adventurer was cursed after being scratched by an abyss monster, but he was reluctant to part with the silver coins and did not seek treatment.
Apart from feeling a little unwell on the first day, he thought there was nothing wrong with his body. He was eating a little more and seemed to have more energy.
He even thought he had achieved some kind of breakthrough during his many battles, and took the opportunity to smash a lot of those black stones. Now, after being scratched by these little monsters, not even a mark would appear.
He'd heard that some of his companions, like him, were selling the black stones themselves. After so many times, the priestess who bought the stones would command her magic wolf to attack them and steal their money. Cleverly, he had his fellow adventurers sell the stones for him, while he remained hidden.
"What? You said she won't buy this anymore?" The adventurer didn't expect to receive this news.
"It's not that I'm not interested in buying her, I'm just unwilling to pay the gold coins. But I can use them to trade her for some healing opportunities." The companion spread his hands and said, "You know what, this is quite impressive."
"I thought her treatment didn't sound very effective. I gave these black stones to a woodcutter next door. His foot hadn't been working well since he fell two years ago. Unexpectedly, he was able to move freely after returning."
"..." The adventurer didn't hear the rest of the words. He was just lost in sorrow: "My money."
Those fragments of memory appeared only for a moment, and afterwards Eryi could not remember what he had seen at that time.
Eryi had been feeling down lately. She felt that if she hadn't paid a high price for the black stones, the adventurers wouldn't have provoked the little monsters and become cursed. Upon realizing this, she quickly changed her purchasing strategy and tried her best to remedy the consequences.
After knocking out several adventurers whose health was close to zero, her reputation plummeted. Even the effective healing couldn't restore her lost reputation.
Of course the adventurers didn't dare to say a word in front of her, this was a crushing defeat due to her fighting power.
"Don't overthink it, Master Priest." Seeing Eryi's lack of energy while selling magic power, Mien couldn't help but console him, "The number of these things is increasing, and sooner or later there will be problems. We've already reported it to the Magic Guild, and hopefully someone will come along and resolve it."
Magic apprentices were different. They possessed magical powers and were more likely to detect anomalies than adventurers. However, they had reported the anomaly for a while, but no one had come to solve the problem. This was not normal.
Eryi thought about it and compiled what happened here into several letters. He gave them to the Believers' Guild, the Magicians' Guild, and the Adventurers' Guild in Sunset City respectively.
Soon, she received the first reply letter.
—Can you give us some black stones? From the Magic Guild.
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