Starting with the sentries on the frontier

Chapter 4 The Belated Golden Finger

As the mage who signed his name Flint analyzed, the one who attacked the grain caravan was an old eagle-winged hag who was so old she could hardly fly anymore. In the words of the bearded man, it was "the easiest level three monster I've ever fought."

But when the two arrived, the grain being transported by the convoy had already rolled into the river, causing heavy losses to the grain store. Moreover, that afternoon, the price of grain and bread rose by 30%.

but……

"Although I don't want to cause trouble, that simple-minded Sea Stone Warrior insisted that I tell you that we happened to reach the lower reaches of the river while chasing the Eagle Wing Witch and saw the grain bag that the grain store had lost. It didn't contain any flour or wheat, but a pile of broken stones."

"Of course, I didn't mention it at all in the report."

When Flint said these words, his face was so sour that it looked like Zag owed him 100 shillings.

"Not surprising! Not surprising at all!"

Snowball, who had been appeased by Zag with two dried fish that morning, sneered, "The reason they gave last time was even more absurd. They said a group of flying giant rats, suspected to be magical creatures, had entered the granary! At the time, Zag—I mean the old Zag—was only handling a Level 1 commission. In the end, after the investigators checked, it turned out to be just a group of bats that had drunk alchemical potions that could grow bigger. But the granary suffered 'heavy losses'!"

"To be honest, I really doubt anyone would be so foolish as to go against the Golden Helmet Grain Store—that's the property of the entire Eastern Frontier Lord!"

"And even a fool knows that bats don't eat wheat!"

Snowball's incessant chatter was somewhat jarring, but Zag did nothing more to it. Instead, he calmly took out the 25 gold pounds he had just received that morning, which he hadn't even warmed up yet, and handed them to Flint.

"Thank you for your sincerity; this is your reward."

He deliberately avoided Flint's words.

Flint took the gold pound, looked up at Zag with a cold expression, but Zag felt that the other man's eyes seemed to be full of contempt.

"Oh, right."

Just as Flint was about to leave the sentry post with the gold pound, Zag suddenly spoke up: "You're from the Lonely Tower Mage Guild, right? May I ask how a mage guild like yours recruits apprentices? Or... how much tuition is required to learn magic?"

"I suggest you try to find a spellbook on the black market in the Eastern Port. If you're lucky, you might learn it. As for the Tower of Solitude, they don't accept apprentices there. The apprenticeship at the Golden Palace Mage Research Institute costs 500 gold pounds. At your salary, it would probably take you six or seven years of not eating or drinking to save up that much."

Flint maintained a blank expression, but his words sounded sarcastic no matter how you looked at them.

Snowball scoffed, "Or you could try to grow long ears and become a legal citizen of the Kingdom of Lunaran, then you could enter their magic tower for free to study. Of course, you'd have to pay for the magic materials yourself!"

"……Thanks."

This was naturally said to Flint.

Flynn nodded, turned and pushed open the door of the watchtower, but just as he stepped out, he tilted his head and said, "I have an apprentice-level spellbook here, about fire magic. If you're interested, I can sell it to you for 400 shillings. This thing would be worth at least 600 shillings on the black market."

Snowball "kindly" added, "He's telling the truth! You even have to pay the black market an entry fee of over 100 shillings!"

Zag's eyes lit up: "I'll come find you once I've saved up enough money."

Thanks to the wealth left behind by the original owner, he could indeed afford 400 shillings, but he still needed to think carefully before spending such a large sum of money.

"As soon as possible, I'll stay here for a maximum of one month."

After saying that, Flint left the guard post.

Snowball rushed to the scratching post and sharpened its claws a couple of times, then flew back to Zag, saying with a serious expression, "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! If that really is an apprentice-level spellbook, 400 shillings is practically free!"

Zag, who was copying the report Flint had just submitted, replied without looking up, "There's still a month, what's the rush?"

"What if he sells it to someone else?"

"That means it's not the right time for me to learn magic."

"Bullshit! With your talent, it's a waste that you don't learn magic!"

"Then you'll give me 400 shillings? I promise I'll give you the book after I finish learning it, which means you'll only spend 400 shillings to buy a spellbook—a freebie!"

"Bullshit! Don't try to scam me out of my money!"

The two bickered for a while until Zag finished all his work for the day, then sat in his chair, somewhat distracted and lost in thought.

400 shillings is indeed not much, after all, the original owner left behind a legacy of 800 shillings.

However, the original owner's mother needed long-term medication, and some money needed to be set aside for emergencies. Furthermore, the events at the grain store today suggested that grain prices would likely continue to rise for a considerable period, meaning the cost of living would also increase. Unless someone reported the grain store to the lord, but…

Who knows if this was authorized by the lord himself?

After transmigrating, he had some ridiculous and absurd insistences, but that doesn't mean he was really a fool who would accuse the Golden Helmet Grain Store because of rising grain prices and a lack of any physical evidence, with the consequences unknown.

After thinking about all sorts of things for a while, Zag finally stood up, pushed open the door of the watchtower, and called out to Snowball, who was unusually quiet as he was dozing off, "Snowball! Follow me!"

"You've finally decided to buy that spellbook!?"

Snowball excitedly flapped its wings and flew to Zag's shoulder, swishing its tail back and forth, looking very happy.

"No, I'm just going to check if it's really a spellbook."

"Stubborn!"

……

The two of them, one person and one snowball, quickly arrived at the bustling tavern.

The bard was singing "The Sleeping Giant," Felix was dancing comically around the campfire in the center of the hall with his chubby body, and the bearded seastone warrior, his face as red as a boiled shrimp, was raising his beer mug and singing a song that was obviously off-key to the rhythm of the bard. Some familiar faces from the town were also there.

"It's a sentry!"

Felix spotted Zag first, then, panting, invited, "Want to grab a drink?"

Zag declined, saying, "No, I'll talk to Mr. Flint."

"No problem, he lives in the first house on the left!"

"Thank you so much."

Zag bypassed the bustling crowd, walked to Flint's room, took a deep breath, and gently knocked on the door.

"I'm not attending the party, thank you!"

The people in the room sounded very impatient.

Zag had no choice but to explain, "I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Flint. I'm a sentry, a sentry from the Association's watchtower, Zag."

"Hold on!"

With the sound of something heavy falling to the ground, followed by a rustling sound, the door was finally opened after a long while.

"Zag? You..."

Seeing Flint's face, Zag chose to cut to the chase: "May I take a quick look at that spellbook you mentioned? I think I can, right?"

Flint nodded politely, then stepped aside to let Zag enter, saying, "Of course, you can't possibly be a magical genius who can learn it just by looking at it once, can you?"

Then he closed the door and took out a somewhat worn leather book from the box.

The book is very thick, as heavy as a Xinhua Dictionary, but there isn't much paper inside because the whole book is sewn together from parchment and covered with a thick, hard leather cover, making it both thick and heavy.

Snowball gave the answer after just one glance: "It's genuine!"

But Zag froze the moment he touched the open spellbook.

[Fireball] has been learned.

Destruction spells are now available.

The spell system is now available.

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[Snowball's Science Mini-Drama]: The Golden Palace Mage Research Institute is a magic institution directly under the Supreme King of the Celestial Kingdom of Constantia, responsible for researching magic and training magic talents.