abnabooks Chapter 26 Employing Lottie
Chapter 26 Employing Lottie
I only got this chance to board the ship because of my wizarding family name, and now that name is about to be lost.
Li Ang asked, somewhat puzzled, "Nothing? What do you mean? Has something happened to your family?"
She looked up, her eyes welling with tears, but she tried hard to hold them back.
"There is a rule in the wizarding world that if a wizarding family does not have a formal wizard in charge for ten consecutive years, the family's title and all related privileges will be revoked... The formal wizard of the Polk family was my grandfather, but he passed away eight years ago."
She didn't say anything more, but Li Ang fully understood the immense pressure she was under, and his desire to help her grew even stronger.
Pay them directly? Lottie would never accept that, given his personality. His gaze swept across the cafeteria, and suddenly an idea came to him.
He thought of his own small, but still clean, dormitory room. There seemed to be no unified cleaning service in the tower, and apprentices had to handle many things themselves.
He put down his knife and fork, looked at Lottie, and said in as casual a tone as possible, "Lottie, there's something I'd like to ask you for help with. After I became a full-fledged apprentice, I was assigned a private dormitory, but I'm... not very good at or fond of cleaning rooms, and it seems like nobody in the tower cares about that."
Lottie looked at him with a puzzled expression, not understanding why he suddenly brought this up.
Li Ang continued, "I see you're very meticulous and conscientious. I wonder if you'd be willing... to take some time each day to clean my room? It won't take long, about half an hour should be enough. I can pay you... 2 copper coins a day, how about that?"
"Two copper coins?!" Lottie nearly jumped up in surprise, her eyes wide. "Just...just cleaning the room? This...this is too much, Mr. Leon, this won't do."
In the Wizard's Tower, copying a book or organizing the warehouse for an hour only earns 1 copper coin.
Now, just cleaning a small room every day can bring in a stable income of 2 copper coins, which is an unimaginably good job.
"Not much." Li Ang shook his head, his tone very certain. "I think my time and energy are more valuable."
"It's only right to pay someone for doing something for me, and keeping the room tidy is also important for my studies and meditation. Would you be willing to do me this favor?"
Looking into Li Ang's sincere eyes, Lottie's mind was in turmoil. Of course, she knew that Li Ang was trying to help her in various ways. Two copper coins a day would amount to 60 copper coins a month, which was equivalent to two months' salary for her. In her spare time, she could also do some copying commissions. This way, she could at least eat her fill every day and even save some money. This was a godsend for her.
Her eyes reddened even more, and this time she finally couldn't hold back her tears, which fell down with a thud.
She quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand, lowered her head, and said in a choked voice, "Mr. Li Ang... thank you... I really... I don't know how to thank you enough... I... I'm willing. I will clean it very, very thoroughly! I definitely won't let you down."
Li Ang smiled and said, "Let's start tomorrow then. This is my dorm key, room number B045. I usually go to the workshop to do commissions after class, so you can go whenever it's convenient for you."
He pushed a spare brass key in front of Lottie, who carefully picked it up, clutched it tightly in her hand, and looked up at Leon again with gratitude and a renewed hope in her eyes.
After saying goodbye to Lottie, Leon returned alone to his private dormitory on the third floor.
The room was pitch black. Li Ang fumbled for the oil lamp on the table and lit it. The flame flickered and cast swaying shadows on the wall.
His gaze fell on the copying tools, and instantly a familiar system notification appeared before his eyes:
[Inferior gray quill pen: Lv0]
[Status: Bindable]
[Binding Cost: 1 Spirit Points]
"Even the most ordinary quill pen is a product of witchcraft?" Li Ang was somewhat surprised.
He then checked his own condition. The mental energy he had consumed in the workshop had been restored by 2 points, reaching 4 points, thanks to the continuous replenishment from the [Acceleration Pocket Watch].
"Bind." He didn't hesitate. It's just one point of mental energy; what if there's a pleasant surprise?
A faint connection was established, and the quill pen in his hand seemed... a little easier to handle? He looked at the panel:
[Binding successful]
[Inferior Gray Quill Pen: Current Level Lv0]
[Current effect: Slightly improved copying speed]
[Level 1 Effect: Copying speed +10%, Magical Insight +10%]
[Upgrade Requirements: 1 Magic Stars in the Spirit World, 5 Spirit Points consumed]
"The copying speed has improved slightly..." Li Ang tried scribbling on the scrap paper a few times, and the smoothness of the pen tip did indeed improve slightly.
"It's kind of a waste of time," Li Ang thought to himself. This slight increase in speed was of very limited help for such a tedious task as copying.
But the upgraded +10% magic comprehension caught his attention. Copying spellbooks could actually improve magic comprehension? This was an unexpected delight.
He pondered for a moment, put down the quill pen, and decided to meditate to restore his mental energy before copying again after upgrading the quill pen.
He blew out the oil lamp, sat cross-legged on the bed, cleared his mind of all distractions, and let his consciousness sink into the spiritual world.
Time passed in silence, and mental energy recovered rapidly under the effect of the [Acceleration Pocket Watch]. In the mental world, the star was much more solid and bright than when it first condensed, but it was just unable to split into two due to a lack of opportunity.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Ang emerged from his meditation. He felt refreshed and his mental energy had been fully restored. He immediately focused his attention on the gray quill pen.
Upgrade successful
[Inferior gray quill pen: lv1]
[Current effect: Copying speed +10%, Magical comprehension +10%]
"Alright, let's start copying."
Li Ang relit the oil lamp, spread out the "Level 1 Spellbook," and dipped his pen in ink, letting it drip onto the parchment with a soft rustling sound.
The Lv1 quill pen is much more powerful, making writing very smooth. He was copying the chapter of the level 1 wind spell [Wind Blade].
The book describes how to highly compress wind elemental magic and shape it into an invisible blade with cutting capabilities.
Under his pen, the descriptions are no longer just words, but are transformed into the tactile sensation of actually manipulating the elements of wind.
He vaguely "saw" the cyan wind element, under the constraint of his spiritual power, transform from scattered to concentrated, from gentle to sharp...
This realization became clearer and clearer, and the blue star in the spiritual world seemed to be drawn in as well, its rotation speed quietly increasing as it greedily absorbed the surrounding magic.
Before he knew it, he had copied an entire page. Just as his pen left the parchment…
Suddenly, my mental world jolted.
The blue-green star, which was already saturated and seemed on the verge of splitting, suddenly burst forth with intense light and finally broke in two.
Two slightly smaller and somewhat ethereal blue-green stars, like twin stars, began to slowly rotate around the spiritual core in a mysterious trajectory.