Acropolis. It was the center of human civilization in this world. The technology was far better than any other territories. The living condition was far better as well. And the living cost was even far pricier…

My entire wealth after scamming the Players to buy the EXP Potions was around thirty-three gold. As for silvers and coppers, let’s not count them now. However, after paying the registration fee for the school, I only had eighteen gold. Staying in the inn cost me around two gold, including the food. So, I could only stay around nine days, if I didn’t go to buy anything else at all. Yep, it was definitely not enough for me to live lavishly. And I thought that amount of money would be enough for me to live for a few hundred years in the Newbie Village…

So, now, I had to make a new plan to sell the EXP Potions. Unfortunately, after wandering for an entire afternoon until the evening, I didn’t find any materials for concocting the EXP Potions from the herb stores in this city. And when I asked the Adventurers, they said that they didn’t gather mushrooms like that. Perhaps, once in a while, some villagers from nearby villages would come to this city and sell them, but it was only once in a while. And by once in a while, it meant less than once in a month... Maybe once in half a year.

As for the herbs in the stores that I visited this afternoon, the herbs were, well, not very useful. At least for me. Most of the herbs were used for medicinal purposes, and moreover, they were already in the form of ointments or salve. I wouldn’t say that it was bad, however, the effect was even less than the potion that I could make with less rare ingredients. Unfortunately, those not-so-rare ingredients became extremely scarce in this city as no one would gather them.

No, actually, there was a Guild that gathered those ‘exotic’ ingredients, which was the Alchemist Guild. The Alchemist Guild paid the Adventurers to gather useless materials for research purposes. Yes, only for researches, as they didn’t know how to process those materials for now.

And with my knowledge, I thought of an idea to get a lot of money from the Alchemist Guild. Yep, selling recipe. Naturally, I would only sell worthless recipes from my memory. As for the recipes that were priceless, I wouldn’t sell them at all. I was not an idiot after all. It was like killing the goose to get the eggs, something that only an idiot would do.

With that thought in my head, I went to the Alchemist Guild early in the morning. After that… I returned to the inn dejectedly. Hm? Well, unlike the Adventure Guild that opened 24-7, the Alchemist Guild only opened from afternoon to early evening. Only nobles and rich merchants went to the Alchemist Guild to buy high-leveled medicines after all, so they didn’t need to open all day long. Besides, most of the Alchemists were busy with their own research, so they didn’t have time to deal with the guests. If there were emergencies, the clients would look for the Alchemist directly without going to the Alchemist Guild.

I heard about it from Rita and she advised me not to go to the Alchemist Guild. It seemed even though the Alchemists had a good reputation for their potions, but the Alchemist Guild had a bad reputation. Rita didn’t say it explicitly, but from what I got from her, the Alchemist Guild extorted money from their clients, so, most of the clients, including nobles and rich merchants, didn’t want to go to the Alchemist Guild even though they had money to waste.

As for me, I understood why the Alchemist Guild did something like that. From my experience, concocting potions was a money burning job. When I learned how to concoct potions in the beginning, even with my resources from the Dungeon, I felt like there were not enough resources at all. Not to mention the Alchemists that didn’t have Dungeon as their source of ingredients. It was not a wonder if they wanted to get a lot of money, even if they had to extort their clients.

Well, I would think about getting money later. Now, I was going back to school to see whether I was lucky or not. If I was lucky, my dream of becoming Magical Girl Fey was getting… cough, I meant, I wanted to be a better Witch that could use every element. No, if I said that I was a Witch, I would trigger a new event called Witch Hunt, wouldn't I? That was why, I wanted to be a Mage... though it was not possible to change the Class like that. Unless, of course, if I could advance my Class. I didn't know where to advance my Class though. A Witch was rare, not to mention the advanced version of this Class. I wondered if there was a Class Advancement of Witch? In the past, there was no system that told me what Class I had. Well, more importantly, I arrived at the academy without any problems. 

The result was posted on a huge board that was crowded by a lot of people around my age, I meant, appearances-wise. Yep, while I looked like thirteen years old (yep, definitely thirteen years old, not twelve or eleven), the people around me looked like they were fifteen years old or so. They had an older face, but it was only by a year or two. However, they were all taller than me, so I couldn’t see the board at all!

After waiting for a good while, the crowd finally dispersed a little and I took that chance to get closer to the board. I started looking for my name. Fey. It was a simple name and from what I saw, there were no people whose name was simpler than mine. There were even none of them who didn’t have a family name. Were they all nobles? Was I the only commoner in this school?

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And then, I saw my simple name, right on top of the list.

Name: Fey

Result

Written Test

History: 0/30

Geography: 0/30

Magic Theory: 28/30

Modern Language: 15/30

Ancient Language: 30/30

Ancient Runes: 30/30

Practical Test

Magic: 30/30

Combat: 30/30

Total: 163/240

Rank: 1

Hm? Wait a minute. Let’s see the second rank students whose name was Freya.

Name: Freya Wolfnir

Result

Written Test

History: 26/30

Geography: 25/30

Magic Theory: 19/30

Modern Language: 29/30

Ancient Language: 7/30

Ancient Runes: 5/30

Practical Test

Magic: 24/30

Combat: 25/30

Total: 160/240

Rank: 2

…just how difficult was the test of this school? 160/240 meant that Freya only got 66% of the total score, right? In my previous school, 66% was the average of the class, no, even below the average of the class, yet, here, it was already the top scorer’s score.

Below that, the scores were even lower than fifty percent. As for those who entered the school, they had to be in the top hundred. I glanced at the score of the last person. It was only 78/240. Only a bit more than 30%...

Once again, just how difficult was the test of this school? Or perhaps it was because of the education system of this world? Looking at the scores, it seemed that even though the others were quite proficient with History and Geography, and naturally the Modern Language, they didn’t have good scores in other aspects. Magic Theory, for example. Freya, who had the highest score in Magic Theory, only got 19 points. Perhaps they didn’t learn about the basic science? Well, thinking that it was a fantasy world, perhaps they really didn’t learn about science at all.

As for Ancient Language and Ancient Runes, it was because I lived for a really long time that I was proficient in both subjects. Alright, the Languages and the Runes were something that the owner of this body used a lot in the past, so naturally I had perfect knowledge about it. Unlike the Modern Language that I only knew about recently from the system. Yep, the system crammed a lot of modern knowledge to me so I could have daily conversations with the Villagers and the Players. Also, this Modern Language was used not only by humans but by other races as well. It had another name. Common Language.

...there was no basic physical ability's result? Maybe because the scores were too low to be posted, huh? But there was no basic magic ability too. So, they didn't post the basic abilities but rather, directly to the application, huh? Fortunately, I got a perfect score in Magic. As for combat, even I wondered how could I have a perfect score in this part. I meant, I knew I blocked more than ten attacks of the examiner, however, after that, if he kept attacking me, I would lose for sure. How could I get a perfect score?

Well, whatever. Anyway, I successfully joined this school and I should be happy about this. In two or three years, Magical Girl Fey would emerge from this school.

…naturally, I was joking. Though it was not wrong to say that I wanted to learn all low-level Magic. Yep, I thought it would be interesting after all. Perhaps I could learn some Magic that could make my life became even easier.

“There’s someone who got a full score in Magic and Combat test?” I heard someone exclaimed behind me. Hm, looking at the board, I was the only one who got a perfect score on those subjects. They must be talking about me.

“Ah, but they didn’t get any scores at all in both History and Geography, huh?” Another added. Why would I learn History and Geography at Magic Academy? I thought that it was useless to learn that kind of knowledge.

“That person must be an idiot for sure. They only learned about Magic but didn’t know how to use it in the application for sure. Like the Historian, Skelly said, ‘Knowing history means knowing your future. Every Magic is recorded in History, so by learning History, you can know what your enemy plan is’.” Someone quoted, perhaps something from the book. Was that why people learned history in this academy?

“Well, don’t worry, we will catch up to that idiot sooner or later. We will learn Magic from the best instructors in the whole Empire while that person learned Magic from Gods know who! Do you think that person will be able to learn better Magic than us? That person must be busy studying History and Geography and wouldn’t have time to learn Magic!”

Ah, it seemed I could see my future in school. Before school started, I should learn History and Geography. Yep, let’s go to the library now. Ah, but before that…

I went to the place where I registered. As expected, the Iron Lady was busying herself in that room. Alone. I wondered where the other teachers were. Were they busy with something else? I approached her and stood in front of her. She raised her eyes and looked at me.

“Congratulations on getting the first rank in the Examination. You are now officially a student of Saulia Academy. Is there something that you need?” She asked coldly.

I nodded and sat in front of her. She didn't offer me the seat, but well. “I have two questions. I want to know how much I should pay to study in this school, well, speaking monthly? Also, I heard that I can get a permanent ID by learning in this school, is that right? How can I get that permanent ID?”

The Iron Lady stopped moving her hands and stared at me. Her eyes were cold and honestly, it was quite scary. I was really not good with a strict teacher it seemed. “You can get your Student Card in three days when the school starts. As for the tuition fee, every year, you have to pay three hundred gold coins. For this year, you have to pay before the month ends. Do you have other questions?”

Before the month ended? If I remembered correctly, that was less than two weeks away!

“Uh, what would happen if I couldn’t pay the tuition fee?” I asked curiously.

“If you can’t pay, you have two options. Immediately quit and you don’t have to pay anything. Or you can try to aim for the first rank in the exam three months later. If you get the first rank in that exam, you can get a scholarship to study in the school for free. If you fail, you will be fined. The amount of fine you have to pay is two hundred gold.”

“…I understand. I will try to get three hundred gold before the month ends. Thank you very much.” I bowed and immediately left the room.

Now, I had to think of a way of getting money as soon as possible!

As expected, I had to make a potion, but the problem was the ingredients. I couldn’t make any potions without ingredients after all. What should I do?

For now, I went to the Library. I had to pay two gold coins just for entering the Library and after that, I had to pay three gold coins for borrowing a book. My heart bled so much that I felt like dying. My money was now only ten gold coins. It was really bad… I didn’t know whether I could buy the ingredients by using these ten gold coins, but I had to try it anyway. After that, I went to the Adventure Guild. Yeah, I used the last bit of my money to post a quest for the Adventurers to gather the ingredients I needed.