“Teacher, you look so sly when you smile!”

Jack, who had been following Karien, walked ahead. Seeing his teacher’s smile, he couldn’t help but ask,

“Teacher, what are you planning?”

“Don’t say such nonsense.” Karien’s expression returned to normal as he responded,

“Someone as kind-hearted as me would never have bad intentions. By the way, Jack, do you want to take part in the assessment?”

Jack froze for a moment. His dark skin glowing under the sun, he pointed at himself and replied,

“Me? Teacher, please don’t joke. With my magic talent, I’ve never even tried to open an elemental channel at the age of fourteen. I’m not even a magic apprentice. How could I possibly participate in the assessment?”

“Oh, that’s not a problem!” Karien waved his hand dismissively and said,

“Talent is important, sure, but it’s only a threshold. Once you cross that threshold, it’s no longer a problem. No matter how bad your talent is, can it be worse than mine?”

“That’s not possible,” Jack replied honestly.

Hey, hey, hey! Can you stop being so honest and give your teacher some face?

Karien continued,

“If I remember correctly, your affinity with the earth element is three stars, and with dark and water elements, it’s two stars, right?”

Jack nodded.

With such a talent, you’d find people like him everywhere on the streets.

After all, while a three-star affinity with an element gives you a chance to become a magic master, it’s the lowest bar. Without resources or a rich elemental environment, becoming a magic master would be nearly impossible.

Jack used to have no opportunity, but now, things were different.

Karien had money!

With the help of elemental coins, Jack could open his elemental channels in no time. Even forming a magical cyclone wouldn’t be a difficult task—if needed, he could just burn through millions of elemental coins.

“That’s no problem. As long as you have one affinity with an element that’s three stars, you have a chance to become a magic master.”

Saying this, Karien pulled out a dark elemental coin and handed it to Jack.

“Here, it’s a magical item. If you need to know how to use it, go to Mia. She’ll teach you.”

“This…” Jack scratched his head, “This looks pretty valuable.”

“Ah, it’s just a little thing. It’s not worth much.” Karien responded modestly.

“Oh, after you put it that way, it does seem a little like a toy.” Jack quickly adjusted his view on the magical item in his hand.

A toy worth 100 gold coins…

The muscles at the corner of Karien’s mouth twitched, but he continued,

“Go ahead, Mia’s at the outdoor training grounds. I’ll arrange for earth element training for you in a few days. Remember, when in darkness, keep to your heart’s core!”

“Got it, teacher.”

Jack pocketed the “toy” and quickly ran toward the outdoor training grounds.

Shaking his head with a smile, Karien turned and headed back to the teacher’s dormitory.

All the other academies were already stretching their necks, waiting to divide up Red Leaf Academy. Naturally, Karien couldn’t sit idly by.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

It was time to start implementing the magical device plan.

Earlier that morning, when he went to submit his self-reflection at the main campus, he also applied for some Yuan Stones from the reserve department.

Of course, it cost money.

However, Yuan Stones were relatively common materials, and since they were within the same school, the price wasn’t that high.

Karien spent nearly 50 gold coins and managed to obtain ten palm-sized Yuan Stones.

These were commonly used by rune engravers, and you could directly inscribe and release magic on them.

Of course, due to the nature of Yuan Stones, they could only be used to inscribe second-tier magic.

Second-tier magic could only be inscribed once, while first-tier magic could be inscribed repeatedly, though the more you inscribed, the less stable the magic circle would be.

In addition to the Yuan Stones, Karien also borrowed an engraving pen.

This was a tool for magic apprentices to practice engraving. Since Karien wasn’t a magic master, he could only engrave using the pen in an extremely dense elemental environment.

After lunch, Karien handed Jack another dark elemental coin, asking him to temporarily substitute for a class and help other students with meditation.

Then, Karien went to the laboratory, activated a dark coin and a wind coin, and increased the concentration of dark and wind elements in the room by a hundred times.

Immediately, he began his experiment using the engraving pen.

Six hours later, Karien completed his first creation—the jetpack.

The principle was simple: it was based on a first-tier wind repulsion spell.

Normally, this spell was used to repel enemies.

However, Karien connected ten Yuan Stones and directed the repulsion downward to create lift.

Of course, he wasn’t just blindly using repulsion against the ground; he had arranged it systematically.

Additionally, he attached ten dark elemental coins to the Yuan Stones and used the accommodating nature of dark elements, combined with the incense-like structure of the elemental coins, to ensure the wind repulsion magic circle would output steadily.

This design was something Karien had stayed up all night to work on and calculate two nights ago.

Now, after practical testing, it had finally been completed.

Although the final product was crude, the cost was hefty.

Karien had spent eleven dark elemental coins and two wind elemental coins, totaling 1,290 gold coins.

This amount was enough to support an ordinary family for a hundred years, but Karien wasn’t bothered.

He knew that if he wanted to go down this road, he couldn’t be stingy with money.

On Earth, all technological products are developed through hefty investments.

The same applied to this magical world—initial investments were bound to be large.

Only after the technology matured could he continue to optimize it, reduce costs, and improve performance.

Once he ensured the jetpack was stable enough, Karien went outside and put it on.

Using his mental power, he controlled the incense-like structure of the ten dark coins and slowly activated it.

As the magic circle powered up, ten crude thrusters began to blow air downward.

As the airflow increased, Karien’s feet slowly lifted off the ground, and he began to float.

The results of the experiment exceeded Karien’s expectations. Under his control, the jetpack took him to a height of five meters.

Once the experiment was successful, Karien slowly deactivated the magic circle and landed on the ground.

It wasn’t that the jetpack couldn’t fly higher; it was that Karien was too scared. If it went out of control and he crashed, it would be too costly.

After the experiment, Karien returned to the laboratory and began recording the data.

Compared to Earth’s flying machines, the advantage of the jetpack in this magical world was that it didn’t need a large space to store energy.

Magic elements themselves were the energy source.

And in terms of energy conversion efficiency per unit mass, magic elements were far superior to chemical energy!

Of course, the costs were still enormous.

At the thought of this, Karien’s heart gave a slight twinge of pain.

Additionally, Karien knew that most magic masters had to master the fifth-tier “Wind Manipulation” spell to fly.

But Karien had achieved flight with just ten first-tier wind repulsion spells.

It truly spoke to the power of science and technology.

This only strengthened Karien’s resolve to pursue this path.

However, before all that…

First, earn money!

Otherwise, the spending will drown me (T_T)!