Money, Money, Money! Why Does Everything Cost Money?!

After sending off Instructor Makley, Tylen stretched his stiff neck.

Amid the crisp cracking sounds, that familiar feeling of the whole world slowing down surged back into his mind.

[Slacker Saint Body] passively triggered.

With 30 times the learning and thinking efficiency, his brain was now as clear as a precision supercomputer.

He turned his head, looking at the two skeleton soldiers standing silently in the corner.

"The instructor left decisively, and then the Slacker Saint Body's effect triggered just like that!"

Tylen narrowed his eyes, carefully sensing:

"That means they weren't implanted with any surveillance spells on me—they're just helpers and homework left behind."

"That makes things easy!"

After confirming there really wasn't a third pair of eyes around, Tylen let out a long breath, plopped down onto the rickety old chair, and closed his eyes.

His consciousness sank deep into his mind.

The Grand Monthly Card panel, glowing with a faint golden light, materialized.

Today's tasks had gone quite smoothly.

Five daily quests: [Consume 6 Spirit Points], [Complete One Full Meditation], [Complete 2 Magic Practices], [Collect 3 Corpses], [Perform One Spell Deduction].

The first four were already done, earning him 1200 experience points.

Plus the 1500 experience from the sudden quest [Don't Bully the Young and Poor!] just now.

Now, the Grand Monthly Card's level progress bar had shot up like a rocket, smoothly reaching Level 4, with only the last 500 experience points needed for Level 5.

"Just one more spell deduction, and I'll grab the final 300 daily experience. Add tomorrow's tasks, and leveling up is right around the corner."

Tylen rubbed his hands together and clicked open the reward claim interface.

The rewards for Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 had been saved up all along, and now he could finally cash them all in at once.

Lv2:

[Obtained: Meditation Essential Oil x5]

[Obtained: Meditation Essence x5]

Lv3:

[Obtained: Magic Artifact Shard x100]

[Obtained: Magic Artifact Fragment x20]

Lv4:

[Obtained: Apprentice Experience Book x4]

[Obtained: Wizard Experience Book x1]

Looking at the pile of glittering rewards in his consciousness space, Tylen felt like a dragon hoarding treasure.

Aside from the usual Knowledge Crystals and Experience Books, what really caught his eye this time were a few new items.

First was that bottle, larger than the ordinary Meditation Essential Oil, with a deep purple color.

[Item Name: Meditation Essence]

[Effect: After consumption, increases meditation efficiency by 5%, stacks up to 5 times, lasts 2 hours.]

"Good stuff!"

Tylen's eyes lit up. For a wizard, meditation efficiency was the lifeline.

A 5% boost might seem small, but stacking it 5 times meant 25%! Paired with the Slacker Saint Body's buff, it was practically a recipe for takeoff.

Next, his gaze fell on two piles of sparkling transparent crystals, one large and one small.

[Item Name: Magic Artifact Shard]

[Effect: When strengthening a magic artifact, increases its energy by 50 points.]

[Item Name: Magic Artifact Fragment]

[Effect: When strengthening a magic artifact, increases its energy by 300 points.]

Seeing these two items, Tylen's breathing grew a little rapid.

He'd seen this stuff on the market once before, but back then he'd only glanced from afar and moved on because he didn't own a magic artifact.

A wizard's magic artifact wasn't set in stone; it could be upgraded through energy infusion.

It was like strengthening equipment to +1, +2—not only did it grant a sturdier structure, but breaking through a certain threshold also unlocked special effects.

Normally, infusing a magic artifact consumed other low-level artifacts or precious magical materials.

Only when a master-level or higher artifact shattered did it drop this kind of pure energy crystal.

"One Magic Artifact Shard goes for 20 Purple Gold Coins on the black market."

"And a Magic Artifact Fragment... at least 500 Purple Gold Coins to start!"

Tylen quickly ran the numbers in his head.

100 fragments of dust meant 2000 Purple Gold Coins, and 20 fragments meant 10000 Purple Gold Coins!

"I'm rich..."

Tylen swallowed hard, barely restraining the urge to take them and trade for cash.

"No, these are strategic resources. I can't use them now, but once I have my own magic artifact in the future, this is the capital to stand on."

"Most importantly, I can't explain where I got this stuff!"

He was just a Level 0 apprentice now, with no means to hide his identity.

And the tracking and identification abilities of wizards in this world were terrifying.

Carefully stowing away all the rewards, Tylen didn't bask in joy for long.

He was a man of action.

He quickly got up, grabbed a broom and mop, and in no time cleaned the morgue spotlessly.

Then he ran to the public cafeteria outside, steeled himself, and forced down that dinner that looked like pig slop—a bowl of mushy oatmeal with pickled vegetables—into his stomach.

Full and satisfied, he returned to the morgue.

Locking the door, he lit the dim oil lamp.

Tylen sat back down at the table and opened the Detailed Explanation of Bone Domination Runes.

With the 30x efficiency boost from the Slacker Saint Body, his memory and comprehension reached a terrifying level.

The sound of pages turning echoed through the silent room.

Just ten minutes later, the entire book's content was etched into his mind word for word.

The moment he closed the book, a miraculous scene unfolded.

That thin volume began to disintegrate on its own, dissolving into countless specks of light that vanished into the air.

"A one-time knowledge carrier."

Tylen wasn't surprised.

In this wizard world, where knowledge monopolization was extremely severe, any piece of mystical knowledge was priceless.

Not just magic, but rune formulas, alchemical recipes, ritual incantations—all such knowledge was an incredibly precious resource.

To prevent leaks and piracy, these read-and-burn one-time books were quite common.

"Since I've memorized it, I need to practice."

Tylen rubbed his hands together, picked up a quill from the table, and eagerly wanted to draw a few runes to test the effect.

But when he looked around, his movements froze.

"Where's the material?"

He stared blankly at the empty table.

Right now, the only thing he had was those 100 high-quality rune papers.

But that was the Fine Wine Gang's order!

It was the goods he had to deliver tomorrow! That was their material!

Runes were finicky things—you couldn't just draw a circle on the ground and make it work.

They needed special carriers, materials that could stably conduct magical power.

Ordinary paper couldn't withstand the infusion of magic; it would combust instantly.

"Sigh..."

Tylen, who had been so excited moments ago, deflated like a punctured balloon and slumped into his chair.

"Money, money, money! Why does everything need money!"

He looked up to the heavens and sighed, his face utterly lifeless.

"Rune paper costs money! Rune ink costs money! Carving knives cost money! Even breathing the air in the Wizard Tower costs rent!"

At this moment, he felt like a martial arts master with peerless skills, about to die of frustration because he couldn't afford a single iron sword.

"Even a clever housewife can't cook without rice..."

Tylen shook his head helplessly.

But just sit here doing nothing?

Absolutely not!

That set of Bone Domination rune formulas was churning in his mind right now, like a swarm of restless tadpoles.

If he didn't unleash them a few times and turn those theories into practice, he felt like ants were crawling all over his body.

In the silence, his gaze began to wander around the room.

His gaze swept across the table, across the walls, and finally... landed on the two skeleton soldiers in the corner.

"Right! The bones!"

Tylen's eyes lit up sharply, like a starving wolf spotting meat.

"Humans are born with spiritual nature; bones are naturally excellent magical materials. Since there's no paper, I'll just have to pull off something hardcore!"

No sooner said than done.

Tylen leaped up at once, rushed into the inner room, and yanked open the heavy wooden door to the cellar.

A wave of cold, damp air rushed toward him.

By the light of the oil lamp, he could see the cellar piled high with a dense assortment of white bone parts.

Arm bones, pelvic bones, spine bones, skulls...

These were all the scraps he had collected from various corpses over the past six months.

Some were incomplete, some were riddled with holes, and others were severely weathered.

To those lofty, official wizards, these were nothing but worthless trash.

But to a poor apprentice like Tylen, this was precious material!

"Back when I stored all this stuff, I figured I'd find a use for it someday. Didn't think that day would come so soon."

Tylen rummaged around in the cellar for a while, finally digging out a skull that had been split in two from a pile of bones.

The owner of this skull was an unlucky mercenary.

During a gang brawl, someone had cleaved his head open with a blade, splitting his cranium clean in two.

Tylen still remembered the scene when he went to collect the corpse: red and white matter splattered everywhere, the stench of blood and gore nearly making him vomit up his last meal.

Back then, while fighting back nausea, he also had to stay alert for other blood-crazed mercenaries who might come back to finish the job. Heart pounding with fear, he dragged the corpse onto the cart, then drove off like a thief, racing away.

"You're the one."

Tylen picked up that half-skull and returned to the table.

Materials in hand, next came the tools.

He didn't have one of those specialized rune-engraving knives that cost several hundred Purple Gold Coins.

After a moment of silence, his gaze fell on a boning knife still stained with a bit of blood.

"Good enough."

Tylen picked up the boning knife and made a couple of practice motions over the skull.

But reality was harsh.

The skull's hardness far exceeded his imagination, and with its smooth curve, the boning knife couldn't penetrate it at all.

When he pressed too hard, the knife slipped, the tip grazing across his palm, nearly giving himself a bloodletting treatment.

"Hiss!"

Tylen sucked in a sharp breath, staring at the stubborn skull in frustration.

"I remember seeing other apprentices carve bones before. They had special knives made of white diamond. So sharp, cutting through bone like tofu."

Thinking of that gleaming white diamond carving knife, Tylen's eyes were full of envy.

"But that thing... even the cheapest grade costs seven hundred Purple Gold Coins!"

"Money again!!"

Tylen sighed, feeling like he was being driven mad by that single word "money."

Still, the poor have their own ways.

Since the knife wasn't sharp enough, he'd just give it a BUFF!

A flash of inspiration struck Tylen's mind as he mobilized the last shred of mental energy left in his body.

"Magic Thorn Art!"

Hum!

An extremely faint humming sound rang out.

In an instant, a layer of high-frequency vibrating magical ripples covered the blade of the boning knife.

Tylen picked up the knife again and gently sliced it across the skull.

Shiiick!

Like a hot knife through butter.

The boning knife sank into the hard skull without any resistance, leaving a deep, carved mark.

"It worked!"

Tylen was so excited he nearly jumped up: "Damn, I'm a goddamn genius!"

But then, the next second—

Crack!

Because he was too excited, his hand trembled, and he lost control of his strength.

That half-skull was directly pierced through with a large hole, cracks spreading instantly.

"..."

The smile on Tylen's face froze.

"Calm down! Calm down!"

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to steady.

"One Magic Thorn Art only lasts five minutes. Time is tight—can't waste it!"

But even as he said to stay calm, his hands completely refused to obey.

Bone, after all, isn't paper. Its internal structure is extremely complex.

Some parts are loose and porous, others dense and hard, with all kinds of bone fibers crisscrossing in every direction.

Carving intricate runes on this was like embroidering on reinforced concrete.

One second it was smooth as silk, the next the knife tip hit a hard bone knot.

Tylen instinctively pushed harder.

Crack!

Too much force—the bone surface split directly.

He switched to another spot.

Too little force—couldn't cut in, the rune lines came out broken and uneven.

Where the density was uneven, the knife tip slipped, carving a straight horizontal line right at a corner, completely destroying the entire rune structure.

Five minutes later.

The effect of Magic Thorn Art faded.

Tylen sat slumped in his chair, panting, eyes bloodshot, veins bulging on his forehead.

Under the thirtyfold time perception of the Slacker Saint Body, those five minutes felt like two and a half hours of torture!

And the result?

Zero.

He hadn't even drawn a single complete rune framework!

"Fuck!!!"

Tylen finally broke down.

He grabbed the skull, already riddled with holes from his carving, and hurled it viciously at the corner of the wall.

Smack!

The skull hit the wall and shattered into pieces.

"If I had rune paper! Even the cheapest pulp paper! I'd have finished the basic practice by now!"

"Why am I stuck here wrestling with this damn bone?!"

"This is a waste of my life! Slowing down my rise!"

Tylen's eyes were bloodshot, fixed on the neat stack of high-grade rune paper on the table.

Greed surged in his heart like wild grass.

"Using a few sheets wouldn't hurt..."

A voice whispered temptingly in his mind:

"Just say they got damaged during production—normal wear and tear... Anyway, those brutes from the Fine Wine Gang wouldn't know the difference."

"Even... I've already won my mentor's favor, got a formal wizard as my backing. What do I have to fear from the Fine Wine Gang?"

"I could even use this identity to hold back part of the shipment, sell it off for some extra cash..."

Tylen's hand trembled as it reached for the stack of rune paper.

The moment his fingertips were about to touch that smooth surface—

Splash!

The sound of cold water hitting his face.

Tylen plunged his head straight into the water trough beside him.

The icy well water instantly flooded his mouth and nose, jolting him awake.

He held his breath underwater for a full minute, until a burning sting filled his lungs, then jerked his head up.

"Huff! Huff!"

Water droplets dripped down his cheeks, carrying away that wild greed.

"No. Absolutely not."

Tylen looked at his disheveled reflection in the mirror, his gaze turning clear and cold once more.

"A gentleman is cautious when alone."

"To earn others' true trust and respect, one must never break promises or overstep boundaries."

"Moreover, I'm facing a group of gangsters who stop at nothing."

"Open strife is inferior; covert strife is superior. Do not be arrogant in success, nor discouraged in failure."

Tylen closed his eyes, silently reciting the maxims from the Classic of Power he had memorized in his past life.

"Remember! Never let yourself appear too dominant, and never easily expose your desires or impatience."

"I have thirty times the time efficiency. I have a much greater margin for error than others."

"I must not act rashly. I cannot let my mentor or others think I'm spoiled by favor, a greedy and insatiable petty man."

"Failure doesn't matter. That only took five minutes."

"If I can master drawing runes on such difficult bones... won't I be even more at ease on paper later?"

Years of struggling at the bottom had taught him to quickly regain his composure.

Tylen wiped the water stains from his face, bent down, and silently walked to the corner.

He picked up the pieces of the skull he had smashed, one by one, and threw them into the trash.

Then, he took a new bone from the cellar.

This time, his eyes were as calm as still water.

No anger, no impatience—only an almost obsessive focus.

"It's fine if I can't use the Magic Thorn Art. Let me first find the feel."

This was Tylen.

An extremely rational, extremely self-disciplined grindsetter.

Two hours later.

Feeling dizzy and lightheaded, Tylen had to stop his work.

Though he still hadn't successfully drawn a complete rune, he could feel his touch gradually building.

He sat cross-legged on the bed, but did not use the Meditation Essence he had earned.

Because one bottle lasted two hours, and he had already meditated once at noon. Using it now would waste an hour of its duration.

He began his second deep meditation.

As his breathing gradually steadied, the surrounding free energy particles began to flow joyfully into his body.

An hour later.

Tylen opened his eyes, a glint of sharpness flashing within.

His mental strength had smoothly risen from 3.5 to 3.6.

After fully recovering, he didn't rest. Instead, he took out the precious [Wizard Experience Book] and four [Apprentice Experience Books].

"Let's begin. Spell Model deduction."

Within his consciousness, countless streams of data began to surge wildly.

Another two hours passed.

When Tylen opened his eyes again, the data on his status panel had already updated.

Spell Model Experience: 7666/100,000

Looking at this auspicious number, Tylen's heart surged with excitement.

"Almost there."

"I'm not far from becoming a true first-level apprentice."