Marketplace

"Not bad. If you've mastered offensive spells, you'll be a little safer in the Spirit Realm. But you still can't let your guard down," Guan Borong said.

Huo Ling typed, "All right, Senior. I'll make some preparations and find a chance to visit the Spirit Realm again."

"No rush. If you really intend to go to the Spirit Realm, there's an opportunity to earn some extra money. Want to take part?" Guan Borong said.

"Senior, please tell me more."

"Both the school and the government have a long-term task: take Awakening Orbs into the Spirit Realm, absorb mana there, and bring them back."

"Every twelve Awakening Orbs can be exchanged for one magic stone. What do you think? Interested?" Guan Borong asked.

"I am, but why do the school and the government need so many Awakening Orbs?" Huo Ling asked curiously.

"That's where you're mistaken. Awakening Orb is what you students call it. Its official name is Mana Extraction Compressor."

"Do you know how non-natural magic stones are made? The mana gathered by these Awakening Orbs is compressed into crystalline magic stones."

"No one would ever complain about having too few magic stones, so it's no surprise that this kind of task is always available. After all, people like us all possess spatial beacons. If the other side is safe, we can send quite a few Awakening Orbs over to gather spiritual energy."

"Of course, the school's purchase price is higher than the government's. Ten Awakening Orbs can be exchanged for one magic stone."

Guan Borong rattled off a long string of messages, patiently explaining everything to Huo Ling.

"Then why not do this in those Spirit Realm bases? Doesn't Great Xia already have more than a dozen Spirit Realm bases?" Huo Ling asked in confusion.

"How do you know they aren't?" Guan Borong replied.

"And there are requirements for placing Awakening Orbs. Only one can be placed within a radius of several dozen meters. Put down too many, and their mana absorption speed will slow."

"Blue Star has an enormous demand for magic stones. Cultivation, enchanted equipment, all kinds of enchanted machinery—they all need magic stones. As long as you have them, you won't have trouble selling them."

So that was how it was. This was indeed a good way to make money.

"But there's one more thing to keep in mind. If you set up Awakening Orbs, make sure to hide them well. They look like crystal balls, after all, and some Spirit Realm creatures might treat them as treasures and steal them," Guan Borong added.

Huo Ling thought of that corpse city in the Spirit Realm where he had teleported. Wasn't that the perfect place?

The most dangerous things in that city were the walking corpses. But walking corpses had no intelligence; they would never do something like stealing.

"Senior, where can I get empty Awakening Orbs?" Huo Ling asked.

"That's easy. I'll send you an app. Download it onto your phone, and I'll have a teacher give you an invitation code so you can register for Southern Heaven University's app first. After that, you can accept Awakening Orb tasks through it."

As he spoke, Guan Borong sent over a link.

After opening it, Huo Ling quickly completed the process from downloading to registration.

"Thank you, Senior!"

"Mm. Ask me if you have any questions."

Huo Ling opened Southern Heaven University's app. After entering it, he found that it had quite a lot of functions.

There was an introduction to the school, a forum, and study materials for every subject.

Besides those, there was also a task section and an online marketplace.

Huo Ling opened the marketplace first for a look. The products were a dazzling assortment—magic scrolls, enchanted equipment,

all kinds of magical materials, and even breathing techniques and meditation techniques.

But the prices made Huo Ling shrink back. The unit prices were all calculated in magic stones, and some even required additional credits.

From the look of it, credits might be far more important than he had imagined.

He opened one of the product listings. It was a first-tier spell, Language Comprehension. This Black Iron-grade spell was one of the better-selling spells.

After all, Spirit Realm creatures spoke a bewildering variety of languages. Beyond the mainstream common tongue, there were Dragon, Elven, Demon, and Celestial languages.

Besides those widely spread languages, there were Goblin, Orc, Merman, Dwarven, Giant, and the languages of countless miscellaneous minor races.

Just like Great Xia, where every province and city even had its own dialect, the languages of these Spirit Realm races also had all sorts of variant dialects.

Even someone with exceptional talent for languages would have a headache facing the vast sea of Spirit Realm languages. There was no finishing them. Absolutely no finishing them.

Thus, the mages of the Spirit Realm invented this spell. During the duration of Language Comprehension, one could understand the speech of any creature—except Magic Beasts.

Moreover, while Language Comprehension was active, the speed of learning these Spirit Realm languages increased dozens of times. As long as one used this spell often, they could quickly learn some of the mainstream languages.

And the benefit of spell scrolls was that they were not limited to mages; professionals of any class could use them.

Aside from some powerful scrolls or targeted spell scrolls that required relatively strong mental power,

most low-tier spell scrolls could be used even by apprentice-rank professionals.

Spell scrolls were truly indispensable for murder and arson, home and travel alike.

He glanced at the marketplace price for Language Comprehension: 10 magic stones!

Good heavens, was this thing really that expensive!?

He looked at the other spell scrolls. A first-tier Fireball scroll cost 3 magic stones.

A first-tier Otherworld Summoning cost 5 magic stones.

A first-tier Heal Light Wounds cost 8 magic stones.

Spell scrolls really were a lucrative business!

Seeing this, Huo Ling could not help clicking his tongue in amazement. The mages who made these spells really did make a fortune.

But thinking about it, that made sense. Mages had always been the wealthiest of all professionals; there was no doubt about it.

Unlike combat professionals, who had few ways to make money beyond selling their bodies for combat-related work,

spellcasters like mages were different.

Mages could make spell scrolls and craft enchanted weapons and equipment.

They could also brew magical potions, and even in battle, they were more powerful than combat professionals.

If they wanted nothing to do with any of that, they could even farm and grow magical materials. Magical materials tended by a mage's spells could grow faster and better.

All in all, mages had many ways to make money, but correspondingly, they also had plenty of places to spend it.

After all, learning these crafts—whether making scrolls, enchanting equipment, or even brewing potions—required extensive experimentation in the early stages.

Those were all places where huge sums of money disappeared.