Jia Xiu Discovers a Big Fish

Have you ever seen the sun at four in the morning in Creekwood Town?

Jia Xiu could responsibly say that he had not.

Creekwood Town did not get any sunlight at four in the morning.

There was not even a complete world map in town. Perhaps this era had yet to complete its age of geographical discovery.

In any case, only a map of the Iris Kingdom hung outside the lord's manor, and it was impossible to tell where it stood in this world.

But based on his experience living here these past few years, the climate was warm and humid, he had never seen snow, and the times of sunrise and sunset did not vary much throughout the year.

The latitude should be fairly low.

Another useless bit of knowledge acquired.

Unfortunately, this kind of trivial knowledge did not count as spell research, so he could not mooch some experience off the Sect Master.

After putting in effort during this period, he had successfully completed several more research projects.

His experience had reached 1100/2700.

Most of them were spell modifications without much practical use.

Some had even been research failures. Take Darkvision, for example. The Darkvision he currently knew could indeed let people see clearly in darkness, but it also made them unable to see when there was light.

The time he had used it on himself, everything he looked at was a flashing sheet of white for an entire day.

He could only lock himself in the laboratory, leave every Fluorescent Crystal unlit, and play Vampire for a day.

Still, some of the research had decent prospects.

He had developed a brand-new version of the Healing Spell, inspired by long toenails.

Toenails were protein, and hair was protein too. If toenails could grow, why could hair not grow?

Thus, Basic Hair-Growth Healing was born.

Its hair-growth effect was far inferior to specialized spells, but it consumed less than one percent of the mana required by those spells, making it affordable even for commoners.

Jia Xiu had high hopes for this spell. Even if it did not make him financially free, it should at least earn him a hefty sum.

Unfortunately, he had never seen anyone bald in Creekwood Town. Hair-growth spells did not have much of a market here.

But he was not worried. According to his plans, he was going to test into Saint Dero Spellcaster Academy.

Saint Dero was located in Larven, the City of Ten Thousand Laws—the gathering place of the finest spellcasters and the site of the Association headquarters. This single city contained forty-two spellcasting colleges, with Mage Towers too numerous to count.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of apprentices from all over the world arrived there, pursuing the truth of spellcasting and taking entrance exams for various academies. Fewer than one in ten passed.

A saying circulated through the Iris Kingdom: "In Larven, even the street vendors are more skilled in spellcasting than the mages in ordinary adventuring parties."

In other words, such a huge city was full of people doing research and studying magic.

Why worry about finding people who lost their hair?

Then again, if he wanted to go to Larven, he first had to make sure he could get into Saint Dero.

Mentor Margaret had already sent him plenty of exam-preparation materials.

They included detailed introductions to the Saint Dero examinations. The tests consisted of many rounds—written exams, practical tests, team tests, and more—and were extremely strict.

The specific rules for the later rounds were adjusted every year and kept strictly confidential. Even Margaret could not reveal them.

So the materials she sent were mainly for the written exams.

Five-Year Past Papers for Saint Dero Examination, Ten-Year Simulation for Saint Dero Examination, One Thousand Essential Exam Points for Spellcasting...

Things of that sort.

Clearly, where there was demand, there was a market. Larven's supplementary education industry was also highly developed.

"Ah—"

Jia Xiu stretched in the laboratory.

His daily routine now was sleeping at twelve and getting up at four. With the help of "Energetic," it was still fairly healthy.

He spent almost all of his remaining time studying and researching.

Perhaps the positive feedback from gaining experience was deeply satisfying, or perhaps he simply liked learning.

These days, aside from helping Aunt Susan with her accounts now and then, he had thrown himself wholeheartedly into spellcasting. Not only did he feel no fatigue, he actually felt excited.

Every bit of new knowledge he mastered brought him considerable joy and a sense of achievement.

Setting aside his draft on Mage Armor, Jia Xiu scratched his head and looked at the calendar.

Written on it in red ink were the words, "100 days until the exam."

For the days ahead, he needed to focus on exam preparation.

As someone who had worked his way from a small town all the way to a doctorate, Jia Xiu was extremely confident in his test-taking abilities.

He had never failed an exam in his life.

It was time to show this other world what a true king of exam cramming could do.

But before entering full exam-prep mode, he planned to indulge himself a little.

He was going out for a good meal.

Eating bread, smoked sausage, and lettuce every day was not too bad nutritionally. It was even considered decent food in Creekwood Town, but after enough of it, it became downright nauseating.

Jia Xiu planned to visit a barbecue restaurant on the western side of town.

It was a very distinctive place. Only the side dishes and staples on the menu were fixed; as for what meat was grilled for the main course, that depended entirely on how the town's hunters had performed the day before. Whatever they caught was what got grilled.

What was that term again?

Omakase?

Eating good food always put him in a fine mood. Jia Xiu hummed a tune as he walked toward the barbecue restaurant.

Dawn had only just begun to break, and there was almost no one on the road.

Normally, it was not a time when restaurants were open.

But that barbecue restaurant was an exception. This was exactly when the hunters had just brought back their prey.

Jia Xiu did not know much about meat grades. In his simple understanding, meat tasted best when it was fresh.

Unless you chased after a living animal and bit into it, there was no fresher time to visit a barbecue restaurant than this.

Yet at that moment, Jia Xiu suddenly felt as though someone was watching him.

Because he did not particularly enjoy socializing, he had always been sensitive to other people's gazes.

Taking advantage of turning a corner, Jia Xiu glanced behind him from the corner of his eye.

Sure enough, two people—one tall, one short—were following him, carrying rope and sacks in their hands.

They were acting so suspiciously that they might as well have written "We're bad guys" directly on their faces.

After confirming that he was being followed, Jia Xiu quickly began to think.

Why had he been targeted?

Did someone have their eye on his money? That should not be it. The Association's reward was small, while the larger sum had come from Mentor Margaret—but she had given it to him privately, and it had never been made public.

He also got along well with everyone in town. After thinking it over, the only person who might have it out for him was probably Hannas.

He had underestimated that young nobleman.

Was a case of paronychia really enough to make him hire people to kidnap someone?

How to deal with Hannas could wait. First, he had to handle these two followers.

[Using talent "Insight"]

This talent had unlocked after his Perception attribute reached 5. It could greatly enhance his powers of observation, allowing him to notice things he normally would not.

[Two cultists. Their bodies reeked of the God of Deceit and Curses. They carried money in their pockets—the down payment for this job.]

Jia Xiu was speechless. Hannas was the lord's son. Hiring people to carry out a kidnapping was embarrassing enough, but hiring cultists was practically throwing mud all over his father's name.

[Malnourished, ill, physically weak, and with extremely low mana levels. Unless they successfully launch a surprise attack, there is no reason they could complete the kidnapping.]

Now Jia Xiu was relieved.

So they would shatter the moment they faced him head-on.

He was just about to cast Basic Healing Spell and give them a surprise.

Then a sudden notification made Jia Xiu force back the green light that had already appeared.

[Passive skill "Detection Spell" activated. Clue to a target of high research value discovered. May be related to the Cult of Deceit and Curses.]