Wealthy and generous

"Another letter asking questions, but isn't this mage from the Yther Wizard Tower a little too polite? Paying me just to answer questions?"

He took an eager look. Well, well-it used a paid consultation email template.

Simply opening an email like this earned him 10 silver coins, and replying earned him another 90.

A total of 100 silver coins, earned just like that.

In the ordinary world outside the Mage Tower, an adult manual laborer earned around one silver coin a day, or just two or three in more developed regions.

Skilled artisans and professionals with specialized expertise could earn as much as 10 silver coins a day, equivalent to one gold coin.

That already placed them among the relatively affluent urban population, but compared with mages who wielded arcana, it was still nothing worth mentioning.

As for the Yther Wizard Tower, Roland knew a little about it. It had once been a privately owned Mage Tower, with a glorious history when it was first established many years ago.

After its founder, Archmage Yther, passed away, the Yther runes he had invented gradually lost their mainstream influence because his successors lacked the ability to maintain them. The Mage Tower then became state-owned, continually adding new subjects until it developed into a publicly administered, comprehensive Mage Tower.

Unlike the Orvisto Wizard Tower, which was currently in its prime, it had already undergone enormous expansion. Its authority extended over territory encompassing almost an entire small world. More than ten Grand Mages resided in the tower alone, sharing teaching and research duties with the other high-ranking mages.

Although it had started out and made its name with the Runes School, its other disciplines had all developed to a first-rate standard as well. Passing its entrance examinations was no easy feat either.

The Public Mage Tower recruited students from a much broader area and had far more Apprentice Mages than privately owned Mage Towers, so it operated on an academic credit system.

As for the questions Lunifis had included in her letter, Roland already had a good idea of what they would be without even reading them.

Ideographic writing was a rather unusual phenomenon even in Blue Star's cultural history, and Chinese characters stood in a class of their own.

Their capacity to carry and convey information was immensely powerful.

There had once been a period when Chinese characters were considered a symbol of backwardness. Many so-called masters had even advocated abolishing them, and in the internet age, encoding them had posed a particularly difficult problem.

Subsequent facts had proved those views to be fallacies and prejudice.

Not only had they survived the information age, they had flourished with unprecedented vitality.

Likewise, in the age of artificial intelligence, with its emphasis on natural language processing, these square characters would never fall behind or die out!

The Arcane Empire of Atrelin was in the magic network age. Its information networks and artificial intelligence were highly developed, and even the power of magic could be harnessed through the network.

This had led many people to recognize the potential of combining them with magic power.

In the few short days since news spread that his manuscript had been accepted, Roland's inbox had received no fewer than a hundred letters from people hoping to exchange ideas, discuss the subject, and ask all sorts of questions. Unfortunately, most of them wanted something for nothing, asking about this and that and wasting his time.

He was already growing irritated and wondering whether he should ask the Tower Spirit to add some blocking rules. He had never expected this Lunifis from the Yther Wizard Tower to be different. She actually paid!

"Exchanging ideas with colleagues will only get in the way of my research... but a rich lady is another matter!"

Roland still lacked a steady source of substantial income, so naturally, the more of these earnings he could get, the better. Inspired, he dashed off a reply of over a thousand characters.

Done. Sent! (Silver coins +100)

"Right, I should get in touch with Atali and Cynthia too."

They were all far apart now, and long-distance communication was expensive and inconvenient. Chatting online was hardly practical.

Still, given Atrelin's level of magic, they could keep in touch by thinking through what they wanted to say and writing formal letters.

Unless, of course, they ventured beyond human settlements to travel or go adventuring.

Roland carefully considered his words before beginning his letter, and told Atali that she need not hurry to reply.

Knight training was grueling. Atali would still be an Apprentice Knight for the next few years, still at the stage of life when she had to work hard to get ahead.

Cynthia's letter was much simpler. He merely asked how she was doing and shared a few things he had seen and heard in the Mage Tower.

But out of modesty and a desire to keep a low profile, he made no particular mention of having published a paper in Arcana.

He felt a little embarrassed about singing his own praises.

Once he had sent the letters, the Tower Spirit notified him again. "You have a new email. Please check your inbox."

"Who's it from?"

Roland opened it and found that it was from Lunifis again.

Did she happen to be online right now?

Roland had no interest in getting too deeply involved in discussions with a stranger. There were some things he needed to keep to himself.

Still, there was no harm in discussing things he had already published.

And vague ideas that even he had yet to make sense of were no great concern either.

An exchange of ideas might even let him pick up some inspiration for free.

So, after a moment's thought, he selected a few things he could discuss and replied. (Silver coins +100)

With a ding, a third email arrived.

This time, it was no longer an arcane question concerning the Runes School, but casual conversation, much like an everyday greeting.

Yet the email template had not changed. It was still a paid consultation.

Just having him open it and take a look cost her 10 silver coins.

"She can do that? She really doesn't treat money like money!"

Roland briefly answered her question, then kindly asked whether she had made a mistake. (Silver coins +100)

Her reply arrived shortly afterward, still using the same paid template.

"Dear Mr. Roland, there's no mistake. This email template receives a relatively high processing priority.

Compared with urgent messages that cost 100 gold coins each, it's remarkably good value."

At this, Roland could not help marveling. "A rich lady really is a rich lady. Is she using this as instant messaging?"

After all, the letters he had just sent to Atali and Cynthia had used ordinary templates, the kind that took ten days to half a month to process an exchange.

In truth, Roland did not have that much free time to chat with this Lunifis, whom he did not know.

He loved studying and wished he could devote all twenty-four hours of every day to endless learning.

But what could he do when the jingle of silver coins sounded so sweet?

Worth it!

Sighing inwardly, Roland reached out and tapped the light screen created by Projection, adding a note to her username.

Wealthy and generous...

Only then did he follow her lead and begin exchanging occasional emails with her.

(Silver coins +100)

(Silver coins +100)

(Silver coins +100)

(Silver coins +100)

(Silver coins +100)

Just then, the Tower Spirit spoke. "Mr. Roland, His Excellency Archmage Ovesto has returned to the tower and wishes to see you.

Please proceed to the ninth floor of this tower at precisely ten in the morning..."