It was not until midnight that Karin finally returned to his little bed.
He had just gone through three full meditation sessions, and now his head felt as though it were about to split open.
"Meditation is never easy at first!" The All-Knowing Eye's voice rang out in Karin's mind. "But once you grow accustomed to the process, you can enjoy the refreshing sensation of your mental energy going from depleted to full."
"I never imagined anyone could find this process refreshing," Karin grumbled weakly. "I'm starting to agree with those elves. Meditation is a crude method human mages came up with to obtain a source of mana..."
"A night's sleep will restore you, host. You simply haven't grown accustomed to the process yet..."
Once he felt a little better, Karin began examining the blue sphere of light in his mind again: his Mana Source! After three meditation sessions, it seemed to have grown slightly.
"Once your Mana Source grows to forty-four times its current size, you'll be able to break through to the first circle!" the All-Knowing Eye explained.
"Forty-four times... that still seems a long way off. What about the elves who don't meditate, then? How do they grow their Mana Sources and break through to the first circle?" Karin asked curiously.
"By consuming mana crystals directly—that is, water from the Sunwell. As it is slowly absorbed, it nourishes the Mana Source!" the All-Knowing Eye replied. "That allows the Mana Source to grow naturally without meditation!"
"I'm starting to feel a little regretful!" Karin chuckled. "Then is a Mana Source grown through meditation stronger than one grown by absorbing mana from external sources?"
"Of course! Something obtained through outside help will certainly never be as strong as something gained entirely through your own efforts!" the All-Knowing Eye said without hesitation. "Just as a Pyroblast cast directly by a fifth-circle mage is certainly far more powerful than a Pyroblast cast by a Third Ring mage using a scroll!"
"All right... at least now I feel my hard work was worth it!" As Karin spoke, exhaustion dragged him helplessly into sleep.
Early the next morning, Karin climbed out of bed.
The discomfort in his head seemed to have vanished completely. Apparently, the All-Knowing Eye had been right: a night's sleep was enough to recover.
Karin took a piece of bread from the fireplace and warmed a cup of milk. As he ate breakfast, he realized there was a very serious question: how had the original Karin Sunfury supported himself?
After all, he was only an ordinary magic apprentice, and there did not seem to be any relatives in his memories!
Such situations were quite common among High Elves. A couple passionately in love would fail to take precautions and conceive a child, but neither wanted to get married. So, after the child was born, they would leave it with the man's family to raise, while both parents went back to enjoying the single life!
And Karin Sunfury seemed to be the product of just such a situation!
A sudden knock came at the cottage door. Karin quickly put down his food and hurried over.
An adult female elf stood outside, wearing heavy makeup and pale red mage robes. She carried a handbag and looked somewhat impatient.
"Are you Karin?" the female elf asked rapidly.
"Yes. May I ask who you are?" Karin said.
"Gressa, the family courier!" As she spoke, the female elf handed him a sheet of parchment. "Hurry up and sign this!"
Karin took the parchment and found it densely covered with names...
"May I ask what this is for?" he asked quietly.
"Handing out allowances..." the female elf, Gressa Sunfury, said impatiently. "Hurry up and sign! I'm busy!"
"A friendly reminder: she is a second-circle Novice Mage. If you come into conflict with her, host, your chance of victory is only 0.03%..." The All-Knowing Eye's voice rang out in Karin's mind.
Karin instantly suppressed the anger that had just stirred in his mind and hastily wrote his name on the parchment.
The female elf all but snatched the parchment from him, then waved a hand lightly over it. A faint glow flashed where Karin had signed... seemingly some magical means of preventing forgery.
Then two small pouches were tossed into Karin's hands. Gressa Sunfury looked back as she walked away and said, "The red pouch is your allowance from the Royal Court, and the gray one is your allowance from the family... both are for this month..."
In the blink of an eye, the female elf was out of sight.
Karin could hear metal clinking inside the two pouches.
He hurried back into the cottage and opened them...
"Wow, she was here to hand out money! No wonder her attitude was so bad!"
A quick count revealed more than eighty silver coins in the red pouch and a hundred in the gray one!
That came to nearly two gold coins... In Tirisfal Glades or Elwynn Forest, an ordinary farming family might earn only two gold coins after a whole year of hard work!
Yet in Quel'Thalas, this was merely a Mage Apprentice's monthly allowance!
Karin fell into thought for a moment.
Perhaps this was simply life in Quel'Thalas!
After all, this was the place where magic flourished most on the entire continent. Even Dalaran could only rival it in the highest levels of magical power; in civilian applications and low- to mid-level magic, it still lagged far behind Quel'Thalas.
Whether magic scrolls, enchanted goods, or alchemical potions... all these things, readily available in Quel'Thalas, could easily fetch astronomical prices anywhere else on the continent!
After all, in Azeroth, magic was the foremost productive force!
And Quel'Thalas undoubtedly stood at the pinnacle of that productivity.
The Royal Court had no shortage of money, and the great families were swimming in wealth! So they did not mind providing even the elves at the bottom of society with the best benefits!
Add to that the High Elves' natural lifespans of several thousand years and the Sunwell's inexhaustible supply of mana... For the elves of Quel'Thalas, life was extremely leisurely, with almost no everyday concerns to trouble them!
Karin stood dazed for a moment, then a self-mocking smile crept onto his lips.
"Host, do you seem to be tempted by these worldly things?" The All-Knowing Eye's voice rang out in Karin's mind.
Karin shook his head firmly, then tossed the two money pouches onto the bed.
"No, I'm just lamenting my bad luck!"
"Even before all this, I had a goal... I want to become a mage. A powerful mage!"
With that, he headed toward the grove where he had meditated the day before.