When they got back to their apartment, Leo and Marcus both immediately started embarking on what they thought was the best course of action for the next month.
Marcus left to go to the Mercenary Guild to start accepting more missions. He was starting to earn the money he would need to pay Leo back. He now had to pay Leo 900,000 Starcoins. This wasn’t even considering what would happen if he decided to add interest to that.
While he was going to concentrate on finishing missions, he knew he would also have to increase his strength. There was absolutely no way that he would be able to make enough money to pay Leo back as a 1st Circle Aura Knight.
As a Silver Rank Mercenary, he could make 5-6000 Starcoins a day if he finished a single mission a day. That came to 150,000 Starcoins a month. If he did that every day though, he would need 6 months to finish paying that off.
But if he broke through once or twice, his strength would take a big leap and he would be able to earn twice or thrice what he normally earned.
As a 2nd Circle Aura Knight, he would be able to take two or three missions a day and then bring that frequency down when they reached the academy.
While Marcus was worrying about his financial problems, Leo left to go to the Thousand Treasure Tower to spend enough money that it would pay for their tuition for all three years.
Leo was incredibly interested in the New Student Ranking. He wanted to become stronger so that he wouldn’t have to worry about being knocked off those rankings.
What he learned through the fights he had been in at the academy was that he wasn’t invincible when he was only fighting with aura. He had been very nonchalant in all of his fights because he knew that they couldn’t really pose a threat to him when he was using his magic.
There wasn’t any harm in learning how to use an aura technique. If he ever ran out of magic, he could switch to aura if it was at a similar level of strength.
He got to the tower and went in to buy what he needed. He quickly went to the Aura Gathering Pills. He took a look at the price and decided to buy 10 pills to properly reach the Peak-Stage of the 1st Circle.
However, while he was buying the pills, he saw something that caught his eye.
[Luminary Essence Brew]
[Aids an Aura Knight to break through to the next level. It gives Apprentice Aura Knights an 80% boost to their success rate and 1st Circle Aura Knights a 30% boost to their success rate.]
[8.3 Million Starcoins]
It was a glass bottle with purple liquid inside it. He was very intrigued by it and was very tempted to buy it. He thought about it.
He would need two days to break through to the Peak Stage. After that, he would only need a day to consolidate that since it wasn’t a major change in his state. So he could try and breakthrough at that point.
The only problem with this though, was that the price of the bottle was 8.3 million Starcoins. If he took that much money to break through to the 2nd Circle, then how much money would he need to get to the 3rd Circle or 4th Circle?
He decided to think about the future costs in the future. He went to the counter to buy his pills and also bought the Luminary Essence Brew. After all, who would want to waste time to come back?
After taking his items, he put them in his dimensional ring and left to go to his apartment.
When he got back, he found Marcus there. Marcus was training seriously, so he didn’t disturb him. At this point, it was completely dark outside, so Leo decided to train like Marcus.
He took out an Aura Gathering Pill and plopped it into his mouth. He felt the increase in his aura and quickly started circulating it around his body. It had been a while since he had last done it, so he did it slowly.
After a while, he started to get the hang of it. After the effect of the Aura Gathering Pill started to dissipate, he took another one. This time, he was able to more efficiently circulate his aura.
Time passed quickly. When he opened his eyes, it was already the afternoon. Marcus was already gone, so Leo guessed he went to go to the forest. He got up and stretched.
In his short training session, he had finished a total of 3 Aura Gathering Pills. He was planning on taking a small break before going ahead with the rest of his pills.
His vision of a break was training in magic instead of aura. He trained in his magic until Marcus came back.
Marcus came back after sunset. He looked incredibly weary which was very unusual. He wouldn’t be this exhausted after he finished his missions. Leo normally left Marcus to his own, respecting his privacy. But he decided to inquire about what happened.
“What happened? You look very tired,” Leo asked him.
Marcus plopped himself onto the bed.
“What do I do if I somehow offended this Mercenary Group?” He asked Leo.
Leo frowned.
“What do you mean?” He asked.
Marcus sighed. “I was just finishing my missions like normal when someone approached me. Apparently, he saw how I was finishing my missions and invited me to join his Mercenary Group. The problem is, I didn’t want to.”
Leo was curious.”Why?”
Marcus explained. “Well, this group was very suspicious from the start. The man kept pestering me, so I asked him about the details. Apparently, I have to hand them 40% of what I make. On top of that, I have to give them a monthly fee. I said no immediately, but he said I didn’t have a choice but to join them.”
He kept ranting. “I didn’t mind them and kept ignoring the man. I realized what they meant when I entered the forest. When I tried to hunt any Magical Beasts, they started interfering with my hunts. They would swoop in and kill the Magical Beast that I was battling and would take away my loot since they killed it. I ended up finishing zero missions today. I can’t sustain this if the same happens every day.”
Leo consoled him. “It won’t happen tomorrow. The forest is huge. The only reason they could follow you was that they saw you at the Mercenary Guild. You go to the forest directly from the apartment tomorrow and tell me if the same thing happens. If it persists, then I’ll handle it.”
Marcus nodded. “What are you going to do?” He asked.
Leo shook his head. “You don’t need to worry about it.”