Chapter 310: Chapter 0308: Merlese’s Magic Apprentice (First Update)
Liszt’s sources for magic books had three channels. One was to purchase from the bookstore in Coral City every time the Fresh Flower Caravan came; another was to obtain magic books for internal exchange from Elkerson; and the last was to commission the caravan from Tulip Castle to buy books from abroad.

The reward for the task was very likely to be within one of these three channels.

Thinking this way, he felt somewhat indignant, as even without this task, the magic books would still end up in his hands. It felt like taking off one’s pants to fart, an unnecessary act.

Nonetheless, a task that needed to be done had to be done.

…

Coral City, a certain small town nearby.

At the decrepit hut in the forest, Elkerson True enveloped himself in a cloak, standing at the doorway of the hut. With a creak, the door opened, and an aged woman with dark green hair opened the door.

She, too, was wearing a magic cloak, but it was filthy and clearly hadn’t been washed for a long time.

“You’ve come, Elkerson.”

“Yes, Merlese Your Excellency,” Elkerson said, repressing a frown and attempting to hold his breath; the smell inside the hut was too odd, “Why isn’t it your magic apprentice opening the door instead, requiring us to bother you to do so?”

“Clumsy and useless waste, he has already been turned into a pile of fertilizer for planting flowers,” said Merlese Truth indifferently while recounting the private murder.

Elkerson tugged at the corner of his mouth, wanting to laugh but unable to do so.

He could only change the subject, “Your friend, has he brought you new magic books?”

Merlese let out a cold smile, “Of course, he did. What about you, Elkerson, have you prepared the gold coins you swindled from Lord Little White?”

“I haven’t deceived Baron Liszt, it was just a normal business transaction.”

“Heh, I’ve noticed you frequent the Songbird Tavern more than you have the entire last year,” Merlese licked her dry, cracked lips, pondering something, her gaze flickering, “Young people should exercise restraint, not indulge themselves upon earning money; the path to Truth requires solitary exploration.”

“Thank you for your advice, Your Excellency Merlese. If there’s nothing else, I would like to receive the magic books first. I have some other matters to attend to.”

“Come with me.”

Upon entering the hut, Merlese pointed to a wooden chest: “Here are the new batch of magic books, no duplicates, a total of fifty-one, I’ll charge you three Gold Coins.”

“Last time, a chest of magic books only cost two Gold Coins.”

“Prices have gone up,” Merlese smirked sinisterly, “Since you can swindle more money from Lord Little White, why care so much about a small sum of one or two Gold Coins?”

“Your Excellency Merlese, please don’t spread baseless rumors, my business dealings with Baron Liszt have always been open and above board, with no underhand short-changing.”

“Heh, take your lies to deceive the Specters, three Gold Coins, not one less.”

“You’re practicing extortion, fifty-one magic books for three Gold Coins, I can hardly bear such a price.”

Despite the haggling, Elkerson ultimately paid three Gold Coins with great reluctance in the end.

He appeared deeply aggrieved as he gestured to a magic apprentice who had accompanied him to carry the chest away, and with a quick “farewell,” left the malodorous forest hut.

On the way back.

The magic apprentice curiously asked, “Teacher, there was a strange smell in Your Excellency Merlese’s hut … she looked very sloppy.”

“Not every magician is as cultured as I am, nor is every magic apprentice as fortunate as you to have a teacher who loves peace… Your Excellency Merlese’s magic apprentices tend to change every month; there’s always some naive youngster who thinks magic is some kind of noble existence.”

“Ah, Your Excellency Merlese is that harsh with her magic apprentices, needing to get rid of one every month?”

“Get rid of?” Elkerson laughed as if he had heard a joke, “Ha ha, Hans, you should learn to speak less, or it will betray a serious lack of knowledge.”

However, he did not continue to explain.

He left behind a puzzled youth, struggling to carry the box, following closely behind him.

Back in his residence, Elkerson dismissed Hans to meditate, then began to organize the books in the box. Merlese had sold him the books for three gold coins, which was indeed steep, but he could re-categorize the books, taking out ones with higher value separately.

“Quinn’s Minotaur Conjecture? Hmm, this oddity that Merlese considers useless should fetch a nice price. Baron Liszt likes this kind of… uninhibited imagination,” he selected the book and set it aside.

He then picked out a few more, such as “Kamchatka’s Giant Footprints: An On-Site Verification”, “Rondo Truth’s Travels in the Brass Grand Duchy”, “Analysis of the Principle of Magic Turning Frogs into Sheep”, and so on.

Finally, he came across a”Secrets of Sea Serpent Aquatic Monsters” and after closely reading a few pages, he said, “This probably won’t fetch a good price, it’s just some dry notes on the habits of aquatic monsters. Baron Liszt wouldn’t like this sort of dull notes.” So he threw the book back into the box.

The books in the box were sold separately, with no bargaining.

Looking at the large stack of organized books, he laughed, “These should sell for five, maybe six gold coins… But next time I need to contact a new magician to buy books. Merlese, that old witch, is just too greedy… It’s a pity that the magic casting schemes I want are so hard to come by.”

Once you get the taste for it, selling magic, something despised by the magical world, you find it hard to stop.

Especially since the recent payment for the Fresh Flower Brew, where Baron Liszt directly paid twenty gold coins to purchase the Rock Grenade spell schema.

Netting twenty gold coins in one go, Elkerson quickly fell in love with the sensation.

“Next, I need to expand my network, and make contact with magicians from the outer islands.”

…

Liszt was not concerned with Elkerson’s business methods.

He of course knew that whether it was buying magic books or refining magic potions, Elkerson was bound to make a handsome profit, but that’s the nature of a technological monopoly.

Paying any magician for work required sufficient technical fees.

Unless he personally trained a magician—perhaps the future Sea Sprite Ake could help refine magic potions, but she was not yet up to the task.

For now, he could only pay with money.

The income from the second batch of Fresh Flower Brew was swiftly in hand, a full two hundred gold coins.

The nobles of Coral Island quickly adopted a taste for Fresh Flower Brew—not that they had a choice, as the sale of Juniper Wine had been banned on the island.

With ample gold coins, he didn’t care about the bit of money given to Elkerson.

He felt wonderful every day.

The iron wood thorn products of the carpentry workshop were also gradually making headway in the market. The iron wood grade quality, just slightly more expensive than ordinary wood products, was quickly favored by the lesser nobles, and orders flowed in continuously.

Clothes racks, rocking chairs, drawer cabinets—these three types of modern furniture were also quite popular, earning a good number of orders.

All the carpenters in the small town were so busy they had to have their meals delivered, working from dawn till dusk making various wooden items, which were then sold throughout Coral Island via the caravan.

“Fresh Flower Town is now thriving, Charles, you should be able to feel it,” said Zambrotta, serving as the diplomat of Fresh Flower Town while entertaining a noble.

An Elite Earth Knight with a Thunder Attribute.

Charles Trap, an Honored Knight with a title.

He was an outsider and a wandering stranger who didn’t fit in with the nobles of Coral Island, powerful, yet unable to find a place of his own.