Seven months passed since Wolf advanced his body to the third stage of Star Body Body Refining art. He was eleven years old now and still suffering from ravenous hunger. On the flip side, his body was growing stronger and heavier.

At the moment he was five times as strong as a grown man and twice as heavy. When the third stage of Star Body finally settled in, Wolf's body would have twenty-four times its original strength and eight times the weight.

Wolf had been keeping himself busy these months. The beggar community he took care of had grown to over two hundred, and he also had Oakwood Freeland to feed and equip. Luckily, Rand was there, busy training the people. Wolf even got news that some wanderers had joined the settlement. All in all, neither the beggars, nor the settlement faced any major issues recently.

As a part of his chores Wolf visited Cornucopia on a regular basis. During one of his meetings with Roger, the shrewd merchant managed to talk Wolf into investing ten thousand gold pieces into his company. While serving fancy tea Roger made a nice little presentation, during which he explained the rate of return of Wolf’s investment, as well as the potential for long-term profit.

The only thing Wolf heard was that this man needed money. With how powerful his soul was, Wolf could easily tell that the merchant was desperate. He could also tell that this wasn’t a scam, but it wasn't as foolproof as Roger tried to make it seem.

Still, Wolf had a good impression of this merchant. He also didn’t have much use for the money he had left. So he gave Roger the last of the expensive Rings of Holding he had and signed a simple contract. According to Roger it would take about five years to earn back the money and then all that was left was to gather profit from his investment.

This move left Wolf with nothing but his father’s platinum coins, which he considered his scholarship. Since he was going to be left penniless, Wolf insisted that Cornucopia had to take care of Oakwood Freeland for the foreseeable future. Naturally, this wouldn’t be done for free, the expenses were to be paid out of Wolf’s future dividends.

Other than running various chores, Wolf also had fun, making this long period of time go by in a flash. He experimented with the knowledge gained from his big brother’s books. Thanks to hints from tomes related to magic, Wolf had developed new spell modifiers. The most notable of which was decreasing the casting time of a spell by increasing its Order.

He had also found a bunch of unknown Spell Formations, but unfortunately, Wolf couldn’t do anything with those except make theories. All of those Spell Formations required an environment ridiculously rich in World Energy or absurdly high Order Monster Cores.

Since the environment in Silver City was practically void of World Energy, Wolf could only fantasize about making giant Spell Formations which could harness the elements such as fire and lightning.

Another thing Wolf stubbornly tried to do was learn advanced Alchemy from these books. He’d spent a decent chunk of his time reading those tomes and then rereading them.

Unfortunately, his efforts proved futile. If not for the fact that he had easily memorized all of the ingredients, where they grew and their characteristics, he would’ve believed that these books were written in a foreign language.

Either that or he simply forgot whatever he had read as soon as he put the book down. This was the most irritating experience Wolf had ever felt. Even more frustrating than carving the damnable sixth column.

He pestered South about this matter for weeks, until the drunkard finally gave a typical South answer, “So, there are some things in this world you can’t learn. Big deal. You don’t have to be good at every single thing. If you’re really so upset, you can always get drunk.”

The answer was completely honest and just as useless.

Other than learning, one other thing was very important to Wolf. He was completely unaware of it, but the boy now had people in his life.

Some cared for him like South and Anna, who had disappeared after the incident with those five assassins.

People in Oakwood Freeland worshiped him, while Silver City’s beggars leeched off of him, trading junk for food.

Then there was Cornucopia’s Roger who was a decent person, at least as far as Wolf was concerned.

Lastly and most importantly, there was Silver. Wolf felt her-his first attempts at verbal communication. Unfortunately the little fellow failed to utter real words, but the feelings of warmth and love found their way to Wolf’s Mental Aspect.

Compared to where he was a year ago, Wolf now had a very fulfilled life. One his father would’ve been proud of, especially considering that the boy had achieved all of it on his own.

In some eight months Wolf would turn twelve, legally becoming an adult. More importantly he would become eligible to enter Silver City’s Mage Academy and officially become a student.

Wolf had long since forgotten the reason why his father had wanted him to enter the Mage Academy. He recalled that Archibald had mentioned something about how experiencing student life was important for his growth, but that was about it.

***

On this particular Sunday, Wolf and South were having lunch. Out of the blue South remembered something.

“Right,” he said. “What happened with that little whore of yours? It’s been a long time since she’s popped over for a visit.”

“Could you please stop calling her that?” Wolf asked without much annoyance, there was no point getting angry with South. “Anna has her fair share of problems. I scry on her from time to time. She seems to be locked up in her room and forced to study. Every time I take a look she’s really tired and miserable.”

South glanced at his little brother with conflicted feelings. The youth was obviously in love, but wasn’t even aware of it. He once again did the wise man’s impression looking thoughtfully in the distance.

“Voyeurism can bring trouble you know,” but then went silent for a moment. Wolf didn’t appreciate the joke, he just blushed a bit.

“You know,” South continued hesitantly. “If you’re really worried about her, why not just bust her out? Who knows, you acting like a hooligan might just change that miserable fate of hers. I mean I doubt it, but it doesn’t hurt to try.”

“Nah,” Wolf shook his head. “She wants to study anyway, even though she’s constantly whining about it. She’s close to casting a Third Order spell, and she’s got the Mage Academy exam in two and a half months. I’ll enter it six months after her, so it’s not a big deal if we don’t see each other until then.”

Even though that’s what he said, Wolf missed his second friend a great deal. He couldn’t help but scry on her every couple of days. A couple of times he even accidentally spied on her while she was taking a bath.

He didn’t know why, but he kind of felt disappointed. When he carved the sixth column the women from those visions were more to his liking. They had nice, round breasts, well shaped bottoms and slender waists. Anna unfortunately didn’t have those. Her chest was as flat as a board, her butt was nonexistent. While her waist was slender, it was the wrong, skinny kind of slender which wasn’t attractive one bit.

Given the girl’s looks and tomboyish personality, Wolf had no idea what gave Anna’s father the confidence that he could marry his daughter above her status.

Even though that’s what he repeatedly told himself, whenever Wolf thought about the girl those skinny legs and scrawny buttocks would come to mind. What would she think about him if she knew that he had seen her taking a bath?

“You’re thinking about whores, aren’t you?” South said with a knowing smile as he brutally smacked Wolf back to reality.

“What are you talking about?” Wolf played dumb, unaware that his face was bright red.

“Hehe, what do you mean ‘What are you talking about?’ you little lobster face? Look, I know that look. It’s the look of a man remembering an especially fine whore.

“Trust me. Back in the day I’d seen that look on my brothers and sisters a few times. Too bad none of them are around to enjoy themselves.” South sighed with a melancholic look of reminiscence on his face.

Wolf didn’t know what to say. He wanted to console, deny, smack and shout at the drunkard all at the same time. In the end the only thing Wolf could do was continue to blush. If he mentioned Anna at this point he would never hear the end of it.

“Big brother, will you have any problems when I come over for a visit once I become a student of the Mage Academy?” Wolf asked, masterfully changing the subject.

“Why would I have any problems?” South asked with a confused, semi-drunk expression.

“Look, Little brother, you can do whatever you want,” he continued tiredly. “I’ve already told you that there’s no benefit for you even if you go to that training wheels place. Better focus on doing your own thing. If you want to grow in anonymity then become an Archmage and True-Namer by continuing what you’re doing right now. It’s not like it’s hard to become one.

“Then if you want to play politics just reveal your power to the world. You should quickly rise up to the ranks of high nobility. I think that in this current setup you can easily become a Duke if you ever feel like it. Then you can support millions of beggars and thousands of hamlets. Or you can just choose your own alley to get drunk in. Whatever choice you make I’ll cheer for you from this little haven of mine.”

Wolf was silent for a moment before speaking, “Father said that I should graduate from a Mage Academy. It was really important to him, and I want to fulfill his wishes.”

Wolf could tell that South found this topic bothersome and annoying, probably because Wolf would bring it up from time to time. He wanted his big brother to validate his choice. South on the other hand tried to get it into his little brother’s thick skull that he shouldn’t look for anyone’s approval.

Now it was South’s turn to change the subject. “You know, if you’re looking for education, just the books you pilfered from me are enough to get you to at least the Sixth Order of True-Namer in the next two hundred years. Your potential as a Sword-Sage is even greater. You were born with a high quality body and even further enhanced it through Body Refining, even though the refinement process is abominable.”

Wolf choked on those words, mostly on the first sentence.

Those books can’t be pilfered! the boy screamed on the inside. If I really had stolen them, then that was the heist of the millennium at the very least!

“Big brother, you gave those books to me as a gift. Don’t you remember?” For a whole number of reasons Wolf still felt uncomfortable about the whole book affair.

“Oh, yes, you are right! Your big brother is a very magnanimous person. It happened so long ago he almost forgot about the details.” Hearing those words, Wolf felt dread. He had a feeling he knew where this conversation was going. “Since your big brother is so great it shouldn’t be a problem for you to do him a small favor to which he’s already entitled to. Right?”

“I guess?” Wolf squeaked, knowingly walking into a trap.

It’s not like he had a choice, he’d made a promise and the powerful were bound by their words. Coincidentally, while the drunkard spoke he shifted bit by bit, positioning himself in such a way that he now blocked Wolf’s escape path.

“In that case it shouldn’t be much of a problem for you to make me another two dozen or so The treatise on gods, foundations of religion and belief magic worth of toilet paper, right?” South didn’t bat an eye when he said this.

Completely and utterly shameless. Wolf thought while South grinned in self satisfaction. The youth had already prepared at least twenty years worth of toilet paper for the drunkard, all at the cost of mental trauma.

Suddenly Wolf froze. He had just done the math and realized how many pages per day his big brother was using.

He’s full of shit! Wolf realized. This alley should be one huge manure pile by now, so where does the man–

No, no, no! Don’t think about it. Imagine he actually shows or tells you!

“Big brother,” Wolf started weakly. “Have you already used it all up? If so, it’s not a problem for me to… to… make the items you desire. What are you going to do once I enter the Mage Academy though?”

Saying those words hurt Wolf on a deep level that only an avid reader would understand.

South apparently didn’t share this sensitivity with his little brother.

“Oh, that’s simple,” he said in a carefree tone. “I was thinking you make me fifty The treatise on gods, foundations of religion and belief magic’s worth of toilet paper every year. That’s not too excessive, right?”

Wolf’s face twitched. A single book could be turned into twelve hundred… units South needed. Fifty tomes was sixty thousand... What? How?

“Not at all Big brother,” Wolf said with a twisted smile.

He dearly hoped that that was the end of South’s request, but he knew that this insanity made manifest wasn’t done yet.

“And I should also plan for when you leave the Mage Academy as well, right?” the jinx asked. “So I was thinking you should start making a stockpile for me now. At least for ten years after you go, that’s not excessive. Right?”

To be perfectly honest, Wolf wouldn’t have found this request excessive. It basically boiled down to using a spell five hundred times over a period of several years. The issue was with what he was doing. Using magic to turn a divine grade parchment into his big brother’s toilet paper was very disturbing for Wolf.

“Of course it’s not an excessive request, Big brother,” the youth squeezed out, his lip trembling.

***

As time passed the number of unexpected, but easily foreseeable, burdens on Wolf increased. He had to make a crapload of fine leather scrolls for his big brother, but he also had to figure out how to deal with the two hundred beggars he was feeding. Once he entered the Mage Academy he wouldn’t have the time to feed them. He suddenly had an idea on how to solve the problem, but he could already see it turning into a disaster.

Maybe he could ask South for his opinion? But that would probably only result in even greater chaos.

End of part 2 - Paved with Good Intentions