The moon shined high in the sky.

Astra had been working for nearly half an hour and had barely enchanted twenty swords.

This won’t work. It would take him at least twenty-five more hours if he wanted to enchant all of these swords.

Astra took a breath and calmed down. He tried recalling his enchanting dream again.

“Oh yeah…” Astra remembered the scene where he enchanted multiple swords at once.

He laid two swords in front of him and began drawing the inscriptions in midair. A minute later, he grabbed the two inscriptions and palmed it onto the two swords. This palming technique was something he had remembered from his experience. Rather than slowly controlling the inscription to go towards the sword, Astra would lightly embed the inscription on his palm and then transfer it onto the sword directly.

This technique required a precise control of mana or else the inscription would be entirely embedded in Astra’s hand and potentially blast his hand apart since the inscription was made for swords. This technique posed little difficulty to Astra who had been practicing the basic mana condensing technique for many days.

Astra lifted his palms up and inspected the two swords. The enchantment itself was a success, but the quality of the sword had decreased. Compared to the peak 1st-grade enchantment he had made in the beginning, both of these swords would be considered middle 1st grade.

Astra looked up; the moon was slowly moving west. Because he still had to sell the swords, Astra had to enchant faster.

Enchanting. Enchanting. Enchanting.

Astra’s body began to have a mind of its own after doing the same thing so many times. His efficiency and speed began to increase and was no longer making middle 1st-grade swords but improved to making high 1st-grade swords.

As the sun began to rise, Astra was enchanting five swords at the same time. Surprisingly, Astra had managed to gain some insights into the basic weapon inscription and had increased the sharpness and durability even more. As he enchanted more and more, the vague dream that he had became more vivid and clear. Combined with the inscription books he had read in the library, he was slowly improving the basic sword inscription with each enchantment.

Astra’s latest batches were all middle 2nd-grade weapons. His basic weapon inscription has evolved to an intermediate level.

“Whew!” Astra had been enchanting for more than six hours. He laid down on the ground and fell asleep.

A brown robed old man slowly walked near the sleeping Astra.

“Hm…?” The old man raised an eyebrow as he picked up one of the wooden swords from the barrels.

“What the…” The old man picked up another sword.

“How…” The old man began to inspect one sword after another.

Whack. Whack. Whack.

Astra woke up. Who is making all that noise? He opened his eyes and saw something unbelievable.

A myriad of wooden swords were embedded into the stone wall in front of him.

The old man noticed the dazed Astra, “Good morning, young man.”

“Morning...What are you doing to my swords?” Astra asked.

The old man chuckled, “I was merely testing them out. I didn’t think you would actually be trying to enchant all of these swords. How about I buy them off you?”

Astra’s eyes lit up. He was frantically trying to enchant all of these swords so he would be able to sell them quicker.

“How much are you willing to pay me?” Astra asked.

The old man looked at the barrels and counted the swords, “Let’s see...For all these swords, I’m willing to give you 20,000 merit points.”

Astra frowned. Even if he sold all of the swords, he would still be 7,400 merit points short.

The old man continued, “Are you interested in a job? We have quite a lot of blunt weapons here that are in need of enchanting. No blacksmith would repair these swords since they would rather be making new ones.”

Astra smiled meekly, “Can I possibly get 7,400 merit points in advance? I really need to buy something before I head out for an expedition.”

The old man stroked his long beard for a long time, “Fine, you better produce some quality work.” The old man put his hand out.

Astra tossed his medallion at the old man.

The old man gripped the medallion tightly before throwing it back, “Done.”

Astra scoured his medallion. He had exactly 30,000 merit points now.

“Thanks so much!”

Astra was about to run off to the merit shop when the old man coughed loudly. The old man stared at the remaining swords that were yet to be enchanted.

“Oh...oops.”

Astra slowly walked back in front of the barrels and got to work.

Four hours later, Astra had finished enchanting all of the swords. Things were going well. Astra earned enough to acquire Zephyr, increased his mastery of enchantments, and also got a job.

Astra immediately ran towards the merit shop as soon as he finished his last batch. Astra slammed the door open and threw his medallion at the clerk.

“Zephyr! I want to buy it!” Astra yelled.

The clerk was surprised and flustered. The medallion was being juggled a couple of times before the clerk finally caught it.

The clerk peered inside the medallion, “Huh?!”

It hasn’t even been a full day yet, but this boy had managed to acquire 30,000 merit points! What has he been doing?

The clerk brought Astra to the armor set and helped him finalize the purchase.

Astra smiled as he jumped up and down, trying out his new armor. It didn’t even feel like he was wearing anything, truly worth the 30,000 point purchase.

Suddenly, Astra felt an onset of extreme fatigue and exhaustion. He slowly tottered his way back to the dorm and fell asleep on his bed.

…

..

.

Several hours later.

The intense gaze of the sun bore down upon Astra’s eyes.

“Ugh…” Astra slowly got up and went to eat breakfast at the cafeteria.

There was still two days before the expedition, but Astra was out of merit points. He still had to work off his debt since he asked for his merit points in advance.

Astra walked over to the Training Grounds.

The old man greeted Astra at the entrance. There were a couple of people practicing their sword techniques on the straw dummies.

Astra realized that he didn’t know who this old man was, “I forgot to ask but, who exactly are you?”

The old man chuckled, “Training instructor for Ascelyn Academy, the name is Gradrel.”

Training instructor? This was perfect! Astra couldn’t go to any classes right now, but couldn’t he ask Gradrel to train him?

“Gradrel...Would you mind training me?” Astra asked.

Gradel laughed, “I’ll think about it after you work off your 7,400 merit points. Come, follow me. I’ll show you where you’ll be working at.”

Gradrel led Astra towards the cottage. When they got there, Gradrel took Astra behind the cottage. There was another small building that was hidden from view.

The wooden door creaked slowly as Gradrel opened it.

Astra took a look inside. Wooden crates and barrels filled the room alongside with spiders and cobwebs.

“Clean this storage room up, and enchant everything in here. I’ll give you something interesting after you finish,” Gradrel strolled off happily.

Astra looked around him. He felt like he just got scammed. He would be able to pay off the 7,400 merit points easily if he just enchanted wooden swords for four hours. Gradrel had better give him something more than just ‘interesting.'

…

..

.

Five hours later.

The sun was slowly setting; night time was coming.

Astra had skipped lunch to work in the storage room. He had managed to clean everything up and made things nice and tidy. When he opened the barrels and crates, there were tons of weapons and armor. Since Astra only knew how to enchant on swords, only a third of the items in the storage room were enchanted.

The door creaked open.

Gradrel came strolling in with a platter of food, “Nice job with the room, looks very nice.” He placed the food on the table and looked around the room.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you know any other enchantments? Only the swords are enchanted,” Gradrel asked.

Astra shook his head.

“Weird...A person with your enchantment skills only knows one inscription? I’d expected you to have at least twenty inscriptions in your arsenal,” Gradrel said with a trace of curiosity on his face.

Astra smiled meekly.

“Alright, give me a moment,” Gradrel stepped out of the room while Astra gulped down his dinner.

Gradrel returned with several pieces of paper. Astra held up the pieces of paper and read them.

“These are…” Astra murmured.

“Yep, basic level inscriptions. These should cover most of the equipment in here,” Gradel said.

Where exactly did Gradrel get these papers from? One had to know that even the library didn’t have inscriptions for him to learn. How could an old man like Gradrel acquire these inscriptions?

“I’ll see you in the morning,” Gradrel left the room.

The door clicked as Gradrel left.

“Gradrel? What did you do?”

Astra ran towards the door and tried to open it. The door would not budge. Why did Gradrel lock him in here? If Astra wanted to, he could easily break down this door. Gradrel must’ve known this, so why would he lock Astra in the storage room?

“Forget it,” Astra muttered as he sat back down at the table.

Astra inspected the papers. It had details on exactly which order the inscription should be drawn in and the amount of mana and speed used in each part of the inscription. Astra gasped. These weren’t just simple basic inscriptions; these papers showed how to apply the theoretical knowledge that Astra read about in the library!

Astra meticulously studied these papers before he was mentally exhausted and fell asleep.

Ascelyn Academy: Principal’s Office.

Knoxon was sitting at the principal’s desk, moving his hands at inhuman speeds.

“Principal, if you keep going on like this, you won’t last until the end of the year,” said a bald man wearing an orange robe.

Knoxon stopped and rested his hands, “If I don’t get all these paperwork in order, the alliance will fall apart. Who else would stop their machinations if the alliance won’t? Are you going to do it, Gubin?”

Gubin sighed as Knoxon continued working on his papers.

“That boy, Astra. Why didn’t you imprison him?” Gubin asked.

Knoxon chuckled, “You’re telling me I should keep him in a place where barely anyone have any eyes on him?”

“Ah, I apologize. Having him in the public eye would allow your sentries to keep watch over him,” Gubin realized as he thought about it some more.

Knoxon said, “That way, none of the nobles would dare to try anything funny as long as Astra is in Ascelyn Academy since I’ll catch them in the act.”

Knoxon finished up his last batch of paperwork and stood up.

“Leave everything to your vice-principal,” assured Gubin.

Knoxon nodded his head and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Gubin rubbed his head. There were many matters for the principal to attend to. On top of that, he’s taken it upon himself to try and protect another student when he could've just left Astra alone. Everyone at the Academy thinks that Knoxon was a young principal who spent his days fooling around but they couldn’t be more wrong.