Upon hearing that question, he couldn’t help but recall how the mayor had called him before.
Still, Auric didn’t have any change of expression. Instead, he calmly asked, "Is that the reason you specifically called a plant evolution master, Mayor?"
A small grin appeared on the mayor’s face. "So, does this an you have other elents?"
"Who knows?" Auric shrugged.
"Good. That’s the attitude." The mayor was actually pleased by his answer. "If you reveal everything, you will lose your advantage. If you don’t reveal anything, you might encounter trouble because they think you’re not a big deal.
"Hence, you tell people half the truth. If that half-truth reveals the whole truth, it’s better not to say anything at all."
He acted like a cunning fox, as one might expect from a politician.
He specifically referred to Auric as a plant evolution master so that the people who were interested in him would focus on that piece of information instead of figuring out anything hidden.
This way, his other elents wouldn’t be exposed yet.
"I will send so agents to protect your mother from a distance so you can focus on your studies."
Auric fell silent. It seed the mayor had considered everything.
"Well, I will look forward to your achievent. Just so you know, things like scholarships don’t last forever." The mayor reminded him that he should produce a result.
In the end, it was the sa as a normal scholarship. If his grades weren’t good, he would lose it.
But it didn’t matter much to him. He might reveal his power gradually, but he never intended to hide it in the first place. He just didn’t deliberately show it off like an idiot, so the mayor could rest assured about it.
After saying his piece, the mayor got into his car and left.
Lindwurm muttered, "That sly old fox. It looks like he wants to exploit you. Protect your mother? Yes, you can interpret it that way, but it’s also to monitor you."
"I see." Auric fell into thought. "Well, it will happen sooner or later. At least we know who is monitoring us. But he definitely won’t know what we are doing, will he?"
Lindwurm smirked. "Within the academy? No. As for the store, I can set up an office for you. You can use this place to write down the details about your gathering technique. What do you think?"
"Sure."
"But it will cost you an additional 10,000 credits per day."
Auric’s eyebrows twitched. Since it was managed by Lindwurm’s power, it didn’t seem like he could complain about it.
After a long sigh, he said, "Fine. At least, we got a cash injection. My mom will also be protected, so I can focus on the store."
"Well..." Lindwurm gave a wry smile.
"What?"
"Nothing. You don’t have to worry about your mother."
"I know." Auric nodded. Since everything had been set properly, he could finally focus on building up his store reputation. "Anyway, I don’t think we need another advertisent."
"Yeah. With that move alone, we will get plenty of ladies, I an, custors coming our way."
Auric raised one finger while adding, "And his action will definitely make it hard for the association to stay quiet. People will soon get interested in , but thanks to the mayor, they will have so restraints."
Lindwurm agreed. The situation had been quite favorable for them. "Still, won’t we need a new employee?"
"That’s true." Auric sighed. "Not only a helper, but we might also need a guard. Because we are just starting, we don’t have any connections yet. I guess we will see what will happen tomorrow first."
Lindwurm smirked. "Should I put a cage on the evolution materials? Adding a little detail won’t change much in terms of energy consumption."
"Good, good. Let’s talk about the details in our room."
...
"Huu..." Ellia opened her eyes as her dragon avatar had finally evolved. Due to this evolution, she couldn’t attend school to see Auric, but she had asked Arina to take care of him.
When she left the room, she found Arina waiting for her.
"Congratulations, Miss."
Ellia nodded. "It’s really effective. If he can really help a unique elent user to evolve smoothly like this, his value will be much higher. He will be the first unique elent evolution master."
"I’m just happy that you evolved safely. If not for your unique elent, you would have evolved months ago." Arina let out a sigh of relief.
"Anyway, how was he? Did soone attack him again? Last ti, soone provoked him because of his face, no?" Ellia asked with a casual tone. She thought Auric would be popular with the girls, so those girls would probably stop him from getting into trouble.
"Actually..." Arina looked troubled. She rubbed her cheek before telling her what happened with Simon.
She told her about the provocation that Simon started at the entrance and the fact that he openly challenged Auric after the orientation.
Ellia’s face darkened as a smile ford on her face. Despite such a beautiful smile, Arina could only feel chills from it.
"So? You at least hit him on his face, right?" Ellia asked.
"Eh?" Arina’s body shook. She blinked a few tis as her mind went blank. "But, Miss... that person..."
"...Lightning Emperor’s disciple? Who cares? Do you think I’m scared to go against the Lightning Emperor? That was the last chance we could get him. If we don’t accumulate our favors when he is not worth much, we won’t be able to get it when he has grown."
Ellia facepald. If it weren’t for her evolution, she would have made a move herself.
Arina’s perspective wasn’t wrong, either. The other party’s identity was special and the person himself was talented.
If they clashed with the Lightning Emperor, they would definitely suffer damage.
Still, Ellia’s thod was different.
"It’s natural to take so losses." Ellia sighed. "So, was that all?"
Arina looked away as she began recounting every bit of it, including the mayor’s appearance.
"Of course, the mayor." Ellia rolled her eyes. "Now, what am I going to do with it?"
Arina lowered her gaze. "Sorry..."
Ellia wanted to get angry, but she really couldn’t help it with this childhood friend of hers.
In addition, if she didn’t stumble upon Auric’s shop, she wouldn’t be able to evolve this quickly.
Besides, she might not have picked the best choice in her eyes, but she didn’t do anything wrong. She considered the safety of their business.
Ellia patted her head. "Well, what’s done is done."
"Can I do anything to fix my mistake?"
"It’s not really a mistake. I’m thankful that you are considerate of ." Ellia shook her head helplessly before an idea popped into her mind. "Actually, there might be sothing you can do. And you are definitely experienced in this."
"What is that?"
Ellia smiled slyly as if she had an evil plan.
...
The next day.
Auric was stupefied. He ca earlier to avoid any crowds, but he never expected there were already people in front of his place.
More importantly, the two people were none other than Ellia and Arina. No, he was even more shocked when Arina actually ca in the maid’s uniform.
"What in the world is going on..." Auric muttered.
Ellia politely bowed. "Thank you, Master Auric. Thanks to your technique, I could evolve yesterday. Unfortunately, because of it, I missed the orientation and couldn’t et you before."
"Ah. Not at all. I’m rely fulfilling my side of the agreent." Auric waved his hand, treating it as if it weren’t a big deal.
"Please don’t say that. You have done sothing that no evolution master could have done. You helped a unique elent user evolve. If you ever want to publish my story, I can help you with it."
"It’s fine." Auric stopped her. "I don’t think you co here just to thank , right?"
"Indeed." Ellia pointed at Arina with her hand. "What do you think about making her work for your store? There are still four days left before the sester starts. So why not have her help you during that ti?"
Auric narrowed his eyes. It looked like Ellia was aware of what happened on the campus.
She knew the store would most likely get a lot of custors.
What Auric currently needed was a helper for the store.
Arina could be a big help. She looked like she had been accompanying Ellia, so she must have so experience taking care of custors. In addition, Ellia had unique status and quite considerable strength, so she could help him protect the store.
The only downside was that it might be perceived as though Ellia were trying to claim him.
Nevertheless, Auric still needed Ellia’s influence if he wanted to smooth his path forward. It looked like he had no choice but to accept this deal.
"I don’t think it’s a good idea to take her in." Lindwurm suddenly voiced his opinion.
’Why?’ Auric was surprised that Lindwurm had a different opinion.
However, his surprise soon turned into disappointnt after what Lindwurm said next.
"Yes. She ca from a large corporation. Won’t she be expensive? Even though we have a lot of cash, we can’t squander everything or I won’t be able to eat anymore."
Auric definitely wanted to slap him on the back of his head. ’When have you beco so greedy?’
"I’m not greedy. I’m just taking care of myself," replied Lindwurm, as if that was the only right thing to do.
Auric sighed inwardly. He finally raised his head and extended his hand. "It’ll be my pleasure to work with you."
Arina, who was embarrassed with her outfit, hurriedly shook his hand. "Y-Yes. Likewise. Please call , Arina."
"Yes, Arina. You can call by my na as well." Auric nodded.
"Good." Ellia stepped forward. "Anyway, I will deliver more items to you, especially the plant, the water, and the wind elent materials."
Auric narrowed his eyes, feeling suspicious. His plant elent could stimulate fire and earth elents, but his energy was limited.
In his current state, he could at most help five people before emptying his energy. It would take so ti to recover that energy, so he could only rely on items.
The plant elent material could beco a replacent for his elent, while the other two types could beco the counter elents if he needed them.
However, Auric could also use wind and earth elents.
He still rembered what Lindwurm taught him about his energy reserves.
Lindwurm showed him a human body with one circle on its chest. "This is the energy reserve of a normal person. They only have one type of energy, so once it’s gone, it’s gone."
He then added multiple circles with different colors. "This is your body. If you empty out one reserve, you can use the energy from the other reserves. However, you can’t use the fire energy reserve to use the water elent, and vice versa. You can only use each energy reserve according to the elent it’s bound to."
Auric, of course, rembered it. In the end, he absorbed the colored particles, so it was obvious the red particles couldn’t produce a green color and vice versa.
Since the mayor introduced him as a plant evolution master, people would definitely bring fire- and earth-elent users. So, he had to rely on the materials.
Still, he was rather skeptical about receiving things from others.
Seeing the suspicion in his eyes, Ellia clarified calmly. "Please pay no mind to it. You have indeed fulfilled the agreent by delivering such a precious technique to . However, that is for the technique. I should at least repay you for the evolution, right? That technique has helped evolve after all."
When she worded it this way, Auric couldn’t really decline it.
Arina couldn’t help but glance back and forth between them, thinking, ’Why are these two talking in such a roundabout way the whole ti? Their behavior is similar in this regard.’
"In that case, I will accept your gift." Auric finally nodded and extended his hand. "Thank you."
"Not at all. I should be the one to thank you." Ellia shook his hand firmly. "We’ll et again soon, junior."
"Yes."
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