Wisp! Awaken in the Magical World

You could pay to be brought to the Lungan Forest, but it was rarely used by new disciples. That said, Linfel's group had to keep running for almost an entire day. Fortunately, they were Maguses and Familiars, so they could control their Magic Energy to keep the rhythm. On the other hand, they saw themselves forced to spend more of the food and the Red Magic Stones in Linfel's Spatial Storage.

Linfel also had a few Brown Magic Stones, but he decided to keep them in case they needed to recover their magic Energy fast during this journey.

As the trees began to dominate the landscape, the group's anticipation grew. By the end of the first day, they spotted several other Maguses and Familiars heading towards the forest's entrance. They had prepared well and had even found a settlement at the entrance, which they were eager to use before venturing into the forest itself.

"There it is," Linfel commented, pointing in the distance.

Several wooden and earth houses began to appear in their view. The entrance of the forest was quite crowded, with the disciples coming and going. Seemed like everyone liked to use that settlement as a bridge between the inside and outside. "Too bad the place we need to deliver those boxes is deep within the forest..." Alvin commented.

If he could, he would just leave the boxes there and return to the city.

Diverse booths covered the side of the main street in the settlement as various Maguses and Familiars sold various items they got from the Forest. Most of them were Magic Beasts Materials, but there were a few ores and other materials.

Alvin then noticed that one of the booths was selling Level Four Magic Cores, which obviously caught his attention. "Hello, friend. How much are you charging for Level Four Cores?"

Then Magus looked at him and saw Alvin's level straight away. He didn't expect much from Alvin but gave his price. "Ten cores go for ten Ventis Credits."

Alvin almost froze in place. The contractor was paying a single Ventis Credit for every ten cores. Yet, this guy was asking for one credit for each. It was ten times more expensive. "Why so expensive? The contractor is only giving a single Ventis Credit for every ten."

"Hmph!" The Magus snorted in response. "Seems like your group is new here in the sect. Anyone who stays for over two years gains access to a new feature in the Ventis Sect App. It is called the Away Tokens, which allows you to go out of the planet to carry out various tasks for the Ventis Sect. That contractor you mentioned, for example, will give you one Away Token for every ten cores.

These tokens can't be bought with Ventis Credits, though. Only by completing missions can you acquire those tokens."

"I see..." Alvin and the others immediately understood. They aren't paying ten Ventis Credits for ten Cores. Instead, they are paying ten Credits for a Token since they can simply bring it back to the City and finish a contract that requires those tokens.

"Well, that's not an option for us at the moment, so forget it," Linfel spoke.

They continued walking between the booths, and various other items were also available for sale. However, the point is that almost no one was buying anything. It made the sight quite strange. If no one was willing to pay the prices, why are the prices still that high?

They found the answer not long after. The problem was that Ventis Credits were also hard to come by. All the missions, contracts, and other methods to gain Ventis Sect usually paid very little. Besides, you spend Ventis Credit for everything else. Home, food, magic stones, etc.

But, at the same time, there are those who need to go out of the planet for whatever reason, so they don't mind paying a lot more for a fast contract conclusion. That's why all those booths didn't mind keeping the prices high since sooner or later, someone would appear and buy their wares.

Looking around, Linfel's group noticed that most of the booths were made by Maguses and Familiars who hadn't completed two years in the sect yet, so they needed credits a lot more than those tokens. Above all, it was safer. You could risk your life to kill only ten Level Four Magic Beasts and then sell their cores for ten Ventis Credit.

Even if you had to wait for days, it was still much better than to sell the cores to the contractors since you would need to kill 100 of the same beasts to acquire the same ten credits.

Alvin couldn't help but ask. "Perhaps it will be better for us to simply kill ten Level Four Magic Beasts as well. Then we can come back and sell the cores here."

Linfel immediately shook his head. "It could take various days to find a buyer."

"Then let's drop the price," Alvin insisted. "We don't need to sell them for ten credits. Let sell ten cores for just five Ventis Credits. Sure it would sell very fast."

Linfel sighed. "You couldn't possibly be thinking you were the first one to think about that, right?"

"This..." Alvin noticed another problem. "Manipulation?"

Linfel nodded. "Most likely, there are a lot of price control in the background. If we try to sell for cheaper, we might be making some undesired enemies from the other Maguses and Familiars. Of course, this is just speculation, but I would rather not risk it."

Milia had already lost interest in that. "Forget it. Let's go into the forest and make our deliveries. I don't want to look overconfident, but I truly would rather follow the proper path. It is all training."

"Well said!" Linfel nodded, satisfied. "Let's go. We can take a look again when we come back."

Finally, they exited the settlement from the other side, entering the forest together with various other Maguses and Familiars. The place was truly lively.

Linfel used his Magic Sense, spreading it over two hundred meters. It went further than any Level Four Familiar, only barely losing to Level Five ones. Then, he looked into the map in his MCOM, finding the best route. "Let's go."

Not long after, the number of disciples began to grow scarce as everyone followed their own paths. Alvin, Milia, and Nori were quite nervous. From the moment they left the city, they could be attacked at any moment. However, it was in the forest where it would most likely happen since the terrain was much better for ambushes and the like.

Yet, even though they kept moving for over an hour, not a single soul seemed to have shown interest in them. The few Maguses and Familiar who passed by them simply glanced at them and avoided getting too close before going on their way.

"I thought there would be a lot more danger than this," Alvin couldn't help but comment.

Linfel shrugged. "That's because we haven't found anyone marked as a killer yet."

"Marked... as a killer?" Milia, Alvin, and Nori looked at Linfel.

Linfel nodded. Then, he opened his MCOM and showed another rule in the Ventis Sect App.

-Once a disciple kills another, he is allowed to take all his belongings and Ventis Credits. However, that disciple won't be allowed to return to any city for a year from the moment he killed his last target.-

That part Alvin, Milia, and Nori already knew about. What they missed was the next part.

-Such disciples will be market as 'killers' and can be killed by any disciple without any repercussion. Disciples who kill killers will also gain double the amount of Ventis Credits in the killer's body, so be aware.-

"This..." The reason it was hard to find killers became obvious. "It kind of reminds me of a few online games," Alvin commented.

Not only you can't hide in a city, you will become a target yourself. Others can literally kill you without being marked as killers themselves. On top of that, they will gain double the amount of Ventis Credits on your body, so you immediately become a very fat sheep in everyone else's eyes. That also included other killers.

Only those absolutely confident in their abilities to stay alive for that long would attempt to do such a thing.

Of course, that didn't mean they didn't exist. In the end, being a killer is probably one of the fastest way to accumulate a lot of Ventis Credits in a short time... as long as you survive long enough to lose your killer mark.

"So, we might not find a single one during our time fulfilling the contracts," Linfel concluded.

Alvin and the others sighed in relief. That made them relax a little more.

*shush, shush...*

Linfel's Magic Sense suddenly caught something entering his range, warning the others. "Oh! I was wondering when the Magic Beasts would start appearing. Seems like they understand that staying close to the settlement is very dangerous. That's why it took so long to find one."

"Find one?" Alvin and the others looked around. "Where?"

Linfel pointed out. "There. It is hiding in the foliage and making its way in our direction. I studied the Magic Beasts of this forest while you two slept last night. It's a Level Four Magic Beast, the Fetou Centipede."

"Level Four..." Milia, Alvin, and Nori immediately remembered the snake they found back in Serfen Planet. They almost lost their lives to that back then.

Linfel then laid on a tree nearby. "Alright, that is yours to take care of. Milia, I'm prohibiting you from using Master Familiar Connection. As for Alvin, I'm not doing anything anyway, so he will be on his own as well. Good luck."