Wisp! Awaken in the Magical World

"Coo...king?" Alvin and Milia didn't know what to say. "Is that the reason?"

Linfel glared at the two. "Do you think I didn't see what you did back in the room we were sharing? I don't need to eat, but even I could tell that what you made there wasn't food. It was poison! Holy shit! How the hell have you got to burn so many things?"

"I... never really had to cook anything in my life," Milia was the first one to answer.

Alvin scratched the back of his head. "Dad cooked for me, then I got into the Magus Academy and simply ate at the cafeterias..."

Linfel nodded. "Exactly. But here in the Ventis Sect, nothing comes for free, and you were wasting Ventis Credits! I will not stand for food waste! You know about me and the place I came from. Do you know how hard it was for the people back then to get something as simple as food?"

Zandel couldn't help but get curious. 'Isn't Alvin Linfel's Master? Did they go separate ways at some point since Linfel's creation?' He wondered to himself but didn't say it out loud.

Linfel turned to Zandel. "Alvin and Milia as humans, just like you. They need proper sustenance. If I help you, I will have you cook all their food for the next months until the next test. Are you up for it?"

Zandel didn't need to hear that question twice. "Of course! I can even pay for the food myself!" He wasn't kidding. Paying for the food would be way cheaper than what he would need to pay Linfel for the tutelage. Especially if you compare his savings to the other Maguses who wanted to hire Linfel back in the test.

Nori felt relieved to hear that. "Good work, Linfel. Milia absolutely couldn't keep going with that."

"Thank you for warning me in the MCOM as well," Linfel nodded at him. On this point, they were of the same idea.

Alvin and Milia looked away. It was just cooking. Was it really that bad to not know how to do it?

Linfel then turned to Zandel. "Since that the case, go out there and prepare food for two weeks. We are leaving the city tomorrow morning."

"Two weeks?!" Zandel was taken aback. However, he quickly recovered. Linfel obviously had the plans set for them. "A-Alright! I'll be right back. Leave today's dinner with me as well.

It will be a feast!"

That was quite a calm and happy night for their group. Linfel even allowed Zandel to stay in the house since they would leave the next day anyway. By the morning, everyone felt invigorated, having rested really well.

"Okay. First, the contracts. Where should we go this time?" Linfel asked everyone.

They all opened their MCOMs and started to take a look. There were many things available. Going out to collect Magic Beast Materials was a good call. Delivering items would be easy, too. However, the Ventis Sect offered many options, and Linfel didn't want to return to the same forest again.

Hearing that, Zandel gave them an idea. "Well, how about doing what I did for some Ventis Credtis? What you did is also good, but my method isn't any worse. When I arrived, I dove into the information in the Ventis Sect Network and found this."

He quickly turned his MCOM to everyone.

-Fucoes Dungeon Investigation. The Larwerty Foundation is looking for Maguses and Familiars to wear its devices and go down the Fucoes Dungeon. It will be necessary to reach the third floor for the readings to be worth the Ventis Credits.-

-Rewards: Reaching the third floor: 100 Ventis Credits.-

-Extra Rewards: 50 more Ventis Credits for each extra floor explored while wearing our devices.-

"Dungeon? Now it truly feels like a game," Alvin commented, remembering about the killers back in the Forest.

"You took this kind of job before?" Milia asked Zandel. In the contracts, the danger of each task is closely related to the Ventis Credits paid. If the Larwerty Foundation was paying 100 credits just to reach the third floor, one could imagine things weren't that easy.

Zandel, obviously, understood that. "That's how this sect operates, right? It forces you to put your life on the line if you want to make a living, let alone if you want to pay for the Magic Control Exams. I went down three times since we arrived several weeks ago. And yes, I won't lie, it is dangerous. That's why I joined other groups when I did.

Of the more than twenty people I met during my journeys, two already died."

"That is perfect!" Linfel quickly opened the contract in his own MCOM. The contract was valid, and the reward was real. They just needed to go to the Larwerty Foundation to have to take the devices.

Alvin, Milia, and Nori understood Linfel's behavior. Now that he made up his mind, he wouldn't change it. Even worse, if they said they didn't want to go, Linfel would simply go on his own.

On the way to the Larwerty Foundation, they stopped by Zandel's room. He, too, was renting a cheap one for him to live. There, they met Kefin, Zandel's Familiar, also at Level Four. He wasn't independent, though. Zandel was still his master.

Neither Alvin nor Milia paid much attention to it. That was the norm in the Magus World. Independent Familiars like theirs were pretty rare, so there wasn't anything wrong with Zandel's handling of the issue. Besides, judging by the way Zandel and Kefin interacted to each other, they seemed to get along quite well.

Finally, they arrived at the Larwerty Foundation, and presented the contract at the counter. The Foundation was used to those contracts and quickly brought them to the back to receive their devices.

Alvin, Milia, and Zandel received a bracelet each that was attached to their arm. As for Linfel and Nori, they got a device similar to the Familiar's MCOM. Familiars usually changed the shape of their Core to hold the MCOMs, so Nori simply had to do the same. Linfel, on the other hand, just threw it inside the Spatial Inventory when no one was looking.

He couldn't change the shape of his Core, after all.

"What are the functions of these devices?" Alvin asked Zandel on the way to the Fucoes Dungeon.

"They vary," Zandel pondered about the ones he wore during the times he went down. "Some do monitoring of the conditions of the Dungeon, like the Magic Energy Concentration, Elemental Balance, etc. Milia's one seems to be exactly that. Others do some different probing. For example, Nori and I are definitely using Magic Energy Output devices.

They will read into our Magic Energy when we fight the Magic Beasts down there and send the data back to the Larwerty Foundation."

"Anyway, it's these kind of things. The Larwerty Foundation works for the Ventis Sect, like many other companies, and they help making sure everything is running as it should. In this case, the Fucoes Dungeon environment," Zandel explained.

Everyone nodded. "Well, if they are paying, so be it."

The Fucoes Dungeon was three days away from the city... if you refused to pay for transportation. Linfel's group definitely had some Ventis Credits now, so they used it this time... or so they wanted.

*bzzzz!*

*Ouch!*

"Run!" Linfel shouted from behind after zapping Zandel's buttocks. "Do not look down on your physical development. It is as important as your Level! Run like your life depends on it! And while you run, support your body with Magic Energy. However, only ten Magic Channels can be used at a time."

Alvin, Milia, and Nori glanced at Zandel and Kefin, feeling pity for them. They know way too well how that feels... and how he would suffer for the foreseeable future. Well, most likely, they would suffer, too.