"Good morning."
Li Fei called out a greeting to the elven lady hidden in the canopy and stepped past the signpost in a single stride.
The elf said nothing. Her gaze filtered through the layered curtain of leaves, quietly studying Li Fei, her feelings difficult to name.
The rapier in the black-haired girl's right hand was exquisitely crafted, the hilt traced with smooth, flowing enchantment runes — worth roughly three months of her own salary, by the look of it.
The round shield in her left hand was unmistakably the work of a dwarven craftsman. At least a year's income.
From the way the mage's robe clung to her silhouette, this Eastern girl also appeared to have prepared compact crossbow bolts and a standard-issue potion kit...
And then there was the silver-grey mage's robe itself — the most outrageous thing of all. The elf, who came from a family that had once known better days, had a sinking feeling that it might qualify as a "Full Moon-grade Treasure." The kind she could never afford. Even among Sequence 8 practitioners, her income was not considered low!!!
Also — the girl's face had grown even more captivating. She seemed to have blossomed considerably...
The Elven Observer sank into deep contemplation.
What on earth had happened? How had a girl who had come out here barely a month ago, gambling her life with nothing but battered junk equipment, accumulated such staggering wealth — and become so beautiful — in the span of a single month?
She couldn't help but glance down at the standard-issue longbow that had accompanied her through years of service, her gaze distant, her carefully considered career plan of quietly biding her time suddenly feeling a lot shakier.
Once I reach the Hero Sequence, I'll have the tribe's backing, sure — but even so, saving more money can't hurt... I absolutely cannot keep coasting like this!
I've heard the Golden Kumquat Tavern has been doing booming business lately and is hiring... Maybe I should...
...
Li Fei had returned to the Moonlight Wolf Den with no idea that she was causing the elf standing watch here to have an existential crisis. She moved carefully, scanning her surroundings.
Even with a full upgrade in equipment, she was not about to let her guard down and put herself in danger again.
She found her target quickly.
A Moonlight Wolf was gnawing at the carcass of a bird, making wet, crunching sounds, its teeth and fur stained red.
Without a word, Li Fei drove her sword into the earth, pulled out the crossbow, and took aim at the wolf's head.
Li's Combat Doctrine, Rule One: If you can ambush, never engage head-on.
Thwip.
She squeezed the trigger. The bolt split the air and buried itself in the wolf's back at a speed the naked eye could barely track.
Missed the headshot, obviously. This expensive crossbow didn't come with an auto-aim function? One star. Terrible.
[S-12 Compact Crossbow]
Equipment Rating: Firefly
Attributes: Damage Rank I, Effective Range 200 yards, fires up to three consecutive shots.
Headshot failed — but Li Fei had no intention of firing a follow-up. She retreated without hesitation.
Li's Combat Doctrine, Rule Two: If you can attack from range, never close the distance.
The Moonlight Wolf let out a sharp cry of pain, its head snapping up, its cold amber eyes locking onto Li Fei. It broke into a sprint on powerful legs, fully intending to tear this vile two-legged ape — the one who had interrupted its meal — into shreds.
But it had barely taken two steps before a sudden convulsion seized it. It collapsed, rolling and thrashing on the ground with a string of agonized, piercing wails.
"Didn't see that coming, did you. My bolts were poisoned, you idiot."
Li Fei let out a cold laugh, savoring the clean, sharp thrill of payback.
Li's Combat Doctrine, Rule Three: If you can use a poisoned weapon, never use a plain one.
She made no move to approach. She kept her distance at twenty meters, watching with cool eyes as the Moonlight Wolf coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blackened blood — and only once it had stopped moving entirely did she draw her sword and walk forward to drive it through the creature's skull.
Li's Combat Doctrine, Rule Four: Do not step away until the EXP notification appears — always finish the job!
[You have killed a Moonlight Wolf. +11 EXP]
The Sequence 9 combat unit that had nearly cost Li Fei her life a month ago now lay dead at her feet with almost laughable ease. She looked down at the wolf's corpse and felt a faint sense of unreality.
Then she thought about the cost of this battle, and the feeling dissolved.
The precision repeating crossbow, finely crafted, retailed for 28 gold coins — and in fact, because precision equipment like this was prone to mechanical failure, Li Fei had bought two, and carried both on her person at all times.
The standard bolts that came with it ran one silver coin each; buying a hundred and twenty at once qualified for a bulk discount, bringing the total to 1 gold coin.
The potent poison — capable of killing most Sequence 9 targets within a minute and posing a lethal threat to Sequence 8 as well — was 10 gold coins per vial, with a shelf life of one week, enough to coat approximately twenty bolts.
If she were still hustling customers outside the little restaurant, she'd be lucky to clear two gold coins in a year. Five years of spending nothing, saving everything, would just barely cover one vial of poison — and that was for Li Fei, the sales champion, whose commissions alone had exceeded the combined earnings of the other three staff members.
"It really is true. Money is power."
Mental math done — tallying up the potions she was carrying and the EXP they could buy her — Li Fei allowed herself a smile of quiet satisfaction. "Pay-to-win is real, and it works."
She carefully reloaded her bolt, and began hunting for the next target.
...
The Magic Academy — Loxibrook Branch.
This ancient institution, which had achieved something close to a monopoly on Transcendent education, stood on the southern edge of the city, forming a flanking defense of City Hall alongside the War Academy.
As the cradle of mages and the alma mater of generation after generation of high-Sequence Nature-alignment spellcasters, the Loxibrook Branch carried an air about it so quiet and deep it seemed to seep from the very flagstones at the gate.
Bang.
A tall, strikingly beautiful blonde woman pushed open the door to the principal's office. The first thing that greeted her eye was the pair of wide, clear windows, the sills crowded with exotic flowering plants and creeping vines writhing freely in the sunlight.
The principal who had summoned her was patiently, attentively brewing a pot of black tea, her long grey hair tied back with a cord and draped over her shoulder as always — her movements unhurried, emanating a graceful, cultivated elegance.
The blonde woman's gaze grew slightly unfocused. It was unclear whether she was enchanted by the fragrant steam rising from the tea, or by the silhouette reflected in those vivid green eyes.
By the time Nicole turned around, the blonde woman had reassembled her usual casual air. She made herself at home at the desk without ceremony, crossed her legs, and said: "Principal, what did you call me in for?"
The blonde woman's legs were long and straight; crossed as they were, the loose hem of her mage's robe had ridden nearly to her knees, and the flesh-toned silk stockings beneath were pulled taut without a single crease.
"Melodia, you'll be getting a specially admitted student in your class in a few days."
Nicole kept her gentle smile in place, first pouring the blonde woman a cup of clear, fragrant black tea before sliding a folder of documents across the desk toward her.
A special admission? A personally recommended special admission, no less — from the principal herself?
The last student to enroll this way was now the youngest — one might even say youngest by a ridiculous margin — teaching assistant on the academy's staff...
Melodia straightened up in her seat, flipped open the first page of the file, and murmured to herself:
"Li Fei... an Easterner?"
"Mm."
"She's beautiful."
Melodia studied the magical portrait in the file, the corner of her mouth curling upward. "It seems the principal is about to acquire another 'adopted' daughter①. Aren't you worried my beloved student little Irena will get jealous?"
"I recognized Li Fei's talent."
Nicole lifted her teacup and took a gentle sip. "I'll leave the enrollment formalities to you."
"Really? This Li Fei isn't another one of those off-the-charts geniuses like Irena, is she? Maybe I should arrange an aptitude assessment — it'd make it easier to tailor her instruction."
Melodia was well-practiced at keeping her inner feelings in check; she buried the faint twinge of jealousy that had surfaced and asked with genuine curiosity.
"That won't be necessary."
Nicole smiled lightly. "What she needs right now is to build a solid foundation and learn some basic theory."
In truth, as a Grand Magister, Nicole had made her assessment long ago: if Li Fei were to sit the standard aptitude test, her score would be a perfect zero — the kind of student who could never be admitted without first donating several hundred thousand gold coins for a new library wing.
But that didn't mean Li Fei had no potential. Nicole was certain: with the right arrangement, Li Fei's future significance and value would be no less than Irena's — perhaps even her own.
"Fair enough."
Melodia shrugged, tipped back the still-steaming cup of black tea in a single long draught, and said: "The transit portal to Viranean is being constructed soon. Thinking of going to see it?"
"Will there be witches there?"
Nicole refilled her cup while asking the question with deliberate unhurry.
"I truly have no idea what the witches' coven ever did to you."
Melodia narrowed her eyes, savored the aroma of the tea, then tossed it back again in one go. "Outside of magic and the Golden Kumquat Tavern, I have never seen you care so deeply about anything as you do about hunting witches..."
"Oh, right — speaking of the Golden Kumquat Tavern, do you want to go tonight? I heard they've got a new girl there. Apparently she's been outshining every beauty in the place."
Nicole smiled but said nothing. She simply reached into her desk drawer and produced a fresh document.
Melodia craned her neck with curious — and immediately recognized it as her own annual performance review. The Magic Academy conducted a formal evaluation of all faculty each year, rewarding excellence and penalizing failures, all in the interest of keeping everyone sharp and motivated.
Then she watched, helplessly, as Nicole drew a conspicuous red X in the "Professional Ethics" column.
"You —!"
Melodia shot to her feet as if the chair had burned her, sputtering with righteous indignation: "You go more often than anyone!"
In the face of the accusation, the magnanimous Nicole maintained her serene, pleasant smile.
With a graceful wave of her hand, the suggestion box mounted outside the principal's office drifted through the air under the pull of Mage's Hand, coming to hover directly in front of Melodia.
"Please."
"..."
Melodia fell silent, her face arranged into an expression of deeply aggrieved tragedy.
"Would you like me to step out while you write your complaint? The box is anonymous, after all — specifically designed to protect submitters from deliberate retaliation by the party being reported."
Nicole added this consideration with thoughtful solicitude.
"Principal, I was wrong, I should never have listened to rumors."
Melodia executed a textbook deep bow of apology — the kind that offered a generous view down the neckline — and capitulated to the principal's authority: "From now on, if anyone dares spread rumors about you frequenting establishments of ill repute, I will personally be the first to set them straight!"
"Your attitude is commendable. As for the performance review..."
Nicole gave a playful wink of her right eye. "That depends on your future conduct."
...
"Disgusting."
Li Fei stood over another wolf carcass, brow furrowed.
The acrid smell of blood and the viscera spilling from the abdominal wound made her stomach turn — but she forced herself to keep looking.
After all, she would certainly face far more blood and death going forward. Failing to acclimatize now would cost her dearly later.
After a long moment, the tension finally eased from her body. She turned and walked away without looking back, in search of the next target.
EXP: 198/200
With each Moonlight Wolf she killed, Li Fei couldn't help but open the System Panel and watch the EXP tick upward toward the level threshold.
Soon.
Li Fei pressed down the urgency coiling in her chest, breathed deep, steadied herself, and kept her approach to each fight as cool-headed as possible.
Soon enough, she found a new target.
Aim. Fire. Hold distance. Wait for the poison to work. Finish it.
Without a single hitch, the Moonlight Wolf expired beneath Li Fei's blade.
EXP: 209/200 ＋
She opened the System Panel again. The accumulated EXP had finally broken through two hundred — and a bright, gleaming plus sign had appeared after the number.
Li Fei understood: all she had to do was tap that plus sign, and her level — frozen at zero for two months — would finally flip to one.
But she closed her eyes, drew a long breath, and suppressed the urge to level up on the spot. Without pausing for a moment, she turned and left the wolf den — and in her haste, she even forgot to say goodbye to the elven lady standing guard there.
What if leveling up knocked her unconscious?
What if leveling up made her glow all over, summoning some dramatic celestial vision — golden lotuses rising from a sea of suffering, a full moon ascending over the ocean — for everyone nearby to witness?
Better safe than sorry!
Li Fei hurried all the way back to her lodgings, locked the door, drew the curtains, and dug out her phone — which Bai Mengtian had helped her charge to full — opened the camera app, pointed the lens at herself, and only then finally shrugged off the mage's robe and stripped away her cumbersome gear, settling herself firmly onto the sofa.
Everything was in order.
"Finally..."
Li Fei pressed her hand over the smile tugging at the corner of her mouth, but she could no longer contain the joy bubbling up inside her. Her eyes curved into two warm, radiant crescents. "All that hard work is finally paying off..."
"System — level me up!"
The panel blazed with a burst of brilliant golden light — and then, a moment later, it faded. Li Fei's bright, sparkling eyes swept carefully over each attribute, watching for what had changed.
① Tone reference: see Twelve Citizens. Those who know, know.
PS: The primary cast consists of original characters, with selective adaptation of characters from other works — though significant reimagining is guaranteed. Nicole and Irena are inspired by characters from Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina.
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