By the time the party wound down, the three of them had gotten to know their neighbors on the floor.
Among them, Daisy was by far the best communicator.
Paired with her decent Mandarin, she got along wonderfully with the other girls.
Unsurprisingly, she hit it off best with three fellow freshmen: Amanda Shaw, a genius girl; Chloe Wood, a tall girl from Beijing; and Young-hee Choi, a fiery girl from South Korea.
Amanda Shaw came from an exceptionally wealthy background and was studying physics, one of New York University’s premier majors.
Chloe Wood was tall, an avid winter swimmer, and a bioscience major whose family was solidly comfortable—neither ridiculously rich nor struggling.
Young-hee Choi was less well-off.
She was the only one among the three who explicitly stated her intention to stay in the United States after graduation.
Studying law, her ambition was to become a practicing attorney.
A Korean girl chasing the American Dream.
Daisy felt Young-hee would be easy to recruit, mainly due to the staggering tuition costs and heavy financial pressure from her family.
Once back in their apartment, the three of them began working out the logistics of opening their shop—the plan they had hatched earlier to sell Conjured Manna and Conjured Water.
Daisy brought up Young-hee during this discussion.
Her proposal was simple: Morris Chow would handle the shopfront and renovations, while she took care of advertising and staffing.
Young-hee was her first target.
Even if they couldn’t recruit her into the core group right away, having a gorgeous Korean girl work as a clerk would still be a huge plus.
With no better option, Morris reluctantly agreed.
To be honest, Morris had almost forgotten about the shop idea.
If he remembered correctly, Daisy herself had once mentioned that opening a physical business posed a security risk.
Jessica provided the explanation on that front.
Times changed.
Their World of Warcraft raid team needed more people, and the point of the shop wasn’t to make money anymore—it was to recruit fresh blood.
Job interviews would serve as an ideal screening process.
With so many female college students around, it would be easy to pick out suitable candidates for the team.
As for security, Jessica had tested it: all tiers of Conjured Manna and Conjured Water lost their magical properties after being exposed to open air in the Marvel world for twenty-four hours, though their taste remained completely unaffected.
Even without their magical effects, these conjured goods had a much longer shelf life than anything sold in ordinary bakeries or beverage shops.
Selling zero-cost food and drinks near a college campus meant turning a profit was practically automatic.
It took him three days to negotiate for a suitable storefront.
The only downside was the steep rent…
To avoid future hassle, Morris negotiated directly with the landlord and bought the property outright.
Although he still had to pay annual property taxes, it was far cheaper than paying rent every month.
When they graduated, selling the shop might even net them a tidy profit.
After consulting Daisy and Jessica, all three agreed it was a solid move.
Pooling together a portion of their remaining savings, they purchased the place.
Half a month of simple renovations later, the Magic Bakery officially opened for business.
Because their production costs were virtually zero, their prices were ridiculously competitive, and they quickly cornered the market around campus.
The conjured breads and drinks came in various types and flavors depending on skill level, so product reputation was never an issue.
As a result, the shop turned out to be surprisingly profitable.
Meanwhile, even more college girls applied for part-time jobs than they had anticipated.
Naturally, Young-hee Choi was brought in immediately by Daisy.
Joining her was Chloe Wood, the tall Beijing girl.
What surprised Morris most was Amanda Shaw, the genius student, who took a part-time job there as well—whether to experience ordinary life or simply dragged along by Chloe, he wasn’t sure.
With her employer working at the shop, Amanda’s bodyguard, Raya Cole, naturally tagged along.
Daisy generously opened the door for her, scheduling the two of them on the same shifts.
Just like that, the shop gathered all the top-tier Asian beauties from their apartment floor under one roof.
Daisy didn’t hesitate to put her social skills to work.
On the second day after the opening, she invited Young-hee into their apartment.
And just like that, a new Midgardian Human novice Mage spawned in the Blood Elf starting zone.
As for her class talent mismatch, Daisy put it bluntly: Young-hee was just a tool-person providing bread and drinks for the shop, so she didn’t need optimal stats.
Besides, what their raid team lacked wasn’t raw numerical output, but the necessary headcount to handle boss mechanics.
What truly surprised Morris was the second recruit: the beautiful bodyguard, Raya Cole.
What made it even more surprising was that she had approached him on her own.
Raya was sharp.
While working, she noticed several anomalies in the shop’s operations: although they made token purchases of flour and basic ingredients, the volume was drastically lower than what a normal bakery consumed. This story is hosted at novelping(.)com.
Furthermore, the shop used ingredients for its high-end pastries that were never listed on any procurement receipts.
Most glaring of all was the power consumption in the kitchen—it was practically non-existent.
Then, of course, came the change in Young-hee.
Anyone paying close attention could notice the difference.
Although Morris had only granted Young-hee basic attributes and the ability to conjure food and water without unlocking any combat skills, a Level 70 physical boost was far beyond what a normal human possessed.
Even as a standard Mage template primarily stacking Intellect and Spirit, Young-hee couldn’t entirely hide her newfound physical presence.
Raya, obsessed with personal strength as a professional bodyguard, picked up on Daisy’s deliberate hints and eventually sought out Morris herself.
Everything fell into place naturally after that.
Raya gained the power she craved, and Morris gained a Tauren Warrior for the roster.
The third person was recruited through Morris’s active push: Chloe Wood.
The girl was carefree by nature.
Though a bit uncomfortable with Morris having so many female “teammates,” she quickly got over it once she received her novice stat boost.
Even an average Midgardian Human had baseline attributes around twenty—roughly four times that of a normal human, and far more powerful than a simple mathematical addition.
Chloe chose the Hunter class.
As someone who had practiced basic Chinese martial arts during middle school, the system surprisingly recognized her background and awarded her a special talent bonus: +1 to all attributes for every level gained.
[Martial Master: You can increase your attributes through martial arts training.
Current Martial Level: 1.
Each level up grants an additional +1 to all attributes.]
In actual combat, however, Colleen Wing could easily beat up ten Chloes at once…
It seemed the game’s requirement for Martial Level 1 was quite low.
On the other hand, the threshold for Martial Level 2 appeared exceptionally high.
After all, Colleen Wing—who had joined earlier—and the newly recruited Raya were roughly equal in strength, both possessing rare martial skill among ordinary humans.
Yet both were still stuck at Martial Level 1.
Regarding this, Raya, ever the seeker of physical perfection, claimed she would soon reach the Internal Power stage.
They would see then if her Martial Level would finally rank up.