I Trust You
Ellie kept staring at Nara. The silence that had fallen between them was starting to make the heroine feel uncomfortable. In her mind, thoughts were probably spinning fast because Nara wouldn’t be foolish; if she were truly foolish, she wouldn’t have managed to plan so extensively to get herself into this institution, though her magic power hadn’t been awakened, right?
"Alright, if my goodwill makes Ellie uncomfortable, then I won’t interfere anymore. Sorry." The girl next to her grasped Ellie’s hand in a pitiful manner and used a look that could make many fell in love. Ellie sighed. If the other party was stubborn about keeping her money, Ellie was ready to rebuke her directly. Fortunately, Nara did not let the situation escalate further.
"In that case, I’ll go get some food from the kitchen." The lovable heroine glanced at Ellie again before leaving with her twin tail hair. Ellie quickly ate her own meal while the other was gone, fearing more trouble when Nara returned with her trashy food.
And it turned out exactly as she feared. After Nara fetched her meal, she returned and sat down, giving Ellie a sad look as if to say, "You have so much money, right? Look at your best friend now, still eating food like pig slop."
Of course, Ellie ignored that look and scanned the room instead. She didn’t immediately leave after finishing her meal; doing so would have made it too obvious that she didn’t want to keep playing the role of a best friend all the time.
"Ellie, look at the food they give to scholarship students like us. Even the cooks here look at us as if we’re wild animals," Nara complained, drawing Ellie’s attention back to her own pitiable situation.
Ellie sighed deeply before looking at her food, which even included animal fat, then she thought about the boiled cabbage she had received out of the other’s kindness before, Ellie really wanted to say it served her right.
Wasn’t it true that when she brought over rice dissolved in hot water, Nara had looked at it regretfully? And now, the food in front of her, which looked far more appetizing than before, what right did she have to complain?
"This is good food."
"Good food? If it’s so good, why did you spend so much money to buy your own meal set!" Nara blurted out impulsively after hearing her best friend speak as if the food she was eating was a splendid meal.
She’s not a pig or a dog. If others were eating food that looked that good, why was she the only one stuck eating scraps?
It was true that the meal included meat and various vegetables, but wasn’t it all made from leftovers? With these leftovers, Ellie wanted to say that it really suited her??
“This is my first meal, Nara. I eat like this every day.”
“Lies! I’ve never seen Ellie eat here. Are you saying you sneak in to buy good food every day?”
“.............” Ellie remained silent, acknowledging the truth in Nara’s words—she had lied...Ellie had never come to this cafeteria before. She had been contented with eating roasted vegetables and tubers in her meals, if it wasn’t that she grew bored of them, she would still eat them alone in her room.
Well...Who would have thought her first visit to the cafeteria would involve such complications?
“Ellie, don’t you feel sorry for me at all? How much does your meal cost? How about this...can I borrow some money from you now? When I become a strong magician, I’ll pay you back tenfold,” the girl in front of her said cheerfully, making Ellie smile involuntarily.
“The food is quite expensive. After hearing Nara’s warning, I think I won’t buy them anymore. I’ll save my money for essentials only, or perhaps I might be sent back to the village. So, this money is very important, isn’t it?” Upon hearing this, Nara was visibly taken aback.
Her hand, clutching the spoon, showed white and red streaks, as if she was exerting too much force to contain her anger. Ellie pretended not to notice anything and let Nara manage her emotions alone. After nearly 3 minutes of silence between them, Nara finally found her voice again.
“I’m glad you’ve come to see it my way. From now on, I believe you can take good care of yourself,” a forced smile appeared on Nara’s lovely face. Ellie smiled back, and after enduring a little longer, Nara excused herself and left with her unfinished meal.
Maybe the other girl had lost her appetite upon seeing that her dear friend, who had nothing good, was eating well while she had to settle for leftovers.
As Nara left, Ellie watched the yellow dot representing her location, which had appeared thanks to the spores of the purple mushrooms she had summoned to mark Nara’s location. As a friend who only appeared in a few Chapters, Ellie wished that was all there was to their story.
It wasn’t that she disliked Nara, but the more she encountered her, the more her fondness of this novel seemed to diminish. To avoid growing an aversion to the story, Ellie decided she had to do something.
To preserve the little fondness she still had for the heroine, she wanted to avoid her as much as possible. The best way was always to know Nara’s location, and she had the ability to do that. If possible...Ellie would avoid places where Nara was, except in class where they couldn’t avoid each other, and she had to play out her remaining roles for 2-3 more Chapters.
Watching Nara’s yellow dot move away from the cafeteria, Ellie saw another ability of location-marking.
It wasn’t just about marking the target’s location; she could also know about the other party’s power through the colored dots. With plenty of time in the cafeteria, she had sent many tiny spores to other students’ bodies, seeing many dots—brown, white, light blue, and red.
This considerable cheating power made Ellie happy; at least she had another tool to help her defeat her enemies. In situations where the enemy was cautious and unwilling to reveal their elemental power to gain an advantage in combat, Ellie could still use her power to penetrate the enemy’s body and identify them with different colored dots.
After experimenting to her satisfaction, she left the cafeteria and went straight to her dormitory. Ellie’s goal today wasn’t just to have a leisurely meal at the cafeteria. She also had another very important goal: to use the permanent magic-enhancing crystals she received from the Setter family.
According to the novel, the measurement of a student’s power happened only once, which was during the entrance examination, which Ellie had already passed. Another instance was when one wished to join the Hunter’s Association to test whether they were qualified to participate. Everyone must pass a power test first.
Under normal circumstances, students weren’t usually qualified to become hunters; they need a power level of at least 4, whereas regular students range from level 2 to 4 in their final year. Therefore, it was the appropriate time, meaning students graduating from the institution would then proceed to join the Hunter’s Association.
Those who reached level 4 before graduating had an advantage; they could take on missions from the Hunter’s Association, which were awarded as skill points, and these points could be exchanged for scores at the institution.
In the Hunter’s Association, there were no levels for hunters; any mission could be accepted unless it specifically required magicians of earth, water, wind, or fire elemental, for instance. However, once a mission was taken, the Association didn’t hold responsibility for any issues unfolding, including the death of the individual.
Moreover, if a mission was accepted and failed, the penalty for deducting accumulated points was significantly high, often 10 times the mission points. Thus, one must carefully consider before taking on a mission. If their points dropped to 0, they could no longer become hunters. Some who had severely negative points might even be detained to consider penalties to prevent them from abandoning missions and causing trouble.
Ellie considered herself very special because, in just a few months, she had already reached a mid-level 2 power and also had numerous permanent magic-enhancing crystals provided by the Setter family, which had not shortchanged her. They had provided enough to make it worth the cost of the Tezetrons plant.
Therefore, Ellie’s simple goal this year was to be able to grow 3-typed herbs to accumulate points for her first year. In the second year, she planned to grow herbs again because there’s a possibility she could pass. However, the third year was riskier. Ellie needed to plan beyond growing herbs, and that plan was to earn as many points as possible from the Hunter’s Association, where she could gain points by concealing her identity, increasing her safety.
Ellie planned to hide her abilities until the third year. Once she passed the third year and was confident that the storyline of the novel didn’t need her anymore, she planned to live her life, running around as she pleases, and indulging in delicious treats that she rarely enjoyed in her past life.
For a salaried worker without personal time, Ellie felt that she still had so many dreams that she wanted to fulfill. She might die from overwork, but deep down, she’s not ready to leave, so she brought her spirit to reside in the body of a supporting character in a novel like this.
The petite figure made her way to her own room. The yellow dot was still outside, which Ellie understood meant the other party was probably meeting with the Sage professor. But all of that wasn’t something a heroine’s friend like her should meddle in.
Ellie took out the permanent magic-enhancing crystals. She started with the lowest power level first. The method for absorption wasn’t specified whether to use low or high-level magical crystals first, but either way, it’s packed with magic power, and humans could absorb it well. However, absorbing high-level power first might lead to an overload of magic power, making the body unable to adjust and possibly causing internal damage, which could take more time than usual to heal.
The magic-enhancing crystals were different colors: the highest level was white, and the lowest level was dark blue, indicating that the higher the level, the greater the purity inside.
Ellie picked up a crystal. She remembered that she had to slowly cover the crystal with her own magic power, then attempted to convert the magic power inside the crystal to her own. To put it simply...the power inside was like a pure fabric. If we want it to turn into a fabric of the same color as ours, we apply our power to it, and then absorb it back into our body. That’s all the procedure.
Originally, Ellie thought it wouldn’t be difficult, but when she started, it turned out not to be as easy as she thought.
Who would have known that it would take Ellie half an hour to absorb just 1 low-level permanent magic-enhancing crystal! And there was no change in her power level either!