Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

Old Ferrero seemed extremely pleased, for this dissection was perfect. His dear new apprentice might have been a bit clumsy with his hands and feet, but considering that he had never served as an assistant before today, the composure he maintained amidst a dance of ribs and organs was already far beyond those so-called disciples of the past.

Even if he was a bit slow, it didn't matter. The child was only ten, and all he needed was to be taught.

Moreover, teaching him brought joy to Old Ferrero's heart—grasping concepts with but a hint, mastering cutting techniques with a single lesson, and understanding the principles behind organ extraction after just one demonstration.

Such a perfect apprentice, yet snatched away by that old consumptive ghoul.

Old Ferrero was filled with heartache. Such a fine child, why pursue a life of violence and killing? Why not learn medicine? Mastering his skills, he could be wealthy while young and choose his own path on this stairway of life, with no need to scrounge for the leftover scraps from battle professionals.

Fortunately, the child was brilliant.

This made Old Ferrero's view of Colin much improved—previously he felt this child should have followed in his footsteps, but now it seemed the boy was quite self-aware. Considering the little apprentice he had provided, Old Ferrero would no longer be needed to assist in the future.

The freedom you desire, I give you.

.........

Colin pushed open the door and looked at Old Hoffman sitting under the setting sun. He walked to the table and replaced the incense stick that was about to burn out.

"Colin, how was your day?"

"Very good, Teacher. Malin is more excellent than I imagined. I now somewhat understand Karlmo's feelings—an uncontrollable child, greedily absorbing power, wanting to become stronger... If one day he falls... I cannot imagine such an outcome." Colin laughed self-deprecatingly, "I'm speaking pessimistic words again."

"I understand, but I believe in what that child said that day. I always remember his words," Old Hoffman coughed lightly and repeated, "Even if I come to regret it in the years to come, at least at this moment today, I have endeavored for this answer, and that is enough... He doesn't seem like a child who is naive about the world, rather like an elder who has seen through human affairs."

"I will not regret the choices I've made." Colin smiled and took a blanket, draping it over his teacher's legs, "It's getting dark, Teacher; come inside."

"Hmm..." Closing his eyes and leaning back in the wheelchair, Old Hoffman sighed deeply as he turned the wheelchair indoors, "Colin, my child, today I pondered again over what he said, and upon reflection, I found myself regretting my past."

"Teacher..." Silent, Colin watched the old man before him, aware of the pain and regret he carried, and more aware that his own senior apprentice had also been prepared to shoulder all that their teacher bore: "I understand, Teacher."

"Silly child, I don't need understanding, nor do I need someone to comprehend all that I've carried... I just, I just regret that I never tried hard enough to change the burdens of suffering I carried. If only I had succeeded, your senior apprentice and his successors wouldn't have to suffer."

Looking at his teacher, Colin pursed his lips. He remembered the man before him, once not so aged, who had picked him up from the slums, teaching him Spell Formation, giving a foundling who never knew his father and was abandoned by his mother a chance at life. He knelt on one knee beside the wheelchair: "Teacher, it's our school's responsibility, we protect this city."

"You and Mason have worked hard." The old man reached out and ruffled the hair of his student just as he had when he was young.

"For this world, Teacher, we fear nothing, facing sacrifice head-on," Colin bowed his head, "To serve the gods with sincerity is to find no service beyond reach."

.........

Malin did not understand what the old half-elf was thinking, but the knowledge gained today was a source of joy—first, understanding how Professionals come to be, despite those inexplicable potions, those mysterious materials, even more enigmatic core components, and those unfortunate souls who turned into Professionals only to squander their gold fortunes.

Ah, the life of a Professional is truly dangerous, yet one can't escape the realm of irresistible temptation.

Malin felt that following in his senior apprentice Colin's footsteps wouldn't be so bad, even though it meant becoming a member of the Clergy of the Church of the Earth Goddess. He had already inquired, and there was no conflict between serving as Clergy and marriage... Wait, why does that even concern me?

So now, the only question was how to become a Professional.

Malin thought this was fairly straightforward—just perform a little better. Even if the Church's kids became Professionals based on seniority, his day would come.

Besides, Malin figured if he outperformed everyone else, surely the Church members wouldn't overlook him.

With that thought, Malin felt even more confident of success.

And what made him even more confident was the state of his wallet—selling the entire Spider Mother body amounted to nearly 675 Mowish gold, and the Ghoul fetched another 80 Mowish gold. Together with his previous savings, Malin now was a wealthy man with 1500 Mowish gold in hand. Although not as rich as wealthy merchants or even richer Nobles, it was certainly enough to satisfy Maya—the girl no longer had to worry about where the next meal would come from, to the point where she even stopped biting her tail.

Oh, Malin also heard that, as long as you have money, you can buy titles of nobility up to that of an Earl.

So, in this damned world, having money really does mean you can do whatever you want.

Of course, Malin was not surprised by this—after all, such 'decadence of ritual and music' wasn't unheard of in both ancient and modern times.

.........

Malin's happiness probably lasted for a week, and then reality hurt him—1500 gold might indeed be a huge sum from the perspective of an ordinary person, especially for the average commoner. If life were a touch below par, those 1500 gold would be enough for them to live out their days and buy a burial plot large enough to last until the end of civilization... that is, assuming they lived to the average life expectancy.

But for professionals, 1500 gold could be spent in the blink of an eye.

The reason he knew this was because he went to chat with Margaret, incidentally delivering a bouquet for Colin, when he unexpectedly witnessed a transaction—a Demon Hunter had come to the Church to purchase advanced potion materials, ready to advance to level 5. A single Stoneheart Sparrow's heart cost 4000 Mowish.

Demon Hunters had some form of rapport with the Pantheon Church, so even if there were a markup, it wouldn't be too excessive, which meant there were no inflated prices. Even so, the money Malin had could only buy half a heart, and he'd need an additional 25% discount to afford it.

This gave Malin a firsthand look at what Colin meant when he said, 'New courses teach you how to make a lot of money, which is also the foundation of getting stronger.'

It also made him understand the hair-raising intensity of Old Ferrero's words when pointing at a Gryphon's heart, 'If your strike deviates by the thickness of two hairs, you could lose three thousand gold.'

Even Ghouls, which previously seemed utterly despicable and worthless in Malin's eyes, started to look quite refined and handsome.

After all, just by digging out their hearts, they were worth 80 Mowish each.

Then Malin discovered that he didn't have a Demon Hunter license, which meant that unless Colin took him along, no one would assign tasks to him.

… that's not quite right, either. Extermination of small spiders and young arthropodal spirits might still be assigned to Malin, but such creatures weren't worth much. An extermination task came with a 30 gold subsidy. Ordinary bullets cost 5 gold for a box of ten, and on his first task, Malin fired 75 bullets, ending up with a loss of seven and a half gold. The next time, Malin did not even want to use bullets and simply grabbed a stone club to smash at his targets.

Therefore, the homeowner's property suffered. Malin became like a humanoid wrecking machine, in the path of the stone club's sweep—furniture, spirits, pets—all were equal in the eyes of destruction.

Every time an extermination task was completed, Malin earned pure profit, while how the homeowners cleaned the remains and fluids of arthropodal spirits off their furniture, dealt with their smashed wardrobes, handled their accidentally injured pets, and put back together their irreparable vases… was none of Malin's concern anymore.

Of course, Malin had thought about whether such behavior would lead to complaints, but after demolishing a few homes, he realized that no one complained—everyone knew how dreadful spirits could be. When choosing between not killing them and not destroying furniture, no one would choose the former.

Perhaps some might ask why.

To this, Malin could boldly hypothesize—those who chose the former likely have been proven by history to have made a mistake due to their choices.

A whole family gone, no chance for descendants to repeat such errors.

At the same time, he reaffirmed that the words 'to stupidly die' in this damned world are not at all an adjective, but a perfectly standard verb.

And Malin's behavior was considered a form of practice—using firearms to resolve conflicts was naturally safer than using melee weapons. Malin's few battle records quickly became a learning model for his peers. When instructors roared at the older students itching for action, they liked to use Malin as an example.

Heard your fur has grown in? Can you drive away arthropodal spirits with a stone club? Essentially, no senior student could retort, since the instructors' observational skills were already master-level.

But aside from Malin, there weren't many of his peers who could wield a stone club with such swift and deadly precision. The Frost Giant apprentices had no problem with it, but they had weaknesses too—with every move, Malin wrapped himself in Blessing Spell Formations, and he flung Curse and Manipulation Spell Formations around like they cost nothing. As for those big guys, their brains just weren't up to the task.

Moreover, because of a half year of eating well, sleeping well, and good training, Malin's strength had greatly increased recently. According to Colin's testing, it was now at a 7, but with a blessing, it shot directly toward 10.

A strength of 7 among adult humans was already considered very strong, and coupled with a blessed strength of 10 in a ten-year-old child like Malin, it was truly an extraordinary performance.

Mortals, even at the pinnacle of strength at level 10, are probably just like that.

And as the summer passed and autumn was about to arrive, Malin witnessed his first festival since coming to this world.

The Harvest Festival, overseen by the Church of the Earth Goddess.