Chapter 19 - The Qualifications to Become a Magician! A Chance to Become a Noble!
Theresa had a dazed look on her face, so the maid quickly explained her words.
”Master Lynn has grace. From my opinion coming from this war as well as the magic potions and winemaking, Master Lynn is very capable.”
”He is more capable than I thought!” exclaims Theresa with excitement in her voice.
”Master Lynn is ambitious,” the housekeeper continued. “He is a qualified lord, not a child. He has his own honor and pride.”
Theresa was silent. After a while, she smiled and replied to the maid.
”Lynn is a sound Lord. I will tell him about the 500 gold coins and thank him. But I do want to send him something. What should I send?”
The housekeeper thought for a moment before offering a suggestion.
”Colin’s mother in law said that there is magic in Master Lynn’s body. He should be turning into a magician soon. I think you could qualify him for the winter wizard’s assessment this year.”
The central nobles held four magician’s assessments each year in the central city of Monlar. To participate, one would need a reference from a noble who holds a rank above Count. The criteria for the assessment was to master magic. As long as you mastered magic, you could become a first class magician.
Only few people knew, though, that for the assessment there were harsh conditions that, if satisfied, would allow him to be directly promoted to a Baron. If Lynn could accomplish this, he would go from a civilian to a true nobleman. The first condition was to win first place by having the largest mana pool. The ranking would be decided by a magician.
”It is a good idea to give him the qualification!” said Theresa with a shine in her eyes.
After she thought about the reward, Theresa quickly wrote the letter of recommendation and sent the letter to Lynn. Two days later, he received the letter.
”Thank you for the victory. Because of you, I received five hundred gold coins. Along with this note is a letter of recommendation to participate in the winter magician assessment. Of course, if you do not master magic by this time, I can always recommend you another time.”
Lucy was excited to hear the news.
”Your magic will be rated, and if you pass and take part in two empirical operations, you can become a nobleman in a year or two!”
”It may not take that long,” Lynn stated. “I have read in a book that if I can take first place in the assessment, I will become a nobleman.”
”You do not have to set your goal so high,” Lucy said while patting Lynn’s head. “I do not want you to suffer because you lost. You just have to pass, and I will be proud of you. There is no pressure, okay?”
She very well knew Lynn’s hard work these past few days. Everyday she was able to sleep in peace because of Lynn’s effort, so she did not want to put that immense pressure on him. All that mattered was that Lynn was happy. Lynn nodded and did not argue with her.
”Well, there is a month to go,” he said.
”Okay,” Lucy said with unconditional support.
Lynn got up and started to pack a few things. He grabbed two kilos of wine and some of the village’s rare mountain meat. Lynn had taken the first five mature mushrooms and sent them to Theresa after he took the spores. He did not need them since a hundred mushrooms will have matured in a few days. By sending these five potions of decent quality, countless nobles would be envious of him. Since they were fire mushrooms they could help nurture flame wizards, one of the most powerful kind of wizards. They were a popular choice
A lot of families wanted to train flame wizards, but in order to buy the fire mushroom one would have to have both money and luck. Yet, five flame potions were nothing to Lynn. Once the gift was ready the person who delivered Theresa’s letter returned, and so Lynn gave the gift to him for delivery.
Lynn took Lucy to see the soldiers who escorted the letter carrier and saw them off after they toured his territory. The wave of beasts gave Lynn an abundance of food so he would not have to worry about feeding his Legion for a while.So over the last two days Lynn used his System points to expand his Half Wolf Corps to sixty fighters. Buno went to sell more wine, so Lynn asked him to buy more cylindrical barrels as well.
Winter was coming, so soon the mountain grapes would be out of season. Lynn had to make more barrels in order to make more wine before time ran out. Wine would also be more expensive during winter, meaning more profit. The wheat had grown to half a human’s height, so Lynn counted his blessings that the wave of monsters had not disrupted the field.
Meanwhile, the southern wall of the village had been torn down to allow for expansion. The plan was to have ten times the area. This would consume a lot of wood and stone, but right after the wheat harvest would be winter. This meant that the villagers would have no farm work to do, so they could spend time making logs and mining stone. The fire mushroom’s spores had increased too. Lynn wanted to build ten more greenhouses to increase the yield of the mushrooms to four hundred.
The next morning, Lynn scored three hundred points along with his twenty points from yesterday. He added eight more half beasts to his repertoire as there were no food restrictions. Lynn planned to expand his legion to one hundred soldiers. That would be enough to lay siege on Sla.
Buno came back at noon with an increase of sales. He brought back ten large barrels for which he spent a gold coin. He also brought back twenty men with him. Each person cost five silver coins, so a total of one gold coin was spent. This surprised Lynn. They could dig the cellar for him, but they would also need housing. Having multiple wooden houses would be great, but first he would put them into two cabins and let them slowly build their own houses.
Buno also brought back some news. Everywhere, traveling merchants were talking about Lynn and his beasts. The news of Lynn killing a Sla attendant had also spread. Ino Sla responded to this matter too, calling Lynn’s behavior as ‘stupid, ’reckless,’ ‘unpolite,’ and a ‘boring provocation.’ Since Lynn was not a nobleman, he could only get a war by having Ino Sla declare it first. In a way, people would think that Lynn and Ino were on the same level as a war could only be declared by two nobles. His assessment of Lynn was horrible, and he gave a provocative statement in response.
”If Lynn has the abilities of a nobleman, then he would be welcome to declare war on me. If he does not, it would just prove that he is just an incompetent man who relies on Count Theresa in order to survive.”
Buno was furious when he heard these words, but could do nothing to stop them. Civilians could not declare war. Lynn needed to at least have a baron’s title, yet it was immensely difficult for a civilian to gain a nobleman’s title.
Lynn was calm when he heard the insults. He did not care for the words of a man who did not have long to live. Once the purchases were completed, Lynn ordered the villagers to collect grapes on a large scale for the last brew of the year. He then took a fire mushroom, removed the spores, and then brought it back to the study. Starting today he would have a magic potion everyday. In a month, Lynn was going to consume his way to magic.