Through the gap in the curtains, Leon looked out at the world still buried under white and knew right away that today was going to be another day of doing nothing but huddling by the fireplace.
Propped against the headboard, he toyed with Rose's hair with one hand and stroked Jeanne's small hand with the other, staring blankly at the magic-stone clock on the wall as its hour hand crawled a full circle around.
By the time he finally shook off that lazy, slack feeling of a winter morning, the whistle of Kureha's sword cutting the air had already started drifting up from downstairs, her morning practice underway.
"Mm…"
Beside him, Rose stirred faintly under the thick blanket, instantly catching Leon's attention.
"You're up?"
"Nngh…"
Rose rolled onto her side, draped one long leg across Leon's stomach, hooked an arm around his neck, and let out a muffled, nasal sound with no intention whatsoever of opening her eyes.
Leon caught the clear exhaustion on her face, then glanced at the yoga pants, white knee-socks and stockings, little Mary Jane shoes, the camisole and hot pants, and the rest of the clothing scattered across the carpet, and said nothing more, only stroking her hair tenderly.
With Rose and Jeanne straddled over him, he didn't have the heart to wake them. With nothing else to do, he toggled his Falna panel open and shut to train his Magic while reaching for the notebook and quill on the nightstand, beginning to organize everything he'd gained and everything that had changed over this stretch of time, so he could plan and adjust for the upcoming Expedition.
…
The steel nib left a rhythmic scratching across the notebook.
Leon's handwriting wasn't what you'd call beautiful. If anything, it was a little messy, but taken as a whole it gave off a pleasant, comfortable impression.
Clearly, the diligence-makes-up-for-shortcomings effect of Scholar's Heart had played a huge, undeniable role in why Leon could write a hand this good.
For a man who was, at his core, fairly traditional, Leon had carried something of an obsession about this in both lives. After all, a man's handwriting was his face.
"That's about it, should be everything?"
"This'll do for now. If I left anything out… I'll just ask Rose later."
Muttering to himself for a bit, he looked over the records he'd written down:
…
[Recent Progress Log]:
[New Magic]: Blizzard, White Art (ice clone), Ice Lance
[New Equipment]: Everyone upgraded to second-class adventurer equipment. Lydia: brought three of her own first-class pieces
[New Items]: 'Wonder Pack' with 4-5x capacity,
[New Buffs]: 'Word of Truth: Endurance (10% Endurance)', 'Strength Blessing (10% Strength)', 'Arcane Wisdom (10% Magic)' (each cast consumes the corresponding magic material: [Magic Powder])
[New Elixirs]: 'Wild Mixture', 'Holy Water (made by Lydia)', 'Dual-Attribute Recovery Potion' (sourced from the Blue Pharmacy by Naaza), 'Secret Recipe Elixir' (Airmid's version, 500,000)
[New Levels]: Lv.4: 4 people
[Pending Confirmation]: New base: White Tower Bastion (interior layout, personal room decoration still to be spent on)
…
Having read through all these scattered bits he'd recorded, Leon felt a creeping sense of dread.
Forget everything else, just this page of notes alone, every single character seemed to be shouting two words at him:
Money pit!
The daily training went without saying. Even warriors and swordsmen, like Kureha practicing downstairs right now, burned through cash all the same.
As the saying goes: scholarship is for the poor, martial arts for the rich. No money but you still want to train as a fighter?
Forget it!
And compared to warriors and swordsmen, a Mage's daily training drained money like water. Magic elixirs, magical tomes, magic crystals, materials burned through in practice, the wear and tear on training gear and equipment… which of these wasn't a gold-devouring beast?
Magic-related items especially. Even a single practice dummy for magic was forged from costly materials like obsidian, running dozens or even hundreds of times the price of an ordinary dummy.
Not to mention that Leon's household had five people shouldering exactly this kind of daily expense. If you counted Persephone and Laurier, the two magic swordsmen, that made six, though they barely counted as half each.
Just the daily training costs for these six easily broke past several million a month. And in the future, as everyone leveled up and grew stronger, this expense would keep climbing at an exponential, runaway pace.
…
Beyond the steep daily spending, the second great money pit was, naturally, equipment.
Weapons, armor, combat clothing, gloves, boots, adventuring carry gear, accessories, and all sorts of little custom items tailored to personal style…
These too climbed exponentially in price with every level gained, every update or replacement.
From fourth-class, third-class, second-class…
From a few tens of thousands of Valis for beginner gear, to the few hundred thousand of lower-tier veteran adventurer equipment, to the several million of third-class equipment, all the way to the tens of millions of second-class equipment, and finally the jaw-dropping first-class equipment that started in the nine figures…
A single weapon alone was enough to easily drain a First-Class Adventurer's savings, or even put them into debt.
Never mind the burden of a full set of equipment.
And what's more… equipment wasn't something you could afford to use just because you could afford to buy it. Upkeep and maintenance were the real bulk of the cost.
Take first-class equipment as an example: come back from a single Expedition and the repair and maintenance bill could easily run seven or eight million, even over ten million. Especially for members with a rough, violent combat style, gear wore out far faster than for anyone else.
Like Kureha.
The rate she wore through weapons was clearly higher than fellow swordsmen Laurier and Persephone. After all, neither of those two fought anywhere near as wildly as the Sword Saint. Monster type, body size, armored or not, whether you cut along the grain or against it, in her eyes it all got processed the same way: as a corpse.
Which goes to show just how savage Kureha's way of fighting really was.
Add in her magic, which boosted her attack power on top of all that, and so far… she'd already gone through four swords.
And she was only Lv.2…
It was genuinely hard to imagine what horrifying levels her equipment spending would reach once she hit Lv.4 or Lv.5.
"Terrifying…"
Leon clicked his tongue, recalling that combat-crazed look on Kureha's face down in the Dungeon, and shook his head with a touch of resignation.
"Looks like our Sword Saint's future days are going to be pretty rough…"
…
Beyond daily costs and equipment purchases, next came the consumption of magic materials.
The three buff spells Leon had newly mastered, Strength Blessing, Word of Truth: Endurance, and Arcane Wisdom, all required consuming one basic magic material to trigger their effects when cast:
[Magic Powder]
Simply put, this was a special magic material made by grinding Magic Stones and magic crystals into powder, then processing it through alchemy.
When he'd opened the box, the grimoire had come with the recipe for [Magic Powder] included. If he didn't mind the hassle, Leon could absolutely make it himself.
Of course, the major magic shops, like [The Witch's Cabin], sold the finished product as well.
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