Nick was so excited that he shoved the thought of getting some sleep out of his mind and proceeded to unpack and repack the boxes of Soul Healing scrolls according to the orders that he received. Most of the orders seemed to come from medical companies that used magic in their research as well as a few private individuals. Nick didn't care, he just new that he was about to earn a £4,500,000,000 pay day.
Nick repackaged the scrolls until 6 in the morning and labeled them according to buyer. Nick called Carla immediately afterwards and she answered quickly:
"Are the scrolls read for transport, Nick?"
"Yes, they are, you just have to come pick them up now and deliver them, They're packed on the ground floor, I won't be here so I'll leave the door unlocked. Oh, and I want all the payments forwarded to me first and I will give you your 12% afterwards."
Carla chuckled at Nick's cautiousness, like she would bother trying to steal money from him when he was clearly a golden goose. She responded sweetly:
"That's fine by me Nick, I will have the trucks arrive at your building in one hour and be reminded that payment will take a while, after all, the customers will want to ensure that they are paying for something of quality first."
Nick expected that he would have to deliver the goods and have the customers test them out first since no one knew if his product actually worked.
"Yeah, that's expected. I'll talk to you later."
Carla hung up the phone and Nick prepared himself to go to combat class. Nick arrived at the combat field at around 8 am and was so tired that he just sprawled himself onto the grassy field. While he was lying down, he took the chance to look through his new blade path inheritance which he had not done before.
Nick observed that it had very lengthy explanations that went in depth into the journey of the Magician that authored this inheritance. There were indeed rank 1 to 3 spells but from what Nick observed, he knew too little about blade path to critique any of them.
Nick started reading:
(Blade magic is the use of magic energy to transform, cultivate, mimic and use blades. It is a path that is generally only useful for combat and has very little value outside of combat, however, blade magic has the potential to give one Magician the power to slaughter an entire realm.)
Nick raised his right eyebrow at that bit of information.
(...That's a rather extreme assertion but then again, this path seems to be extreme in a sense.)
Nick continued to read the information contained in the inheritance, not even realizing that the other students had arrived and was completely clueless when Varrow made his entrance. Varrow sternly greeted his students before turning to look at Nick in the distance who was sprawled on the ground and lost in thought.
Varrow's right eyelid twitched and he raised his right index finger and flicked it at Nick, sending a greenish colored 'wind blade' at Nick that was almost crescent shaped. The wind blade flew through the air quickly but only a little faster than running speed. Nick suddenly sensed that there was a mass of magic energy coming towards him and he quickly jumped to his feet with his sword in hand, unsheathing it.
Nick saw the greenish wind blade coming towards him and his expression became fierce. He held the handle of his sword with both hands and cast his spell:
(Reinforce With Soul.)
An almost translucent miasma covered his sword as the wind blade drew nearer. As the wind blade was about to reach him, he positioned himself firmly with both feet spread apart and lunged towards it with the 7th movement of the Menacing Crane sword technique; both of Nick's arms twisted to trace a half-moon curve and when the wind blade hit his sword, Nick simultaneously cast:
(Sever.)
The impact was loud and magic energy from both attacks radiated into the surroundings; waves of air washed over the students who were standing at least twelve meters away. Nick gritted his teeth as the wind blade refused to give in to his blow and slowly pushed him back. Nick's arms were about to buckle when he decided that he needed more power.
Nick's eyes became an eerie pitch black and he cast:
(Soul Pulse.)
Since the wind blade had already been nearly stopped and impacted by the effects of Reinforced With Soul and Sever, it was very fragile at the moment even though it continued to press on against Nick's sword due to its own sharpness. However, Soul Pulse created an explosive physical force that hit against the wind blade and that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Most of the wind blade shattered and Nick was able to cut through the mid-section of it that was directly pressing against his sword before it completely shattered.
The students looked on as Nick appeared to them to look like an expert swordsman that was overcoming an impossible hurdle. Nick dropped his sword after the wind blade was destroyed and panted heavily. The students stayed quiet as they looked at him in deep shock while Varrow indifferently eyed Nick's callused and bleeding hands and said coldly:
"Pay attention during class!"
........
As punishment for his 'day dreaming', Varrow did not heal Nick's bleeding hands but still made Nick practise the Menacing Crane until class ended. The handle of Nick's sword was covered in blood but he did not mind it one bit.
(This little bit of pain is nothing.)
Varrow came over to speak to Nick and asked:
"Have you learnt the lesson I was trying to teach you?"
Nick replied:
"That depends. What was the lesson exactly?"
Varrow sighed.
"You shouldn't be so disengaged with your surroundings out in public. That could result in all sorts of trouble coming your way."
Nick thought about it:
(I guess he's right, but since when did my combat instructor become my guidance counselor?)
Nick politely said:
"Thank you for the advice, Sir Varrow."
Hearing Nick's overly formal reply, Varrow sighed heavily and then went on to switch the topic:
"I did not expect you to actually retaliate directly against my wind blade like you did. Although I barely put any power or effort into it, most persons at your level would think it best to avoid the attack of a Regular Magician."
Nick shook his head, saying:
"What would be the point of all of this training if I was just going to dodge powerful attacks. Besides, I doubt that you would use killing force against me so I took the risk of facing your attack to gain some experience."
"Well, you certainly impressed many of your classmates with your little display. You've been doing well so far, keep it up."
After saying, that Varrow cast a healing spell on Nick, repairing his bloody hands in an instant and then turned into a gust of wind and left. Nick shook both of his hands vigorously to ease the stinging sensation that he still felt in his palms.
Nick quickly hurried home to continue reading through his blade path inheritance and since tomorrow was Saturday, he would use it and Sunday to focus on the inheritance, undisturbed. When Nick got to the second floor of his building, he turned off all of the lights and sat at his desk while closing his eyes to focus purely on the inheritance.
Nick was so immersed in reading the inheritance that he did not pay attention to how much time was passing him by while he studied and he did not even eat on Saturday or Sunday, only leaving his desk to occasionally use the bathroom.
By the time Monday morning had arrived, Nick had gained a whole knew understanding of blade magic although his understanding was still ordinary at best; Nick had even reviewed a few of the blade path spells contained in the inheritance. He was a rank 2 Magician so he had almost no interest in the rank 1 spells and was able learn the laws of two rank 2 basic grade blade path spells.
Nick picked his head up from his desk and rubbed his blood shot eyes. Nick looked at his smart phone and realized that the time was currently 6 am. Nick went to take a shower and get dressed; he decided to get some food from the restaurant across the street before going to combat class. Nick walked into the restaurant and ordered two servings of eggs and pancakes with a black forest cake.
While Nick was eating, he received a call from Carla; he had not spoken to her since he had told her to pick up the Soul Healing scrolls from his building for delivery. Nick answered the call, asking:
"Good morning Carla, what's the matter?"
"Nick, I have received nothing but positive feedback regarding the Soul Healing scrolls, have you checked your bank account to see the payments."
Nick had been focused on his new inheritance the whole weekend so he had no idea whether he received any payments or not; he put his phone on loud speaker and checked his bank balance. Sure enough, he was now the proud owner of a bank account with over £4,516,000,000 in it. Nick dropped his fork when he saw the figures but continued chewing his food which somehow now tasted a bit better.
Nick swallowed his food and said to Carla:
"I've received the payments for the scrolls. I'll send you your store's 12% immediately."
Carla replied:
"Good, but I have another matter that I wanted to discuss. One of the companies that bought your scrolls has reached out to me saying that they want to meet with the manufacturer for lunch today, here, within the academy. Are you available? No, forget that, you'll make the time."
Nick smiled bitterly at Carla's unreasonableness. He had been dealing with her in business and had almost forgotten that she was a Magician that was far more powerful than him so he had to acquiesce her requests as long as she did not stomp on his bottom line.
"Just name the place and time and I will be there."
Carla smiled at Nick's cooperativeness and said:
"Of course, I will also be at this meeting since it is my contact that you will be speaking with. You will meet up with us in the lobby of the Heaven Hotel within the commercial district at 12 pm sharp."
Nick smiled even more bitterly; Carla was even intruding in on the meeting between him and his buyer, using a flimsy excuse.
"That's fine, see you then."
Carla hung up the phone and Nick finished his breakfast and ordered another serving of eggs and pancakes in celebration of his new found success. Now that he had such a large store of funds, there were many things that he could do now that would have been difficult before; he would have to think about his plans for the next few months later today.
Nick finished his meal and transferred £540,000,000 to the General Beast Store's bank account and made a call to someone. After a few rings, the person finally picked up.
"This is Britney Jenner, who is this?"
During their last encounter Nick had obtained Britney's phone number and made a deal with her that as long as she helped him purchase a few things in the future, he would definitely consider working with her and the Jenner family.
"This is Nick Capitol. How have you been doing Britney?"
Britney sneered:
"Hmph, better before you called."
Britney had been in a perpetual bad mood since she met Nick and had sex with him. Although her family had 'trained' her for those kinds of situations since making deals with powerful people was a matter of course in their world but to Britney, Nick was just an upstart but to secure a foot hold with him, she had let him use her body and he wasn't even gentle with her. Nick laughed off Britney's bitterness and spoke:
"Don't be like that Britney, it was my bad for not treating you better the last time that we met. You still want to work together, right? You know how Carla and I made a few big sales in recent times don't you?"
Britney's bitterness was alleviated a bit when she remembered the details of the store's deal with Nick. That deal had basically gained them over £500,000,000 in pure profit from very minimal efforts. Carla was right when she had told her that Nick was a possible gold mine. Her tone became more friendly.
"What do you want?"
Nick smiled.
"I would like to get my hands on an assortment of rank 2 spells in blade path and space path. Is that possible for you?"
"Using my authority as a member of the board of director of this store as well as my father's influence, sure. But why aren't you asking Carla for help since she is a rank 4 Magician, she could get what you want far more easily than me."
That was true but Nick knew that Carla was only being civil because of the profits that he represented and could become quite unreasonable depending on the circumstances so he did not want to deal with her for everything. Britney on the other hand was a rank 2 Magician just like him so she would be easier to talk to and negotiate with.
"Why would I want to miss the opportunity to talk to and possibly spend time with you?"
Britney audibly sneered and replied:
"Just speak plainly before I get mad."
"Sigh, alright. Carla's too strong, I want to limit the influence of her heavy hand."
Britney chuckled at Nick's caution but knew that he was smart for having it.
"Alright I will get you your spells and you can reimburse me the amount that I spend."
"That's fine, make sure to send me proper receipts though."
"Hmph, you're so petty for a newly rich man. I can't believe that I let you touch me."
Nick laughed.
"Now, who's the one that's being petty."
Britney frowned and asked:
"Are we done?"
"I wanted to ask one more question..."
Britney exasperatedly asked:
"What is it?"
Nick asked with a straight face and flat tone:
"Can we have sex again?"
Britney audibly sneered and hung up the phone.
Nick looked at the phone's screen that was now showing how long the call had lasted with an indifferent expression and shrugged his shoulders.
"It was worth a try."
.......
Nick went to combat class and practised the Menacing Crane like usual while the other students were sparring or being lectured by Varrow. Nick was shirtless and swinging his sword around, feeling excited for what his future would be like.
(Once Britney buys me those spells, I would have a greater opportunity to research space and blade path. I didn't ask for soul path spells because I am already a soul path scholar in addition to the fact that Slade's inheritance is complete and uniform unlike my space path inheritance that now seems to me to be a random mix of methods. For rule path, I have to experiment with creating spells and the like on my own to learn more about it.)
"NICK CAPITOL!"
Suddenly, a relatively short woman with curly brown hair marched onto the field and shouted Nick's name angrily. Nick quickly turned to look at the source of the commotion.
"Which blind fool..."
Nick paused when he saw that it was Marsha Cassidy, his ex-associate who he had not seen in a while. Nick already had very little interaction with the other students and when he moved into his commercial building, that interaction became nonexistent outside of combat class, he hadn't even gone to the spell creation club in a long while.
(Sigh, this is what happens when your past catches up to you.)
Marsha held two magic tools that seemed to be similar to revolver pistols except for their glowing purple tips, one in each hand. Marsha walked up to Nick fiercely and spoke with much anger:
"I've finally found you, best friend. You didn't explain to me the other day how you could be running a business selling the thing that I had you create for me without even involving me. Say it, how much are you making selling those scrolls?"
The other students noticed to commotion and started paying attention to Nick and Marsha.
"What is she talking about? Nick is running a business, does anyone know what kind of business it is?"
"No idea but does she even have that right? Nick practically wears the same sets of clothes when he comes to class every weak. Does a guy like that really own a business?"
"Idiot. You can't just judge a book by its cover, hasn't Nick been performing like a beast since combat class began."
...
While the students were chattering, Nick looked at the two pistols in Marsha's hands and frowned.
"Put those guns away before you talk to me and I don't owe you any explanations. The scrolls were my creation and I am free to do with them as I wish."
Marsha gritted her teeth with anger but knew that Nick was correct. She was just upset that she had lost the chance to be part of an interesting venture that she was now hearing about through her network, after all, the General Beast Store was a fairly busy and popular business establishment. Marsha still had copies of the Beast Capture scrolls that she got from Nick and could probably get someone to copy them and try and sell them too now that there seemed to be a demand for them but she didn't dare to do that.
Richter Order Academy had many unwritten rules, one of which was that no one was to try and steal the intellectual property and inventions of their students and anyone who tried would face the onslaught of the many Magicians that graduated from here after being protected by the same rules. The academy did this to nurture its Magicians who occasionally brought fame and wealth to the academy through their creations. Nick knew of this rule and that is why he was not afraid of dealing with Carla or the other Jenners when selling his scrolls.
Marsha still wanted to threaten Nick into telling him how he ended up selling his scrolls to the store though. She raised one of her pistols and shook it at him as if she was going to use it and said:
"You better start talking or else..."
Before she could finish her sentence, Nick did a quick wave of his sword, casting one of the blade path spells whose laws he had become familiar with over the weekend:
(Vision Of The Blade.)
Marsha stopped shaking her right pistol as she saw a sword suddenly come out of nowhere and slice into her, cutting into her midsection and slicing her in half horizontally. Marsha felt her upper body fall to the ground as she watched her lower body spew blood like a fountain as it remained standing; her breathing became absolutely ragged.
The next moment, however, the scene before Marsha seemed to return to the one before the sword had appeared and sliced into her. Marsha sweated profusely and fell down on one knee. Nick looked at Marsha's condition with indifference; Vision Of The Blade was actually a rank 2 basic grade blade path and wisdom path spell that forced the target to experience an imaginary scene of being cut apart by whatever blade that Nick held while casting the spell. The spell's effectiveness was based on a number of factors such as the quality of the blade, the magical resistance of the target, the mental resistance of the target and the magic power within Nick's own mindscape. This was the first time Nick had cast the spell, not even having practised casting it before but blade magic had the advantage of very quick cast times.
Marsha looked at Nick with blood shot eyes, clearly suffering from the after effects of the spell that resulted in extreme mental strain.
(Since when did Nick become such a hard stone?)
"Alright, that's enough."
Varrow walked over and spoke overbearingly.
"Young lady, leave before you piss me off, and if you ever interrupt one of my classes again, you will face severe consequences."
Under the pressure of the Regular Magician, Marsha got up from her half kneeling position and limped away until she was out of sight of the class.
Varrow looked at Nick and shook his head with an amused expression:
"You sure have a way with the ladies."
Nick shrugged his shoulders and said:
"Yeah...I guess I do."
Varrow went back to lecturing the other students and Nick continued to practise the Menacing Crane until class ended after which he quickly made his way to the Heaven Hotel that was surprisingly close to his commercial building.
(Carla must have chosen this place in consideration of me. It almost makes me feel bad for calling her unreasonable.)
Nick walked into the hotel lobby and just as he was going to look for Carla, he saw a few portraits on the wall of the supposed owners of the hotel. In the third position to the right of two other portraits, Nick saw Carla's portrait, she looked dazzling with her makeup on and her hair done up with all kinds of accessories.
(...Oh...that's why she chose this place.)
Nick sighed and looked for Carla. Before he had even noticed her, she called to him:
"Nick, come over here."
Carla and two other persons were sitting on two sofas that were facing each other, Carla sitting on one and a middle aged man in a suit and a young man wearing jeans and a t-shirt sitting on the other. Nick came over and greeted everyone at which point Carla made introductions:
"Nick, this is Glenn Clarke from the Moonshine Medical Company and his associate Seth Teller. Glenn, Seth, this is the owner of The Magic Scroll Company, Nick Capitol."
Glenn and Seth looked at Nick's nearly disheveled appearance and his shirt that had sweat stains on it and raised their eyebrows. Carla noticed their expressions and made an excuse for Nick's poor deportment.
"Nick is a student of this academy and must have rushed over here from a class."
Glenn's expression eased and he spoke to Nick with politeness:
"It's nice to meet you, Nick. Let's not waste time since you must be a busy man. I am here today because my employer has found your scrolls to be very useful and unique and I'm not kidding about that last part. Although we wouldn't dare to steal the work of a student from this academy and sell it ourselves, we do admit to trying to recreate your scrolls and ended up failing in doing so, they are very strange."
Nick did not change his expression but was internally surprised.
(I never even considered whether someone would try to recreate my scrolls. They weren't able to do it, I wonder why?)
Then Nick remembered how the copies of his hand written scrolls had a slightly different magical aura than the originals and his intuition suggested to him that the reason for the Moonshine Medical Company's failure to recreate his scrolls might be due to that difference. Glenn continued:
"In light of those circumstances, my company would like to make an offer to buy your scrolls in bulk going into the foreseeable future, each at £30,000 a piece."
Nick frowned, he hadn't even had the time to get comfortable yet but this guy in front of him was trying to short change him. Nick said flatly:
"No."
The faces of Glenn and Seth became slightly dull upon hearing Nick's response and Glenn asked:
"Can I have a reason for your response? While your scrolls are useful, they are priced very highly and for us to gain a certain amount of profits we would like to buy them at a discount, considering that we are willing to commit to buying them in bulk indefinitely."
Nick shook his head, saying:
"I know the value of my scrolls, even if you don't. I will not only be giving no discounts, I plan to raise the price of each scroll to £55,000 effective immediately. You can either take it or leave it, no negotiations."
Carla smiled at Nick's heavy handedness; she also realized the value of Nick's scrolls and came here today to make sure that Nick did not stupidly get led by the nose by this goon.
Glenn looked at Nick's indifferent expression, seeing that Nick was serious and responded slowly with a sour expression:
"We'll...take...it."
Nick's indifference turned to a light smile and he was about to ask if they could go and get some food to celebrate their agreement when Seth, who had been sitting quietly beside Glenn all along said:
"Hold on, this is a matter regarding magic tools and where I come from, those kinds of agreements are settled with a 'friendly' exchange first."
Nick frowned, asking:
"What kind of exchange?"
Seth smiled smugly and replied:
"Your academy has combat fields, right?"
........
Thirty minutes later...
Nick and Seth stood twelve meters apart in a grassy field that was quite a distance away from the commercial district, both wearing blue jeans and standing firm.
Glenn who was a fair distance from the two young men and standing beside Carla said to her with an excited grin:
"This should be an exciting match up. Want to make a bet?"
Carla looked and Glenn and replied:
"Go ahead."
Glenn's eyes became sharp:
"Whoever wins gets to dictate the price that the scrolls will be sold to us for, within reason, say, £55,000 if Nick wins or £42,000 if Seth wins. Do you think that you can get Nick to agree to that?"
Carla thought for a moment and sighed internally:
(Nick your company is knew and does not really have much foundation and in cases like that, might often makes right. If you want to avoid making unnecessary enemies before you've established yourself, you'll have to give in somewhere. For the sake of your own development and this venture, I won't protect you from that.)
Carla replied:
"I will get him to agree to your terms only if your man wins."
Glenn responded:
"Excellent."
Seth flexed his shoulders and spoke to Nick in a carefree manner:
"I hope you're ready for this. I'm not like the cherry boys in this place. The Moonshine Medical Company trained me so that I could explore realms for resources, you better not be a pushover."
Nick said nothing and only unsheathed his sword and held it with two hands in front of himself. Seth was also a rank two Magician so Nick was not worried.
Seeing Nick take his stance, Seth grinned with a sharp look in his eyes and spoke while pointing his right index finger to the sky, the midday sun being overhead:
"Let's begin."
In the next moment, Set's body radiated an intense magical aura and the light coming from the sun became dazzling, forcing Nick to squint his eyes but before he could react more, Nick felt a burning sensation within his chest. Nick used his left hand to rub his chest but what followed was him having a fit of coughing.
Nick covered his mouth with his left hand and coughed several times. When he released his mouth and looked at his hand, there was an unnerving amount of blood on it and much blood was still flowing from his mouth.
Nick's eyes opened wide at the sight.
"What the hell?"