Chapter 209: Entering the Tower Once Again

Chapter 209

Entering the Tower Once Again

"Hmm? What’s this...?” Professor Medik muttered softly. He didn’t really expect an answer to his question. Just one glance around the room made it obvious what those things were.

Numerous potion bottles filled the room, with a small letter attached to them. The handwriting was unmistakably familiar.

“Professor Medik, here are the 500 potion bottles I completed from your assignment. I will submit the next batch in 3 weeks. In the meantime, please have Professor Lucien take care of the herbs for me. I will be away from the institute for 3 weeks to complete missions and do some arrands outside.”

Medik read through the letter in one go. His hands trembled slightly as he looked at the 500 potion bottles filling the room with a sense of pride and joy. Lucien chuckled a bit at the sight and patted Medik lightly on the back.

“Your disciple is truly dedicated to her potion-concocting training. In the future, she will undoubtedly become an outstanding apothecary. And...you can count on her to fulfill the task of making all 5,000 potions. At this rate, it seems she’ll be able to deliver them all within 10 months.”

“Mmm, indeed,” Professor Medik quickly wiped away the small tears that had welled up. He felt that Ellie was not like what everyone said. She considered herself his disciple and, despite her playful nature, still wanted to help with his work. His previously gloomy heart felt wonderfully filled.

“Well then, since I don’t have to make these potions, I’ll have an extra hour or more of rest each day. You mentioned treating me to a meal, didn’t you? Lead the way then.”

Seeing Medik brighten up again, Professor Lucien shook his head slightly but was glad to see his colleague happy rather than gloomy.

The two professors headed to the dining hall and booked a luxurious room, under the curious gazes of many who were interested in the professor’s botanic elemental disciple. Many had seen how dejected Professor Medik was earlier, but now, less than 10 minutes later, he appeared quite content.

“It seems Professor Medik is celebrating his only disciple’s success.”

“Is that so? Earlier, some people heard that the Acting Director had called him in for a talk. They wondered if it was to reprimand him for letting a student switch to another branch instead of focusing solely on potion concocting.”

“Ha! If the Acting Director dared to reprimand Duchess Ellie...I’m sure everyone from the Stratagem Branch would come out in defense. With such a rare talent for creating stratagems, it’s evident that letting her stay in the Stratagem Branch is much more valuable. After all, stratagems have more combat utility.”

“That’s true. Besides...as for potion concocting, why not leave it to the big families? It’s just making potions. If she can create a lot of stratagems, she can earn enough money to buy all the potions she needs.”

“Exactly. Professor Medik likely wasn’t reprimanded. Look at him dining here. Normally, he’s very reclusive.”

"But I think Professor Medik might have been sad at first. He only has one disciple. Originally, he probably intended to teach his disciple to learn potion concocting to inherit his knowledge, but instead..."

"Why should he be sad? He’s still young, not like Professor Nico. That guy needs to hurry more than Professor Medik. Finding a genius isn’t easy."

Many students were talking about this matter. Naturally, Professor Medik overheard some of it. However, he didn’t care. The students’ attitudes toward potion concocting were that it was boring work. These students were not like experienced hunters; in another 10 years, they would understand the true importance of potion concocting. Therefore, Medik didn’t criticize them, letting time teach them that the Potion-concocting Branch wasn’t any worse than the stratagem-making!

Another reason he didn’t care about other students was that he was only concerned with what Student Ellie thought about potion concocting. After seeing that she was still dedicated to her potion-concocting training, he had nothing more to worry about.

Ryker also heard about the creation of a new stratagem by that student today. He felt deeply embarrassed that he had previously offered to help her earn points. If not for Senior Tor stepping in, he might have made a fool of himself.

Even so...Ryker now realized that Duchess Ellie’s value was not just about her “connections to the Setter family” or her “potion-concocting skills.” At this moment, he felt that Duchess Ellie was truly someone worthy of becoming a friend to Prince Jason. No matter what...he would help her become close to his prince!

At the institute gate, people from the Setter family were already waiting to pick up their future lady. Even before hearing the news that Ellie had caused a big stir, she had requested them to take her to the Setter family’s mansion in Erel City. Ellie’s intention was to take on some minor missions from the institute and spend time training her Blue Apple. Otherwise, it might grow too slowly, whereas the little Purple Mushroom had already reached a high level.

But due to the current turmoil at the institute, Ellie couldn’t take on any missions. It seemed that creating a new stratagem would earn her special points from the institute. Normally, completing missions related to stratagem creation would grant a significant amount of points, much more than completing many institute missions. So, it went without saying that the special points Ellie earned for bringing such prestige to the institute were almost enough for them to consider promoting her to the third year immediately!

"My lady, are you ready to depart?" asked one of the Setter family’s men. They planned to take her to a small Setter family mansion first, where her personal servants were already waiting, having been notified of her request earlier.

"Yes, I’m ready. Thank you," Ellie nodded. Thinking about the commotion at the institute, she felt she should study more about the Stratagem Branch. So far, Ellie had learned too many things. She had studied potion concocting enough to know what to be cautious about, but her study of stratagems had only covered the basics. She wanted to catch up with others to avoid embarrassment, but who would have thought it would cause such a commotion instead?

It’s clear that creating stratagems wasn’t particularly difficult, and the creation of a new stratagem was merely an imitation of the level 1 stratagems from the books. Of course, Ellie thought this way because of her foundational mindset from her previous world. Not everyone could come up with the concept of a watering sprinkler. Just the process of figuring out how to water plants on a timed schedule was already groundbreaking for many people in this world. There’s no need to mention creating stratagems to facilitate daily life.

People in this world were mainly interested in creating stratagems to deal with beasts. Few thought of ways to use stratagems for daily life purposes. No wonder Ellie’s stratagem was seen as "new."

Ellie escaped the commotion and hid in the Setter family for just 1 day. The servants continued to take great care of her, as always. During this time, Selin updated her on the commotion in the Setter family due to many people wanting to negotiate the sale of the new stratagem. Naturally, Ellie wasn’t interested in such commotion, leaving it to the Setter family to handle. After all...they were much better at managing these things than she was.

She spent 1 day and 1 night resting at the Setter family. This meant Ellie now had only 23 days left to train her "Luke" and her "little Blue Apple of Disaster." There was also her little Nocturnal Rabbit, which needed urgent power enhancement. Otherwise, it would become useless and unable to keep up with others. Previously, she hadn’t paid much attention to it, thinking that if it ever wanted to leave, she would just let it go back to nature. Who would have thought that one day, the little Nocturnal Rabbit would end up becoming her bonded beast? It was an unexpected turn of events.

When she woke up the next day, the first thing Ellie did was enter the Tower of Eternity. The Setter family soldiers escorted her to the entrance. Once Ellie entered her own city, they dispersed, completing their escort duty. Ellie dared not appear in the 1st-floor city because the moment she stepped out, they would know immediately that the future lady of the Setter family was outside. People wanting to befriend her would rush to curry favor, while enemies might also approach but with weapons in hand.

Thus, the young girl had to appear on the 3rd floor of the tower. On the 3rd floor, there were many cities. The city Young Lord Owen had taken over for her was remote, meaning that even if Ellie walked outside, no one would know she was Ellie. She was the city owner here, but Young Lord Owen hadn’t arranged everything carelessly. He was very cautious. So, when Ellie appeared in the 3rd-floor city but didn’t want to walk out, he had already prepared a teleportation device for her.

When Ellie used the teleportation device, it transported her to a cave. It was a secret cave surrounded by a lightning magic barrier for added security. This cave was near a forest close to the association’s city. Even though it was said to be close, it still took a day’s journey to reach the city. This was because the 3rd floor was extremely vast, with many cities having unclaimed forests as boundaries. These forest areas were hunting grounds, which explained why higher-level cities had more resources. In contrast, the forest areas on the first floor were mostly taken over, leaving little free space.

Ellie appeared under the name "Luke." The location Young Lord Owen arranged for her was very hidden. He had concealed the entry point behind complex rock formations. Unless someone was inside, they couldn’t find the entrance. He had also set up illusion stratagems in some spots, showing an excessive level of care and attention.

The young woman took her time before emerging. There were no signs of people around, not even the shadowy figures that usually followed her for protection. Ellie felt slightly relaxed. She released numerous spores to enhance her safety. Then, she tried to avoid encountering any beasts as much as possible. Even though she could handle them, leaving traces in this area wouldn’t be ideal. If the area she passed by was used as a hunting ground, people might come around to hunt the next day.

It took Ellie a long time to reach the city controlled by the association. After being absent for several months, "Luke" reappeared today. However, her level was still at the beginning, so her absence didn’t result in any significant losses. Normally, hunters who miss work for an extended period would be demoted. However, Ellie didn’t have many points to lose or a rank to be demoted from, so it was like she wasn’t penalized at all.

From now on, Ellie would have more time to complete missions. The previous year, she only managed to sign up for and complete one mission. This year, there would be plenty of time for "Luke." Hence, she might become a 2-star rank before graduating.

To complete the missions and achieve the 2-star rank, one must first have a magic power level of 4. Additionally, the association would consider the accumulated mission points. If a hunter’s power reached level 4 but didn’t work hard to help the association, they would remain at 1 star. While the exact point requirement was unknown, most information suggested that accumulating around 100,000 points might warrant a rank up.

Last time, Ellie earned 10 points by hunting boars alone. However, her points had since dropped to 0 because she hadn’t taken on any other association missions. Thus, she had to start from scratch.

Of course, she didn’t regret it at all. In fact, she still had many boars in her dimensional ring. She had taken them down during her last hunt but only submitted 2 to avoid standing out too much. Although submitting missions to gain points was easy, Ellie’s primary goal wasn’t just to increase her association star rank. Her main purpose was to level up her little companions.

After reaching the 1st floor of the association, Ellie picked up the familiar mission, the boar meat collection mission again. It was a level 0 mission, offering 5 points per boar and 2 copper coins per 1 kilogram, just like before. However, this time she intended to stay in the forest for 3 weeks, so she took on an additional mission:

“Black Grass Herb Collection, Level 0 Mission

Mission Area: Fragrant Held Forest, 1st floor, Green Zone; Medicine Conservation Forest, 1st floor, Green Zone

Required Rank: 1-star rank hunter

Reward: 1 copper coin per herb and 1 mission point for every 10 herbs.”