Blink.
Karion's vision blurred for a second, and suddenly, he was back in his room at Red Leaf Academy.
Just as he predicted, his spawn point was indeed the origin coordinate (0, 0).
"That was close!"
Karion could still feel the phantom breath of that abyss-like maw closing in on him. It was literally a frame-perfect escape.
If he had lagged for even one second, he would have been monster chow.
The Demon Mist Forest is SCARY AF.
Thinking back to the monster encyclopedia he read, Karion was pretty sure that thing was a Tier-6 Gloom Ground Lizard.
Against a mob like that? Forget his Tier-4 [Howling Flame Blast]. Even a Tier-6 spell might not kill it.
In a 1v1, monsters are way scarier than mages of the same level.
He let out a long sigh, thankful he made it back to base.
Then, he looked down at the bundle of White Leaf Orchids in his hands, and a grin crept onto his face.
Stonks.
These are White Leaf Orchids! In the market, one stalk goes for at least 10 Durant Gold Coins.
He had over a hundred stalks. That's over 1,000 Gold Coins!
A standard magic crystal costs about 100 coins. After selling this haul, he could easily buy a replacement for Mia.
Sure, he didn't mean to use Elder Allison's gift, but facts are facts: he burned it. He had to pay it back.
He unwrapped his shirt and carefully brushed the dirt off the orchids.
Karion wasn't an alchemist, so these herbs were useless to him personally. He had to sell them.
But he couldn't sell to the school. That would be sus. Someone might figure out his teleportation ability.
Rule #1 of Transmigration: Hide your cheats.
To sell in bulk without raising flags, he had to go to the city.
There was a city a few dozen kilometers away, but it was near the outskirts of the Gloom Forest. Prices there would be lowballed to hell.
Plus, it was a chaotic place full of PK (Player Killers) and scammers.
A normie like Karion walking in with high-tier loot? Begging to get robbed.
After some big brain thinking, Karion decided the best place to sell was the Royal Capital, Adri City.
That's where all the rich alchemists lived. The demand for fresh herbs was huge.
Sure, it was over 1,000 kilometers away, but Karion had Fast Travel. Distance was irrelevant.
He didn't know the capital's coordinates yet, but he had two reference points now: (0, 0) and the Demon Mist Forest.
He just needed a precise map of the kingdom to calculate the coordinates. Math for the win.
The bigger problem now was mana.
The first trip was powered by the crystal.
The second trip was powered by the insane mana density of the forest.
But here at Red Leaf Academy? The mana was pitifully thin. It was barely better than a noob village.
Karion racked his brain until a lightbulb went off. He grinned like a cheshire cat.
"Red Leaf Academy has trash mana, but I can go leech off the other academies!"
Palos Magic School, Black Night Academy.
In the outdoor training grounds, a class was in session.
To power-level the students, Black Night Academy had activated a [Mana Gathering Circle], boosting the ambient mana density by ten times.
Since Black Night already had better mana than Red Leaf, a 10x boost made it dozens of times richer.
"The difficulty of the [Berserk] spell lies in the synergy between Dark Element and Spirit..."
A young teacher was lecturing thirty students.
He looked about 24 or 25, tall, with short blonde hair.
He raised his right hand, and black mist swirled from his palm, forming a disc-like magic circle.
"Class, do you see this? This is the [Berserk]..."
"POGGERS!"
An abrupt voice interrupted the lecture.
The blonde teacher turned around to see a young man with messy grey-curly hair, wearing a red-collared black robe, squatting in the corner of the training ground with a notebook and pen.
"Karion?" The teacher frowned, recognizing the low-level instructor who was rumored to be worse at magic than the students.
"What are you doing here?"
Karion scratched his messy hair and laughed shamelessly.
"Well, graduation exams are coming up, right? I'm the only teacher left in my academy, and there are so many spells I don't know. I can't teach my student if I don't know anything! I'm panicking here!"
Lie detected.
He was just here to leech mana. The teleport bead in his pocket was currently sucking up the ambient mana like a vacuum cleaner.
"So you came here to eavesdrop?" The blonde teacher was annoyed.
"Eavesdrop? That's such an ugly word for a fellow educator..."
Karion scooted over and sat down right next to the thirty students, inching as close to the center of the [Mana Gathering Circle] as possible.
"I just want to see how other academies teach. Just pretend I'm a normal student. You don't mind if I audit the class, right?"
The audacity of this guy.
The blonde teacher was fuming inside, but his professionalism kept him from exploding.
"Karion, it's not that I'm worried about you stealing our secrets. But these students paid tuition to be here. Letting you listen for free is unfair to them."
"I'll pay tuition!"
Karion whipped out a gold coin, walked up to the teacher, and slapped it into his hand.
"One gold coin for one class. I'm not ripping you off, right?"
A vein popped on the teacher's forehead. Looking at Karion's shameless grin made him want to cast Fireball on his face.
But after a few seconds, he relented. It was just a general education course anyway. Nothing top secret.
As for the [Mana Gathering Circle], he didn't care. He knew Karion had zero talent and couldn't absorb mana even if he wanted to.
The teacher pointed to the empty space behind the students.
"Sit in the back. Don't disturb my students."
"No problem! Thanks a bunch!"
Karion smiled and turned to leave, then stopped.
"By the way, what's your name again?"
YOU CAME TO MY CLASS AND DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO I AM?!
Another vein popped. The teacher squeezed the words through his gritted teeth:
"My name is Wells Piero."
"Teacher P! Nice to meet you, nice to meet you!"
Karion grabbed his hand and shook it enthusiastically.
Wells really wanted to take off his shoe and slap Karion in the face. Is this guy trying to embarrass me in front of my students on purpose?
Calm down, Wells. You are an elite magic instructor. Don't lose your cool over a clown.
He took a deep breath.
"Go sit down. I have a class to teach!"
This time, Karion didn't cause any more trouble. He sat obediently in the back row, straightening his back like a model student.
Mission: Operation Mana Leech — Start.