Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 223: One hundred and sixty-five: Observation (3)

Chapter 223: One hundred and sixty-five: Observation (3)

Working with Mr. Malin meant meat on the table, which was a point uniformly agreed upon by all the apprentices of the local Church of the God of Commerce — whether it was the previous snack shop or the tool workshop, and including the various types of stores that followed, the apprentices believed that working in Malin’s shop was far better than anywhere else.

Be it the cleanliness of the shop, the design of the lighting, or the arrangement of the goods, they were all unmatched by any other store in the city.

For these apprentices, hearing that Mr. Malin was selecting his financial management team was like a shortcut to heaven — as Merchants in the Sequence, it went without saying that the more wealth one handled, the more business experience one would gain. Moreover, it had a significant positive effect on advancing through the levels of the Sequence.

And the goods in Malin’s shop had received endless praise from any apprentice who had worked there. Not to mention the tool workshop, where many apprentices didn’t even dare to look at the prices, the seemingly affordable daily snacks in the snack shop were gaining more and more attention from the apprentices due to the highly favorable ratings from customers. The younger apprentices simply felt that working in the snack shop was better than helping out in other major stores, while the older group soon confirmed the snacks’ uniqueness — better ingredients, better preparation, better appearance.

That is why the snack shop was popular among gentlemen and Nobles. In matters of snacks, Malin’s snack shop stood at the pinnacle of Carterburg’s snack industry.

Interestingly enough, initially, the snack guild had tried to stymie Malin’s business by cornering him on raw materials, but when Malin negotiated various issues fluently in Thainanese with the Thanan people, the snack guild had already lost — not one among them could speak Thainanese.

Then, those fellows tried to resort to less respectable tactics — like hiring people to act out the drama of poor-quality snacks, but under the watchful eye of a Paladin from the Church of Justice passing by, it all ended with the actors sobbing as they repented their wrongdoings and revealed the behind-the-scenes manipulations.

After that, Malin joined the snack guild, paid the annual fee, and upon exiting, got into a fight with some kid who had just returned from out of town looking to help out his old man, pummeling him into a bruised state with a World Tree Sapling, and all rumors vanished into thin air. Once again, Malin, who always won over people with virtue, rose to the top of morality and strength.

"My Malin has always convinced people with reason." Jessica even made a special effort to learn this phrase from a Thainan classmate, reportedly a favorite saying of a Thainan sage before a brawl.

Malin offered no comment on this and did not stop Jessica, for one’s limited life should not be spent on various brawls.

Except for the cordial and friendly exchanges with the senior apprentices of the Church.

Honestly, the senior apprentices had shown pleasing progress in their intensive training with Malin every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Although Malin couldn’t really tell, since the instructors said so, there must have been growth.

Speaking of instructors, Malin despaired to find that Squirrel Instructor Minsk had developed the instinctive behavior to flee from him at high speed, even though Malin had long given up on getting Spell Formations from the instructors without mentor approval, but could not withstand the old Hoffman’s influence in the Church.

The only regret was the elf instructor, who still did not agree to teach Malin advanced sword dances, even though Malin’s ears had already developed elf-like features — the increasingly elongated pointed ears, which could now be called rectangular ears.

But the instructor did not repeat her previous words, instead saying — the time is not yet right.

Malin felt baffled by this but it was much better than last time when she outright said he wasn’t qualified.

And Mr. Karlmo, Malin’s original Half-human instructor, was now married. Malin had previously given a gift box, which contained Half-human’s favorite snacks, and a .38 Revolver with a line engraved on the barrel.

Your most reliable apprentice — Malin.

Karlmo was extremely happy and today, as usual, she, now pregnant, came over impatiently with a towel after watching Malin dominate the court: "Well done, kid."

"Mrs. Karlmo, I hear that in a month’s time, it will be the Sydney Union Martial Arts Tournament?" Malin had only just heard about it. Later, he had learned that this martial arts tournament took place every five years. Honestly, Malin did indeed want to follow the team to the Central Administrative Province to see the excitement — day in, day out in Carterburg, even if he was successful in his business, he always felt like he was firmly turning into a salted fish.

So, after getting this information, Malin had been looking for an opportunity to confirm and to ask several instructors to recommend him for the team.

"You want to go in for fun? That won’t do; we instructors feel that if you join, it will cause those kids to lose their motivation," explained Mrs. Karlmo with a smile, shaking her head.

Malin had hit a soft nail with Mrs. Karlmo but didn’t mind it too much. As Mrs. Karlmo said, if Malin participated in the low-grade team competition (which was divided into three levels: low-grade including grades one to three, mid-grade comprising four to six, and upper-grade encompassing seven and eight), he probably could just steamroll his way through.

"Then I’ll go along just to watch the excitement; that shouldn’t be a problem, right?"

"That’s fine; I think you have nothing better to do in the third grade anyway."

"I’ve just been promoted to the third grade," Malin replied while feeling that the past two years had indeed flown by. "Speaking of which, let’s skip to the sixth grade next year, what do you think?"

"Sixth grade, that’s fine, I even think you could graduate," Mrs. Karlmo said, while also noticing the situation on the distant field. "What’s happening over there with the girls?"

Malin turned his head to look at the girls’ area in the distance and saw a sea of people. "I’ll go and check."

Mrs. Karlmo also wanted to take a look, so Malin had to carefully accompany her through the crowd, shooing away a few oblivious boys along the way. Seeing the combination of Malin and Mrs. Karlmo, the brazen kids naturally chose to keep the peace—this fusion of being both unbeatable and feared was like double trouble; nobody dared to make a peep.

After escorting Mrs. Karlmo into the crowd, Malin caught sight of his sister, Maya, dressed in a shaman’s usual attire... Although it was called usual attire, to Malin, it had an East Asian style, with a left lapel, a belt, and wide sleeves.

Thankfully it was all made of leather and fur, plus there were pretty little boots. Otherwise, Malin would have wondered if something was wrong, like... another exotic guest.

At that moment, Maya was preparing for spellcasting. As her first comprehended assault spell formation, Malin remembered it should be a Lightning Bolt.

Unlike Malin’s previous Lightning Spear, Maya’s Lightning Bolt was only a first-sequence spell, suitable for single-target hits.

With both hands raised, the girl released a Lightning Bolt that struck the target.

After watching for a while, Mrs. Karlmo turned to glance at Malin. "I heard you brought your sister Maya back from a narrow escape... Are you sure you brought back the right person?"

"Of course I’m sure, she’s my sister," Malin replied while counting to fifty—the little leopard girl had just silently launched fifty Lightning Bolts in one go. The target had already shattered after the seventeenth hit.

Most of the apprentices were stunned—casting with both hands, instant spell release, two per second; when did this leopard girl become so formidable?

These were the thoughts of the apprentices living with Maya.

Malin’s thought was... the fur on the girl’s tail had been singed by static electricity, and now the tail was exceptionally fluffy, just too adorable.

"I think your sister could join the junior team," Mrs. Karlmo suggested.

Malin was taken aback. "Then why can’t I participate, huh? My sister’s silent casting is super scary too."

"Because she’s not you, the one who has mastered both magic and martial arts," Mrs. Karlmo explained with a smile.

Malin pursed his lips and eventually reached to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye—the explanation was too real, leaving him at a loss for a counterargument.

Over there, Maya and her friends talked for a while and then turned around under their guidance, facing Malin. The girl ran over happily. "Brother, did you see how I casted just now?"

"I saw, you were amazing, but your spellcasting is quite fast."

"Look, this is the strange object my mentor Ollie gave me; it allows me to cast first-sequence spells without chanting, needing only to expend Spiritual Energy," Maya said while pulling out a small necklace from inside her collar.

Malin had never heard of such a miraculous artifact. He nodded, signalling his sister to take good care of it, then turned his head to Karlmo. "Can you buy these kinds of things?"

"Of course, there’s an artifact market that opens every Tuesday in the plaza area. If I’m not mistaken, it should be opening tonight," Karlmo’s words thrilled Malin.

He wanted to see just how useful these artifacts could be.