Heimarian Odyssey

Chapter 164: Making Money

"I don't know where you all got your cultivation techniques from. Perhaps you've inherited it from your family or purchased it from the academy. You've all got it through different methods. Anyway, the main thing that I want to talk about today is that each cultivation technique has its own strengths and weaknesses. I hope that you will all learn and experience what the strengths and weaknesses of your techniques are when you cultivate in the future."

Locke didn't expect that his combat course's instructor would begin the class by talking about impetus cultivation techniques rather than starting training right away.

Locke's technique was the standard Falconim, which Wyr had taught him when he was first promoted to a platoon jarl. It was only good enough for him to advance to a mid-rank Knecht. When he left Felor, Angelina had given him the complete set of techniques that were good enough for him to advance to a Ritter.

His cultural classes weren't useless either. At least he now knew that it was discouraged for low-rank Knechts to change their techniques. The combination of dissimilar impetus in someone with bad compatibility would lead to elemental disarray, causing severe injury and affecting the knight's future advancement.

Falconim was already pretty good. According to Angelina, the Faustian royalty had only retained six complete techniques that could help a Knecht advance to a Ritter, and Falconim was ranked in the middle. The best impetus technique was Bloodironim and it was especially for the royals. The Faustian king, Prince Kenzir, as well as other royal descendants currently practised this technique.

Although Bloodironim was good, it wasn't worthwhile for Locke to switch to it and suffer the consequences. He would only consider changing his technique once he reached a higher level.

The instructor of this class wasn't a Ritter like his equestrian instructor, being only a high-rank Knecht. Although he wasn't powerful, it was more than adequate for teaching them. Locke even realised that this instructor used a wide range of moves during their training sessions, which reminded him of his days training in the army. He was in his element during the training sessions.

Locke progressed very quickly in his training sessions compared to his classmates, and it attracted the attention of many instructors. All of them had the strength of at least a high-rank Knecht, and it was easy for them to see that Locke had been in the army before. They were quite surprised when they found out about it.

After a whole afternoon of training, Locke felt exhausted. Having instructors was much better and efficient than groping for ways to improve by himself. After a month of training, Locke felt like he'd become a completely different person. His ability to exert force was much more refined than before. He could also cultivate impetus much more easily with his instructor's guidance.

It was the end of May, and Locke's cultural classes of 'The Aomarian Script' and 'Fundamentals of Mana and Impetus' were over. Apart from getting his credits, he'd also gained three hundred points of study time in the library.

He was now in the last session of 'The Empire's Three Millennia'. The grey-haired tutor was telling them about the glorious modern history of Aomar. Locke, who'd already prepared for this lesson in advance, knew that his tutor was going to talk about how Alexander XL's decision allowed Aomar to reach an agreement with the Sanctum and the Hall of Knights for a long-term training program for the talented.

The terms 'Sanctum' and 'Hall of Knights' had appeared several times in the textbook, but there wasn't any chapter dedicated to these two organisations. Everything in the empire seemed to revolve around the two organisations, but they weren't relevant to most of the ordinary folk.

"Well, that's the end of this class. I look forward to seeing you all again." Their tutor finally ended his long-winded speech, much to the relief of the students. As they rushed out of the classroom, their tutor took his time to pack up his teaching materials.

The students that took this subject were all from Perseverance. Most of the knights weren't studious and they couldn't sit still in lectures at all. They would rather train and cultivate impetus than to read and write. Locke followed the crowd and walked out of the classroom. He'd gained another five credits and one hundred library points.

"I'll head to the library and search for some information when I have the time," murmured Locke.

There was only one library in the academy and it was shared between the four knight faculties and the two caster faculties. He could definitely find the information he needed in there. However, Locke's current priority was to find ways to earn money. He'd almost spent all his money during these four months of living in Aomar.

He didn't squander his money. He really had no other expenditures other than spending on his meals and normal expenses, but all that added up to quite a sum.

It wasn't a must for the students from Perseverance to dine in their cafeteria. Locke could choose to not eat the minor monster meat there and eat ordinary food outside the academy instead. But he wouldn't want to go out of campus just to have a meal.

When he went shopping with Angelina and Glace, they spent dozens and hundreds of gold moores on clothes as both of them didn't lack money. He frowned as he watched them squander.

His heart ached when he bought a pair of leather boots as they'd cost him forty gold moores. Even though they were branded as boots for nobles, they felt the same as his previous boots when he wore them. Angelina explained that it was the price of staying trendy.

Locke only had less than two hundred gold moores left and he still had to support his sister and Suzanne. He really needed to find more urgently. Although Angelina and Glace were rich, he didn't want to ask them for money. As a man, he didn't want to live off women.

"How do I make money?" Locke scratched his head as he gazed at Angie who was messing with the tree not far away.

The little scorpiondrake was already a few months old. It was now as big as a grindstone and its pincers were even sharper. The colour of its poisonous stinger on its tail had also become darker.

Locke had to be careful when fighting it now. It wasn't a big deal if he was scratched by its pincers and sharp claws, but its dark stinger was worrisome. Angelina had told him that Angie could now kill a mid-rank Knecht with its venom.

A low-rank Knecht's resistance was quite strong. Ever since he'd cultivated impetus, he'd not suffered any severe illnesses or injuries so far. And if he ate food that was highly poisonous to ordinary people, he would only end up with diarrhoea. With impetus circulating throughout his whole body, he could also note his physical state in real-time.

Locke was now looking at Angie's stinger. More specifically, he was looking at the venom in it. Angie was still messing with the tree. It then shuddered as its instinct warned it that something bad was about to happen soon.

As it saw Locke walking slowly towards it, it lifted its pair of pincers, stretched its limbs and was about to leave. Angie had grown up with Locke's severe beatings in the past few months. The person that it was afraid of in the entire mansion was probably Locke, the devil incarnate. When it saw him approaching, it thought that he was going to teach him a lesson again.

It had extremely high intelligence, so it knew that it shouldn't fight when the odds were against it. Although its venom could harm him, it didn't want to make a move on him as it'd already been traumatised by him.

After a difficult 'bonding session' between man and major monster, Angie endured the sharp pain in its stinger and ran towards Angelina's yard. It was badly in need of its owner's comfort and a lot of food now. A scorpiondrake's venom was skin to energy in its body, and it needed to be replenished by food when it was used up.

Locke didn't have any food for Angie, but he did have his fists. He walked away with a skip in his steps as he shook the container that was filled with greenish-brown liquid, whistling as he left the mansion.