Juel School
The school created by my long-time friend Yuren and Master Juel is one of the magical guilds representing the Southern Region alongside our Irene School.
Juel was an expert in ore-type magic, and I had learned various ore magics from Juel, ensuring that we shared a close relationship.
He was someone whose skills were certain, trustworthy, and had a clear understanding of what others wanted.
In other words, he was the most optimal candidate for outsourcing requests.
I squeezed out the little mana I had left and used the communication crystal ball to get in touch.
Before long, the connection was established.
“Hahaha! Who is this? Isn’t it my old friend Yuren! Hahaha!”
The crystal ball showed a cheerful, boyish-looking girl with short black hair laughing heartily.
Her name is ‘Julia.’
We have known each other since childhood due to a connection through our Masters; she was my childhood friend turned frenemy.
For some reason, she was laughing with such excitement.
“Sounds like you’re doing well!”
“Hahaha! I’m doing great! No nagging from grandpa and no annoying tasks! Hahaha!”
“Oh… so you have nothing to do…”
Since she took the tasks from Juel School, I found out that she had taken advantage of Juel getting sick to cancel all the trivial and unprofitable work, passing them to other schools.
What will she do after Juel recovers…
Well, that was no concern of mine.
What mattered was that I had a fresh ‘slave’—I mean, worker—right in front of me.
“Hey, let’s do some work together!”
“No way!”
“Why?”
“Because the work you bring doesn’t pay!”
Julia loves money.
Naturally, everyone does, but she especially favors money-making jobs.
So she absolutely hated low-paying jobs or volunteer work.
She loathed it to the point that when Juel forced her into volunteer work, she used ‘Warpina (intercontinental teleportation magic)’ to escape for a week.
And I hadn’t given her any lucrative work… until now.
“200,000 gold per person per day / 5 wizards of grade 2 or higher / working period 4 days / double upon completion.”
“Deal!!!!!”
Before I could even finish my sentence, her voice pierced the crystal ball.
Her eyes sparkled with a golden glint.
“Is it really 200,000 gold, Yuren?”
“Do you think I’m joking? Should I show you the money?”
To lure her in, I showed her the pile of 100 million gold I had stacked on my desk.
Upon seeing the dazzling mound of gold, her eyes gleamed even brighter.
“Oooh… beautiful.”
“So, are you in or out?”
“I’m in! I’m leaving right now!”
With her last words, the communication crystal ball went dark.
Karen and I smiled.
Mission: Secure worker – accomplished.
*
At Yuren’s generous payment offer, Julia arrived at Irene School with her comrades and an apprentice.
Since Juel School and Irene School weren’t far apart, they arrived in about an hour.
She walked in as if she owned the place and opened the door to Irene School.
“We’re here! Yuren! Hahaha… Huh?”
What she found upon arriving at Irene School after a long time was… the fallen people.
A blanket was laid out in the spacious entrance where what looked like priests from Irene School lay sprawled out.
It felt like…
“What’s with this hospital-like ambiance?”
Indeed, it was hospital-like.
A makeshift battlefield hospital post-war.
Yuren, who was feeding mana potions to the collapsed priests, ran over with a bright smile upon seeing Julia.
“Of course, my friend Julia, how lovely to see you so soon! Hahahaha!”
Julia suddenly felt a chill.
Yuren, as she knew him, was kind-hearted but also cold and prickly.
He wasn’t the type to wear such a ‘bright smile.’
Had she ever seen Yuren welcome her so warmly in all her life?
Not a single memory came to mind.
“It’s great to see everyone from Juel School as well. It’s been a while.”
“It’s been a while, Yuren.”
“Good to see you again.”
Yuren beamed at those from Juel School, and despite the sheer terror that the smile invoked in everyone who had met Yuren before, he smoothly guided them inside before they could even respond.
“Alright, everyone, please come this way.”
Upon entering the inside lab Yuren had led them to, there were five seats prepared for the Juel School members, along with a mountain of small crystal balls.
As they took their seats, Karen popped up with contracts and gold for them.
“Here, sign this, and here’s today’s pay.”
They hadn’t even been informed about the work yet, but hey, they were getting paid in advance?
Julia went pale once again.
“Yuren? Can you at least tell me what this is about first…”
“Julia, don’t think and just accept the money…”
“No! What is this about…”
“Just sign here, Julia.”
“Why can’t you just tell…”
While Julia was fumbling for words, the Juel School members signed the contracts and received their advance pay.
‘Crossing an irreversible river is exactly like this.’
Later, Julia would reflect on the day and think of this moment.
Once everything was set, Yuren appeared before them, staff in hand.
Her gaze hardened and grew serious, like a soldier.
Julia had only seen Yuren with such a fierce expression once before.
Right, it must have been during some border mission he mentioned was really tough.
“Now, everyone from Juel School, for the next four days, glad to have you with us.”
Yuren placed a small crystal ball in front of everyone with a serious look in her eyes.
“The task is very simple. All you need to do is extract the magic from this magic scroll and put it into the small crystal balls. Easy, right?”
“What? Was it that simple? Hahahaha!”
“Indeed! Quite simple! Hahahahaha!”
Putting magic into small crystal balls wasn’t too hard.
In fact, it was their area of expertise, handling ore magic.
Julia felt she had worried for nothing.
That was until she heard the numbers.
“So, you’ll need to make 2,000 per day, that’s 400 each.”
“What!?”
“Pardon?”
As soon as they were told they needed to make 400 magic-infused small crystal balls a day, everyone from Juel School questioned whether they had heard wrong.
Surely they meant 40, right?
That would make sense.
Even as ore magic specialists, none of them had ever crafted more than 100 in a day.
But Yuren’s gaze remained serious, and Julia felt a -ping- in her brain.
“Wait, Yuren! I suddenly remembered an old request!”
“Me too!”
In a sly attempt to back out, Julia stood up.
But it was already too late.
The laboratory door was tightly sealed, and waiting outside was…
“Haa… Haa…”
The sight of Jiren, now a mummified figure, was sitting there holding a sword.
The most dangerous beast is one that is wounded—they behave unpredictably due to their injuries.
Jiren was just such a case.
“Now, then, slaves—I mean, workers, please begin your tasks. Start!”
They could come in freely, but not out.
Thus began the first external game request in this other world.
– Day 1 –
“You’re doing great! If you keep this up, I promise to treat you all like angels,” Yuren said with a smile as a factory manager.
It was a smooth start, indeed.
As expected from the ore magic masters of Juel School.
Yuren wore a satisfied smile at their efforts, except for one person.
“Julia, worker, your pace has dropped.”
“Ahhh! Yuren! I can’t take it!”
“Making money is supposed to be tough work.”
Yuren decided it was time to teach her the grueling side of money-making.
– Day 2 –
“This place is hell! I’m escaping!”
On Day 2, Julia attempted to flee.
However, her opponent was none other than Yuren, very accustomed to project management from both her past and present lives.
This was nothing compared to what she was used to.
“Where do you think you’re going! Slow-Knee (Paralysis Magic)!”
“Ahhh!!”
Slap!
A pink mana projectile was launched and hit Julia right on her rear end.
The slap echoed in the dark courtyard of Irene School.
“Catch her! She’s hit by Slow-Knee, so she won’t go far!”
“Yes! Yuren!”
“Got it, Yuren!”
“Ugh… I feel weak…”
Having been effect by paralysis magic, Julia was eventually caught and brought back.
– Day 3 –
“I feel like I’m going to die…”
“I can’t do this anymore…”
Julia, along with the other workers, reached their limit.
Now that Jiren had recovered somewhat over the past three days, it was time for him to step in.
“Jiren! Our workers are struggling!”
“Yes! Master! Busker (Berserker Magic) x2 / Kaya (Healing Magic) x2”
Jiren, contrary to his appearance, was an expert in both healing and buffing magic.
His specialty was executing Berserker and Healing Magic in tandem, temporarily revitalizing stamina, magic, and focus.
Yuren named this the ‘Bongbong Drink’ spell, which is especially favored during late-night work at Irene School.
This Bongbong Drink spell started flooding vitality into the Juel School workers.
“Woohoo! I feel invigorated!”
“Ahhhh! Let me die!”
Yuren had no intention of allowing them to die.
– Final Day 4 –
“Students! We’re almost there! Let’s give it our all to the end!”
The final Day 4 had arrived.
The recovered priests of Irene School and Master Irene joined in on the work.
Even though the pace of the Juel School members had dropped, with Irene School back in action, completing the task was still within reach.
“But we’re not your students…”
“Regardless, let’s all do our best!! Busker (Berserker Magic, Elf Sage version) x8 / Kaya (Healing Magic, Elf Sage version) x8”
However, one must never let down their guard until the very end!
Irene, using her Elf Sage specialization, cast the Bongbong Drink spell on her senior priests and the Juel School individuals, treating them like her students.
“Ahhhh! Master! Why me too!!!”
“Ahhh! I see grandpa across the river!!!”
With support from the Elf sage, everyone burst into flames of excitement.
And just as Day 4 was concluding…
“It’s… over…”
As Yuren completed the last Tetric crystal ball,
Finally, a total of 20,000 Tetric crystal balls had been crafted.
『 Mission Clear 』
