I have to get two hundred guildmarks in a few weeks. Probably more to be safe. Auctioning one rare-ranked tool won't be enough.

Cal would have to speak to Bran and see if he had any ideas. If there wasn't an auction taking place in the next few weeks, which is likely the case, he might need to sell the tools at a discount, though he would prefer not to.

He rested against the golem's leg and watched the builders race to completion on the smithy. His gaze strayed to Miren's carriage, where she was being served hot tea by Torin.

Cal went over the estimated budgets she gave him and had to stop himself from twitching in discomfort.

1. One hundred guildmarks for the fence.

2. Thirty guildmarks for the greenhouse.

3. Seventy guildmarks for secure space, which evolved into a safe the size of the storage room.

4. Several gold for the second storage room for the hires and the extensions to the house, a pittance compared to the rest of the expenses.

He would never have imagined that he would consider the smithy cheap before the builders even completed it.

Cal patted the Golem's foot and said, "I bet I could get a discount if you told me what Miren got from you."

Of course, the golem didn't answer him since it was inactive, but even if it could move, he already knew what it would do: stare blankly at him, without a thought in its head.

Cal's suspicion that the Golem had a much higher intelligence didn't change his assumption of how it would answer him. He recalled all the times that the golem did something strange, and it was always when it caused some minor mischief.

Now that I think about it, the golem acts like a bored child.

He gave the golem a puzzled look before shaking his head. There would be plenty of time to test the theory after he recovered his mana reserves.

Cal redirected his attention to the builders, who were moments away from finishing the smithy. Orrin and Seris had woken up hours ago and were practically vibrating with excitement as they stood close to the action, and he found comfort in their satisfaction with something so cheap.

I'm sure if I keep repeating that ten guildmarks is cheap in my mind that it'll eventually become true. Surely that's how this works.

He sighed and stood, giving the golem another pat on its leg. "I'll talk to you again tomorrow." The sun had set long ago, and he figured he might as well get an early rest.

Cal had become much more in tune with his body while resting near the golem, and he could confidently say he was nearly back to the peak. At least, to the peak of what he was capable of without mana.

"Cal!"

Seris's shout stopped him from following through with his plan. He saw her bound toward him before asking with bright eyes. "Can they work on the archer range now?"

Cal's mind blanked. He had completely forgotten about the archery range. He reminded himself that he should count the archery range's expense in gold, not guildmarks. When he was already prepared to spend two hundred guildmarks, what was several extra gold added to that count?

"Not right now, but maybe in a few days when they're done with everything else," Cal said.

The delay did not diminish Seris's smile. Just hearing confirmation that her archery range was to be upgraded raised her excitement to another level.

"That sounds great! I have so many ideas of what to add. I can't wait until you see it, Cal." She gave him a quick hug before running back to Orrin.

Cal, who had comforted himself with the consolation of the archery range only costing him several gold at most, suddenly felt a disturbance in his psyche. He resolved to mention a hard limit when he spoke to Miren about the archery range.

His ears perked up when he heard the familiar sound of wheels rolling over a dirt road. He turned to the tree line and noticed that Miren had done so several seconds before he heard the noise. He made a note of that. Although he suffered from dulled senses because he lacked mana reserves, they were still leaps and bounds above anything a mortal or weak Initiate possessed.

Tavia's carriage driving past the tree line made all thoughts of Miren's strength disappear. His attention wasn't the only one that was pulled to the carriage, or rather, behind the carriage. Seris gasped before bursting out in unintelligible rambles as she ran to where the carriage would stop.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Cal understood why she did that. The cart attached to Tavia's carriage carried stacks of books well beyond the usual limit, stacked and bound tightly together to prevent any from falling off. It wasn't an exaggeration to say there were hundreds upon hundreds of books on that cart, and he wasn't sure how to react to it.

Tavia told him she wanted to go to Lumina to buy spellbooks, but he assumed she meant a specific few, maybe ten if he stretched his understanding of what she said. Nothing prepared him for this.

Cal, who was in a money-counting mood from all the hits he had taken today, tried to calculate how much all these books might have cost Tavia.

The cost of spellbooks varied, ranging from a mere ten silver to a guildmark or more, if niche enough. Cal assumed it's on the lower end since most spells simply aren't prohibitively expensive. If the most powerful spells were out of reach for rank-and-file members, it would make no sense. That would be the opposite of what the guild wanted.

If I set an arbitrary price on the books to average fifty silver each, multiplied by the five hundred or so I see on the cart, that gives me… twenty-five thousand silver. That's twenty-five guildmarks. Tavia doesn't have that kind of money. At least I don't think she does.

"It's been so long since I read a new spellbook! Can I read these, or are some restricted to me?"

Call heard Seris's eager question as he met Tavia's eyes. She could see the alarm in his expression, even as she answered the question.

"I'll have to catalogue it to make sure, but most of these should be fine. Let's not risk it until I confirm it," Tavia said, before she gently nudged Seris in Orrin's direction. "We can discuss these books later, but right now, don't you think it's more important to celebrate with Orrin?"

Seris nodded rapidly before she returned to Orrin's side, though she often took glances back at the cart full of books.

Cal raised an eyebrow at Tavia, and said, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm fairly sure that the books you hauled back cost far more than the coin you possess."

"I don't hear a question there, Cal," Tavia said, though it looked like she was raring to explain what happened, given the excitement he could see in her eyes. She must have got away with the books like a bandit.

"How did you get all these books?" Cal gave her what she wanted.

"The Gane family! Did you know we're popular with the mortals? Even the guild members I met looked eager to speak with me. The Gane family wanted to get my endorsement of some of their shops… though I suppose it's only a branch of the Gane family. Still, it was a great deal since I have to do nothing except smile for a few pictures here and there." Tavia's eyes sparkled. "And I met your friend Fintan. I like him. Not just because of the Gane family giving me books, but he seems… simple."

Cal blinked as he took in Tavia's words and another look at the book-filled cart. He didn't really put much stock in the popularity after Drex told him about it, but maybe he could use it to his advantage. He needed a lot of funds, after all. "All you had to do to get these books was to take a few pictures?"

"Oh no, the pictures will come after, along with additional payment. But these books were basically a meeting gift, if you can believe that."

Cal's eyes gleamed with admiration. He eyed Miren and wondered if he could make a similar deal and knock off some of the cost that he had taken on.

"Before I forget, we need to build a library so we can have a proper place to keep these books. I'll buy more in the future, so we might as well be prepared." Tavia looked at the builders before adding, "I'll pay for it, since I'm the one who brought all these books without warning."

"That won't be necessary. I have more than enough for something this small," Cal said, hiding his change in mood.

Finding an additional source of income made Cal happy, but the news of needing to pay for another building crushed his happiness. He could ask Tavia to contribute to lessen his load, but he felt that was unnecessary when he could deal with it by himself. The rare-ranked tools would be more than enough as long as he found a way to sell them safely.

Besides, Cal refused to touch Tavia's funds since she had taken on the burden of planning an escape route. While that might not have any expenses at the moment, he would imagine that they could pile on quickly.

He helped Tavia offload the books from the cart into the house before heading over to talk to Miren about the additional projects he needed to add.

***

It was hours later when Cal lay in bed. He reminded himself what the extra costs were going to be with the additions.

1. One hundred guildmarks for the fence.

2. Thirty guildmarks for the greenhouse.

3. Seventy guildmarks for secure space.

4. Several gold for the second storage room for the hires and the extensions to the house.

5. Ten guildmarks for the archery range, far more than he wanted the budget to be, but he couldn't say no when Seris made that pleading face.

6. Thirty guildmarks for the library. He had only wanted to spend several gold at most, but the budget quickly ballooned when he added all the creature comforts, such as automatic bone book sorting, automatic ledgers, and a feature called infinite bookshelves.

Two hundred and fifty guildmarks after rounding up. I'll need to get more to give myself a cushion.

Cal stayed still when Tavia wrapped an arm around him and snuggled into his neck—a sign that she was deep in her sleep.

He had a new appreciation for Orrin. He had given a budget for the smithy, and the kid did nothing except respect his words and try to keep within the budget, unlike Seris or Tavia.

Because Cal knew if Orrin had ever spoken up about wanting something a little fancier or just a little more expensive, he would have said yes to the budget increase with little to no resistance.

Sure, he would have justified the budget increase by thinking of the practicality and extra benefit it could have for Orrin, just like he did for Seris and Tavia, but those are all just excuses he made to ignore how he loved to splurge on the people he liked.

Cal closed his eyes with a slight smile.

I will have little to do on the farm for several weeks now that the crops with take over a month to reach harvest. I'll look for an avenue to sell my rare-ranked tools in the meantime… and I should think about visiting the Central Sanctum to fulfil my promise to the Elder Council.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.