Lord of Charm

Two hours later, Gale stepped out of class. His body was sore everywhere; after the kicking sequence, Mercury also demonstrated a punching sequence and then a sequence that mixed punching and kicking.

Due to her proficiency in martial arts, Ronda got them right after a few attempts each time, and then just started attacking Gale despite his protests. Mercury just pretended to see nothing as he believed pain and real fighting were the fastest way to learn anyway.

"Hey Gale, would you like to have lunch together?"

Three people approached him as soon as he came out of class. He looked at them and found one tall guy with black hair and handsome facial features, and pretty two green-haired girls who looked nearly identical. The main difference was that one of them was more tanned than the other and had shorter hair.

"Sure, where would you like to eat?"

"We can eat in the triangle building. I see you also don't have a wristband yet so we could first go and get one in the exchange office. Do you have 100 IMG?"

"Hmm, I don't know. I had around 400,000 normal gold, which Professor Alice took from me and said she would put in my account, so I won't have to carry the coins around. I don't know if I can pay with those coins instead of IMG."

"Professor Alice herself? That's amazing! And it's a big sum, are you from a noble family maybe?"

"Uh… I don't know that either."

The three looked at him awkwardly, but it was the truth; Despite knowing his mother's family was living in the empire, he didn't know what their social status in the empire was!

"Never mind. Anyway, you can use normal gold, but it would cost you 100 times more. The wristband alone will cost you 10,000. Why don't you turn your gold coins into IMG?"

The young man came back to his senses first and asked another question Gale had no idea how to answer. He felt like a country bumpkin, and he felt like a bumpkin from a more and more backwater country with every question.

"You can do that?"

The three weren't sure if Gale was teasing them for saying obvious things, but seeing his face, the tanned decided to answer truthfully. Getting teased a bit was worth making friends with a genius. Her voice was shy, yet she wanted to make a good first impression.

"Yes. You need to work along with other mages so that combined you can use all four basic elements; wind, earth, fire, and water. Then you just need to pour those four types of mana at the same time and amount into the normal imperial gold coins."

"If it's so simple, why is the value of IMG so much greater?"

"Each coin takes around a minute to fill, that's why the extra value; nobody wants to waste their time filling coins. In an hour, a normal mage can only charge around 60 coins. Most of the students in the top academies are geniuses, so if you pair with the right people, you can even charge two or three coins simultaneously."

The girl explained.

"I see… it isn't worth it. I will just spend the coins."

Gale didn't care about spending money for various reasons; first, money was meant to be spent. There was no point in hoarding it instead of getting stronger. Second, the academy already promised him many things for free if he can break a few records. Third, if push comes to shove, he could always take advantage of his grandfather's proposal to support him.

"We didn't mean you should do it yourself. But let's first get the wristband and sit for lunch. Coming to think of it, we still hadn't introduced ourselves. I'm Tim Silvia, ranked 31 on the list."

The girls hurriedly introduced themselves after him.

"I'm Amanda Noons, ranked 32 on the list."

"I'm Valentina Noons, ranked 19 on the list."

The girls confirmed his suspicions that they were sisters, most likely twins. Amanda was standing near Tim, while Valentina was the tanned girl who explained how to charge IMG earlier.

"I'm Gale Stormborn, ranked 4 on the list."

He introduced himself the same way as they did although they probably knew it from the class, and they went together to the exchange office. Inside, he saw a long counter with two old men giving service and a few stations of self-service.

"You don't really need human service for a wristband. It's more for selling beasts' corpses or collecting orders you've done via Alessa. Since you're in the top 10, you don't need the latter; your orders will be delivered to your door."

Amanda explained to Gale when he should use each type of service and he approached an empty self-service station.

"Please pour your mana into the machine to start."

Gale followed the instruction and poured his mana.

"Mana identified. Student: Gale Stormborn. Confirm?"

"Confirm."

"What service do you require?"

"I want an Alessa wristband."

"First time detected, cost reduced by 50%. Charging 5,000 imperial gold coins, confirm?"

Gale didn't know the first time was 50% off, so he just saw it as a pleasant surprise.

"Confirm."

"Say 1 to collect the wristband from the counter. Say 2 to have the wristband delivered to your apartment."

He looked at the busy counters and made his decision instantly.

"2."

After confirming and saying he didn't need any further service he left the place and met with his new three friends again.

"I chose the delivery option, so I still don't have it. Let's go to eat?"

He explained the absence of the wristband and the four headed to the dining room.

"Here, there's an empty table for four."

They pointed at an empty table. As if they planned it in advance, Amanda and Tim walked quickly to the table and sat next to each other, leaving the other empty seats for Gale and Valentina to sit next to each other.

"Come sit with us guys. By the way, Amanda and I are together, so Amanda is out of limits. However, Valentina is still single."

Tim said, making Valentina blush. Gale instantly understood what was happening; Amanda and Tim were acting as wingmen for Valentina!