For the past two months, in addition to sword practice, cultivating his soul and and studying space and rule magic, Nick had been trying to develop another product to sell under his company's name. He wants to put effort into making the Magic Scroll Company an identifiable organization as that would also help him in developing himself.
Nick had thought of many kinds of spells that might be useful but most of them were eventually rejected because Nick lacked knowledge of the requisite paths. Nick ended up running with an idea that he had come up with while cultivating his soul:
"How about a magic scroll that can heal damaged souls?"
Soul magic was fairly common and injuries to the soul happened all the time through backlash from failing to cast spells, magic beast attacks, attacks from Magicians and from soul cultivation itself. Most of these injuries would be allowed to heal naturally over time through sleep or some unorthodox methods at the cost of some discomfort on the part of the Magician. Two months ago Nick thought that if he could create such a spell, there would be a large Market for it.
Nick was a soul path scholar so he had an intuition that his plan would work. After taking apart the spell, Eat Soul, to see how it achieved its effects and doing tests with various beast souls, Nick was able to conceptualize a magic scroll that healed superficial damage to the soul almost instantly, leaving the affected Magician without discomfort. Nick finished conceptualizing the final portions of the spell just now and was about to create his first 'Soul Healing' scroll.
Nick retrieved a scroll writing paper and started filling it with Valteesian symbols and an hour later, he had a magic scroll filled with dimly glowing grey symbols. The magic energy coming from the scroll assured one of its quality but Nick knew that the scroll was not yet complete. Nick retrieved a flat bed trolley with ten small cages loaded on it that each contained one sloth.
Sloths were sedentary creatures that spent much of their time sleeping so there was special quality to their soul that produced a soothing effect when Nick used Eat Soul on them. Their souls were an important ingredient in the production of the Soul Healing scroll, without which the scroll could leave a Magician's mind in slight turmoil for a few hours after his soul was healed.
Nick used a spell that was aimed at five of the ten sloths:
(Retrieve Soul.)
Nick used the advanced apprentice grade spell that he had learnt when he was at the Jenner estate to drag the sloths' souls from their bodies and released them into the scroll that went from emitting a dull gray light to emitting a bright gray light. Nick then took out another scroll writing paper and used another spell of his while touching his completed scroll.
(Make Copy.)
Nick then placed his right index finger on the blank scroll writing paper.
(Produce Copy.)
The laws for the Soul Healing spell appeared on the paper in a bright silver ink but the magic energy that it was releasing felt off compared to Nick's already finished product.
(Sigh, just like I expected, I still need to use five sloths for each copy that I make, the spell apparently cannot copy the laws contained in the souls that were used to produce a complete scroll; hmmm...this inability probably relates to why Copy is currently just a basic grade rank 2 spell.)
Nick continued to focus on finishing the scroll and used Retrieve Soul to capture the last five sloths' souls and released them into the unfinished scroll which began to emit a magic energy very similar to the original.
"Now I need to rest its effects."
Nick went to the ground floor and sat in the middle of his Breaking Soul formation and activated it. The formation took a relatively long time to damage Nick's soul because during the past two, months Nick had refined his soul to a very high degree, having used this formation, then healed and calmed his soul at the general beast store about fifty three times; each time Nick spent around £40,000 to buy decrepit animals that he would use to heal his soul so Nick had spent over £2,000,000 already refining his soul. The result is now that Nick's soul was extremely resilient and strong and the Break Soul formation was only a rank 2 basic grade magic formation.
"Carla was right, the money that I earned is only a drop in the bucket compared to what I need to get to a high rank."
After nearly an hour, the Break Soul formation damaged Nick's soul sufficiently and so Nick stopped its activation and took out the copy of his Soul Healing magic scroll. Nick willed its activation and in the next moment, the scroll crumbled and he felt a wave of warmth come over him and the slight disturbance to his mind from the damage to his soul went away. Nick clenched his fist in excitement.
"I succeeded."
Slade commented at this moment:
[Your magic soul is no doubt useful. Even in my former home, I could see such a magic tool being highly sought after, even if it is merely rank 1 basic grade.]
Slade was correct, the spell written on the Soul Healing scroll was only a rank 1 basic grade spell but its effect on the soul was amplified because of all the soul path laws that the soul naturally contained and its low rank made it extremely easy to activate.
"Since today is a Saturday and I don't have combat class, I will make a visit to my favorite beast store."
Nick placed his original version of the Soul Healing scroll into his backpack and made his way to the General Beast Store. When Nick arrived through the door, Marshall treated Nick with extreme warmth because not only was he a supplier of an item that made them a fair amount of profit, he even bought animals from them regularly in recent times.
Where as the store used to use the transportation array for the convenience of the customer and barely made any profit from it at all, selling the Beast Capture scroll to customers looking for an uncomplicated exchange had earned the store over £120,000,000 in profit during the past two months and demand for the scrolls has only increased but the store was beginning to run out of them.
Nick spoke plainly to Marshall:
"I have a business proposition for your store and so I would like to speak to Carla."
Marshall smiled and happily asked for more information:
"Oh, what kind of business proposition is it?"
"I would like to secure sloths from this store in regular volume going into the foreseeable future to obtain from them a raw material that I will be using in my newly invented magic scrolls."
Nick took out his furled magic scroll and showed it to Marshall but to Marshall, it looked rather unimpressive. Marshall replied:
"Boss Carla is out at the moment so I will have to ask her for instructions over the phone."
Nick nodded.
"Go ahead."
Marshall went to the lobby counter and mad a telephone call to Carla, explaining the situation to her. She spoke eagerly:
"Take Nick into my office and tell him to wait there and I will arrive at the store in twenty minutes."
Marshall did as Carla instructed and took him into her office and had him wait there alone while Carla made her way to the store. Nick sat in the office, thinking about his two months of progress.
(In terms of sword techniques, I have learnt the Waiting Viper thoroughly even though I have not mastered it, I can pretty much use the current spells in my arsenal on instinct and I even have ideas for new rule path spells from my study of space path and my experience with the sword. My biggest source of progress, however, is the cultivation of my soul which has went on relatively great although I had to burn a lot of cash to do it efficiently. I haven't used my soul path spells on a living target in quite a while so I'm unsure of their current strength; I also have soul path methods that I would like to place into my arsenal of spells as soon as possible.)
The door of Carla's office soon opened, revealing Carla, wearing a tight denim skirt and a sleeveless green blouse, she greeted Nick as politely as a rank 4 Magician would anyone else and sat behind her desk. She then said:
"Before we speak about anything else, I need to place an order for more magic scrolls with your company."
Nick nodded.
"Okay, how much?"
Carla replied:
"Another twenty thousand by the end of the month."
Nick replied with certainty even though he knew that producing that many scrolls within a month's time with just him alone would be difficult.
Carla was pleased to see Nick accept. She knew that Nick's company only had one employee which was himself but she just wanted as many scrolls as she could get her hands on since her customers were demanding them instead of using the transportation array to transport the animals that they bought from her. At first she thought that the scrolls would be an added convenience to her customers but now that selling them was making her a large profit, she had to have more.
"Okay, did Marshall report to me correctly? You said that you wanted a regular source of sloths to obtain a raw material for some new scroll that you invented? What kind of scroll is it?"
Nick replied:
"Before I answer that, I would like to know if I can have the sloths?"
Carla thought for a moment and then said:
"The sloths are not regularly bred by us because of their low demand but if you can convince me that you will be purchasing a large volume of them going into the foreseeable future, I do not mind sourcing them for you at a premium until our facilities can breed a large amount of them."
Nick nodded his head in approval:
"Fine..."
Nick took out his scroll and explained its use to Carla who seemed very interested in it.
"If that scroll works as you say it does, then I can guarantee that I can give you a regular amount of sloths starting every month."
Nick handed Carla the magic scroll and said:
"You can test that out for yourself later and give my a reply, I would also want to rent one of your underground spaces to keep the sloths until I get my own warehouse, I'll buy them at an additional premium if you are willing to feed them while they are being stored here."
Carla counter offered:
"I'll make you an even better offer, I will manage the storage, feeding and logistics related to the sloths in exchange for 10% of the profit that you make from selling these scrolls during the next year. I'll even help you market them, how does that sound?"
Nick thought for a moment and then said:
"Deal."
Nick knew nothing about logistics or marketing so if Carla could take those worries off of his mind, he welcomed it.
(The help of a rank 4 Apprentice Magician is worth the 10%. I am surprised that she did not ask for more, like shares in my company.)
Nick asked:
"When can you have a batch of sloths ready?"
Carla replied:
"By the time we sign a contract for both deals. Come back tomorrow to sign the contracts, I will test your Soul Healing scroll myself later today."
Nick thanked Carla for her time and left the General Beast Store, heading back to his building to start the production of the next batch of Beast Capture scrolls and to continue studying but after he walked for a few minutes, he received a phone call from Marsha Cassidy. Nick was going to ignore it but remembered that he was a business man now and needed to be professional. Nick answered the phone:
"Hello, this is Nick."
Marsha answered with an angry tone:
"Nick, you bastard, are you actually selling the Beast Capture scrolls to the General Beast Store and making an enormous amount of money without me."
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb with me, my associate bought an animal from that store and showed me the scroll that he was using to store it. Don't forget that you got the means to make those scrolls from me. The least you could do is cut me in on some of the action."
"Sigh, Marsha, I don't owe you anything, especially after you tried to ambush me with Greg North. I warned you about playing games with me and you did not listen. If you want to purchase the scrolls, I'm all ears but otherwise, you'll have to excuse me while I make this cash."
Marsha became enraged when Nick said that last part.
"Where are you, Nick? I'm being told that you moved out of your dorm. Let's talk about this in a civilized manner, face to face. Don't let a misunderstanding get in the way of old friends."
Nick shook his head, saying:
"Goodbye Marsha."
"...Nick, wait, you son of a..."
Nick hung up the phone before Marsha could finish her insult and proceeded to his building. Nick spent the rest of the day producing magic scrolls and studying magic. At around 9 pm, Carla called him on his smart phone, saying:
"Nick, my sweet. Why didn't you say that you were going to be selling top quality goods. I'll have your contracts ready by tomorrow. Oh, what's your address, I need to give you a magically encrypted phone if we are going to talk business over the phone from now on, I'll send one of my assistants over to give it to you."
Nick was confused as to why Carla wanted to give him the phone tonight if he was going to meet her tomorrow but he figured that she must have her reasons.
(Powerful Magicians are so unreasonable.)
Nick told Carla his address and in twenty minutes, someone rang his door bell. Nick opened the door to see a young woman clothed in a tight purple dress, saying:
"You are Nick Capitol, correct? Carla sent me. Where do I put the cellphone?"
Nick invited her in and told her to leave the phone on one of the ground floor's sofas. The woman walked inside and Nick closed the door behind her, thinking:
(Wow, this girl is beautiful, she has a nice ass too. Its kind of weird that she just walked into a stranger's residence like that but the academy is relatively safe I guess, so that's probably the reason that she walked in with no worries.)
The woman placed the phone on the sofa and took a seat, looking at Nick and then asked:
"So mister Capitol. I hear that you are planning to make a big deal with Carla? Mind telling me about it?"
Nick frowned.
(Why is this assistant so nosy, if Carla wanted her to know about it then Carla would have told her?)
The woman reached into her cleavage to take something out but Nick's mind went into high alert the moment she did so.
(Soul Pressure.)
The woman's movements froze and blood oozed from her nose but she was able to move again within the next few seconds, albeit slightly.
"I'm just showing you my ID."
She took out an ID card that read: 'Board Member of the General Beast Store'.
Nick canceled Soul Pressure and the woman wiped her face of blood. Nick asked:
"Carla sent you didn't she, why don't you ask her?"
"She is being tight lipped about it and I want to know why. Considering the profit that we have made off of your previous magic scrolls, I want to know what you have cooking."
Nick replied coldly:
"Not happening."
"Whatever she offered you, I can have it increased if you are willing to work with the Jenner family as opposed to just Carla."
"Not interested, now leave."
Nick wore a stern expression and showed no room for compromise. The woman sighed and got up from the sofa and walked to the door, saying:
"I left my business card with the cell phone, If you change your mind or there is something that you need, just let me know."
When the woman got to the door, however, Nick spoke:
"Wait."
With her back turned to Nick, the woman thought:
(I knew it, no one can resist the influence of the Jenner name.)
The woman, however, did not expect what happened next. With her back still turned to him, Nick nervously put his hand on the woman's round bottom and said:
"There is actually something that I need."
The young woman blushed with surprise but remained still as Nick rubbed her bottom with his right hand. The woman internally sighed:
(It looks like this dress worked too well but this result is fine too. Carla has too much influence in our faction and I need and advantage over her while I am trying to become a stronger Magician.)
The woman steeled herself and turned around, placing Nick's right hand into her crotch. When Nick felt the warmth there, he realized that his gamble had worked and this woman would let him do what he wanted.
(Self interest is the lever that moves everyone.)
Nick used his developed physique to pick the woman up with both arms and carry her to one of the sofas where he turned her onto her stomach and lifted her dress above her waist. He then moved her panties aside and took out his penis with no resistance whatsoever from the woman. He quickly felt her vagina again and feeling that it was moist, he guided his penis inside of it.
"Ahhhhhh!"
The woman moaned continuously and tried to hold Nick's hand but Nick brushed her hand off of his and held down her back roughly and swung his hips onto her bottom continuously for the next twenty minutes. When he was done, he got up from the sofa and said:
"You can go now."
The woman, with a half grudging expression went towards the door and opened it but before she left, Nick asked:
"What was your name again?"