The man was a little helpless, but his tone was still very gentle. “Most of these notes have their original owner’s names. Why don’t you have a look at them first?”

Xiao Lin opened a book, the title page of which was written in flamboyant cursive calligraphy, which were surprisingly written in traditional Chinese characters. He could only recognize a name after reading it for some time: Tang Ken. He turned his head to mull over it for a moment before shaking his head in confusion.

He found another one with several small clerical scripts at the corner of the pages: Ouyang Ming.

Who was Ouyang Ming?

Xiao Lin shook his head in a daze before flipping through another one. On that occasion, the name on the page was written in Russian.

As good tempered the man was, he tried his best to control his repeatedly-twitching eyebrows when he saw Xiao Lin’s increasingly confused expression. He remained speechless for a moment and did not know what to say.

“Maybe I’ll just take these home first.” Xiao Lin was also a little embarrassed because he really did not know who those people were.

“Sure,” the man patted his forehead and suddenly remembered that the boy in front of him was still a freshman. He smiled bitterly, then shook his head and sighed. His attitude remained firm. “We’ll just do it like that. You can choose three to five books, and if you still want them next time, you’ll have to come back here again. Understood?”

Xiao Lin knew how to quit when he was ahead and nodded in agreement.

The selection process took some time, as all those notes added up to at least hundreds of copies. Xiao Lin consulted the man and screened them according to the learning requirements.

In the end, he brought back four notebooks: Lightsword, Earth-shattering Chop, Flame Bullet, and the Wind Defense Spell. Two were physical skills and two were spell skills, and all were Black Iron-ranked. According to the man, they were all suitable for beginners.

After bidding farewell, Xiao Lin realized that it was almost noon. Since an off-day was hard to come by for him, he decided to take a look around the other areas within the bustling trade district.

He had worked for a total of seven days, including that day itself. His pay had reached 2,800 New Dollars, and after deducting the sum spent at the training hall, he still had 2,700 remaining.

It was not a small sum of money. For example, the lowest level ordinary skill book cost about one to two hundred New Dollars, and the price of weapons and equipment was typically around that range too, albeit slightly more expensive. Slightly higher-quality ones, like various alchemical formulae, cost about four to five hundred New Dollars.

Xiao Lin walked around a few times and had a rough idea of the New Dollars’ purchasing power, but he hesitated to buy anything and was not in a hurry. There were a large number of well-made weapons and armors in the equipment store, and although they were all very exciting, those things could also be obtained in Dawn Academy. Furthermore, the equipments’ qualities were not that high, nor very durable either.

There might be few opportunities for him to make extra money in the future. Xiao Lin wanted to plan carefully and the money had to be spent on a blade. He looked around for a long time but there was nothing much to look at.

However, Xiao Lin found several interesting little pendants and accessories in several elf-owned shops. All were exquisitely made and very unique, and more importantly, often had good uses. After picking and choosing, he spent 700 New Dollars on two items.

One was an ornament that was supposed to be hung on his clothes. It was hexagonal and was about the size of a button. It had a shiny appearance that was neither agate nor pearls nor diamonds, but was very soft when pinched. The shop owner was an attractive male elf, who was very friendly but spoke poor English. After an explanation, Xiao Lin had only a vague idea of the power of those ornaments. It was only after he made some hand gestures and showed some explanatory diagrams that Xiao Lin understood.

The function of the ornament was simple and could be easily summarized. Its purpose was transfiguration, but not the kind that was seen in martial arts or television. According to the elven shop owner, the gadget was derived from the seeds of certain plants that were specially grown by the elves. The seeds contained a certain energy, and picking them before their germination could preserve that energy within and prevent it from being emitted.

After that energy was emitted, it could temporarily produce a certain hallucination effect to anyone who laid eyes on it. When worn, the wearer could also allow others to see a fake version of themselves, the effect of which was more or less like transfiguration.

Of course, that kind of energy could be used only once, or perhaps twice at most. Therefore, it was not very expensive–only 400 New Dollars. Nevertheless, it was a unique ornament that had some collection value, even after it had been used up.

The other piece was a coil of spider silk, refined from spiders that only inhabited the elven territory. It was much more resilient than ordinary rope, but the most important point was its extremely slim and light properties. The elven shopkeeper was very thoughtful: he placed the spider silk coil in a delicate ring and made it easy to carry.

The spider silk was cheaper, costing 300 New Dollars. After buying the two items, Xiao Lin touched his pocket—which only had 2,000 New Dollars left—and decided to stop for the time being. As someone who was new to the New World, there were a lot of dazzling things that attracted his attention. If he really wanted to let himself loose, the money he had was not enough at all.

It was past noon by the time he returned to the inn. Song Junlang had returned at some point and was sitting in the room with a birdcage on the table. Song Junlang was teasing the bird and feeding it.

The bird was about the size of his palm and was fiery red from its hook-shaped beak all the way to its talons. The color was extremely bright and brilliant, like a burning flame. Its head was adorned with an ink-black crest, and the combination of red and black was a breathtaking sight.

The bird food in Song Junlang’s hands was equally as unusual. They were all pieces of meat the size of fingernails, with streaks of blood that were not even cleaned off. The bird swallowed them whole as they were tossed into the birdcage. It called out in low grunts, as if longing for the meat.

Xiao Lin was perplexed by what he saw. He did not expect Song Junlang to be in such a carefree mood. He asked curiously, “Pretty bird, Department Head Song. Where did you get it?”

“Bird?” Department Head Song shot a condescending glance at him and said in an irritated tone, “Please! Don’t insult it by comparing it to a creature as low-level as a bird. This guy is a near-genuine dragon-eagle!”

“Dragon-eagle!” Xiao Lin widened his eyes and exclaimed.

“F*CK!” Song Junlang was obviously taken aback by Xiao Lin’s exclamation and quickly dropped the meat in his hand. He hurriedly walked to the corridor outside the room and looked left and right, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that there was no one around. He then shut the door quickly and said in a slightly reprimanding tone, “Keep it down! Don’t spread this around, do you understand?”

Xiao Lin’s mouth twitched slightly, feeling like he had been too naïve. Would the Song Junlang he knew even keep an ordinary bird?

Department Head Song’s nervous expression earlier made Xiao Lin suddenly realize something. He lowered his voice. “You went to America’s dragon-eagle knight regiment and stole a baby bird? I mean, a baby dragon-eagle.”

“Steal? No, no, no. I got a dragon-eagle egg through my own channels. It just so happened to hatch today.”

“Are dragon-eagle eggs that easy to get?”

“Of course not. Dragon-eagles are a military-controlled creature of Judge Academy. First, you have to pretend to be a bad guy and get reported, then you have to hide it from the inspection staff, and at long last, you can sneak out and take back with you a real dragon-eagle egg. This entire day had been just torturous!”