After the incident of having his house damaged by a powerful explosive, Wallace decided to find a better place that was still within this city. It was due to his desire of completing his studies at the Leonhearts Academy to satisfy his family's desire to have their only son graduate in a prestigious academy.

There were hundreds of Magic Academy within this country and only 12 of them were affiliated to the government military. With this connection, even if the student had not passed the licensure examination, they won't have to be factory workers of magic artifacts, working as guards for a security company, or adventuring in the wild to earn a living as a magician.

The graduates in the twelve academies can easily be recruited in the military guaranteeing their stable income and status. Being a magician in the military wasn't stringent at all and they were normally being given a better treatment.

A Magic Engineer or an Arcane Artificer in the military could even do their own research freely without worrying about a deadline. They will be given a certain budget they could use in their project and it doesn't matter if it will be fruitful or not as they will still be supported by the government. It was probably an action so that Aeolia's incident would not be repeated.

Anyway, Wallace was now together with a realtor.

Finding a better place was not just a matter of money but he had to consider the people living around him. In his previous place, almost all people in the neighborhood were non-magicians, and every time they glance at the fortress-like house he has, they were feeling scared to get close at it.

Hiding his turrets and such had not helped him since he had been attacked a couple of times already. Aside from that, the police had been constantly patrolling around his house. Probably to deter any more aggressors. Although it added to the security, this still made the people around worried about their safety.

"This place is not bad...

"

Wallace muttered after considering not just the quality of the house being offered but also to the surrounding place. It was a large villa located on a mountain. The place was deserted as it is no longer under the city's magic barrier protection.

The villa was large and as per the realtor, it has been built 60 years ago by a powerful Adept Mage during that time. It was being maintained every month and the current owner had been looking for someone to purchase the place for more than two years already.

"This place is perfect...

" Wallace already decided. It no longer matters if the academy was far away as he already had a Void Phase he can use. He can travel back and forth here just by a few seconds.

The scenery was good as there was a garden outside though it was not being attended by a gardener by several months. Anyway, the realtor said that the villa itself was cleaned last before the incident in the city.

The villa was elevated and although still far from the top of the mountain, Wallace could see the high-rise buildings of the city further ahead.

The explosion caused by the enemies who attacked his house had only destroyed the outer perimeter. Luckily, his Wave Ward had managed to block the explosion. The house only cracked for a bit though it still needs to be heavily repaired.

"Oh, right. Is this land... or the mountain around for sale?

"

"Ahh... Well, it is. It can be purchased but it requires a certain status. It is not being sold just to anyone. Hmmm... The land title that you can purchase was only for this villa but if you want to expand, you will have to file a case with the Magician's Congress...

"

"Eh? Why are we going to involve them in this land acquisition?

"

Wallace was curious since the Magician's Congress only deals with magic-related things.

"Ahh... This mountain is a bit special. The forest here was previously a habitat for several powerful mana beasts. Although they were all killed by the Adept who built this villa 60 years ago, he filed a request to the Congress not to touch or make any more changes on this mountain.

"

"Really? So that was why this place was excluded from the City's Magic Barrier Protection?

"

"Mhm... That's correct.

"

Wallace thought as much. To include this place within the protection, they had to place Magic Nodes around this place for the Magic Barrier to take effect. It will affect the structure of the mountain and it would be against the request of the Adept 60 years ago.

'I guess, the owner has some authority at the Congress, huh. Why would he leave this place then? Haaa... Anyway, it's all in the past.'

"Alright, I purchase the place and I'll coordinate with the Congress for expansion...

"

The realtor was almost in tears after completing such a huge deal. Wallace was also feeling delighted since he was planning to create his Mass Driver here.

While thinking about it, he suddenly remembered Drake's mercenary squad. They asked him to purchase a certain land that requires some level of status in exchange for him acquiring the Zen coins.

It must be something similar to this place that was under the supervision of the Congress. However, they haven't contacted Wallace yet as most likely, they were still converting the treasures they found to some real money. After all, it wasn't easy to find the best buyers for those treasures. They probably had to go to different cities to maximize their profit. They might even resort to an auction to ensure that all their items were sold to the right person or the richest.

After a week, a lot of things happened. The villa was looking like a brand new building. The garden was well kept, the paints were changed, new furniture arrives, and new magic defenses were installed. This time, Wallace no longer hired a security company for this setup and used his own style.

Wallace had also increased the number of automatons and all of them now possess a memory crystal that contains his Mental Wave or his Divine Sense. It was all thanks to his father who brought him another batch of empty memory crystals from his company, the Seed Holdings at Stella Region.

This will increase his productivity and increase the strength of his automatons. They can be considered now as mini-Ravencroft Printers.

"Avalon, how was the sales?

"

The beta testing had ended early as Wallace started to sell his VR Pod making a huge wave at the market. Many magicians and non-magicians had been talking about it online. Wallace hired workers to promote his VR Pod and purchased the best locations for his ads and hired a Celebrity Idol for commercial advertisement.

Of course, he utilized his connection with his new friend to do this.

"Miss Chamber! You really are so kind. You even convinced Senior Miya to do this...

"

"Hoho... Of course, I'm always here to help the students at our Academy. You can always ask me whenever you need help.

"

A simple Mana Artifact was already given to Miss Chamber for her study. It was the mana artifact capable of warding off his Divine Sense.

He called the ring artifact a Sentry Ward.

Although it will be convenient for them, Wallace was capable of bypassing that if ever he wanted to. It was just like changing the frequency of his Divine Sense and it will no longer stop his ability. Of course, he doesn't have any plans of telling that to them.

In return, he was now being taught personally by Miss Chamber about the specificities of the Soul Arts. It was a very fruitful deal he made with her.

After that, Miss Chamber had become very attentive to him as she was planning to become the Headmaster of the academy as Percival was still missing. Well, since he was a popular 5th apprentice of Slaine Allusia, a Grand Arcanist, she wanted to be supported by him making her chance to be selected as a headmaster increased by a large margin.

It doesn't really matter to Wallace as long as he graduated here and she even helped him convince the rising star, Miya Linus, to advertise his VR Pod.

During the commercial ad, Miya was wearing a black skin-tight suit showing her impressive curves before she wore a helmet and be transported to the virtual world.

Inside the game, she was wearing a combat suit that was damaged here and there as she fought against a large number of Dorssian Empire's soldiers. It looks a very exciting game that resulted in over 450,000 reservations for the VR Pod in a single day.

After that, Wallace had announced that the next VR Pod about to be sold can be used by non-magicians and it was less expensive. What was exciting was that the non-magicians can play together with the magicians in the Adventure Mode. They can play and learn the path of being a Mechanic, Doctor, Warrior, Chef, Blacksmith, and others...

This announcement made another wave of reservations for the VR pod increasing it to more than a million reservations.

"Urgh... It would take years for me to complete this order. I need to hire fabricators or divide the creation of some parts of these VR pods to some other manufacturing companies...

" Wallace muttered as he sets his eyes to his trusted friends and senior apprentice.