Invitation and Appreciation

Larne held a small, heavy pouch filled with 30 gold kans within it after returning from the finance department. He still has to go to the Swordsmanship Society next as the acting vice chairman Rahman has been pandering to Larne to sign the document to finally be able to distribute the bonuses for the members. The situation was the same with the instructor team of the Core-Energy awakening course as well.

Larne had 3 gold kans incoming as allowance for running the Swordsmanship Society and another 5 gold kans for running the Core-Energy awakening course. In total, his income for the month was 38 gold coins. He was very satisfied with his current lifestyle, as he had made an exciting estimation of the price of the property and living costs in Nornak City.

'I'm kinda loaded now, ain't I,' thought Larne as he thought about the fact that he was living the life of a millionaire given the fact that he had lost all his wealth on the journey here.

Larne was the highest-paid employee of the Orca Academy mainly due to his status as a dual Gold ranked instructor. It's no wonder Pella cursed when he heard about Larne's salary given the annual income of the inn only amounted to 200 gold coins including the referral fee he collected from the private requests handled by the inn. Larne, on the other hand, easily earned up to 360 gold coins a year.

The assistant instructors in the academy only earned 1 gold coin per month and could be appointed as probationary official instructors for 3 months if they showed good performance, elevating their salary up to 2 gold coins. After the probationary period, Iron-levelled instructors earned a salary of 3 gold coins. If an instructor had Silver-levelled Core-Energy, he would have to serve as an Iron-ranked instructor for one semester before he can officially take on the position of a Silver-ranked instructor with 5 gold kans as his salary.

There were several different pay grades among Silver-level instructors as well. For the first 3 years of service, it was 5 gold coins. The next 3 years after that was 6 gold coins per month. The salary would rise to 7 gold coins for another three years when that period is over. For any Silver-levelled instructor who has served for more than 10 years, their salary would be fixed at 8 gold coins per month.

The Gold ranked instructors on the other hand had their salaries decided based on their level. One Level Gold ranked instructors earned 10 gold coins a month, Level Two Gold ranked instructors earned 15 gold coins whereas Level Three Gold ranked instructors like Instructor Watkins got 20 gold coins every month. Now Instructor Watkins had managed to break through to the SwordLord level, his salary would be no less than 50 gold coins each month.

When Larne first obtained the Incador Medal, he was eligible to receive the same treatment as Gold-level instructors do. However, the finance department of the academy was very divided on the matter of salary. Some said that he deserved to be paid as much as the One Star Gold level instructors while some others questioned whether he should receive his salary as an Iron level instructor on top of the benefits of having the Incador Medal. In the end, the decision was passed on to Academy Head Stevens and he decided that Larne would be paid the salary equivalent to a Level Two Gold instructor without any other benefits. It was at that moment when Larne's income became 15 gold coins a month. After acquiring the Purple-ranked Instructor Badge, his salary doubled yet again.

This was the main reason why Pella and Larne's other friends loved to take advantage of him as they were quite envious of the large salary he got. Every month after payday, they would find some sort of excuse to make him treat them to something. Pella had even said something like this before, "I have toiled so hard upon entering the Enforcement Division as a normal member to finally become the head of it for almost ten years now and my monthly salary is only a measly 12 gold coins, not even half of yours! If I don't at least get something at your expense, I would find it hard to sleep at night!"

Exiting the Sword and Blade skill association building, Larne came to the office of the instructor team of the Core-Energy awakening course. As the one put in charge of managing the distribution of the bonus allowance for the instruction team, Larne was approached by Instructor Aliyah to sign the relevant documents. After signing the distribution authorization documents, he signed under his own name in the list as well and collected his 5 gold coins. As he was just about to leave, he was called out by Instructor Martins.

Instructor Martins stretched his hand out and said, "Lend me some money, I'll return it tomorrow."

"Alright, how much do you need?"

"As much as possible, all of it if you don't mind. I'll definitely return it tomorrow," replied Instructor Martins.

"Huh?" Larne threw the whole pouch to Martins and asked curiously, "Brother Martins, what do you need the money for? And you say you're returning it tomorrow? Is there anything that urgent?"

Instructor Aliyah who was standing nearby them overheard and tried hard to suppress her laughter. "He also asked some of us to lend him money and said that he would return it tomorrow. Every time he collects his salary, he has to pass it all to his wife and he wouldn't be left with any to go get drinks. That's why he just came out with a way to save some personal cash for himself so that he won't have to worry about drinking anymore."

"How would he make that kind of money in just a day? Can he really get enough to let him drink away without any worries? Even loan interests wouldn't get you that much!" exclaimed Larne, still unable to figure out what Instructor Martins was planning.

"Actually, that method has something to do with you," replied Aliyah, smiling.

"Huh? How so?" dumbfounded Larne and quickly got back his bearing and let's head to the hall.

-----

As the head instructor, he was obligated to attend the event.

He arrived at the great hall just in time. The 152 students were already gathered there and formed neat rows of people. Instructor Martins invited Larne to go on the podium to give a final debriefing to the students present.

Standing on the stage, Larne pointed towards the gigantic Hexagram diagram and said, "All this time you have been taught to memorize this diagram firmly in your heart. This is the basic major circulation path that you will have to master. When you enter the meditation room later, relax your bodies, focus your attention and imagine the blood flowing through the circulation points listed in the diagram in your own bodies. Sooner or later, you'll start to feel some kind of tranquil energy manifesting in your bodies. That is the sign of a successful Core-Energy awakening. Right now, just relax and don't feel anxious. None of you here will fail as you have all reached the peak condition in terms of your essence, vitality and consciousness, and I know that because I have personally read your pulses during the past two days and I feel really confident in all of you. That's why, relax, have more confidence and face your awakening with a tranquil smile."

Larne's speech incited a round of light laughter from the students. After that, one by one the students were guided to the nearby meditation room by the assistant instructors where they will reside for one to two hours before emerging with their Core-Energy awakened.

Actually, the awakening process of Core-Energy itself wasn't that complicated apart from the fact that a person with a body in bad condition couldn't feel the flow of internal energy no matter how much meditation is undertaken. After awakening their Core-Energy, the students will be trained and familiarized with how to use it as the body adapts to the new circulation of energy until they reach the benchmark required of the Level One Bronze. After that, they will train individually like any other normal person and try to break through further ranks.

Having checked out on the other groups as well, Larne prepared to head home himself until he was stopped by Asake the Caretaker who was running towards him hurriedly to inform him that the Matriach of the Salt and Luxury Chamber of Commerce was at the academy and would like to meet up with him. Dumbfounded Larne nodded and followed.

Larne was led by the Caretaker who took a roundabout route and only answered his questions grumpily. He couldn't help but feel that something was off. What is going on? I know that Caretaker Asake has something against my methods in training the young master, which should look like pointless torturing to him, but she was still a loyal lady who responsibility carried out anything she was tasked with and probably wouldn't let her personal feelings get in the way of hot cobblestones in the cauldron, a rush of steam instantly arose and made the surrounding air a little difficult to breathe in.

"After sweating it out in the sauna, go wash yourself once before entering again. Repeat this three times and you'll instantly feel more refreshed. The sauna really has many benefits to one's health and skin, but one shouldn't stay in it for too long a time. Ten minutes each time would be ideal," explained Larne as his voice slightly echoed off from the walls of the compact sauna room.

"I think I'll have one built back at my home too. It would be a pretty good idea to host sauna parties and meetings once in a while where everyone will engage in naked communion, hehe," said the Matriach as she came out with a rather fancy idea.

"That wouldn't be wise as you'll never know if any of your guests have any kind of contagious disease. It's best if the family sauna is not open to anyone else. If you really want to have sauna parties, it's better if you start a high-class sauna facility where you can also provide services like massages or other sorts of body care. It should be a pretty good business since it's in your line of business," said Larne.

"That's actually a revolutionary concept! Why didn't I think of it myself?" said the Matriach as she stood up in excitement with her eyes gleaming, This was literally the first good news she was hearing today especially since she just returned from a top-level closed-door meeting.

...

Before she boarded her carriage, Matriarch took out three palm-sized pieces of parchment and put them into Larne's hand and said, "The first one is to thank you for coming out with a few great ideas for several businesses. I'll feel bad if I capitalize on those without somehow reimbursing you, so this represents my sincere thanks to you. The second one is my appreciation for the whole of the instructor team. The third one is for you personally to take care of my son's training. I'll be leaving him entirely up to you."

The three pieces of parchment were gold coin tickets which were valued at 100 gold coins each. As long as it was brought to the shrine of the Goddess of Wealth, Aje, Larne would be able to exchange them for 300 gold kans. As expected of the woman in charge of the Salt and Luxury Group, one of the largest merchant groups in the trade Alliance. She was indeed generous with her rewards.

Larne nodded to say his thanks. "Thank you, Matriarch. Please rest assured, we'll definitely handle the matter of your son perfectly."