novelraw Chapter 957: New Year's Gifts
Chapter 957: New Year's Gifts
“Describe the known steps for crafting a basic potion or a basic alchemical item.”
“Fill a crucible two-thirds full with pure water, crush wormwood...”
After completing the level-one alchemy trials, Lu Li left the classroom.
Only one day remained until the New Year, and the decorations on the Crown Level were complete. Alchemical slates, shimmering with fluorescent light, resembled neon garlands, and branches painted green adorned the corridors inside the Great Tree.
Artificial, yet beautiful.
The assembly hall, decorated in the same fashion, seemed livelier than usual. It was hard to say whether it was because of the decorations or the cheerful students carrying gifts.
During dinner, a professor announced that the New Year's banquet would begin tomorrow evening in the assembly hall.
The excited faces suggested that many students would not be sleeping tonight.
The night was quiet, without dreams.
The next morning, Lu Li awoke.Merchant Anthony was standing silently by his bed.
“What is it?”
The Merchant must have just arrived, otherwise he would have emotionlessly woken Lu Li up.
“Your gift,” Merchant Anthony opened his backpack and took out a simply wrapped present.
New Year's gifts from Hell.
Ophelia's gift was a vague, indistinct figure naturally formed from cooled lava. But if one imagined it as a statuette of Ophelia, it was quite realistic.
“Wearing this, you will always feel my love,” was written on a slip of paper attached to Ophelia's statuette.
Prusius's gift was a clumsy, sloppy diary of his observations in Hell. For instance, he wrote that the disgusting lesser demons were stupid and fierce, always thinking of him as food. Or that he saw Ophelia trying to paint an oil painting for Lu Li, but Gades was always saying she was wasting her time, and that her paintings were truly ugly.
After flipping through a few pages, Lu Li closed Prusius's diary. He looked at the next gift.
Even Gades had brought Lu Li a New Year's gift: a stone from Hell.
It was unworked, with no special features. Even staring at this stone, still smelling of Hell's sulfur, with an unfocused, hazy gaze, it was difficult to perceive any abstract patterns or symbols.
Given Gades's stingy nature, it must have been a rock he had picked up at random.
A note was stuck to the stone: “Return gifts are an essential part of the New Year!”
Finally, there was a separate, unsigned note: “The gift is good news: father is surveying his domain, giving you enough time to master the Cursed Title.”
Placing all the gifts except for the note from the devil's daughter on the table and burning the note, Lu Li began preparing his return gifts.
The return gift for Ophelia was a dark pink lace evening gown with gold thread, as well as a sturdy and durable set of work overalls; the return gift for Prusius was several books of fairy tales and biographical novels; the return gift for Gades was 100 one-shilling coins, packed in a gift box; even the devil's daughter was no exception.
“Can the devil's daughter find you?”
“She has the eyeball.”
So, the gift for the devil's daughter was a black tailcoat.
All of this would be purchased by Merchant Anthony and sent to Hell.
Having done this, Lu Li left his room and headed for the assembly hall along a corridor filled with New Year's cheer.
Evidently, Lu Li would be receiving more than just these gifts today.
During breakfast, students ran up to Lu Li almost every minute, giving him presents. Even the professors smilingly placed their gifts on top of the mountain of presents.
The table quickly overflowed with these colorful gift boxes, and they began to pile up at his feet.
Dogmeat was envious; even Fudot had received several exquisite gift boxes.
Fudot, who had secretly slipped something into the pile of gifts at Lu Li's feet, couldn't stand Dogmeat's pathetic, puppy-dog eyes and snorted, “And where’s your gift?”
“I only have you and Lu Li as friends,” Dogmeat said, looking dejected.
“I’m not your friend!”
“But the language professor said that people who are often together are friends...”
You are the people I've known the longest!
Fudot looked away and muttered quietly, “Just wait... your gift isn't ready yet.”
Lu Li left the assembly hall a little later than usual, because he had called Merchant Anthony to take the gifts to his room and then asked him to deliver all subsequent gifts directly there.
After his morning lessons in mysticism, divination, and alchemy, Lu Li returned to his room to sort through his New Year's gifts.
Books, so many books. Almost every gift wrap concealed a book.
The students seemed to think that Lu Li, who carried books with him every day, loved to read.
While that was indeed true, Lu Li didn't have time to read many of the books he had been given.
He stacked the fairy tales and novels, asking Merchant Anthony to send them to Prusius, and arranged the rest of the books, useful or not, on an empty bookshelf.
As he unwrapped the gifts, Lu Li also made a list of return gifts.
For students he didn't know well, Lu Li's return gifts were also books, but for some of the students he knew, the gifts were more tailored.
For example, there was Floating Jerry, who was tormented by nightmares every night due to his talent. Lu Li's gift was the first vial of a Potion of Pleasant Dreams he had kept as a memento.
And then there was Dogmeat. Although he was so poor that he could only offer Lu Li a blessing at breakfast, Lu Li’s return gift was a crate of canned food.
After unwrapping the nearly endless stream of gifts, most of which were books, he found only a few exceptions.
Professor Kris had done the same as him: she sent a vial of a Potion of Pleasant Dreams with a 98% success rate. The note said that even a dragon would have a beautiful dream after drinking it.
The old professor’s gift was two wooden boxes. One was full of candy, the other was empty; he hoped Lu Li would be able to bring sunlight from the Land of Light back in it when he had the chance.
The Nameless Lady offered a divination: she predicted that Lu Li might be lucky, or he might face misfortune.
Matteus's gift was a copy of an oil painting depicting Lu Li himself.
“How bad is the food shortage in Vinnelag?” Lu Li asked.
Merchant Anthony's reply was that more than a hundred thousand people were starving, and they could only be guaranteed one meal every two days.
Lu Li could support the entirety of Vinnelag.
But gathering and transporting enough food for a hundred thousand people was beyond the capacity of three Merchants.
Lu Li instructed the Merchant to purchase a large quantity of canned food or anomaly meat from the Underground Trading Guild and send it to Vinnelag without limit.
This was Lu Li's New Year's gift to the citizens.
Unwrapping the last gift, he found another book, unsigned but bearing the Lince family crest.
“Bearers of Anomaly Titles”—exactly what Lu Li needed.
Lu Li's return gift was also a book, titled “Techniques of Surveillance and Counter-surveillance.”
Lu Li hoped Fudot could make better use of her black beetles, but Fudot didn't see it that way.
“Hmph!”
During lunch, Fudot, feeling that Lu Li was mocking her, sat far away.
Her seat was quickly taken by a young man with a gap-toothed smile that made him look a little slow. He took out his notebook, but it wasn't a gift: he wanted Lu Li to sign his diary.
For the rest of the day, the students were a little distracted, filled with a certain anticipation.
Waiting for night to fall, when the New Year's banquet would begin.