Lux lay on the bed, staring at the wooden ceiling. The sky wasn't completely dark yet, but she didn't know what else to do, so she just lay there, spacing out on the wooden planks covered with a thin cotton blanket.

  After the two elves left, Lux took the slip of paper that Emily had tossed her and asked the Acriders standing by the roadside for directions. Lux couldn't understand what was written on the paper. It just had some beautifully written ink characters and a green seal. The first Acrider ignored Lux at first, but when Lux held the paper right in front of him, he looked at it carefully for a long time before finally pointing her in a direction. Lux had to ask several more Acriders before she finally arrived at an inn.

  There was no one at the inn's front desk. Lux had to shout before a very old Acrider slowly emerged from a wooden door. He held Lux's paper close to his eyes, then far away, taking a long time to finally read it. Then he assigned Lux a room.

  The moment Lux entered the room, she smelled a dusty odor. It was practically a ranch for dust and grime. As soon as the door opened, dust particles danced freely in the air, and looking at the dirt accumulated on the windows, it seemed like it was about to bury any chance of life, turning this room into a desolate wasteland.

  And that old Acrider hobbled to bring Lux blankets, bedding, and a pillow, which Lux took from him herself. As for cleaning the room, there was no need for the old Acrider to do that. Lux simply wiped off the bed and did a quick cleaning of the floor and windowsill.

  When Lux finished cleaning, she heard music from outside the window. Peeking out, she saw it was coming from the central square of Radiant Glade. Sylvie had mentioned before that there was a huge flowerbed in the central square of Radiant Glade, and in the center of the flowerbed was a magic sound device that played music as evening approached. The setting sun, like a child reluctant to part, peeked its head from behind the distant mountain ridge, listening to the light and lively ensemble, with its drums, flutes, and other instruments Lux didn't recognize.

  Outside, many elves were dining at restaurants. There were many open-air restaurants, and some were even built on trees. The giant trees, wider than Lux could have ever imagined, held up restaurant platforms like waiters holding trays. Many elves sat at tables on these platforms, dining, while Acriders acted as waiters, serving food to the elves.

  'There are so many Acriders here. I wonder if they're the ones cooking in the restaurants too,' Lux thought, looking out the window, which didn't have glass but only a tattered cloth curtain.

  Later, Lux used a bucket of cold water and the towel she had brought to wipe herself down. Here, only water was free; everything else had to be paid for with points from the crystal disk. And right now, she had only seen Sylvie's crystal disk.

  After finishing the flower cakes and dried vegetables, Lux suddenly felt like eating some meat with fat.

  When she was 'enjoying' her wild person life in the forest, she had eaten so much meat that she was almost sick of it. But these past few days, she had been eating only vegetables, and her stomach was starting to protest.

  'Oh well, I'll just go to sleep,' Lux thought and closed her eyes, spending her first night in Radiant Glade.

  ——————————————

  The next morning, Lux finished washing up and left her belongings at the inn. If she could learn the so-called magic emission and wrapping, then she could stay permanently, and leaving her things there wouldn't matter. As for the possibility of failing—Lux chose not to think about that.

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  It was barely dawn, so she set out to find the place called the Green Training Field—and then Lux asked several Acriders nearby, but none of them responded to her. Frustrated, Lux had to run back to the inn to get the paper with the seal, and only after showing it to the Acrider again did he finally give her directions. And the directions weren't very detailed, so she wandered around for a while and had to ask several more Acriders before finding it.

  "Just arrived? You humans are so lazy," Emily said, seemingly having been there for a long time. Lux felt that the sun was barely a fifth of the way up the sky; you could still faintly see the moon hanging around.

  But Emily had indeed arrived earlier than Lux, and the blonde-haired Sabrina beside Emily was standing there with heavy eyelids.

  "Human, making me and Captain Emily come here so early to wait for you, if you don't learn magic emission and wrapping, you should be punished by being sent outside the city to do hard labor with the Acriders," Sabrina said, clearly full of resentment towards Lux.

  "Alright, let's go in," Emily said, then turned and entered the Green Training Field. Lux followed. It was a huge structure surrounded by white stone walls, with both an open-air section and a semi-indoor section with a ceiling. The ground in the open-air section was covered in lush green grass, while the semi-indoor section was paved with dark green wooden planks (at first glance, Lux thought the floor was moldy).

  Right now, the entire training field was empty. Emily took out her crystal disk, swiped it, and booked a small, private training room.

  "Okay... So, how should I learn this magic emission and wrapping stuff?" Lux asked. "Expecting me to figure it out on my own in one day is a bit much, like asking a kid to invent a language and then give a speech in it."

  "This," Emily said, tossing Lux a small booklet. Lux caught it and looked at it. It was filled with text and various annotations.

  "I can't read," Lux said loudly, sounding somewhat righteous, as if displaying her illiteracy was an advantage in certain situations.

  "There's a picture version in the back," Emily said, rolling her eyes. Sabrina was so shocked by Lux's shamelessness that she was speechless and forgot to make any mocking remarks.

  Lux flipped to the back. There was indeed a picture version. Though the drawings were completely incomprehensible to Lux, they were at least better than the even more incomprehensible text.

  Lux glanced at the two elves standing nearby as if watching a show. She figured she would have to rely entirely on herself.

  "Captain Emily, this stupid monkey probably can't even understand the pictures," Sabrina said, then half-raised her hand and waved it dismissively at Lux. "This human is going to be a joke, a boring joke."

  Emily curled her lip in response to Sabrina. "If she fails, then have her leave Radiant Glade in the middle of the night and sleep in the wilderness."

  "Haha, Captain Emily, I think that's perfect for this monkey," Sabrina said.

  Lux didn't really care about sleeping in the wilderness, but these two were being so noisy. "Ahda ahda ahda!" Lux shouted while trying to release magic according to the obscure diagrams in the booklet. She decided to out-shout the two elves before they drove her crazy with their chatter.

  "What are you howling like a wild monkey for?!" Sabrina shouted, covering her ears. Emily beside her also looked at Lux with a displeased expression.

  "I think this method effectively helps me release magic," Lux explained. "And the booklet also shows using a sword. I don't have a sword right now. You don't expect me to take apart the floor and make one by hand, do you?"

  "There are training swords on the rack in the back. Take one," Emily said coldly.

  After that, Lux held a training sword and swung it around while trying to figure things out. Whenever the blonde elf started talking, Lux would immediately shout, "Ahda ahda!"

  This silenced the usually talkative Sabrina, who, along with Emily, just watched her silently.

  But the situation didn't improve much, because the booklet was completely incomprehensible.

  It was filled with drawings of nodes and various lines and arrows, and symbols for rotation and strange spherical flowers on the human body. Lux felt that her brain was getting more tired than her body trying to learn this.

  But there was no other choice. She had to learn.

  Lux took a deep breath and continued to imitate the movements in the booklet.