Limitless Summoner: Rise of the Soul God-Chapter 184: Edgy freak

The tournament officially began tomorrow and would be a month-long event. Today was the last day Ethan had to make any sort of last minute preparations, and he did not want to let it go to waste. There were many skills he couldn't openly use in the tournament, but he still had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Ethan decided to finally head over to the Talisman department in the academy, the quiet, tucked-away wing of the academy that most battle-focused students ignored.

The general attitude in the academy towards these types of crafting professions was not very good. After all, potions or talismans were simply mere consumables. It was considered more prestigious to rely on personal skills and strengths.

Also, it was very expensive to learn these trades in the academy, so with limited resources, students mainly focussed on their class specific training. Of course, there were always exceptions. The building wasn't entirely deserted.

Ethan entered the small building that was not nearly as grand as the mage class hall. A single figure looked up from behind the counter, a tall woman with blonde hair. The hair was nearly wrapped in a bun, and she wore gold-rimmed glasses.

Ethan cringed at the sight. Was it him, or was every woman employed in this academy wore a pair of glasses? They were all also extremely attractive and had a similar aura about them. He couldn't exactly place his finger on it, but it was an oddity that definitely gave him the creeps.

"Let me guess," she said dryly. "You are here to buy some supplies for the tournament."

"Hmmm?" Ethan raised a brow. He was about to explain to her when the woman again interrupted him. "I am sorry, but all of the talismans are already sold out. The talisman masters are busy with some other missions. Nothing is available for another month."

Ethan blinked. "You're kidding."

The woman adjusted her glasses, expression neutral. "Do I look like I'm kidding?"

He stared at her for a beat longer, then exhaled slowly. Of course, the department was dry. With the tournament kicking off tomorrow, every ambitious participant with enough coin or connections had probably swept through here days ago. It made sense—but it was still annoying.

"Can I at least buy some supplies? Ink, parchment? Surely the academy hasn't run out of these too?"

The woman immediately. "Of course, we have plenty. Here is the list of items available, and here is the price for each."

Ethan's face twitched at the ridiculous costs. Not that he was expecting any different. At least these were cheaper than what the finished product cost. He dumped about 5000 gold coins and bought supplies. He then dumped another 10,000 gold coins and went all out in buying some more.

The woman was now giving him a strange look. "That's… quite a purchase," she murmured, the edge of her voice now tinged with intrigue. "Not many students walk in and casually burn fifteen thousand gold on raw materials."

Ethan smiled. "I am really bad at this. So I need the extras."

"Well, if you are bad at this, then you should use the talisman array room. Chances of success are higher."

Ethan nodded. "Thanks." He then thought of something and asked. "Is there an orientation crystal for sale?"

The woman smiled.

Five minutes later, Ethan walked out of the building with general information about the talisman department. There was still one more thing he needed to do before he started his mass production. He quickly headed over to the library to take a look at some wind elemental, lightning elemental and lastly, nature elemental spells.

He didn't select any complicated spells, just simple and effective ones, ones that he could handle within a short time. He headed over to the dungeon hall next to do some training.

Unlike the first two times when he had struggled to grasp fire and water manipulation, wind, lightning, and nature manipulation came naturally. Using the Convergence skill was like a cheat code that simply made his work easier and easier.

Since he had experience using these elements beforehand, he was able to manipulate them in a much better way without having to try too hard. However, he was still only at the beginner level.

Ethan also expected as much. He did not come here planning to become an Archmage overnight. As long as he was able to use these simple spells like wind slice and lightning bolt he was more than satisfied.

After spending a few more hours training, Ethan finally made a trip back to the Talisman building. It was time to do some late-night grinding.

He had already purchased premade ink, so all he had to do was draw the runes and the ritual circle, place the catalysts, pick up the parchment paper, and start casting magic spells one after the other.

Shadow watched in amazement as Ethan continued to churn out talismans at a relentless pace, sweat beading along his brow, and his body wrung dry from the constant mana usage. When he was finally done, it was already late in the morning.

"Fuck. I can't believe I ended up pulling an all-nighter." Ethan shoved all of his finished talismans that we piled up next to him like a rubbish heap and hurriedly stood up. His body wobbled a little, but he managed to steady himself.

"Nothing a good breakfast can't fix." He muttered to himself and with a big smile on his face he left the room.

Boy, you are crazy. Shadow padded behind him, shaking her head.

In fact, not even Ethan believed his words as he now had huge dark circles under his eyes. In the cafeteria, he received multiple strange looks as he wolfed down tray after tray of food like a man possessed.

His hair was a mess, ink smudged the side of his cheek, and his fingers still twitched from residual mana overuse. A nearby group of students gave him a wide berth—both out of concern and the sheer intimidation factor of someone who looked like they hadn't slept in a week but was still smiling like a lunatic.

Shadow leapt silently onto the bench beside him, curling up with her tail wrapped neatly around her paws. She didn't meow, didn't blink, just stared at Ethan with an expression that perfectly communicated, You're going to die one day doing something stupid, and I will be there watching.

And from this day onward, a new rumor started spreading about him.

"Johnny from the Vincent family was an evil, villainous, edgy freak who liked to wear eyeshadow and eats like a starved glutton."

Some even gossiped about how he was possessed by the evil spirits of all the students he had cheated and killed.

Ethan awkwardly smiled as he heard a couple of students talking about him behind his back. His stats were a lot higher than theirs, which made everything easier to hear.

Still, he didn't say anything. He didn't need to, and he didn't care. He was fine with being the pariah of the academy. There were many such students around after all.

Ethan wiped the last of the ink off his cheek with the corner of his sleeve, stood up, tossed his tray into the disposal unit, and left the cafeteria. There was no time to go back to his room and change. He walked directly over to the tournament arena.