Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 276 - 74 Advance Payment

Nora and Medea both took "Mind II" Magic Potions obtained from the mutants in Lunfield Town, advancing to Level 4 and Level 6, respectively.

"Mind II," as an enhanced version of "Mind I," allows for mind reading over longer distances, and mind control can now be initiated without needing to make direct eye contact. However, if eye contact is not made, the time to complete control will be longer.

In addition, "Mind II" introduced several new abilities, including "Thought Implant"—which can compel the target to feel an urge to do something unconsciously—and "Psychological Blind Spot"—which makes it possible for one to be unconsciously overlooked by others, a life-saving magic technique for Mages on the battlefield.

Further exploration and development were needed to discover more abilities.

Sigrdrifa ingested "Frost II" and her level rose to Level 6. Compared to "Frost I," she could now generate colder air, not only attaching it to her weapon but also spreading it within a two-meter radius around her, affecting nearby enemies.

The ability derived from this was "Rapid Freeze," which allowed for rapid cooling to minus 25 degrees Celsius on contact with her body, causing immediate frostbite damage.

Of course, due to her insufficient Spiritual Power, she couldn’t yet conjure a super low-temperature magic technique and launch it like a Frost Mage.

The true Arcane Mage Thira recently took "Storm II," advancing to Level 6 as well.

"Storm II" granted her the ability to manipulate a greater range of air pressure, as well as more refined manipulation techniques. She could now produce a straight-line hurricane, generate spinning tornadoes, condense air into needle-like shapes with pressure and pierce them into an enemy’s body before exploding, or create a progressively lower air pressure zone, sucking in surrounding enemies by force.

Compared to Sigrdrifa, the spiritually more powerful Thira could play with the Storm Sequence in many more ways. Being a Mage wasn’t just about logic, as imagination was also very important.

Since Miel still had residual "Luck I" in her system, she could not yet take "Luck II," thus the team now had one Level 7, three Level 6, three Level 5, one Level 4, and one Level 3.

Aside from Miel and Sigrdrifa, everyone else in the team had run out of Magic Potions for further upgrades, making it urgent to address this matter.

After listening to Nora’s report, Aske also felt quite troubled by the Magic Potion issue and could only turn to Eleanor to ask, "Is it possible for your father to give us an advance on our quest reward?"

"It’s not that simple..." Eleanor hesitated.

"What’s the problem?" Aske tried to persuade her, "We’re certainly not going to default, and we’ll complete the quest sooner or later. Can’t we just get an advance on our payment? Your Weisbach family certainly has an Extraordinary Material warehouse, right? Do you have any finished Magic Potions? Anything that the girls in our team can use?"

"I don’t know," Eleanor said with a wry smile, "I’d have to ask my father."

"So, could you please ask him?" said Aske.

"The problem is, I have confidence in our strength, but my father doesn’t," Eleanor spread her hands helplessly, "Even the fact that he entrusted us with this task was on the recommendation of Lord Apilius, not because of me."

"Thira?" Aske turned his head and said, "Since your grandfather has also vouched for us, could he also say a few good words to convince Eleanor’s father to prepay the reward?"

"This..." Thira was caught off guard by the sudden shift of topic towards her, "That seems inappropriate, doesn’t it? Even the Duke might not have the authority to decide on the Weisbach family’s Extraordinary Material warehouse alone. They might have to ask the opinion of their family’s Demigod."

"Right now, we haven’t accomplished any feats to justify asking for an advance on the reward. Even Eleanor’s father probably doesn’t have anything substantial to persuade the family Demigod with, right?"

"How could there be no merit?" Aske retorted, "Didn’t we help them win that knight duel?"

"I suppose that’s true," Thira conceded, "but the victory in a knight duel, I’m afraid, can hardly be compared in value to a Level II Magic Potion."

"So, as long as there’s something of equivalent value, the Duke could negotiate a trade with the Demigod, right?" Aske mused, "Nora!"

"Hmm?" Nora looked up.

"Lend me some money," Aske said, "to mortgage with Ellie’s dad, and then let’s get a few bottles of Magic Potion in advance. Once we complete the mission, we’ll get the money back and repay you."

Nora: ???

"I’m willing to lend the money," Nora said with a frown of her lovely eyebrows, "how much would you like to borrow?"

"Start with a few million marks for emergencies," Aske said.

The girls all fell over. Was the Squad Leader crazed by pressure? Asking outright for several million marks without considering whether Nora could produce them!

As expected, Nora showed an embarrassed expression, and after pondering for a long while, she spoke:

"Hmm, but I don’t have that much money on me. Does the Weisbach family accept bank transfers? Or if it has to be cash, can it be flown over by helicopter?"

Pfft! Everyone almost burst out laughing; this girl really could afford it!

"Our family does have a bank account in Venice..." Eleanor began to say subconsciously before suddenly realizing what was happening. How did this turn into borrowing money?

"That’s not the problem!" she exclaimed frantically, "The problem is whether a few million can get us the Magic Potion!"

"A whole bottle of Level II Magic Potion is at most a few tens of thousands of pounds, and when converted to marks with the exchange rate and multiplied by 2, that should be about right. The problem is that Level II Magic Potion is rarely circulated in the market, so their prices are sky-high, and many sellers simply refuse money, opting instead for a trade with equivalent recipes, materials, or Magic Potions," Medea reminded, "Even if you’re willing to buy at a higher price, the Weisbach family might not be willing to sell. After all, they’re not short of money."

"Your Weisbach family is really stingy," Aske remarked, "Back when we were supporting Olympia City, Thira’s grandfather issued 6 bottles of Level II Magic Potion and 2 bottles of Level I Magic Potion!"

"I apologize on behalf of my family," Eleanor said, tears streaming down her face; this was not something she could decide.

"In that case," Aske said, "how about sponsoring two sets of Power Armor in advance as a reward for the victory in this knight fighting? One from you, one from Sigrdrifa. Having the advantage in equipment will make this high-risk mission a lot easier."

"That should be okay," Eleanor said, relieved, "I’ll talk to my father right away."

Watching Eleanor disappear into Fire Island, Thira suddenly spoke up:

"So, in order to get someone to agree to open a window, you first pretend to want to take off the whole roof?"

"Wow!" The girls exclaimed in sudden realization, "So the whole time, your goal was just to get the Power Armor? The Squad Leader is really cunning!"