The Hope of Getting Ahead

He tried to recall the web novels he had read before and realized that his situation had never been worse.

To be the hero who came out on top, one had to be powerful. The fantasy world was not exactly practicing the law of the jungle, but the weak would never be the protagonist. In Jon's memory, there wasn't any fantasy novel where a guy with no hands could become the hero of the fantasy world.

The ones who could become heroes were always guys with great power, great wizards, great swordsmen, or even a chosen one of some god or something.

So he needed to become strong.

But that's hard.

Being strong wasn't easy either. Keeping a store and selling stuff wasn't going to make you strong by any means; you had to learn, you had to train, you had to take risks, you had to pick a career path. Seven years of careful observation, listening, and analyzing, Jon had learned quite a bit about the world he was in, a world where there were many adventuring professions, fighters, wizards, paladins, priests, druids, bards, etc., and it sounded like you could do whatever you wanted, everything was at your disposal, but it was not that way at all.

All because he was now in Ghost Town.

"Damn ghost town." Jon frowned as he lay on his bed.

Ghost Town was a very weird city, first of all, it was a floating city - one that could fly in the air; secondly, it was a militarized and managed city, with a very strict hierarchical hierarchy; and lastly, and most importantly: it wasn't in the material-realm, it was in the ghost-shadow-realm.

The material-realm, or the main material plane, is the so-called mortal world, where humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and so on live. The ghost-shadow realm, on the other hand, belonged to the outer realm and was the same in nature as the bottomless abyss inhabited by demons, and the nine layers of hell inhabited by devils.

There were originally no humans in the Ghost-Shadow-realm, and Ghost Town was an alien immigrant.

It was said that about two thousand years ago, there was a powerful Nethereal Empire in the material-realm with a glorious magical civilization. The wizards created countless magical wonders, one of which was the city that could float in the sky, also known as the floating city, Ghost Town was one of them, the name of the city at that time was "Shadowland".

Then there was a cataclysm, and the entire Nesser Empire was suddenly destroyed, and almost all of the floating cities crashed - except for Ghost Town.

Before the cataclysm, the lord of Ghost Town conducted a huge magical experiment, breaking down the dimensional barriers and moving Ghost Town from the material-realm to the ghost-shadow realm. After conducting an expedition for some time, he moved Ghost Town back to the material-realm.

Then, what the residents of Ghost Town saw in their eyes was the broken and ruined empire.

The sorcerers of Ghost Town performed divination and concluded that a ferocious monster called the Ferrin Devil Anemone had destroyed the Nether Empire.

Revenge was inevitable, but since the Ferrin's Anemone was able to suddenly destroy the powerful Nether Empire, its strength was naturally extraordinary. At this time, all the floating cities had crashed, the great wizards were dead and wounded, and the ghost town could not fight against the Ferrin Monster Aoi, so they had to hide in the ghost-shadow-realm again, avoiding the front line for the time being.

Originally intended to build up strength and then go to take revenge, who knew that encountered an accident? The ghost town moved into the ghost-shadow-realm this time, but it didn't know what kind of obstacles it encountered, and no matter how the sorcerers tried to cast their spells, it could not go back to the material-realm anymore.

Nowadays, Ghost Town is an isolated island in the ghost-shadow-realm. In addition to the residents of Ghost Town, there are no other human beings in the ghost-shadow-realm, and there are no elves, dwarves, or the like, only endless shadow monsters.

Because it is an isolated island, everything in Ghost Town is self-produced and self-sufficient. The entire city is under semi-military management, and the important living materials are all rationed, and what can be put up for sale in the stores will not be anything too valuable. The customers of each store are generally stable. Take Jon's family for example, there are only so many wizards in the whole city, and there are only so many spell materials needed, and they are not allowed to raise the price, and they can't expand the market, so naturally, the money earned is only enough to feed themselves and they can't turn into a rich man.

This is terrible.

The ghost town was a semi-military-managed city, a city with a strong hierarchy. In this city, the ruling class is mainly wizards and priests, as for any paladin or druid, there are no such things, nor can there be any, there are some fighters, wanderers, or bards, but their status is not high.

In the ghost town, there is no shortage of wizard schools and shrines. The wizard school did not care about origin and had wide enrollment, but the tuition fee was very expensive; the temple did not charge tuition, but it depended on origin, and commoners were not qualified to go in as priests to serve the gods.

Jon had never wanted to be a cleric, so the path of a priest did not need to be considered.

The best way out, naturally, was to become a wizard.

But what about the expensive tuition fees of the wizard school?

Ghost Town practiced a strict elite education, in the words of the Ghost Town Lord, "We need, and only need, the elite." Witch School enrolls students every year, the quota is not particularly limited you can get in by paying the tuition fee, the school system is five years long, and there are usually about a hundred or so new students enrolled every year. But here's the kicker: only ten people are allowed to graduate each year, and the elimination rate is about ninety percent.

Those who can't graduate are all beaten back, can't get the wizard identity, and still can only honestly go to be a commoner, tuition is considered to be paid in vain.

Jon's family and ancestors are small merchants, open spell material stores, save about some, the specific number of Jon naturally does not know. But if all of them are taken out, send him to the wizard school, maybe it is also possible.

But Jon knew that his parents would never do that unless they were out of their minds. Although if Jon could really become a wizard, the whole family would naturally be able to get rid of the status of merchants and could be promoted to become the upper class of Ghost Town - but the ninety percent elimination rate ah.

Once you fail, it's blood money, the wizard school will not refund the tuition fee.

This is why many commoners know: as long as their children can become wizards, they can get rid of their low social status, from now on into the ranks of the "upper class", but very few people take out years of savings to send their children into the school of wizards reason. Because the risk is too great.

Jon can't complain about his parents, he can only hatefully think: "Since I traveled here, why don't you let me be reborn in the family of a king or a lord? Preferring to be the son of a small merchant - that's even if it's still Ghost Town."

Born in a small merchant's family, with little social status and no strong financial strength - what else could he do?

If it was in the material-realm, Jon could still consider stepping out of Ghost Town and trying his luck elsewhere, maybe he could meet some reclusive old wizard and take him as an apprentice. But this was in the ghost-shadow-realm, if he dared to step out of the ten miles outside of Ghost Town, he was out of the shelter of the city, and at any time, he would be torn to pieces by the monsters lurking in the shadows.

It seemed that there was little hope of getting ahead.

※※※

Thinking about it, life must go on. Because it was time travel that retained the memories of his previous life, Jon was initially very uncomfortable with his new identity, but after seven years over, he was at least accustomed to today's environment, the current home, and the daily sight of his father and mother and his beautiful sister, as well as the mute old man in the next house and the bald-haired dog he raised.

Everything went by so peacefully, Jon struggling for his dream of being strong, a wizard to be exact. But that being said, the truth was that in a closed, eerily semi-militarized city, what could a small child under the age of seven from a small merchant's house - despite being mentally an adult in his mid-twenties - do, in fact, nothing at all couldn't do.

Could he still take a fruit knife, sneak into some wizard's house in the middle of the night, put the knife to his neck, and force him to teach magic? First of all, Jon didn't have much confidence in his sneaking and climbing skills, and second, he didn't have much confidence in his bluffing skills. Although he knew that time travelers usually came with a protagonist template, what if he was an exception?

Jon didn't want to risk his life as a bet.

Since he was from a small merchant family, naturally he would not always have the treatment of being clothed and fed. As the saying goes, the poor man's child is an early starter, when Jon grew up to the age of five, he already had to join his sister, Shankar, and follow their father to gather spell materials every day.

Ghost Town was a floating city. Floating cities are built by powerful wizards who use magic to cut down an entire mountain peak, flip it in the air with the tip facing downwards to keep it suspended, and then build the city on the cutting surface. So Ghost Town was actually built on top of a mountain peak that could levitate and fly, upside down.

The cutting surface of the mountain peak was about fifty square miles, while the urban area of Ghost Town was about thirty square miles, with the remaining twenty square miles being where the farmland, kilns, mines, and such were located, as well as the woods. Although there was no sun in the ghost-shadow-realm, the trees grew very quickly under the effect of magic, and they were thick and sturdy and towered to the sky.

Jon's family had a small plot of land outside of the city that was planted with many plants that were used to cast spells, such as Shadow Orchid, Saffron, Licorice, Peas, and so on. Gathering these plants back and processing them into spell materials was what Jon and Shankar did every day. In the beginning, there was a father to lead the way, but later, when they became familiar with it, it was the siblings who came, while their father and mother watched the store at home.

These were all very cheap and common materials, and the profits were extremely slim, not making a few dollars. So they would often go out and try to find some more valuable materials, such as live crickets, spiders, and the like. Today, Jon's eyes were sharp, and he happened to see a Shadow Ring Snake in the bushes, this kind of snake is a specialty of the ghost-shadow-realm, although it looks scary, it is not poisonous, the snake's letter and skin can be used as a relatively high-level spell casting material, so it is considered to be worth a lot of money.

Jon picked up a stone, tiptoed over, and smashed it hard on the snake's head. The Shadow Ringed Serpent bounced up and snapped at Jon's face, Jon was caught off guard and almost fell on his back, Shankar rushed up and picked the snake off with a wooden stick and held Jon up.

The snake tries to get away, but it has been smashed so hard on the head by Jon that it is obviously badly injured and swimming slowly, and is smashed to death by the siblings catching up with it. Shankar happily pocketed the snake.

"It'll fetch at least thirty copper coins," she said, "just in time to buy you a birthday present."

An unintentional remark caused a shadow to rise steeply over Jon's heart, and he was instantly enveloped by a deep sense of frustration. Because of his previous life's memory, he had never really taken this "birthday" of his own life seriously and had never put it on his mind, if not for Shankar mentioning it, he would not have remembered it.

His seventh birthday was approaching, and he had been in this world for seven years.

Look at the tools in his hands, look at the shoulder pockets, could it be that his dress, could it be that in this life, he really has to be forever in the ghost town as a small businessman, spend this life?

He was not willing, he had to find the opportunity, find the opportunity to excel, grasp tightly, and never relax.

But, where is the opportunity?