Chapter 2: The First Investment

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: The First Investment

A shocked cry came from the crowd. "She’s bleeding!"

The official rushed forward. Mira’s face had turned pale. Blood was spreading across her clothes.

"Someone get a healing potion!"

Nobody made an attempt to give her anything. Most turned their faces away.

One person finally broke the silence.

"No one is interested in sharing a healing potion worth thousands of crowns on someone who is useless."

"Yes! I heard her family even abandoned her. You can’t expect us to do that." Another person chipped in.

"There is no room for discussion about this." One person stepped forward. He looked like he knew exactly what he was saying when all he was doing was looking down on another person’s life. "Even if we give her a healing potion, she would still die. I heard her magical core has been badly shattered. It takes more than healing potions to repair it."

"Yes! Exactly. He is right!"

"We have no right to butt into the Sinclair family’s business!"

Xavier couldn’t believe his eyes. Well, he had read about how evil these people could be.

But experiencing it now sent chills down his spine.

Xavier turned to look at her. His heart suddenly began beating faster.

Something about the scene felt painfully familiar. He felt Xavier’s pain as he watched his other three wives die. And now, he felt the same way toward Mira.

Xavier’s hand moved instinctively toward his neck. A small glass vial hung there. He had inherited it from his grandmother.

A second-grade healing potion, one of the few valuable things he had left.

He had protected it for years. But looking at Mira now, he felt that some other things were worth protecting more.

Xavier’s fingers tightened around the vial.

Without hesitation, he pulled the vial from around his neck and began to walk toward Mira.

The crowd stared at him in disbelief. Even Marcus, who had been silent all this time, watched.

Xavier knelt beside her and carefully gave her the healing potion.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then—

Ding!

A cold mechanical voice suddenly sounded inside his mind, and at the same time, an interface that seemed like a floating screen appeared above Mira’s head.

[Target detected.]

"What?" Xavier froze.

[Name: Mira Sinclair.]

[Hidden bloodline detected.]

[Frost Phoenix Bloodline.]

Xavier’s gaze shifted from her to the screen. He looked around and realized that others couldn’t see it. Otherwise, someone would have raised an alarm.

[Bloodline status: Dormant.]

[Potential growth: Extraordinary.]

"What exactly are you?" Xavier frowned.

The mechanical voice answered.

[I am the Investment 10,000x Multiplier System.]

"Investment?" Xavier had no idea what that meant.

[The Host may invest resources, items, money, abilities, or other valuable assets into eligible targets.]

[Successful investments will generate returns.]

"What kind of returns?" Xavier’s eyes narrowed.

[Returns may include resources, abilities, bloodlines, cultivation opportunities, magical items, treasures, or other rewards.]

Xavier remained silent as the system continued.

[The Investment 10,000x Multiplier System multiplies successful investment returns by up to 10,000 times.]

"Up to ten thousand times?" Xavier’s eyes widened.

[Correct.]

Xavier’s breathing became slower.

He finally understood, he had gotten an ability. A cheat!

No, no. This was an opportunity to rewrite his damn forsaken fate!

If this was real, he could obtain resources far beyond what he could normally acquire.

He had spent his entire life being powerless.No talent, inheritance, family, money, or future. Just a bad reputation of being called Cursed.

The system spoke again.

[Suitable target detected.]

[Mira Sinclair possesses a dormant Frost Phoenix Bloodline.]

[Investment potential: Extremely high.]

[Estimated growth potential: Extraordinary.]

The system’s final notification appeared.

[Would the Host like to permanently bind with the Investment 10,000x Multiplier System?]

Xavier took a slow breath before saying, "Yes."

[Binding initiated.]

[Binding complete.]

[Congratulations, Host.]

[The Investment 10,000x Multiplier System is now permanently bound to Xavier Kane.]

[The Host may invest resources in individuals marked by Destiny.]

[When the target successfully uses the invested resource, the investment will be completed.]

[A random multiplier return will then be granted to the Host.]

[Maximum multiplier: 10,000x.]

Xavier’s eyes remained fixed on the invisible notifications. So this was real. He wasn’t hallucinating.

For the first time since arriving in Asterra, Xavier felt like his future might actually belong to him.

Then he noticed something hovering above Mira.

[Target: Mira Sinclair]

[Frost Phoenix Bloodline: Dormant]

[Heaven Swallowing Bloodline: Awakened]

[Investment Eligible]

Xavier’s excitement immediately gave way to confusion. Two bloodlines?

He stared at the information again. He had never encountered either name in his magical studies. He was working fully with Xavier Kane’s memory now.

The Frost Phoenix Bloodline was strange enough, but the Heaven Swallowing Bloodline was even more difficult to understand — and it was marked as awakened.

If Mira truly possessed an awakened bloodline, how had her magical potential fallen to F Rank? Why had Arcadia Academy discarded her? Had no one there noticed?

Xavier glanced at the unconscious girl. There was clearly something about Mira that he didn’t understand. But the system had already given him an answer to one question: she was an eligible investment target.

I’ll worry about the rest later, he thought.

He looked around. The crowd was still watching — some people looked uncomfortable, others had already decided Mira wasn’t worth saving — yet nobody moved.

Her breathing grew weaker, and her eyes slowly closed.

Xavier stopped hesitating. He reached beneath his clothes, pulled out the small vial containing his Second Tier Restoration Elixir, and walked toward her.

"Take this," he said.

Mira’s eyelids lifted slightly, her unfocused gaze settling on the vial. The moment Xavier removed the stopper, a faint medicinal fragrance spread through the air, and several people immediately recognized it.

"A Restoration Elixir?"

"That’s Second Tier."

"You’ve got to be kidding me."

The murmurs grew louder.

"Does he know what that thing is worth?"

"At least a hundred thousand crowns."

"He’s giving it to Mira?"

Another shook his head. "If I owned a Second Tier elixir, I’d exchange it for an Awakening Crystal. Even an F Rank mage has a chance of awakening a useful affinity."

"Exactly," someone agreed. "Why waste it on someone who’s already been discarded?"

One man laughed incredulously. "Isn’t it obvious? It’s because he barely has a choice. If she dies, no other woman would accept him and the young man seems more interested in having a woman to warm his bed every night instead of awakening anything worthwhile." He mocked loudly as a loud noise of laughter followed.

"That’s a harsh thing to say!" Marcus finally spoke up.

Xavier was sure that has taken a lot of courage to do. But Xavier didn’t care about these people. Nothing else mattered than Mira.

The noise reduced but they still watched Xavier with something closer to disbelief. Others simply looked at Mira with pity.

Still crouching beside her and helped her sit upright. Mira stared at him weakly, seemingly unable to process what was happening.

"Drink," he said.

Her lips parted slightly, as though she meant to say something, but Xavier noticed how little strength remained in her.

He placed the vial against her lips and tipped it carefully, and the elixir entered her mouth.

The reaction was immediate. A wave of restorative mana spread through her body — the pain that had been tearing through her gradually subsided, damaged tissue began repairing itself, her breathing steadied, and some of the color returned to her cheeks.

The transformation was visible even to the people standing nearby.

Xavier watched her condition stabilize. The worst of the damage was already being repaired; she should be able to stand again before long.

"Thank you," Mira said softly, lifting her eyes to his.

For several seconds she simply looked at him, wanting to remember this moment — wanting to remember the face of the person who had helped her when everyone else had decided she wasn’t worth saving.

Half a year earlier, Mira Sinclair had been one of Arcadia Academy’s most promising students, possessing extraordinary magical potential and regarded as one of the academy’s rising stars.

Then her mana began to vanish, without warning, her strength simply declining. At first, the academy and her family had refused to give up — they searched for answers, brought her expensive potions, rare mana crystals, and powerful healers. But nothing worked.

Weeks became months, and their concern slowly turned into frustration until, eventually, they stopped trying. Mira had lost her value in their eyes.

Then, only a week ago, her parents entered a dangerous secret realm and disappeared. The search party found no trace of them, and they were declared dead.

That same night, Mira’s life was destroyed completely: her uncle, the Sinclair family patriarch, ordered the removal of her Celestial Core.

A Celestial Core was an extraordinarily rare magical organ, believed to be a blessing left behind by the gods themselves.

Very few people in the world were born with one, and those who possessed one could develop magical potential far beyond ordinary mages.

Mira’s had been the reason she rose so quickly within Arcadia Academy — her family knew its value, and after her parents died, they took it from her.

Her own uncle ordered the Celestial Core removed from her body and transferred into his younger son’s instead. The procedure had nearly killed her.

But that wasn’t enough. To justify what they had done, her uncle accused Mira of attempting to seduce her cousin. The accusation was publicly announced, and she was expelled from the Sinclair family with nothing — no money, no protection, no Celestial Core, not even proper treatment for the injuries left behind by its removal.

Her condition deteriorated rapidly, and with nowhere else to turn, she had been forced to attend the government’s matchmaking event simply to secure the financial support that came with marriage.

She had never imagined she would collapse in front of hundreds of people. Nor had she expected every one of them to simply watch.

For those brief moments on the ground, Mira had felt completely abandoned. She had prepared herself for death.

If she somehow survived, she had thought, perhaps she would spend the rest of her life crippled, with no choice but to accept whoever was willing to take her.

Then Xavier had appeared. He had given her a Second Tier Restoration Elixir without asking for anything.

Mira looked at him again. Something inside her shifted. It wasn’t joy or relief. It was simply a renewed hope.

The afternoon sunlight fell behind Xavier, casting his figure in a warm glow. Mira’s gaze lingered on him.

For a moment, she wondered if perhaps she had already died and this was simply the last dream her fading consciousness had created.

If it is a dream, she thought, her fingers tightening around the empty vial, please let me stay here a little longer.

For the past week, she had learned exactly how quickly people could abandon someone once that person became useless to them. That was why Xavier’s gesture felt so significant.

She had been sinking into darkness. And when nobody else reached for her, he did.