Endless Bad Luck

For the following three days, Vicente and Andrew were engaged in an extensive search throughout Saltstar City, seeking out local contacts with whom they could establish business relationships.

A few of Andrew's acquaintances had already forged deals with others since he had been delayed for weeks in getting to this place.

However, there still remained some potential opportunities for him in this city to not thwart his plans completely.

Over these three days, they went to meetings with a few local merchants and managed to get through the negotiations with two of them, and they would be talking to them again in the coming days.

Andrew still had a few names to visit locally, but unlike what he could do in smaller towns, anything that someone like him wanted to do had to be scheduled beforehand in this city.

The scale of local business here was much larger than he was used to, and being someone who still didn't have much reach in this city, Andrew had to wait for the time until his contacts could receive him.

For the moment, he had managed to find some of these contacts, but for the others, they would only be available for him in the next few days, when they would have some free time in their schedules to meet with him.

However, this did not pose a problem for either him or Vicente. Being seasoned merchants, they were someone who very well knew that one bad day was not enough to bring them down and had the patience to keep trying.

Amid these initial conversations, Andrew had also been looking for a 3rd-stage doctor who could provide care for Nina.

In this world, there was no classification for professionals, be it doctors or any other professionals, they were classified according to their stages.

But even if this wasn't enough to rank them the best professionals, in general, it was still enough because the higher the cultivation and the number of pentagrams, the better one's skills.

So even though there might be a few doctors who have enough understanding to take care of Nina's conditions while being only a 2nd-stage magician, Andrew would still focus on seeking more powerful magicians.

Though he wasn't rich enough to hire magicians of that caliber continuously, he had sufficient resources to secure one for an exclusive service.

And so, for Nina, the father-son duo had finally secured an appointment this afternoon!

...

Departing the resort where they were staying, the Fuller family embarked on a carriage to the doctor's office, located in the central part of Saltstar City.

Although this place was a bit distant from the beach, where the resort was located, luckily their ride was unhindered since there was no traffic.

Despite the city's size, there were limited individuals who were wealthy enough to have so many carriages and wagons around the city. Consequently, the city's wide streets held the movement in this place well, and those moving in animals or carriages had an easy time reaching their destinations.

The streets weren't perfect. Some had potholes or were quite uneven. But overall, they were good enough for horses to run at a speed of up to 20 kilometers per hour.

Vicente and Nina gazed at the well-developed center of Saltstar City, passing right before the local Royal Academy, looking at which this young man couldn't help but sigh.

'Ian must have already passed his entrance exam...' He thought, assuming that his friend might have successfully passed the academy's entrance exam and would soon begin his journey at such a renowned institution.

However, even though he knew where he could look for Ian, Vicente had no intention of doing so.

'Better leave him alone.' Vicente shook his head with a sigh before closing his eyes momentarily, 'I don't need to involve Ian in the turmoil of my life.'

"Mr. Fuller, we have arrived at Doctor Mayer's clinic."

With that, they proceeded towards the interior of a three-story round tower-shaped building. A gathering of people congregated on the balconies and at the entrance, indicating the significance of the clinic.

"Doctor Mayer's clinic is on the 3rd floor of the Saltstar City Medical Guild," their guide directed, "Here, the province's top doctors can test their skills, buy resources, and establish good contacts. Anyway, this is the best place for medical practitioners throughout the province!"

Vice's group was uninterested in this information and simply ignored it while the guide continued to describe his surroundings joyfully.

He was fond of everything about this city and loved to explain the places he navigated his customers to.

When they reached the 3rd floor of the guild, Andrew immediately identified himself with the secretary of the doctor who would be attending to his daughter.

An instant later, the secretary said while only allowing only those two to enter, "Mr. Fuller, Doctor Mayer will see you and your daughter in a moment."

...

An hour later, Andrew and Nina walked out of Doctor Mayer's office.

"Father, what about it? Is there a problem with Nina?" Vice quickly approached his old man and questioned, feeling his heart beating harder, eager to know the outcome.

Andrew said nothing right away and only indicated for them to return to the carriage.

However, the sad look on his face was unable to hide the truth from Vicente.

'There's a problem.' He swallowed, turning to look at his little sister with a deep pain in his heart.

He gritted his teeth but said nothing, remembering once again the names of those who were responsible for making her suffer.

'DAX... MALIK!'

"Father, what's wrong? What did the doctor say?" Lauren, who couldn't see the expressions of her family members, inquired since the silence alone was enough to let her know that something was wrong.

As Andrew entered the carriage, he turned to his two children and continued to cradle little Nina.

After thinking about what he had to say, he closed his eyes and said, "I would rather you not say this to Nina, but the procedure she went through to recover a part of her brain left behind some sequelae.

She appears fine now, but it will gradually damage her. The doctor who attended us believes that she will not regain her complete mobility and may even experience a loss of movement in some parts of her body as she grows.

To make matters worse, after his assessment of Nina, the doctor said she has less than a 10% chance of making it through the Awakening and controlling her mana."

One had to know that Awakening was not something with a success rate of 100%. Some people couldn't get the slightest compatibility with even one Magic Gem during their Awakening Ceremony and would miss this essential element in the magical path.

If Nina's chances of getting through her Awakening were this low, then even becoming a low-level magician like Andrew would be nearly impossible for her!

"It can't be..." Lauren expressed with pain in her voice, feeling the urge to hug her little sister.

Vicente understood his sister's misfortune but said nothing and committed to finding a solution for her with determination.

'Maybe a 4th-stage doctor can help... I have to establish influence with 4th-stage cultivators to exact revenge, so I will try my luck to change Nina's fate then.

I promise I will try!' He gazed at his little sister, who held an uncertain look on her face, knowing something was wrong with her, but couldn't tell what it exactly was.