After receiving the staff, Lynn actually felt a bit guilty.
After all, he had accepted such a valuable gift from Mentor Gray.
He remained where he was, thinking Gray might have further instructions for him.
Gray indeed seemed to want to say something, but before the words could leave his mouth, he was interrupted by a voice from the doorway.
“Gray, there's a child here for the induction test.”
Gray glanced at Lynn, stood up, and pushed open the door to the alchemy room. An elderly man and a young boy appeared in Lynn's line of sight.
One was an elderly man in a mage's robe who also seemed to be a Mage.
The other was a young boy dressed in luxurious noble attire. His features were so soft that Lynn almost mistook him for a girl, though he possessed an androgynous appearance that sat somewhere in between.
Noticing Lynn's gaze, the boy blushed and gave Lynn a gentle smile.
Lynn: ?
“Lynn, you may leave first.”
Before Lynn left, Gray silently handed him a few books and instructed him not to forget to study theoretical knowledge in between his adventures.
Standing outside the association's headquarters,
Lynn looked down at the two books in his arms.
They were 《An Introduction to Spells》 and 《Basic Meditation Method》.
Lynn fell silent.
Why did it feel like Mentor Gray was grooming him to be a real student?
Silently engraving Gray's kindness into his heart, he thought:
Loyalty!
Stowing the two books away, Lynn turned and entered the shop adjacent to the Mages' Association.
Of course, he wasn't there to buy the high-priced weapons produced by the association on the first floor. Although he eyed those weapons with envy, his gold coins had to be spent where they mattered most.
Lynn planned to learn a few new spells.
When he had visited the association shop with Betty before, he had seen that spellbooks were sold on the second floor.
However, they weren't cheap, so Lynn hadn't purchased any at the time.
But now, with a massive sum of seven gold coins in his pocket (which included his one-gold-coin apprentice stipend for September), Lynn finally had the confidence to step up to the second floor.
Upon ascending, before he could encounter any snobbish clerks who would look down on him for his plain clothing, the same clerk who had assisted Betty last time hurried over to greet him.
“Ah! Aren't you... Aren't you...”
After struggling to remember for a long moment, the greeting died on her lips.
She didn't know Lynn's name yet!
“You can just call me Lynn.”
“Ah, Mr. Lynn... Hehehe, how come you didn't come with Miss Fleure this time?”
The clerk's eyes curved into crescent moons, her smile carrying a hint of silly innocence.
Paired with her cute, slightly chubby cheeks and her petite stature of just over 1.5 meters, she exuded a soft, harmless charm.
Hiss—
Lynn couldn't help but marvel at the sheer terror of the Mages' Association. To think they could train a clerk like this!
Any man with weak willpower would probably have his wallet completely drained by that single smile!
But Lynn was immune to such cute aesthetics, so he didn't waste any more words.
“Take me to see the spellbooks.”
“Right away, sir. Please follow me.”
Despite Lynn's somewhat cold attitude, the girl remained highly enthusiastic. She led him to the dedicated section for mage apprentices.
This area had far fewer people than the lower floor where ordinary gear was sold.
Under the soft yellow light, only one or two people were browsing, and they were all dressed in luxurious clothing embroidered with noble crests.
Lynn instinctively scanned the items on display.
His body suddenly tensed, and he had to actively restrain his gaze.
Spell Scroll 《Blade Ward》, Zero-Circle spell, priced at 3 gold coins.
Spell Scroll 《Minor Illusion》, Zero-Circle spell, priced at 3 gold coins.
Spell Scroll 《Friends》, Zero-Circle spell, priced at 4 gold coins.
And these were just spell scrolls!
For a Zero-Circle spellbook like 《Light》, the price was actually a whopping five gold coins!
If Lynn bought just one, he could completely forget about upgrading his weapon!
Last time, he had only glanced from afar, knowing that things used by mages were priced in gold coins.
But Lynn had never expected them to be this expensive!
A single spellbook for a mage apprentice was enough for an apprentice of another class to purchase an entire set of excellent gear!
No wonder the Mages' Association provided an apprentice stipend.
Without it, commoner mages would probably have to save for a whole year and still not be able to afford a single spellbook.
And this was only the apprentice section, which mostly sold items related to Zero-Circle spells.
Lynn cast a brief glance toward the higher-tier section.
He immediately looked back.
Turning his eyes back to the apprentice section,
he finally understood
why the ranger Hal had looked so utterly pained when Betty tore a spell scroll in the cave just to keep the goblins away.
Those First-Circle spell scrolls generally cost close to ten gold coins!
And Betty had just casually wasted one on a goblin!
If Lynn had known the price back then, he would have felt the sting too!
Lynn hadn't even realized that the Magic Missile he used daily was actually such a precious commodity.
He really had to thank that mutated goblin for letting him draw such a powerful spell.
Of course, spell scrolls and actual spells couldn't be equated directly.
After all, crafting a spell scroll required corresponding magical materials, making the manufacturing cost extremely high.
But the price was still incredibly exaggerated!
Lynn tried his best to search the apprentice section for a spellbook that would be useful enough for him while still being within his budget.
For this shopping trip to the association store, Lynn's budget was to spend three to four gold coins.
The remaining gold coins would be used to upgrade his weapon at Old Henry's blacksmith shop on Blackstone Street.
But his meager gold coins didn't seem enough to buy even a single spellbook...
Even if he could afford one, it would only be something like 《Prestidigitation》, a parlor trick used by bards for performances.
It wouldn't be of much use to an adventurer like Lynn, who fought monsters to the death.
Was he really going to go back empty-handed and return only after saving up from a few more commissions?
Lynn felt a bit unwilling.
Just then, he noticed that the clerk's body seemed to be blocking an item behind her.
“What's that behind you? Let me see.”
“Behind me?”
The clerk didn't seem to realize she was blocking anything. She quickly stepped aside, and a book came into Lynn's view.
“《The Encyclopedia of Cantrips: Sixteen Cantrips Every Mage Apprentice Must Learn》...”
Lynn read the title aloud.
“Cantrips” was another name mages used for Zero-Circle spells, named so because even those who weren't of the Mage class could learn them.
“Ah, that one.”
The clerk casually pulled the book out and handed it to Lynn.
“This was actually written by a bard. This bard indeed learned sixteen different cantrips and recorded them here.”
“But because the bard's talent was mediocre and he had never studied at an academy, the way he explains things is completely incomprehensible to ordinary mage apprentices. They can't learn the cantrips from this at all.”
Lynn looked at the price tag on the book.
“2 gold coins.”
No wonder it was sold so cheaply; it was because nobody else could learn from it.
Charging two gold coins for something like this was practically swindling other mage apprentices!
Lynn righteously condemned this black-hearted business practice in his mind, yet he did not put the book back.
Because...
He actually seemed to understand the contents of this book.
Although the explanations in the book were indeed a bit convoluted and the terminology was non-standard—clearly written by a rogue mage—
it didn't seem... all that hard to comprehend?
Lynn rejoiced inwardly, though his face remained expressionless.
“I'll take this book.”
“Ah?”
The clerk looked quite surprised.
However, as a clerk, she naturally wouldn't try to talk Lynn out of it. Instead, she quickly placed the book in a box and handed it over to him.
With his target secured, Lynn had no intention of lingering in this gold-sink of an association shop. He said goodbye to the clerk and turned to leave.
Upon reaching the entrance of the shop, he heard a familiar voice.
“Eh? Lynn?”
Rate on N.U.
