Chapter 36: The Merchant

After several days of conditioning, Shaoke gradually grew accustomed to all the changes that came with his promotion. Although his physical constitution had declined somewhat, Shaoke now made it a habit to spend some time each day walking in the woods. Because he couldn't handle overly strenuous activity, he settled for this seemingly leisurely stroll.

After his promotion, learning first-level spells felt like a breeze to Shaoke. Among the four spells sent by the two aforementioned mages, only "Elemental Blessing" still posed some difficulty. The other three new spells, however, Shaoke could already cast smoothly and correctly.

After a few days of rest and consolidation, Shaoke decided to first affix his spell formation diagram onto his cloak. To prepare the necessary spellcasting materials and daily necessities, he fetched a large pouch and went to the town to purchase these essentials. He also needed to place the four spells he had transcribed into the small hut where spell records were stored.

Since his promotion, Shaoke had never appeared in the town. As soon as he showed up, he was watched from a distance by residents and the occasional passing adventurer. Unlike before, when people would greet a mage with a bow, they were now staring at him with strange looks. This was because the distinctive mark of a second-rank mage floated continuously in Shaoke’s eyes. Upon closer inspection, one could see two rotating diamond-shaped pillars—the silver one in his left eye representing mental power, while the purple one in his right eye represented magical power.

The mystery and nobility of a mage kept everyone from approaching him, which left Shaoke feeling somewhat disheartened. Although he had never been fond of greeting these residents before, they and the adventurers had never been this afraid to even look at him.

This left Shaoke somewhat frustrated. Although he had successfully consolidated his second-rank state, the unique marks in his eyes were not something a newly promoted mage could conceal. Only with the passage of time and more proficient use of mental and magical power could he temporarily hide them. However, these marks would still appear when he was emotionally agitated or using spells.

Shaoke quickly tightened his cloak, trying to prevent people from seeing his eyes. He had no desire to be gawked at like a monster. Although mages were often stared at wherever they went, the nature of the attention was different now! This made Shaoke feel vindicated in his foresight when creating the diagram for "Mist’s Attachment."

For hundreds of years, the place where spell records were stored in the town was the only stone structure there, as this helped prevent fires to some extent and extended its lifespan. The stone hut wasn’t very large, about the same size as Shaoke’s residence. Inside stood tall bookshelves made of pinewood, filled with scrolls of varying lengths and thicknesses. These were all first-level and zero-level spells transcribed by generations of mages, along with some of their cultivation insights. Several of Shaoke’s spells had been learned here.

Gazing at the densely packed scrolls filling the room, Shaoke couldn’t help but sigh: after centuries of accumulation, not even all the first-level spells had been stored here. He wondered what the mage who had proposed building this record storage room would think if he knew. Shaoke found an empty slot, carefully pulled the record scrolls from his pouch, and used an engraving tool to write the following words on the horizontal partition of the slot: "Blue Feather Empire, Year 207,933. Spells added by Mage Feiyi and Mage Loki."

After completing this, Shaoke carefully inspected the spell formations carved on the bookshelves to ensure they weren’t damaged, which could cause the shelves to deteriorate over time. Finding the spell formations intact, Shaoke felt relieved—at least there was no need for extensive repairs, which would have been exhausting work.

Shaoke didn’t go to the physician to purchase materials, as the physician’s stock was incomplete and he wouldn’t accept Shaoke’s silver coins. After experiencing this a few times, Shaoke stopped buying materials from the physician and instead spent more money with merchants to avoid owing favors.

When the merchant selling materials saw Shaoke’s eyes, he lowered his head in fear. "Honorable Mage, do you... need any assistance?" Fortunately, this merchant had traveled the borderlands for decades and had seen mages who looked like Shaoke after their promotions, so he wasn’t too nervous to speak.

"Hmm! Give me some materials: a small packet of light powder, a small packet of fine sand, two bottles of ordinary magic potion... Do you have mercury? Give me a little. Good, thank you! How much?" Shaoke tugged his cloak down again and softly listed everything he needed to the merchant.

"Honorable Mage, that will be one hundred and thirty-two gold coins." The merchant, ignoring the mage’s unusual appearance, excitedly quoted the price. Usually, he had to visit several such border towns before mages would buy some spellcasting materials. He hadn’t expected to sell half of all his magic materials here.

"Oh!" Shaoke took out his purse from the pouch, gave the merchant the required gold coins, and then, after examining his somewhat tattered cloak that he had worn for nearly three years, asked, "Do you have any cloaks here? Large ones, suitable for mages."

After carefully counting the gold coins in his hand, the merchant quickly retrieved a small box from a large chest behind him and happily said to Shaoke, "Honorable Mage, I happen to have exactly what you need! Would you like to see if it suits you?" As he spoke, he opened the small box, lifted the cloak inside for Shaoke to inspect, and occasionally described the cloak’s material, as well as the lace and embroidery around it, hoping the mage would take a liking to it and buy it.

Shaoke carefully examined the cloak the merchant presented: it was black, even darker than the one he was wearing, and considerably wider. The hem was embroidered with patterns interwoven with gold and silver threads, and irregular patterns of gold and silver mixed with runes were embroidered on the cloak. It was unclear where the tailors had gotten these characters or patterns—Shaoke didn’t recognize a single one.

"Do you have any other cloaks? All black ones." Shaoke wasn’t satisfied with the lace and strange characters embroidered on this cloak. He hoped to find one that was entirely black.

The merchant looked somewhat troubled as he glanced at Shaoke’s cloak. "Honorable Mage, I don’t have the style you mentioned. Nowadays, almost no merchants carry cloaks of a single color unless they’re specially ordered. Look! This cloak is made from black molten silk, which I hear is very suitable for drawing spell formations on. These runes were discovered two years ago in a newly found magic tower and have since spread. After the great families studied them without success, they allowed people to replicate them everywhere, hoping someone would uncover the meaning of these characters. Who knows..." The merchant stopped his enthusiastic sales pitch when he saw the two pillars in the mage’s eyes suddenly spin rapidly, making him dizzy.

Characters from a magic tower? Heh! Although Shaoke knew this otherworld wasn’t inferior to his previous one and even surpassed it in many ways, he hadn’t expected the merchant’s salesmanship to be any less impressive than the street vendors from his past life!

Shaoke slightly mobilized his mental power to suppress the merchant’s sales pitch. "Fine! I’ll take this one. One gold coin and fifteen silver coins? Here! I won’t give the silver coins. A mage’s money isn’t so easily earned."

The merchant wanted to refuse, but suddenly remembered that the customer before him was a second-rank mage, not an ordinary adventurer. Besides, although the cloak was exquisitely crafted, it wasn’t worth a gold coin—at least he wasn’t losing money, right?

Under the merchant’s persuasion, Shaoke ended up buying nearly half of the merchant’s goods. On one hand, the merchant was so persuasive that Shaoke felt somewhat obliged to buy something; on the other hand, Shaoke genuinely needed the items he purchased. One item after another was pulled from the merchant’s various chests: high-quality paper, spices, exquisite quills, small bottles, various gem powders, and so on. Shaoke even hinted at wanting to see a pouch, and the merchant eagerly recommended a silk pouch that could be worn around the neck. Shaoke decided to use it to replace the small bag he had hastily made to hold empty stone beads.

A large pile of items was stacked in front of Shaoke. The pouch he carried couldn’t possibly hold all these things, and with his reduced physical strength, the mage had no energy to carry them. Seeing Shaoke hesitate, the merchant quickly ordered his assistants to carefully place the items in a large wooden box and sent them to follow the mage back.

Shaoke was quite impressed with this merchant. It reminded him of shopping at street stalls in his past life. Perhaps because he was a mage, the feeling of "the customer is king" made Shaoke suddenly happy when the merchant sent two assistants to help. "Thank you! I think if you keep doing what you just did, you’ll surely become a successful merchant. Perhaps we’ll meet again in the future. I just hope you’ll have a black cloak ready for me then."

Leaving aside the merchant pondering the mage’s words, Shaoke returned to his residence with the two assistants carrying his goods. He gave each of them a silver coin as payment. Of course, the assistants left the box behind, saying their master had ordered it.