Market Sights

In the middle of the forest lay a vast clearing, filled with houses and tents built to meet the market's needs. Along the way, Li Wen saw many people, including both ordinary folk and supernaturals. Aside from fairies and humans, other intelligent races were not uncommon either, such as White Elves and gnomes, races as widespread throughout the Inner Continent as humans. Li Wen even spotted people who appeared to be players, though she had no idea how they had slipped in.

Most of them were buyers, though quite a few had set up stalls of their own, selling all manner of strange and unusual goods.

The dazzling array of merchandise left Li Wen somewhat overwhelmed.

Li Wen stopped at a stall run by a gaunt gnome.

Though they were called gnomes, that did not mean they were short. In truth, gnomes were generally much taller than humans, but they habitually lived in dark places such as caves and underground dwellings, never seeing sunlight. Their bodies were always hunched, and combined with their ugly features, they had come to be disparagingly called gnomes.

"Need anything?"

The gnome stallholder gestured with his fingers. Although he spoke Terran Language with exceptional fluency, he kept looking at Li Wen with wary caution.

"I'm just looking around."

Li Wen spoke as she looked over the gnome's stall: a grimy gray scrap of cloth about a meter square, stained with some unknown filth.

What drew Li Wen's attention and made her stop was a half-bottle of deep blue potion. It was stored in a square, narrow-necked bottle, its exterior equally filthy and, like the other items on the stall, utterly unremarkable.

"Lesser Ghost Solution? Did you brew this potion yourself?"

"I don't know... I can make weapons or enchant armor, but I know nothing about potions." The gnome stallholder was remarkably honest. "These are spoils I looted from a dungeon."

Li Wen looked disappointed. An alchemist capable of brewing Lesser Ghost Solution would, in all likelihood, also be capable of making Shadowfall Potion, since their procedures were largely the same, differing only in materials.

And Shadowfall Potion was the final piece Li Wen needed to obtain The Final Codex. It could strengthen her Retrograde in Shadow trait, allowing her to truly move stealthily through darkness. Only then could she get around them without alerting the Daughter of Amber.

"Then do you know anyone who can brew this kind of potion?"

The gnome stallholder shook his head repeatedly. He did not seem to resent Li Wen for asking so many questions without buying anything. "Granny Marsha might be able to, but I'm not sure."

"Granny Marsha?" That Dwarf Elf from before seemed to have mentioned the name too.

"She is the master of all the fairies here, a Ghost Fairy..." the gnome muttered quietly, seemingly afraid of being overheard.

It seemed this Granny Marsha was no kind-hearted sort. Li Wen pondered this.

"Then how do I find her?"

"She usually lives in the treehouse and rarely leaves."

Having received her answer, Li Wen left at once. The gnome had nothing she needed, and as the stallholder watched her departing figure, he ultimately said nothing to warn her not to throw her life away.

Not every stall was selling goods. Li Wen spotted a Wild Mage's stall, where he was freely performing tricks for people who knew nothing about magic. He made water gush from an empty vessel, or planted a seed in the soil, only for a frog to poke its head out of the earth moments later.

Li Wen had no interest in such simple tricks that could barely be called magic, but she noticed that while the Wild Mage performed, someone else was using some unknown spell to steal from the spectators.

No wonder they advertised it as free. They were fishing together.

Li Wen had no sense of justice compelling her to expose them. After all, she had stolen no less than anyone else...

But Li Wen not caring did not mean no one else would.

"Hold it!"

Li Wen had barely turned away when a voice rang out from the crowd. It was not directed at her, but after hesitating for a moment, she stopped because the voice sounded somewhat familiar.

The Wild Mage had just performed a trick that moved an object without any physical contact. When he heard someone shout, he nearly suffered a heart attack. He calmly looked up, only to see the stern face of a young man.

For a moment, he thought his dirty dealings had been exposed. The only reason he did not immediately flee was that the other man stood nearly a head taller than his frail mage's frame and wore ornate armor like a church knight.

Damn it! Didn't he know this was fairy territory? Wasn't he afraid a Ghost Fairy would skin him and boil him alive for making trouble here?

The Wild Mage forced himself to calm down. His coordination with his companion was nearly flawless, and even if they had truly been exposed, so what? At worst, they would split today's earnings seventy-thirty and use the money to keep him quiet.

So the Wild Mage gave him a meaningful look, but whether the man did not see it or failed to understand, he spoke solemnly instead.

"I think there's something wrong with that spell of yours."

The Wild Mage began to sweat.

"Don't talk nonsense. What could possibly be wrong with my magic?"

The other man seemed not to notice the Wild Mage sweating as though frightened half to death. He continued, "Telekinetic Touch consists of three sets of incantations and two sets of gestures. A clever apprentice can condense the incantations to two lines and simplify the gestures into one set. But both your incantations and gestures had one extra set, which means..."

The Wild Mage's expression grew uglier with every word. He was certain there had been nothing wrong with his own trick, but... the extra set of incantations and gestures the other man mentioned did exist. That was what his companion had done while casting.

By adding only one set of incantations and gestures to the original structure, the spell's nature changed drastically. Telekinetic Touch, which openly moved and controlled matter, became the secretive and silent Invisible Touch. The change was enough for the Wild Mage to consider himself a genius, even if he and his companion had put that genius to crooked use.

Yet they had never considered the possibility that someone would see through every detail of their spell at a glance.

What a joke. Mages at that level would be studying higher-tier spells in the Magic Society. Who had time to wander around outside?

Although he had already been seen through, the Wild Mage still stubbornly argued, "What nonsense are you talking about? Everyone saw how I cast it. What extra set or missing set are you talking about?"

The spectators looked at one another and voiced their agreement. Though they did not understand magic, they could at least tell how many incantations the Wild Mage had recited.

Seeing this, the person dressed like a church knight sighed.

"In that case, let me perform a free magic trick for you too."