Spell Formula

After confirming that Emil had not followed him, Gao De wandered through the streets, searching for a suitable shop.

Besides usually being located in the center of a city, commercial districts also tended to develop around the Lord's Manor, churches, or market squares.

Hogan City was no exception. Its commercial district had been built around the city square.

Although this conformed to the usual pattern of development, the streets in Hogan City's commercial district were actually quite chaotic and lacked any unified planning.

There was only one main road, running north to south and leading to the city square.

There were several side streets, forming a number of narrow alleys.

Since these alleys did not see much foot traffic, the rents for their shops were correspondingly low. Many small businesses and workshops were hidden within them.

After ducking into several alleys in succession, Gao De finally found his target.

It was a general store. Compared to the grand, ornate storefronts of the larger shops, it was far more rudimentary and tucked away in an out-of-the-way location.

At its already shabby entrance stood an even shabbier wooden sign.

Several lines had been scrawled on it in a careless hand:

Pierre's Odds and Ends. Sells all kinds of finished potions, holy water, medicinal herbs, and herb seeds;

Sells all kinds of materials and ores, including magic crystals;

Sells all kinds of low-tier spell accessories and amulets;

Also buys back items and appraises treasures.

Gao De nodded slightly as he looked at the wooden sign, which practically radiated the air of a small workshop.

This was exactly what he needed.

When Gao De entered the general store, its owner, Pierre, was curled up in a recliner behind the counter, resting with his eyes half-open.

It was clear that the general store's business was usually not very good.

"Look around and help yourself. Just because something isn't displayed on the shelves doesn't mean we don't have it. Some of the goods are in the warehouse out back." Pierre was an old man who looked quite advanced in years. He had clearly heard Gao De's footsteps, yet he did not even lift his head as he casually greeted him.

Gao De casually looked around and found that although the goods were numerous and disorderly, the store was kept quite neat.

"I saw on the sign outside that you buy back items. Do you take everything?" Gao De asked directly.

"Of course not." Pierre shook his head, still showing no intention of getting up. "This is a general store, not a junkyard. It has to be worth something."

"What about potions?" As Gao De spoke, he browsed the potions displayed on the shelves. There was an enormous variety, but they were all zero-tier potions.

"Let me see the goods." Pierre finally showed a little interest. He opened his half-lidded eyes and climbed out of his recliner.

Novice Spider Venom was not some rare treasure, so there was no need to hide it. Gao De immediately took three small bottles of Novice Spider Venom from his pack and placed them on the counter.

"Novice Spider Venom." A glimmer flashed through Pierre's eyes, the sign of casting the cantrip Detect Magic. He then nodded. "The aura is bright. Good quality."

Anyone who mastered a spell could be called a Mage Apprentice, so the shop owner before him was at least a Mage Apprentice. And at his age, even if his talent was poor, his strength was surely greater than Gao De's, Gao De muttered to himself.

"My usual purchase price for a set of Novice Spider Venom is thirty silver. Your goods are good quality, so I'll add one silver per bottle. Thirty-three silver for the set." Pierre named his price directly.

That was an absolutely fair purchase price. Even Mage Seda's negotiated long-term purchase price was only forty silver, or two gold.

"Deal." Gao De was extremely satisfied and agreed at once.

After the money and goods changed hands, Gao De did not leave.

"Do you need anything else?" Pierre asked proactively.

Gao De moved closer to the counter and lowered his voice. "Do you sell spell formulas here?"

A brief, dead silence followed.

"In Sien, private trading of spell formulas is expressly forbidden." The politeness vanished from Pierre's face, leaving it expressionless.

In fact, it was not just the Sien Duchy. Nearly every country on the entire continent had similar regulations, listing spell formulas as controlled goods and restricting private trade.

If mages wanted to purchase spell formulas, they could only go to the official Mage's Association or certain mage organizations authorized by the government.

There were many reasons for this.

In the world before Gao De transmigrated, controlled items generally fell into three categories:

The first was items with powerful destructive potential that could pose a serious threat to public safety, such as firearms, ammunition, and controlled knives.

The second was items that infringed on Intellectual Property, including pirated software and pirated audiovisual products.

The last was products that could generate enormous profits while potentially causing harm themselves, with tobacco being the most typical example.

Spell formulas happened to meet all three criteria.

First, they allowed buyers to master spells with powerful killing or destructive force. They were equivalent to "firearms and ammunition," if not even more dangerous.

Furthermore, spell formulas were incredibly profitable. At the end of the day, they were merely a sheet of paper plus some words, with almost no cost at all, yet they could be sold for astronomical prices.

The average price of a Zero Circle Spell formula was as high as six gold, already representing profits of hundreds or even thousands of times the cost. The average price of a 1st Circle Spell Formula was an even steeper twenty-five gold. After all, what it truly sold was knowledge; the paper was merely the medium that carried it.

Finally, spell formulas were far too easy to forge, and private transactions could not guarantee their authenticity.

Once fake formulas became widespread, they would cause severe harm to an entire nation—spell formulas were called spell formulas because mastering a spell required not only diligent study, practice, and talent, but also the consumption of the corresponding potion.

Therefore, a complete spell formula included not only a spell's description, Spell Model, and casting techniques, but also the formula for the corresponding potion.

If someone bought a fake spell formula, they would concoct a fake potion. Not only would they lose everything for nothing, but accidents and deaths from consuming fake potions were highly likely.

Taking all these factors together, every nation imposed strict controls over spell formulas. This increased national revenue, maintained market order, protected mages' "Intellectual Property," and prevented spells from becoming too widespread—four benefits in one stroke.

Of course, no matter how strict the controls were, it was impossible to completely ban private spell formula transactions.

Because the act of trading itself was difficult to identify.

For example, when Mage Seda taught cantrips to his apprentices, that was clearly not considered a transaction and was permitted.

Thus, as long as there was no evidence, many private spell formula transactions could simply be called instruction. Who could do anything about it?

Still, in most cases, mages would rather buy spell formulas at a high price through official channels than trade privately, even though private transactions were much cheaper—official spell formulas were expensive, but their authenticity was guaranteed. Who could guarantee whether formulas from other channels were real or fake?

After all, the barrier to forging formulas was far too low. Anyone could do it, and the materials required for potions were often much more expensive than the formula itself.

Trying to save a little money only to buy a fake formula, then waste even more money purchasing ingredients to make a bottle of fake potion, was simply not worth the loss.