Special Magic

"So Gauss, what brings you to see me this time?"

"Don't tell me you're here to buy a wand?"

Andeni noticed that not long after he stepped through the door, his gaze had fixed on her wand, and his face was full of eager longing.

"Senior, could you tell me the price?" Gauss asked cautiously.

The reason he called her senior was naturally because he believed that the Halfling Andeni, who owned a room full of such collections, was no ordinary person, and was most likely a professional as well.

"The second one from the left on your side, that short one. It's the cheapest, 20 gold coins."

Hiss, so expensive.

So expensive.

With a casual remark, Andeni dropped a price that made Gauss gasp.

Twenty gold coins meant that for a task like the one that had just ended, he would have to perform it at least 280 times just to afford it, and that wasn't even factoring in his daily living expenses.

A Mage really was extravagant.

Even weapons were terrifyingly expensive.

"Expensive? This is just the cost price. In fact, even if you pull out 20 gold coins, I won't sell it. I use these for myself, and I don't sell them externally."

Andeni smiled brightly as she revealed the truth.

"Do you have anything else you want to buy? Or is there something you want to sell to me? You can let me appraise it for you, too."

Gauss hesitated for a moment.

He pulled the Life Magic Stone out from beneath his clothes.

"Senior, could you help me take a look and see how much this Life Magic Stone is worth?"

"Come closer, I can't see clearly." Andeni sat up from her rattan chair and beckoned to Gauss.

Gauss walked closer, clutching the stone.

Andeni leaned in close and extended a fair-skinned finger, gently tapping the surface.

Gauss felt an abnormal fluctuation appear in the air.

Before he could even examine it closely, that fluctuation came and went quickly, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

"A common-grade Life Magic Stone with a slight loss of energy. The buyback price I can offer here is 2 gold and 40 silver coins." Andeni stated the recycling price cleanly and decisively.

Two gold and 40 silver coins—about the same price Daphne had mentioned.

"Senior, if I want to have a wand custom-made and use this Life Magic Stone as a base, how much more money do you need me to prepare?"

"Do you have a base staff prepared in advance?"

"No."

"Then adding the testing and custom fees, if you use this Life Magic Stone as a base, you'll still need to shell out at least 1 gold coin."

"I said at least. The exact amount depends on the price of the wand base type that suits you."

One gold coin.

Compared to the jaw-dropping 20 gold coins, this suddenly seemed acceptable.

It was merely the price of a house.

His current savings were around 19 silver.

Assuming each task could maintain a return of 7 silver coins, and deducting daily living expenses of about 2 silver coins per task cycle, a single task cycle meant he could save around 5 silver coins.

That was roughly 16 tasks.

However, this factored in no accidental gains; in reality, adventure rewards were sometimes higher.

Hiss. Even so, it still felt like it would take forever.

Money was truly hard to earn.

Andeni lay back in her chair with her chin propped up, watching Gauss count on his fingers until a bitter expression appeared on his face. She smiled even more happily.

Perhaps Gauss's impoverished appearance reminded her of many years ago, when she had just set out on adventures and had been in this exact same destitute state.

The vast majority of rookie adventurers were like this.

Adventuring sounded interesting, but once it truly became a job, it slowly started to become a headache.

Purchasing and upgrading weapons and armor, maintenance costs, daily food, healing potions, necessary survival tools...

Countless places to spend money made many adventurers want to split a single silver or copper coin into two halves to spend.

Sometimes, after returning from a grueling outing to complete a task, they would even find that the commission they received wasn't even enough to repair their armor and weapons.

That bitter taste was something she didn't want to experience a second time, not even now.

Fortunately, she had already saved enough money to retire.

After doing some calculations, Gauss looked back at Andeni.

"Senior, I'd like to sell this Life Magic Stone and purchase a base staff that suits the circulation of my magic."

After thinking it over, he realized that leaving the Life Magic Stone on his person would just let it gather dust, so it was better to exchange it for money first and buy a wand base.

For one, he could break in the wand base in advance, and when he saved enough money later to upgrade and craft it into a wand, it would also save time.

Secondly, once a wand base was broken in, it could likewise increase spellcasting efficiency, though the effect wasn't as good as a finished wand. Still, compared to empty-handed spellcasting, it was more than ten percent better.

Obtaining the wand base ahead of time would enhance his current combat power in the shortest possible time, and his speed in practicing Magic Missile would become even faster.

"Of course." Andeni nodded in agreement.

"Come with me."

She hopped down from the rattan chair, turned around barefoot, and walked toward a room.

Gauss followed closely behind.

She pushed open a wooden door.

The room Andeni led Gauss into was a space resembling a warehouse.

The surrounding display racks were filled with all sorts of materials and items.

She searched among them for a moment.

She scooped up a few pieces of wood of varying lengths and held them in her arms.

"These are all the most common base staffs."

"Take a look and see which one suits you best."

Carrying the wooden staves, Andeni walked out of the warehouse and returned to the main hall.

Then, she placed the wooden staves one by one on the table.

"How should I test them?"

"It's very simple. You just grab any one of them and try to circulate your magic power within it. If there is a sense of obstruction, it means it doesn't suit you."

"If the circulation is smooth and unhindered, it means this staff matches you. The smoother it is, the more suitable it is."

Hearing this, Gauss nodded. The test indeed was not complicated.

He squatted down, reached out, and casually grabbed a dark brown wooden staff from the low table closest to him.

The wooden staff was crooked and about half a meter long.

After weighing it briefly, he closed his eyes and concentrated his mind.

After meditating for a moment, he began to mobilize the magic power within his body, slowly letting it seep into the wooden staff in his hand.

The moment his magic power left his body and made contact with the wooden staff, an exclusionary force immediately surged outward from it.

He tried to exert more "force." This time, he managed to break through the staff's repulsion, and his magic power successfully seeped into it.

Only, the circulation was not smooth at all, feeling as though countless tiny people were fighting against his magic power inside the staff.

Gauss withdrew his magic power and put the wooden staff back on the table.

"How is it?"

"Not very suitable." Gauss shook his head.

"Then try the next one."

Andeni wasn't surprised. The probability of successfully finding a suitable base on the first try was indeed quite small.

However, the materials she had chosen this time were all the most common ones.

In her experience, the vast majority of Mages could find a base that fit them among them.

Gauss nodded and grabbed the next one.

After a while, he put it down again and shook his head.

"Try the next one."

This process was repeated five or six times.

Until he put down the very last wooden staff, a look of disappointment appeared on his face.

"None of them fit?" Andeni pinched her chin, falling into deep thought.

"Now that's a rare situation. It seems, Gauss, your magic power is quite special."

"What should I do now, then?"

"Let me think..." Andeni closed her eyes and pondered.

After a long while, she opened her eyes.

"I remember now, I still have a few very special treasures!"

"Are they expensive?" Gauss asked cautiously, worried that even if he sold the Life Magic Stone, he wouldn't be able to afford them.

"Not expensive, even cheaper than these. It's just that these unconventional staves are generally not used for anything, so I put them away." Andeni strode forward. "Wait for me here, I'll be right back."