A Bountiful Harvest

After Matthew killed Jack, he searched his pocket and found a pocket watch.

This pocket watch was a Tier One wizard tool. Once activated, it could instantly cast an Ice Shield Spell. Jack had been petrified by Matthew's Basilisk Eye the moment they clashed and never got the chance to use it.

Next, Matthew began searching the room. Relying on the memories he had extracted from Jack's mind, he picked up a book from the bedside cabinet and placed it on the second shelf of the corner bookcase.

Click. The bookcase slid aside, revealing a secret compartment. Inside the compartment was a locked chest.

Matthew hauled the chest out. The key to the chest was buried somewhere in the outskirts of Whitestone Town, but he couldn't be bothered to go find it. He aimed his wand at the lock.

"Alohomora."

The light of the Unlock Charm struck the lock on the chest, and the lock sprang open instantly.

Even though he had already seen it in Jack's memories, seeing the contents of the chest with his own eyes still made the corners of his mouth curl up.

Today's haul was enormous!

The House Whyte had been passed down in Whitestone Town for two or three hundred years. Even though the recent generations had been terribly wasteful, to the point where Old White had even given away Whitestone Manor, there was still a fair amount of accumulated wealth left.

Matthew took stock. There were eight Magic Stones, and Kingdom Gold Coin Notes with a face value of tens of thousands. However, to use those notes, he would have to exchange them at the Wizard Bank, so they couldn't be spent easily for now. There were also several Property Deeds for Whitestone Town, and even one Property Deed for the Royal Capital.

The most important items were the dozen or so books. Matthew flipped through them roughly. Most of these books recorded Runic Magic, and three of them recorded Meditation Methods.

However, these Meditation Methods were all Basic Meditation Methods. High-level Meditation Methods could only be found within powerful wizard organizations; very few of them ever circulated outside. Matthew had once heard Link say that the Court Wizards had two types of High-level Meditation Methods internally, but to exchange for a High-level Meditation Method within the Court Wizard system, one had to be at the Officer or Detective level. Link was only a Level 7 Investigator and didn't yet qualify to exchange for a High-level Meditation Method.

The Dream Ritual Jack had mentioned was also in the chest. The ritual was recorded on a piece of parchment. There wasn't much detailed explanation on it, just the method for setting up the ritual. The full name of this ritual was the "Moon Candle Dream Ritual."

There was also a Tier One wizard tool in the chest—a pitch-black shield as tall as a person. This shield could resist attacks at the Wizard Apprentice level. This wizard tool was inconvenient to carry and had been stored in the chest for years. Spatial Storage Type wizard tools were relatively rare in this world; generally, only Formal Wizards would have them.

After a rough inventory, he put everything from the chest into his Bag of Infinite Space.

He waved his wand, and a Shatter Charm smashed Jack's corpse into pieces.

Then, Matthew went to the study next to the bedroom and packed up all the books collected by the House Whyte.

After ransacking the study, he returned to Jack's bedroom, set a fire there, and ignited the house.

The space twisted, and the figure in the room vanished from the spot instantly, leaving only the blazing flames behind.

After returning to his residence, Matthew began to carefully tally his gains. Tonight's haul was quite substantial.

Among the books, there were over a dozen Runic Magic spells, but most were common zero-tier tricks and first-tier spells. The auxiliary magic spells included Repelling Ring, Spider Web Technique, Mage Armor, Appraisal Technique, Detection Technique, Sea of Consciousness Illusion Technique, Sleep Technique, and so on.

Matthew selected a few first-tier spells to prioritize learning.

Among the auxiliary spells, the highest priority was "Repelling Ring." This spell only required condensing 10 runes and released an invisible force to repel enemies at close range.

With the boost from the Pitch-black Fingertip Bone Wand, he could cast the "Repelling Ring" spell within 2 seconds. This was very useful for a wizard like Matthew, who specialized in mid-to-long-range attacks.

"Mage Armor" was also a spell Matthew needed to learn. Compared to Hogwarts' Shield Charm, Mage Armor had superior and more comprehensive resistance, but its casting speed was much slower. This spell required condensing 16 runes.

With the boost from the Pitch-black Fingertip Bone Wand, Matthew needed 3 seconds to cast "Mage Armor." However, once cast, as long as it wasn't shattered, Mage Armor could sustain itself automatically for half a minute. Therefore, many wizards in this world would cast "Mage Armor" on themselves before a battle.

Matthew had already learned "Appraisal Technique" and "Detection Technique." Earlier, he had traded potions with Link for a few spells, including "Appraisal Technique" and "Detection Technique."

"Appraisal Technique" could roughly appraise the grade of a wizard tool and could even see the state of a wizard's Sea of Consciousness. When Matthew first met Link and Anna, Anna had used "Appraisal Technique" to determine that Matthew was a Level One Wizard Apprentice.

However, using this method to judge a wizard's strength could be misleading. Wizards who had practiced the "Sea of Consciousness Illusion Technique" could set up an illusion in their Sea of Consciousness. "Appraisal Technique" could only see the surface state revealed by the illusion. But this wasn't absolute; a powerful wizard could use "Appraisal Technique" to forcibly break through the illusion. The "Sea of Consciousness Illusion Technique" was also a spell Matthew planned to prioritize learning.

"Spider Web Technique" and "Sleep Technique" had overlapping functions with spells Matthew already knew, so he set them aside for now.

The rest were attack-type spells. The ones that caught Matthew's attention the most were "Thunder Summoning" and "Greater Thunder Summoning." They seemed to be part of a series.

"Thunder Summoning," like the "Lightning Bolt" spell Matthew had obtained earlier, required condensing 32 runes. It was one of the most powerful types among first-tier spells. "Thunder Summoning" could summon a bolt of lightning from the sky to strike a target, with tremendous power.

The advanced version of "Thunder Summoning," "Greater Thunder Summoning," was the only second-tier spell among these. "Greater Thunder Summoning" required condensing 80 runes.

"Greater Thunder Summoning" could summon several bolts of lightning from the sky to strike a target. It was affected by the weather; in a thunderstorm, it could summon even more lightning bolts and had immense power. It was a spell with a very high ceiling.

However, even with the boost from the Pitch-black Fingertip Bone Wand, Matthew needed 15 seconds to cast "Greater Thunder Summoning." In actual combat, it would be very difficult to pull off.

Among the remaining attack spells, Matthew also planned to learn "Burning Hand." This was essentially a modified version of the "Invisible Hand" spell.

This spell could create a hand wreathed in flames, which could be used to grab and burn enemies.

Moreover, when casting "Invisible Hand," he could instantly convert it into "Burning Hand," giving "Invisible Hand" a bit more versatility.

The remaining spells—"Fireball Technique," "Magic Missile," and "Rolling Stone Technique"—also had overlapping functions with spells Matthew already knew, so he set them aside for now.