[Magic That Kept Your Hand from Getting Burned When You Held a Cup by the Handle]
[Magic That Kept Your Eyelashes from Falling Out When You Rubbed Your Eyes]
[Magic That Kept Your Toenails from Growing into Your Flesh]
Looking at the huge pile of grimoires Frieren had brought over, Shane felt extremely conflicted.
Girl, you certainly have some unique tastes.
"Hehe, what do you think? They're all great grimoires, aren't they?"
The white-haired elf, who hadn't noticed Shane's feelings in the slightest, was still grinning smugly.
ꐦ
Oh, well. At least you're happy.
"Let's go pay."
The old man at the counter was also startled when he saw the huge pile of books Frieren was carrying.
He put on his reading glasses and compared the books against the long price list beside him, checking the price of each one.
"Six books in total. With the half-price discount applied to all of them, that comes to 19 silver coins."
"How much?"
"Nineteen silver coins, sir."
"..."
Shane nearly choked.
They were still that expensive at half price!
And they were all these strange little everyday-use spells. If they'd been combat magic or powerful defensive magic, wouldn't the price have been astronomical?
Raising a mage really did cost a fortune.
After paying, Shane had only one silver coin left. He squeezed his suddenly flat wallet and silently sighed.
He had to find a way to make money.
Just as he was feeling glum, the corner of his eye caught a short bookshelf beside the counter.
There were only four or five books on it, but each looked about twenty centimeters thick—like a brick.
Curious, Shane walked over and picked one up.
[??? Magic]
Type: ?? Magic
Effect: ???
Status: Not learned
What was going on? Why was everything a question mark?
Shane squeezed his eyes shut and focused his mental strength, trying to examine it again.
A wave of dizziness hit him. He reached out to steady himself against the bookshelf, barely managing not to faint.
He immediately realized that his mental strength was too low to make use of the Great Wisdom Looks Like Stupidity trait. He couldn't simplify and master the grimoire before him, so the information he saw was incomplete.
"Are you interested in this grimoire, sir? If you'd like it, I can take another silver coin off the half-price amount."
Another silver coin off?
He couldn't even be bothered to ask what the original price was.
"Old man, why are these books displayed separately over here? Is there something wrong with them?"
The old man at the counter smiled at that.
"There's nothing wrong with them. They're displayed here on purpose. These may well be the most powerful spells in the entire library, but they're so difficult to learn that ordinary mages could spend their whole lives on them without even getting started. That's why they've never sold."
"They're kept here in case a mage takes a liking to one and wants it as a collectible."
Collecting grimoires?
Shane glanced at Frieren.
To his surprise, Frieren hadn't given the "big bricks" beside them even the slightest look. She was focused entirely on the grimoires she'd chosen, happily getting them packed up.
On the way back from the Grand Library, Shane seemed distracted.
Even Frieren, oblivious as she could be, noticed.
"Don't regret not buying that grimoire."
"The one you saw would take me over a hundred years to analyze. After that, it would take decades of practice to master it. For humans, a spell like that is simply beyond their reach."
"Some spells were created in ancient times, or even in the mythological era. Their complex theories and methods of operation make them extremely difficult to analyze, and most of them also have very strict conditions for use. From a practical standpoint, they aren't all that appealing."
Shane nodded. Frieren's explanation made sense.
For ordinary people, it was true. There were probably plenty of mages who spent their entire lives analyzing a single spell, only to make no progress before they died.
That was the limitation of human lifespans.
But he was different. He had Great Wisdom Looks Like Stupidity, which could simplify any spell into a "specific trait" that he could master outright.
He had such a powerful passive ability, yet his mental strength was so low that it wasn't enough to use it. As a result, he couldn't bring out his true strength at all.
What was the difference between that and begging for food while sitting on a mountain of gold?
Increasing his mental strength couldn't wait!
That night, Shane began trying to cultivate.
It was his first time cultivating, and he couldn't help feeling a little excited.
Following the method Frieren had explained earlier, he sat cross-legged on the balcony of his room, facing the cool moonlight, and began to meditate.
The night breeze brushed against his face, slowly calming him down.
He focused on the blood vessels and bones inside his body, trying to find the ripples of magic.
Ten minutes passed...
Half an hour passed...
An hour passed...
Shane opened his eyes. He'd nearly fallen asleep, and he still hadn't felt a thing!
Was this right??
Goddess's Barrier, activate!
Whoosh—
A ripple of air spread outward, and a transparent barrier successfully formed around him, extending one meter in every direction.
He could use magic.
So why couldn't he feel the "ripples of magic inside his body" Frieren had mentioned?
"Because you don't have any mana at all. Not a bit."
Frieren answered Shane, who had come to her room to ask for advice, while flipping through the grimoire in her hands.
"You don't have the potential to become a mage."
"But you can use the Goddess's magic, which means you have the talent to become a Monk. You should consider following the Monk's path: recite the Holy Scripture, strengthen your faith, and become a devout Monk."
No way!
I wasn't going to practice the kind of magic that required me to stay single for my entire life!
"Is there really no other way to cultivate?"
Frieren set down the grimoire she'd been reading and thought it over carefully. "There is one other way."
"What is it?"
"It's the cultivation method of a Sage."
"A Sage's cultivation method?"
Shane frowned. He didn't think he'd seen anything about Sage cultivation in the pile of writings on the history of magic at the library that day.
"The Sage tradition has been lost for over a thousand years. I've only heard my teacher, Flamme, mention it a few times. This method is very similar to a mage's meditation. The difference is that the practitioner has to try to control their mental strength."
"Try to control your mental strength while meditating? What does that involve? How exactly do you do it?"
Frieren shook her head.
The Sage tradition had been lost long ago, and she wasn't sure of the details either.
Back in his room, Shane spent a long time thinking over this so-called "control of mental strength" and gradually formed a guess—
When he concentrated, he could use his mental strength to Strip traits. Could a Sage's cultivation simply involve Strip-ping more and more traits?
Like leveling up by fighting monsters: the more traits he stripped, the stronger his mental strength became, and the stronger his mental strength, the more traits he could Strip.
Hmm...
Looks like he still had to go back to the dungeon and keep picking up trash.
Before you continue