A Wizard Prodigy Whose Legends Were Everywhere

This Fish-Fragrant Herb showed no signs of wear on the outside.

Its color and size were normal as well.

Leo watched Chris make his choice right away and shook his head slightly.

Leaving aside the fake materials mixed in among them.

Even when selecting materials of different quality, one needed patience.

Chris was in such a hurry that he definitely would not be able to pick out one of better quality.

And that was indeed the case.

Leo could tell that although this Fish-Fragrant Herb looked nice on the surface, it was actually of inferior quality.

Chris eagerly carried the Fish-Fragrant Herb to the counter and said, "B-beautiful miss, I want to buy this."

The elf looked at Chris and revealed a faint smile. "One Magic Stone, thank you."

After completing the transaction, Chris wanted to keep talking to the elf, so he asked, "Miss, can you tell what quality the herb I picked is?"

The elf said, "The quality of herbs needs to be revealed by your instructors during class."

"I-is that so." Chris was quite disappointed, though he was not disappointed that he could not learn the answer now, but that he could not keep talking to the elf.

Leo listened to their conversation from the side and secretly shook his head.

Chris's attention had been completely drawn to the beautiful elf. Even matters concerning his Potionology studies had been thrown clean out of his mind.

Among the herbs on the shelves, excellent-quality materials were sold at half price, while perfect-quality materials were free. The elf had charged Chris a full Magic Stone, which meant the Fish-Fragrant Herb in his hand was at most ordinary quality. In a worse case, it might even be inferior.

Leo was still examining the herbs. He screened them according to the standards in the field guide.

For him, this selection process was still difficult.

He could distinguish between inferior- and ordinary-quality herbs.

But Leo could not distinguish excellent-quality herbs from perfect-quality ones.

Leo carefully flipped through the field guide again and again.

What the field guide taught was actually also mentioned in Basic Potionology: one had to use fluctuations in spiritual energy to memorize them.

Some materials looked exactly the same, but their spiritual energy fluctuations differed.

Wizard books contained not only illustrations and text, but also spiritual fluctuations.

Those spiritual fluctuations were the true core of wizard books.

On the other side, Molly looked at the feathers on the shelf before her, and a ripple of spiritual energy swept past her fingertips.

Although Molly's spiritual talent rank was rather ordinary, her comprehension was actually quite good.

With just a rough glance, Leo could tell that she had already begun to grasp the knack of selecting materials.

Molly's gaze stopped on a feather.

After hesitating for a moment, she reached out and grabbed it.

Molly handed over the Black-Tailed Crane Feather. The elf clapped her hands with a smile and said, "Congratulations, guest. You selected an excellent-quality Black-Tailed Crane Feather. This purchase only costs half price."

At those words, Molly's little face flushed red, and she was delighted.

Chris also said, "Congratulations, Molly."

Leo smiled as well. "Congratulations, Molly."

Molly nervously patted her chest. "I was torn to pieces when I was choosing just now. If I'd picked a low-quality material, I might have had to consider switching to another subject."

"Miss, here are five Magic Stone fragments. Please keep them safely."

One Magic Stone was equal to ten Magic Stone fragments.

After quite a while, Leo finally finished selecting his herb as well. From the Fish-Fragrant Herb shelf, he picked out one Fish-Fragrant Herb.

The quality of this Fish-Fragrant Herb differed from both inferior and perfect quality.

And according to Leo's observations,

there were seven Fish-Fragrant Herbs that appeared to be of high quality. Yet only this one differed from the other six excellent-quality Fish-Fragrant Herbs.

Although Leo could not tell the difference between high quality and perfect quality, he wanted to gamble on this small detail.

Of course, even if he failed, it did not matter. He would only lose five Magic Stone fragments.

Leo handed over the Fish-Fragrant Herb.

"Congratulations, guest. The Fish-Fragrant Herb you selected is of perfect quality. No Magic Stones will be charged for this purchase."

Hearing the elf's words, Chris and Molly both looked at Leo in shock and envy.

Chris said, "Damn, it looks like not only in Arcane Hand, but in Potionology too, I'm going to get completely crushed by you, Leo."

Molly said enviously, "Leo, your talent in Potionology must be stronger than my talent in Divination."

Even the elf spoke in a surprised tone. "The quality of Fish-Fragrant Herb is harder to distinguish than that of other materials. Every year, we leave one perfect-quality material among them."

"As for perfect-quality Fish-Fragrant Herb, the last person to discover it was Wizard Nova, who had just arrived at the Tower of Dawn five years ago. Before that, it was twenty years ago."

Leo had not expected to hear Nova's name here. He asked, "Is Wizard Nova famous?"

"Of course he's famous." At the mention of Nova, the elf was like a girl meeting her idol. Her eyes sparkled as she spoke with utter admiration. "He's one of the Tower of Dawn's most famous star wizards."

"Wizard Nova was a supreme genius with level-six spiritual talent. When he arrived at the Tower of Dawn aboard the wizard ship, he had already become a wizard."

"In the first month's Comprehensive Assessment, Wizard Nova scored 100 points in the Arcane Hand test. His overall Comprehensive Assessment score even reached an unprecedented 500 points."

Hearing this, Molly's eyes widened.

They were still working themselves to the bone just to earn one year's tuition.

Yet under the same circumstances, this Wizard Nova had earned a scholarship worth five years of tuition in his very first month.

"Potionology was the first subject Wizard Nova chose, and in his first month, he was noticed by a laboratory researching an S-rank project and became one of its members."

"Afterward, within a single year, Wizard Nova conquered twenty S-rank research projects in succession."

"In his second year, Wizard Nova became a teaching assistant. It took him only one year to advance to become a seminar instructor."

"Over the span of three years, Wizard Nova trained quite a few outstanding wizards."

"Wizard Nova was a wizard prodigy so legendary that he could not have been more legendary."

Leo's expression turned strange.

He felt that Wizard Nova's legends were probably everywhere throughout the Tower of Dawn.

That made Leo feel even more strongly that the favor he owed from back then would be difficult to repay.

The elf picked up a book and handed it to Leo. "Sir, as the customer who found the Fish-Fragrant Herb, you may also receive this Grand Compendium of Potions as a prize."

"This is a Grand Compendium of Potions written by a Formal Wizard. It records several simple potion formulas created by that Formal Wizard."

"Besides that, at the end of the Grand Compendium of Potions, there is a question left behind by that Formal Wizard. If you can answer it, that Formal Wizard will give you a generous reward."