69: Chapter 0069 Wizard

The Materials displayed on the stalls of the wizard market far exceeded the boundaries of Li Size's knowledge, each piece exuding a spine-chilling eeriness.

In glass jars, dark green moss writhed slightly to an inaudible rhythm, with ghostly blue phosphorus fire floating on the surface, as if whispering secrets of the abyssal rift.

A stone covered in dark red patterns was chained to a wooden rack; viscous juice seeped from the patterns, making a 'sizzling' corrosive sound as it dripped onto the ground.

There were also powders wrapped in animal skins; opening a corner sent silver specks of light scattering, bringing a bone-chilling cold upon touching the skin.

Most of these Materials had no names, and the stall owners used obscure symbols to mark their origins:

“Ground Bone Powder from the Night of the Lunar Eclipse,” “Crying Flower of the Forgotten Swamp,” “Ink Sac Crystals of the Demonic Octopus.”

The air was thick with a mixture of sulfur and rotting leaves, making every breath carry a mysterious sense of oppression.

Li Size was drawn to a jar containing a semi-transparent gel, in which tiny black tentacle-like objects were suspended, occasionally contracting and twitching.

He stepped forward warmly; the stall owner lifted the face beneath the hood, revealing a pair of eyes without pupils, and said raspily:

“This is the larval gel of a Void Worm. Potions blended with it can allow sorcery to penetrate sorcery barriers.”

When Li Size pressed for the source, the stall owner simply pointed to the twisted clouds in the sky:

“Last night, they fell with the stardust.”

Next, he saw a bone carved with ancient runes.

The stall owner introduced it as the finger bone of an ancient wizard; the carved runes could amplify the power of fire sorcery, but the wails of the undead would be heard during use.

This knowledge, which had never appeared in textbooks, entwined around his curiosity like vines.

It made him realize that behind these eerie Materials lay the most hidden Law of power in the Wizard World.

There were also some wizards who met Li Size's inquiries with cold glares, giving him the cold shoulder.

The sources of these Materials were also quite complex, with the largest sources being wilderness exploration and hunting demonic monsters.

Most wild wizards would join the Crimson Soul Adventurers Association.

He managed to find about seven or eight of the twelve Materials for swift spirit here, leaving only the main material, Silver Ring Trout, and a few auxiliary Materials.

Those auxiliary Materials were manageable; Li Size knew several places in Monte Province where they could be obtained.

Even if he didn't get them at this market, he could obtain them within Monte Province during this trip.

According to the “swift spirit” recipe description, the Silver Ring Trout mainly appeared on the shores of the East Sea.

That was a place very far from Monte Province; wanting to get this thing in Monte Province would depend entirely on luck.

Whether Li Size's luck was good or bad, it just so happened that there really was “Silver Ring Trout” for sale at this market.

In a specially made glass tank, there were several palm-sized strange fish with black and white rings on their bodies like silver bands; their mouths were flat and long like a duck's bill.

It was said that in the ancient times of the Wizard World, pharmacology was far less developed than it is today.

Wizard Apprentices at that time slightly improved their agility attributes by eating these strange fish raw, whereas today, pharmacology can greatly unleash the effects of these treasures, turning them into potions that enhance even more attributes.

Unfortunately, although this Wizard Apprentice was easy to talk to and chatted idly with Li Size, he simply would not agree to sell the “Silver Ring Trout” for gold coins.

Instead, he required a barter exchange for knowledge, potions, or the like; the other party most desired traditional alchemy knowledge.

The other party was willing to make up the price difference for higher-value knowledge with gold coins; clearly, while the “Silver Ring Trout” was rare, it was still slightly inferior to the value of knowledge.

Li Size actually had two items he could trade:

One was the design blueprint for “winds kiss.”

The other was the analyzed “swift spirit” potion recipe.

Unfortunately, the former was his trump card, and the latter was too precious; it was simply impossible to bring them out for trade.

Both of these pieces of knowledge were considered to have been deduced by Li Size himself, without any messy contractual restrictions.

Thinking of this, he remembered that Pay-to-Win could optimize sorcery skills; in a sense, optimized skills also counted as new knowledge inventions and could be sold freely.

However, up until now, he didn't have any skill that could be optimized.

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly understood that it must be because his skill Ranks were still low.

According to the vague guidance of the Pay-to-Win Ability before, skill optimization likely required a skill to reach Great Master Rank before it could be innovated!

Li Size suddenly felt regretful; he had relied too much on 【Pay-to-Win】 before.

Aside from frequently used skills, Zero-Ring Sorceries like 【Fire Arrow】 and 【Ice Arrow】 had not yet reached the Proficient Rank; looking back, he really shouldn't have neglected them.

These two skills, including those few Elementary rune combinations, could be practiced frequently and repeatedly, and should be the easiest to reach Great Master Rank.

If he had this optimized knowledge now, he wouldn't have to worry so much!

As expected, there are no useless sorceries...

In addition, his meditation method showed its advantage here again.

Even without the Pay-to-Win Ability, his meditation method allowed for lower Mental Energy consumption during practice.

This indirectly allowed him to practice various sorceries or skills faster.

From this perspective, Stingy could also speed up various research speeds...

It truly was as Werst said:

Because of Stingy, one is powerful!

Li Size made an agreement with this middle-aged wizard named Will:

If Li Size had knowledge or items he could use after a while, there might still be a chance to trade.

The world of wizards was indeed not as easy to navigate as imagined.

These Wizard Apprentices were all clever as ghosts, wanting only things more beneficial to themselves rather than gold coins.

However, Will and Li Size got along very well; seeing that he really urgently needed the “Silver Ring Trout,” Will thought for a moment and told him a piece of information:

Another friend he adventured with also possessed this material.

His friend's name was Fei Li, and he was active in Wojin City year-round.

Moreover, he heard that Fei Li was recently burdened with gambling debts and urgently needed gold coins to repay them; Li Size could go and try his luck.

Li Size still basically remembered the distribution of cities in Monte Province; Gele City and Wojin City were separated by Manpa City, a distance of about five hundred kilometers.

However, there was a wizardry train between the two places, reaching speeds of six hundred to eight hundred, taking less than an hour to arrive.

The “Silver Ring Trout” was quite important to Li Size now, forming the starting point of a very important link:

If he could obtain the “Silver Ring Trout” as soon as possible, with good luck, he could even rush back to trade with the Wizard Apprentice selling the “Sturdiness” Alchemy Rune combination.

By this time, there was nothing else in the market that could attract the two of them.

Just as Li Size was about to leave, he was called out to by a Wizard Apprentice in a white coat:

“Hello, are you Mr. Li Size?

Wizard Veselin requests your presence!”

Li Size and Felina looked at each other; the two of them were merely Wizard Apprentices, and great figures like a Formal Wizard were from a completely different world.

Why had they suddenly been noticed by Veselin?

But at this moment, the two had no choice but to follow behind this Wizard Apprentice to meet this Formal Wizard.

In the villa at the very center of the market, the two met this legendary Wizard.

She was like a noble lady; ordinary people wouldn't be able to see anything unusual.

It turned out that Wizard Veselin had read the Ge Le City Business Gazette and learned about the witchcraft motorcycle.

She quite liked this novel and exciting means of transportation.

But after the little sorcerer donkey hit the market, she also bought one and found it to be very different from the Sorcery Recording in the newspaper, which gave her this idea.

Coincidentally, having discovered the inventor of the little sorcerer donkey, Li Size, today, she wanted to ask him about the witchcraft motorcycle.

Facing a Formal Wizard, Li Size did not dare to be disrespectful and truthfully informed her that the little sorcerer donkey was merely a low-end version.

He also demonstrated the performance of the witchcraft motorcycle “Blue Star” on the spot.

This immediately made Veselin take note, wanting Li Size to provide one for her as well.

Li Size originally wanted to use the witchcraft motorcycle to exchange for some of Veselin's unique potion recipes or knowledge.

But Veselin stated clearly that it was impossible; although the witchcraft motorcycle was novel, its value was not high, and both parties must abide by the principle of equivalent exchange.

Circumstances were stronger than people!

Facing the forceful Wizard Veselin, Li Size had no choice but to back down.

However, through his detailed inquiries at the market, he already knew that Veselin's specialty potion was the secret medicine “brain in a vat,” which could permanently increase Mental Energy by 0.5 points.

After much negotiation, he finally reached an agreement with Wizard Veselin:

He was permitted to exchange two “swift spirit” potions for one “brain in a vat.”

For a wizard, the value of a brain in a vat was far greater than that of “swift spirit.”

Veselin's “brain in a vat” was already a rare item in short supply in Monte Province, and it was exceptionally important to Wizard Apprentices.