NOVPUB
Chapter 67: 007: Knowledge is power, knowledge is wealth!
After some bargaining, Lynch finally bought the model for 888 Magic Stones. He couldn’t get the price any lower despite repeated attempts—the seller likely had already hit their bottom line.
The vendor asked, "Why choose such a specific number? Why not round it off?"
Lynch replied, "For good luck."
The vendor clearly didn’t get it but didn’t delve further.
Besides the "Elemental Voidification," there were several other public templates here that caught Lynch’s interest. Unfortunately, the seller’s asking prices were too high, far exceeding the price at the Tower.
It made sense, though. The vendor was clearly a middleman. His supply channels were likely through a Wizard Organization authorized for external sales, with a fixed base cost, making discounts impossible.
His target customers were predominantly Wandering Wizards and Grey Wizards, those without reliable channels to acquire spells—not someone like Lynch, who came from a structured background as a legitimate White Wizard.
"Spell models are really profitable..."
Lynch looked at the casually priced models costing thousands of Magic Stones and couldn’t help but feel envy. After years of planning and development, the White Witch Council had established a highly effective model sales network in the Ancient Ruins.
If a Wizard creates a model and successfully gets it into the sales network, they can rake in endless wealth, easily selling dozens or even millions of Magic Stones.
Piracy, of course, existed. However, unless one was ready to dive headfirst into being a Black Wizard, it was best not to engage in such practices. White Wizards were ruthless in safeguarding intellectual wealth, ready to kill offenders without hesitation.
"When I advance to Wizard status in the future, I should try to create a model myself," Lynch silently resolved.
With that, he continued exploring the magical marketplace. n𝚘𝚟pub.𝚌o𝚖
Aside from the white-bearded old man, there were more than ten other stalls in the market engaging in similar resale businesses. Lynch visited each of them and, after a round of careful selection, purchased six spell models:
Elemental Voidification, Multi-element Shield, Space Distortion.
Thunder Strike Spell, Dark Flame, Earth Sinking Spell.
The first three belonged to compound spell types requiring the integration of diverse knowledge. Multi-element Shield was akin to Elemental Voidification, combining various elements, with its potency determined by the number of elements fused.
A single element could offer a maximum defense of 6 units, which was subpar for Mid-level Apprentice Magic, even inferior to certain Low-level Apprentice Magic.
Fusion of two elements could barely reach 10 units, meeting the threshold for Mid-level Magic; three elements could achieve about 16 units, earning the mid-to-upper rank of Mid-level Magic; and four elements could exceed 25 units, comparable to ordinary High-level Apprentice Magic.
If more than five elements were fused, the defensive performance could surpass 30 units, which held its own even among High-level Apprentice Magic.
Next came Space Distortion.
Though its name sounds impressive, it is essentially a spell combining spiritual and elemental forces, mainly utilizing the derivative element "Gravity" from Earth Elements, along with spiritual power for spatial distortion.
Gravity itself is a complex topic within Earth Element studies, posing significant learning challenges. Pairing this with spiritual power positioning, a prominent difficulty within the Spiritual System, elevated the spell’s learning threshold considerably.
On the bright side, this spell was cheap—it cost Lynch merely 600 Magic Stones, cheaper than some Low-level Apprentice Magic models, yet its power was quite decent. At maximum, it could reach about 20 units, placing it comfortably at the mid-upper level of Mid-level Apprentice Magic models.
Generally, apprentice energy caps were as follows: Elementary Apprentice limited to below 10 units; Mid-level Apprentice between 10–25 units; and High-level Apprentice ranged from 25–50 units.
After discussing these knowledge-heavy spells, let’s move to the remaining three: Thunder Strike Spell, Dark Flame, and Earth Sinking Spell.
These three are public template spells. Upon reviewing the prices, Lynch found they differed only by a few Magic Stones from the Tower options. All three were bought at the same stall, presumably due to the vendor’s special sourcing.
Given such minor price differences, Lynch decided it wasn’t worth waiting several months until his return to the Tower. Newly advancing to Mid-level Apprentice, he was eager to start learning higher-tier spells.
These spells, being mature templates, didn’t warrant further elaboration.
Thunder Strike: Summons a lightning bolt to attack a target, with potency ranging from 15–18 units. This derives from the Thunder Element, a mutated property of Wind Element, and is practically a staple for apprentices following the Wind Element mutation path.
Dark Flame: Summons a black flame to attack enemies, with about 13 units of base power. While the energy coefficient isn’t large, it inflicts an additional 6 units of corrosive effect upon hitting the target, making it highly troublesome. A well-known spell, combining darkness and fire, recognized by all apprentices learning these two systems.
Earth Sinking Spell: Distorts the ground using spiritual power to form a trap, with a maximum range of about 5 meters. It’s a classic control system spell. Lynch had observed some playful Tower apprentices using this to prank their peers.
[Detected knowledge carrier "Elemental Voidification," automatically loaded.]
[Elemental Voidification Lv0: 0/500.]
[Detected knowledge carrier "Multi-element Shield," automatically loaded.]
[Multi-element Shield Lv0: 0/500.]
[Detected knowledge carrier "Space Distortion," automatically loaded.]
[Space Distortion Lv0: 0/500.]
[Detected knowledge carrier "Thunder Strike Spell," automatically loaded.]
[Thunder Strike Spell Lv0: 0/500.]
[Detected knowledge carrier "Dark Flame," automatically loaded.]
[Dark Flame Lv0: 0/500.]
[Detected knowledge carrier "Earth Sinking Spell," automatically loaded.]
[Earth Sinking Spell Lv0: 0/500.]
Looking at the newly added skill bars on his system interface, Lynch felt ecstatic. He now had new Magic models to master. And unlike those Low-level Apprentice models from before, these were bona fide Mid-level Apprentice Magic models.
Spiritual power serves as the foundation for Wizards; knowledge is their strength; and magic is the tangible embodiment of that power. Truly mastering Mid-level Apprentice Magic marked Lynch’s rightful entry into this rank of apprentices.
Aside from Magic models, Lynch also bought various items at the marketplace, including materials, alchemical gadgets, Magic Plants, Demon organs, and more.
This perfectly exemplified the saying "knowledge is wealth."
As the saying goes, there’s deceit in commerce—this held true even in the Wizard World, where the seemingly honest stall owners employed endless ploys and strategies.
Mislabeled goods, using inexpensive materials to masquerade as similar but premium ones.
Randomly arranging rubble or other objects disguised as treasures supposedly from certain ruins, tricking buyers into thinking they’ve landed a bargain.
Some even hired accomplices to exaggerate the atmosphere and lure buyers.
The marketplace brimmed with such trickery, and Lynch witnessed firsthand a foolish buyer being conned by a seemingly clueless vendor into purchasing striped reeds disguised as Star Dew Flowers.
The former was worth tens of thousands of Magic Stones, whereas the latter was a mere wild plant priced at 20 Magic Stones.
The vendor pretended to be ignorant, asking for 3,000 Magic Stones. Thinking himself clever, the buyer haggled it down to 2,000 Magic Stones and hastily fled, thinking he’d struck gold.
Realizing his mistake much too late, he returned to find the stall empty, with no trace of the vendor in sight—left to rage in frustration.
Such incidents were commonplace in the marketplace. Lynch, too, encountered several sellers attempting to deceive him. However, armed with substantial knowledge and a moderate, discerning attitude, he unmasked their schemes one by one, avoiding all traps.
Not only did he avoid losses, but he also made a tidy profit.
Lynch discovered materials on sale swayed from the Tower’s apprentice collection prices—some higher, some lower. For instance, Mist Shadow Flowers were bought by the Tower at 20 Magic Stones each, yet he encountered several priced at 18, 17, or even 15-16 Magic Stones.
The issue was that these materials varied in quality, with some being outright spoiled. They weren’t easy to distinguish by appearance alone—for instance, a seemingly radiant Starlight Grass could have a broken stem.
Spoiled or subpar materials wouldn’t be accepted by the Tower, meaning any Magic Stones spent on them would be wasted.
But this wasn’t an issue for Lynch. His foundational knowledge of Magic Plants and Demon materials had long since maxed out. Within the Ancient Ruins region, there weren’t any apprentice-level Magic Plants or Demon materials he couldn’t identify.
This underscored the importance of knowledge.
Relying on his immense knowledge base, Lynch carried out a purchasing spree, acquiring Starlight Grass, Mist Shadow Flowers, Blue Spot Mushrooms... Anything profitable material was bought up to later sell back to the Tower.
A rough calculation showed he’d reaped a profit of several hundred Magic Stones, nearly approaching a thousand.
"Indeed, regardless of the realm, speculating and hoarding is the swiftest way to riches!" Seeing such substantial profits, Lynch even entertained the idea of switching careers to become a full-time trader.
Still, it remained just a thought. Not only were market cycles long, but the locales didn’t always align conveniently. More importantly, the Tower wouldn’t tolerate ongoing exploitation.
The Tower’s generous apprentice buy-in prices were meant to provide support. A few instances were fine, but long-term abuse of these loopholes could provoke severe consequences.
"What a harvest! What a harvest!"
With his Space Ring packed to the brim, Lynch took one last loop around the market and, finding nothing else worth acquiring, decided to wrap up this delightful venture.
Yet, just as he prepared to leave, an item at a roadside stall caught his attention.
"Hmm? What’s this..."
It was a metallic sphere, engraved with a line of characters.
These weren’t standard Rune Language characters but rather...
Those mysterious, distorted symbols recorded in the ancient book he had taken from Black Wizard Apprentice Richard three years ago...
