Buying a spell

The time of the first promotion test had arrived, marking the end of the first month of the preliminary course. Only a few people had decided to take the exam; after all, the preliminary course was one year long, and there was still a lot of time left, and most newcomers had yet to grasp the basic principles of magic.

Since there was no penalty for failing, and you could try as many times as you wanted, some newcomers decided to take the exam to become familiar with it and prepare well for the upcoming one. Still, there was really nothing special about it. You have to demonstrate your ability to sense and gather mana, then cast one spell, and that is it.

Artus considered taking the exam for the same reason, but he changed his mind since there was no value in that, and it was too early for him to join the main classes.

Artus spent another two weeks hunting on the edge of the forest with Seers; he had one strategy: locate the One-horned Rabbit, approach it stealthily till reaching an appropriate distance, and then hit it with a fireball spell.

He kept a few horns and sold all the rest of his gains, including meat and fur. With the money he gained, he decided to buy a new spellbook.

He went to petrol the Academy city stores with Seers.

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"So, Artus, what is your next step?"

"Aunt, for now, I have two goals. First, I want to learn a new spell, a utility spell. I have learned the fireball spell and mastered using it; with it, I will have sufficient attack power against small monsters, so my priority is to learn a utility spell."

"Second, if I had enough money left after buying the spell, I would buy a small weapon, a dagger or knife, maybe. I will train using it to improve my close combat abilities."

"What kind of utility spell do you want? There are many types."

"Honesty, I don't know. I have nothing specific in mind. I want something versatile that I can use in most situations, but in the end, it will depend on the price."

Artus and Seers roamed the streets of Academy City; they visited various magic shops. They had very good spells but were very expensive for Artus's current budget. Seers had offered to pay for him, but he refused to. There was nothing urgent right now. If he could not buy it today, he would continue hunting in the forest for another few weeks and save money to buy it; there was no need to owe Seers a favor over such a small thing; he would save her help for critical situations.

They arrived at a small store on the periphery of the city; it was a shabby one, and it looked worn out. They looked at each other.

"Aunt, this will be the last one. Let's give it a chance."

"As you wish, Artus, Let's enter."

As they entered the store, they were greeted by the owner; he was an old man with gray hair and showed them the few spell books he had. They were all low-level ones.

"Artus, let's call it a day."

"Wait a bit, Aunt. Mister, how much does this object levitation spellbook cost?"

"Oh…that one is ten coins."

"Artus, why do you want to buy such a low-level spellbook? This spell is Ineffective; it can only raise objects in the air and move them around slowly; it has no practical uses on top of that; it costs more mana depending on how heavy and large the object so you will have a hard time using it."

"How about we return to the previous store, and I buy you the magic hand spell book? It is similar to object levitation but is a higher-level spell. You can move objects around easily, you will have more control over the object, and most importantly, you can move any object freely with minimal cost of mana as long as you can carry it with your hand; as its name implies, it works as a remote hand made of mana."

"Aunt, now you said it, I think you are right. This spell book is not worth it, but since this old man seems nice, we could still buy it and give it to trainee mages to practice with it."

"But for this sort of spell book, ten coins is too much, Uncle. How about giving us a better price?"

"Young master, I can't do that; ten is the lowest I can do; I have a loan to pay back, not to mention the cost of maintenance of the store…."

"It seems you don't want to sell it, I understand. Aunt, let's go back to the earlier store. This old man does not intend to sell anything."

Artus did not wait for Seers's response; he headed directly towards the door and never spoke to the old man another word. Seers saw that and followed him."

"Young master, please wait."

"Give me eight coins, and you have a deal."

Artus stopped in front of the door but did not turn back and kept facing the door.

"Seven"

"I will give you seven coins."

"Fine…."

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Artus sat down in his room; he had read the object levitation spellbook multiple times and thoroughly analyzed its content using NuroFusion.

He started manipulating and transforming mana according to the instructions in the book.

He cast a spell on a small stone he had put on the desk; the stone started slowly floating in the air. He then slowly moved it in all directions: right, left, forward, backward, up, and down.

After ensuring he had grasped the spell's basic concepts, he put a bunch of small stones on the desk.

These stones were all almost equal in size and similar in shape. He cast the spell on one stone, moving it in all directions, and then he cast the spell on two stones and did the same, followed by three, four, and so on.

A few days passed as he kept hunting in the forest and training with various-sized stones in his room.