Chapter 25 Buying Scrolls

In the evening, a cool breeze blew in through the window.

Minori, who was sleeping on the bed, suddenly opened his eyes and sat up straight.

Phew—

"Did I have a nightmare?"

Minori raised his hand to wipe the thick sweat from his forehead, exhaled heavily, and muttered softly to himself.

He had dreamed of the Bone King—Ainz Ooal Gown—standing in front of him, gazing at him coldly with burning scarlet eyes.

"...Tch."

Minori cursed under his breath.

The Bone King was a transmigrator—and so was he. The Bone King was a player—and so was he!

"So... why should I be afraid of you?"Minori took a deep breath, slapped his own cheeks lightly to wake himself up, then got off the bed and walked toward the window.

Outside, dusk had fallen.

Minori pushed open the guest room's window. The cool wind rushed in, carrying away much of his lingering anxiety.

Unexpectedly, he had slept all the way until evening.

This small hotel was a two-story European-style building. Living on the second floor, he could see the alleyways and neighboring streets through the window.

Several old wooden guardrails were fastened outside the window, but they looked flimsy and unreliable.Any halfway decent thief could probably scale up the walls of the alley and reach the second floor easily.

Minori gave a brief glance, shook his head slightly, and closed the window again.

In a place like this, security was practically nonexistent.

After splashing his face with cold water to refresh himself, Minori left the guest room.

On the street, there were far fewer pedestrians than during the day.Mostly it was armed adventurers roaming in groups, chatting idly.

Earlier, Minori had asked the hotel owner about nearby shops selling necessities.

First, he made his way to a clothing store.

He had been wearing the same outfit for over ten days now, and it was starting to smell.Since he planned to venture into the Tob Forest next, he needed spare clothes.

When he left the store, Minori was carrying a bundle of purchases and wore a long black robe that covered his entire body.

It had cost him three silver coins total.

The black robe alone cost one silver and seven copper. The rest were the same cheap, coarse linen garments he was used to.

The reason for buying this better-quality robe was simple:Next, Minori was heading to the Magician's Guild—and it would be inappropriate to look too shabby there.

In the Kingdom of Re-Estize, every major city had branches of the Adventurer's Guild and the Magician's Guild.

However, unlike the Royal Capital's main headquarters, the local branches of the Magician's Guild didn't focus on training magic casters.

Talented individuals were usually sent to the headquarters for proper instruction.The reason?Funding.

The conservative culture of the Kingdom meant the Magicians' Guild received almost no support from the upper echelons.

As a result, city branches mainly dealt in selling magic items and magic scrolls.

Minori finally arrived at the Magician's Guild—a plain-looking three-story building that was easy to miss without asking for directions.

Unlike the lively Adventurer's Guild, this place felt deserted.

There weren't even guards at the entrance.

Though, to be fair, breaking into a Magician's Guild would be suicidal.

Standing before the dark brown wooden door, Minori reached out to push it—

Ding—

A soft bell chimed from somewhere above the door.

Minori looked up and noticed a fist-sized bell, faintly glowing red with magical light.

Magic item?

The thought flashed through his mind.

Click—

The door swung open automatically.

As expected.

A knowing look appeared in Minori's eyes.Convenient, but surely that magical bell had more than one function.

Thinking this, he stepped into the guild.

Soft, warm light spilled across the floorboards.The interior was far brighter and more refined than its plain exterior suggested.

The hall was decorated in red and black tones.The walls were paneled with red wood, while the floor's edges were dyed black.

The space wasn't large—perhaps less than a hundred square meters.

From the building's outside size, Minori could tell it must have been partitioned further inside.

Six wall-mounted lamps lined each side of the hall, and overhead, a cylindrical chandelier bathed the room in soft white light.

At this hour, the guild was quiet.

Only two middle-aged men in robes sat behind the front counter.One was nodding off, chin resting on hand, completely ignoring Minori's entrance.

The other, slightly younger, lifted his eyes lazily.

Minori approached and spoke softly, "I want to buy some magic scrolls."

Unlike expensive magic items costing thousands of gold, magic scrolls were consumables.Their production was streamlined, making them relatively affordable.

However, because they were single-use, even wealthy adventurers were reluctant to buy too many.

"My name's Vala," the young magician said with a casual tone, eyeing Minori's black hair curiously. "What scrolls do you need?"

"Is there a catalog? I'd like to browse first," Minori bowed slightly, smiling apologetically.

Bang!

Without a word, Vala yanked a thin book from under the counter and tossed it casually onto the desk before slumping back in his seat.

Minori didn't mind the poor attitude.He picked up the catalog and started flipping through it... only to remember—he couldn't read this world's language.

Fortunately, each listing had a small illustration beside it.

The first few pages introduced Zero-Tier Magic Scrolls.

Seeing the drawings, Minori gradually relaxed.Even without reading, he could guess the scrolls' functions.

There were more zero-tier spells than he expected:Simple household spells like Ignition, Perpetual Light, Cleaning, and so on—mostly useless in combat.

He remembered overhearing the Rock Team mention it before:Nobles and merchants sometimes carried zero-tier scrolls to make travel more comfortable.

Minori soon found the scroll for Papermaking among them.

However, he didn't rush to purchase it. Instead, he continued flipping to the next section: First-Tier Magic Scrolls.

Here, the number of entries dropped sharply—but the spells became much more practical.

[Repair (1st Tier)]: Restores damaged objects.

[Odorless (1st Tier)]: Eliminates personal odors.

[Floating Board (1st Tier)]: Summons a translucent floating board for transporting goods.

...

[Magic Arrow (1st Tier)]: Fires three magical projectiles at the target.

There were very few offensive scrolls—only three total—the rest were support-type magic.

"Hm?"

When Minori turned to the last page, he realized that was it.

No second-tier magic scrolls.

He paused.

If he remembered correctly, the scroll technology of this world should allow the production of at least up to third-tier scrolls.

In the Slane Theocracy, there was even fourth-tier scroll production technology, though it was rare.

Third-tier magic scrolls would certainly be valuable—but second-tier shouldn't be this restricted.

So.

It wasn't that they didn't exist—It was just that ordinary buyers weren't qualified to purchase them.