The Market (2)

Silas figures this to be the case. From what he understood about Keystone, mages at any given stage should have the same level of information. This can be represented by the demarcation of the library into various floors.

He assumed that information only comes into play after the adept stage, when members are allowed to go outside and gain practical experience. Or perhaps at the architect stage when they create their own magic.

But he was curious to know what James meant by favors exactly. So, he asked. "What do you mean by favors and promises? "

James responded with a laugh, "Well, that is related to the mage list. To promote competition, Keystone releases a mage list, one for every stage. The list is updated bimonthly, so your name is probably not going to be in it yet. "

James led Silas to a nearby shop as soon as he finished explaining. The shop looked like a hardware store with weird devices thrown about everywhere.

James greeted the shopkeeper with the same enthusiasm he had for Silas. Finally, after chatting for three minutes, he finally remembered Silas and hurriedly introduced him to the shopkeeper.

"This is Silas, a new initiate. Why don't you give him the magic phone as a greeting present? " said James in a calculating tone.

It was clear that his words had a different meaning. Silas guessed that James was letting the shopkeeper know that he was important in some way. Soon enough, he was proven right.

As soon as the shopkeeper heard James, he looked at Silas with covetous eyes, but before he could say anything, James declared, "I am giving him a tour of the place right now. "

This declaration visibly dampened the shopkeeper's mood. But he soon perked up and said, "Is that so? Well, then let me be one of the first to congratulate you on your entry. Here is a magic phone. I'll give it to you if you promise to do me a favor in the future, as a friend. "

After saying so, just like James, the shopkeeper moved his hand forward, clearly wanting to shake hands.

Silas really didn't like this situation; he was being played by these two people. In all honesty, it was his fallacy that he could tell when these mages in front of him were lying.

But better late than never. Since it was clear to Silas that the two had bad intentions, he refused to shake hands with the shopkeeper and turned to leave.

Seeing his departing figure, James immediately ran to stop him, "Hey! Stop. "

But Silas had no intention of stopping. He was currently the weakest he had ever been in his life, plus he had close to no information about his environment. He needed to get some information first and then try this place again.

Silas was ready to resist, in case James physically tried to stop him, but fortunately, he didn't. He only told him that he was overreacting and that this was nothing significant.

He probably was. But it was imperative that he remain vigilant, given his current weakness.

Silas headed straight to the library from the market. He would never have intentionally gone to the market before researching it in the first place. It was purely a coincidence that Silas found himself in the market first, so he decided to look around.

Coincidentally, he found Arthur Hayes near the entrance of the library.

"Hey, Silas. How are you doing? " exclaimed Arthur with his signature upbeat attitude.

Silas trusted Arthur's character. He had spent hours with Arthur and was confident that he knew what kind of person Arthur was. This was his confidence as the ruler of Earth, who had suffered through a lifetime of schemes and still managed to come on top.

"Hey, Arthur," Silas replied, his voice carrying its usual chill. Arthur wasn't the kind of guy who'd care how cold he was, so he didn't fake a smile.

"I just saw your friend back at the market. " Silas continued his words, carrying obvious malice.

Arthur immediately understood the series of events leading to their current meeting from Silas's tone and words.

Silas was curious to find out how Arthur would reply. Would he laugh it off? Would he deny it? Would he try to change the topic? Or would he not even bother lying and tell Silas the truth directly?

But Arthur's reply was beyond Silas's expectations. He didn't mind Silas's obvious anger and replied with a chuckle.

He said, "As you will find out quickly, you are a hot commodity here because you are talented. I simply traded in some common information about you for some resources. This is a common practice in this place. I hope you don't take it seriously. Even without me, everyone will come to know you by tomorrow. "

Silas calmed his emotions externally and tried to show a more amicable stance with a hint of reservation, but internally, he was smiling. He liked this guy. Arthur hated boring people. At Arthur's level, things become a little too predictable.

Just from a few minutes of conversation or a report about a series of events, Silas can decode most of the information associated with the event or the person. In simple terms, he had good observation skills.

Of course, this was a very important skill and formed the core of Silas's personality, but it also made life a little boring. He wasn't some sort of thrill seeker or anarchist; he had outgrown that phase in his 20 s.

But Silas still liked to surround himself with interesting people. People who can surprise him. Because interesting things generally happened around people like that.

And Silas was beginning to think Arthur was one of these people; He was much more than a cheery, loudmouth nice guy.