With only ten days remaining until the start of the Magus Tournament, other than finding a replacement for his destroyed Lightsaber, Emery had been thinking about ways he could do to increase his chances of winning.
One of them was to return to the Light Institute and further deepen his comprehension of the light element since he clearly still had much lacking. However, this idea was soon scrapped from his mind as this time he needed something that could have a huge impact on his strength.
Emery’s decision lies in one new proficiency that had been knocking in his training the last few weeks.
Gravity.
Because of that, before returning to the Terra Castle, Emery decided to go to the Sister of Fate’s shrine in hopes that there would be some gravity-related spells he could buy.
Emery believed that learning the spells and increasing his understanding of the Law of Gravity would improve the effectiveness of his space-based spells, which he has been depending on the most.
As soon as he entered the place, Emery headed straight for the reception like on his previous visits. “I’m looking for gravity spells.” He said to the white-robed staff.
“Certainly, Sir”
Enthusiastically accepting the list, Emery quickly read it with his utmost concentration. He had come fully prepared, both mind and pocket, and was ready to purchase the best gravity spells offered to him.
[Rank B]
[Attraction – Tier 4]
[Price: 55,000]
[Repulsion – Tier 4]
[Price: 55,000]
[Anti Gravity – Tier 4]
[Price: 65,000]
####
[Rank A]
[Gravitational Pressure – Tier 5]
[Price: 250,000]
Emery fell into contemplation after he saw the spells that were available for him to buy.
The first three, Rank B spells on the list, were the upgraded version of the three main basic gravity manipulation spells. All of them manipulated gravity in the form of pulling, pushing, and negating it from affecting his body.
The fourth spell on the other hand was to manipulate the raw immense strength of gravity into affecting a specific area of target or a person. It was the same spell he had experienced directly from fighting Hades and Lodos.
Emery didn’t even hesitate when he bought all four of them. He paid for them with all the spirit stones he had, effectively emptying his pocket, and covered the deficit with contribution points.
The four spells cost him a grand total of 110,000 spirit stones and 280,000 contribution points.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that this purchase of Emery instantly put a huge dent in his fortune.
Emery then realized that the list still continued on. Realizing that the next section would be the Divine-rank spells, he couldn’t hold himself back from taking a peek at the available spells.
[Divine Rank B]
[Black Hole]
[Price: 1,300,000]
####
[Divine rank C]
[Collapsing Star]
[Price: 950,000]
Emery’s eyes widened when he saw the two spells, especially when he glimpsed upon their price. However, he still found himself unable to take his eyes off the two. He was completely fascinated.
Both spells were powerful high-level offensive spells, but different from each other. The contrasting nature and concept in which the two spells operate was something that stirred his curiosity and aroused his heart of learning.
Unfortunately, right now he could only gaze upon them with a forlorn heart. Not only because he believed he wouldn’t have the time to learn the two complex spells, but also because he lacked spirit stones and contribution points to purchase them.
[Contribution points : 1,147,274]
[Spirit stone: 2,120]
Thinking of how quickly his spirit stones disappeared, Emery couldn’t help but let out a sigh. Some time ago he thought he was rich – that he could buy anything, but reality didn’t idle and swiftly proved otherwise.
Noticing his mood, the girl sitting next to him leaned closer and whispered, “You know, if you really need it, I can lend you some of my spirit stones.”
At those words, Emery turned his head and saw Klea smiling gently at him. He politely declined the offer because he had already decided, but the girl insisted one more time.
“Are you sure? You still need money for the auction, right?”
“Yes, but don’t worry. I will find a way.”
With that, the matter was closed.
After his business in the Sister of Fate was completed, Emery asked Klea to return to the Terra Palace first because he still needed to drop by another place in the Golden City.
The girl of course tried to tag along, but the place Emery headed would be restricted to her, he also reminded her with the matter of the Full Moon magus’ storage ring.
After confirming that Klea was headed for Terra Palace, Emery finally made his way towards his destination – the Apothecary Institute. Arriving at the three towering buildings that stood out in the middle of the bustling city, he quickly went inside.
The first reason why he came here was that he wanted to use the lab to identify all the potions and ingredients they had obtained from the elven magus’ storage rings.
Emery met Cedric and Karin, and after some catching up, both were kind enough to offer assistance with the tedious identification process, which he gladly accepted as it would certainly save him quite a bit of time.
There were about three hundred assortments of pills and potions with another 200 precious herbs that needed to be identified. There were also things like the orc blood samples among them which Emery decided to keep for now.
While he was at the institute, Emery also decided to check out the shop he had opened and left aside all this time.
[Merlin Apothecary]
[Item on sale – 0]
[Spirit stones – 173,500]
Emery was rarely concerned about this shop of his because, although he could always check the status of the shop at any time, it was only at the institute that he could withdraw the spirit stones from selling his items in the shop.
“Everything is sold out! Nice!”
Accessing the shop’s status, Emery could view the history of transactions and the number of items sold each time. The list was quite long, and after skimming through it, he discovered that most pills and potions were sold in batches of ten, and five.
The history was neat as all transactions were managed by the Apothecary Institute; which also why the shop’s existence never inconvenienced Emery. The latter ensured that the shop owner was free of trouble, while also making sure that demand and supply were met efficiently.
Unfortunately, with his shop still new and not yet well-known, it took two months for all the 160 items he had on display to sell out.
The 30 [Spirit Pool Potion] he put sold for an average of 1,300 spirit stones, while the [Health Regeneration Pill] were bought at 1,200 spirit stones each. The two were sold out with several transactions.
His [Reviving Pill], on the other hand, was sold out in just two transactions. The first transaction was 5 pills at 700 spirit stones, while the last transaction immediately bought the remaining 95 pills at the price of 1000 spirit stones.
The [Spirit Pool Potion] and [Health Regeneration Pill] cost him 500 spirit stones each to make, which netted him a profit of 700 to 800 spirit stones each. The [Reviving Pill] however cost him only 10 spirit stones worth of ingredients, meaning the profit he earned was more than ten thousand percent!
However, the moment he confirmed withdrawing all the spirit stones, he received a rather irritating notification.
[Withdrawing spirit stones – 173,500]
[Institute Tax – 30%]
[121,450 spirit stones received]
Emery’s mouth agape, he was shocked by such a huge tax. Apparently getting spirit stones from the apothecary would not be as easy as he thought.
