[The strength to lift a cauldron]

“Your business has been taken care of.”

At the Central City Swordsman Academy, in a quiet, secluded corner, two shifty characters met up.

A person completely wrapped in a cloak held out a hand to another person wearing a swordsman student uniform, and said in a low, hushed voice:

“Two periods of combat training, C-grade or higher. The teacher had a whim and added an extra endurance long-distance run. That wasn’t included in the deposit, so it’s an extra eighty silver coins. Thank you for your business.”

“Here’s your money.”

The boy in the swordsman uniform decisively pulled out a money pouch and paid without a moment’s hesitation. A satisfied expression was on his face:

“Excellent. The other people I’ve hired to sub for me couldn’t even get higher than an E-grade, and when that devil teacher Collins added the extra training, they couldn’t even finish the entire course, which almost got me caught—but you do a good job. I heard you can even substitute for the swordsmanship training of the intermediate swordsman class?”

The person in the cloak only revealed a clean, pale chin from under the large hood. After weighing the money pouch, they immediately stuffed it into their robes and said with practiced ease:

“Honest and trustworthy, fair prices. You can choose any grade for the swordsman low-level classes, I don’t take anything above A-grade for the intermediate classes, and I only do strength training for the advanced classes. Thank you for your patronage, please come again, my friend.”

…

After collecting the money, the cloaked person did not linger. He hurried out of the academy, and no one on the busy street noticed a person who was deliberately trying to suppress his presence. He pulled the hood of his cloak even lower and then ducked into a small alley that would have been overlooked if you weren’t paying attention. After several twists and turns, he finally arrived at his destination.

The Central City Second-hand Goods Trading Street.

“…”

Lynn stopped at the entrance of the second-hand goods street for two seconds, subtly scanning the surroundings through the gap under the wide brim of his hood. Only then did he tighten his cloak and step inside.

As the flea market of another world, a place where the poor and bargain hunters congregated, it also served as a part of the black market. Though called a street, it was really just a slightly wider alley. The sanitation was poor, the bluestone walls on both sides were smeared with thick dust and grime, and all he could hear were vulgar negotiations and curses. Numerous vendors sat directly on the ground, with a dirty blanket spread out in front of them, piling all their goods on it.

Anything and everything was sold here, including many items from the gray area. From black bread mixed with pebbles to magical alchemy tools with unknown origins and enchanted runes, from mercenary broadswords with brown stains to magic beast cores that radiated magical fluctuations, even expensive magical potions could be found on these dirty blanket stalls.

What Lynn wanted to buy was no exception.

—-

Lynn had been in this world for a little over a month.

After logging off “Earth Online ^[1]“Earth Online” is a sandbox-style online game developed by a team from mainland China and released on the Steam platform. According to the game’s description on its Steam page, it is a … Continue reading,” he closed and opened his eyes to find he had become a new apprentice mage at a magic academy. With not a single copper coin in his pocket, he was faced with the expensive plight of learning magic—he couldn’t even afford a basic magic staff.

Magic staffs were terrifyingly expensive, and in a disgrace to all transmigrators, he didn’t have any skills that could earn him money. The wages from his part-time jobs weren’t even enough to cover a fraction of the cost. After losing countless hairs over his empty wallet, Lynn finally discovered a more profitable side job: substituting for classes at the neighboring swordsman academy.

Although the worlds were different, the student’s dislike for class was the same everywhere. The substitute business here was incredibly popular, even to the point of being in short supply.

This was because the barrier to substituting for a swordsman academy class was extremely high. Even for a beginner swordsman, the training was rigorous and unbearable for anyone who wasn’t a swordsman of the same rank. And swordsmen of the same rank, of course, had their own training to complete. Most students could only find mercenaries who wanted to earn some extra money… but even hiring a mercenary to substitute was a huge risk.

It wasn’t that a mercenary would be so stupid as to attack a student in the academy, but that most mercenaries were adult swordsmen who had already left the academy. Just by looking at their faces, they didn’t look like students, and their eyes lacked that naive innocence. Even if the teachers in the academy didn’t really remember or pay attention to what their students looked like, a stubble-faced, wrinkled, middle-aged mercenary standing in a group of students would stand out like a sore thumb. If a teacher couldn’t tell the difference, they must have poor eyesight.

But magical potions that could change one’s appearance were extremely expensive. Buying a potion just to substitute would be a financial loss, so when a substitute with a youthful face who could also perfectly complete the training came along, they couldn’t be more popular.

As a result, Lynn’s substitute job requests came in like snowflakes, and after a month of tirelessly and conscientiously subbing for classes, he had finally saved up enough money to buy a basic magic staff.

—-

With his head down, Lynn walked past one stall after another, his pace never slowing. His purpose was clear: he was heading straight for a nondescript stall in the deepest part of the street.

It also had a dirty felt blanket and a messy pile of goods, but the items on this stall were different from the others. At first glance, they were all rough, messy branches and tree trunks, like unpolished firewood, but one end of each of these “firewood sticks” was topped with a crystal of a different color, emitting waves of magical fluctuations.

It was a stall selling magic staffs.

Lynn stopped in front of the stall.

“A basic magic staff. A water-element magic core.”

He said, and as soon as he finished, as if he had just remembered something, he added:

“A heavier one.”

Sitting behind the stall, the vendor, also completely cloaked and faceless, showed no intention of moving. He simply spoke in a hoarse, unpleasant voice:

“Twenty gold coins.”

One gold coin was equivalent to one hundred silver coins, and ten silver coins were enough for a person to live frugally for a month. Even though the pay for substituting at the swordsman academy was high, twenty gold coins was almost all of Lynn’s savings from a month of subbing. Spending it all at once made his heart ache, but even so, Lynn paid the money without hesitation.

Because the magic staffs at this stall weren’t actually expensive.

As everyone knew, learning magic was a costly endeavor. Even a low-level magic staff would cost thirty to forty gold coins or more in a regular shop. Only in a place like this would rough products of unknown origin or made by novice alchemists practicing their craft be sold so cheaply.

Lynn threw over a small pouch without hesitation. The vendor behind the stall caught it, weighed it in his palm, and then tucked it into his robes. Only then did he lift his dry eyelids and size up the person in front of him.

He was wearing a black cloak that made him look suspicious, but that wasn’t strange in a place like this. Mercenaries and fugitives also liked second-hand trading, and concealing one’s identity was a common practice for most people here. However, this person seemed completely covered and gave nothing away. Even his voice was suppressed to the point that his original tone couldn’t be discerned. But his slightly thin build and the smooth chin that could be seen under his hood clearly revealed that he was not old—oh, perhaps he should be called a kid.

Judging by his physique, he was also a kid who practiced magic.

The black-cloaked vendor stretched out his gaunt fingers and pointed at a gray staff with a light blue crystal embedded in it, which was near the edge of the felt blanket. Then he retracted his hand back into the cloak and said hoarsely:

“A grade-two water lizard magic core, and an ironwood staff body.”

Basic magic staffs were embedded with grade-one or grade-two magic cores, suitable for low-level mages. The latter was considered a higher-end basic staff, and its price should have been much higher than an ordinary basic staff. However, the ironwood staff body had directly knocked the price of this well-made staff down a grade. The reason was simple: it was too heavy.

Mages preferred light wood for their staff bodies because their delicate and frail bodies simply couldn’t lift a staff that was too heavy. The weight of ironwood was almost equal to that of a metal of the same volume. Forget mages; it wouldn’t be easy even for a swordsman to swing an ironwood staff of that height as if it were a regular stick. So, even though this staff used a grade-two magic core and its price had been reduced again and again, it still had no takers.

It wasn’t until today that a naive fool came along, and this unsellable staff that had been kept in storage was finally sold.

To buy a magic staff and ask for a heavy one at that was the most absurd request the black-cloaked vendor had heard in all his years. But being able to sell this staff, which he thought was impossible to sell, he didn’t care how strange the buyer’s request was. He had already collected the money, and even if the kid bought it and couldn’t use it, he could only blame himself. After all, the rule of trading here was no regrets.

The black-cloaked vendor was thinking this when he suddenly froze, as if he had just witnessed something completely outrageous. He was completely still, and the eyes hidden beneath his hood instantly widened.

The young man in front of him, who looked frail and was clearly an apprentice mage, simply bent down, reached out, and effortlessly picked up the ironwood staff, which weighed as much as a mercenary’s greatsword. His thin, slender fingers easily gripped the rough staff body, showing no signs of strain whatsoever.

The black-cloaked vendor: “?”

It was already unbelievable that someone who looked like a mage could lift an ironwood staff with one hand, but something even more shocking happened right after. The young man even weighed the staff in his hand, and the heavy staff body made a *whooshing* sound as it cut through the dense air. Yet, his slender wrist didn’t even tense up, as if he were just holding a light branch.

“Oh? This weight is good.”

After weighing it in his hand, Lynn was pleasantly surprised. This was much more wieldy than he had expected. It didn’t feel light and fluffy like other magic staffs; it had a real weight that could be swung around. Although it still felt a little light, it was much better than those staffs that he had to carefully hold with two fingers.

It was worthy of a staff that he had saved a month’s worth of money for! ‘The money was well spent!’

With a magic staff he could actually use, Lynn’s mood immediately brightened. He held the first magic staff he had ever owned since his transmigration and left without hesitation, ready to go back to school to see what it felt like to cast spells with a real staff. Before this, he had been using a rough branch he had found as a substitute. The flow of his magic circuits was extremely blocked and difficult to get through, and the water arrows he struggled to create could only be used to water flowers. The spells he managed to cast could only be described as “tiny but cute.”

He left behind the frozen stall vendor, who sat silently and watched the slender figure walk away.

‘Is this guy really a delicate and frail mage?’