The next day Wilfred ate breakfast with his family before heading out. His sister was doing well as his replacement and the shop was doing well. She was a bit less physically capable than Wilfred but she excelled at customer service and helped produce more sales. With some of the money Wilfred had given them, his father had opted to use a new metal, mithril.

When Wilfred had heard it he was skeptical, after all mithril was not a real earth material. But his suspicions proved to be wrong and it was indeed a real thing. Strong but light, mithril required an even higher temperature to work. His father had gambled on purchasing the ore and experimenting with it. In an ideal situation not too much ore was wasted and he could make a special piece that would be worth more than what the ore cost. However, with a price of 120 silver coins, it wasn't something one could do on a whim.

Henry Lamarche, Wilfred's father, was a good smith but not someone adventurers would come to see about mithril pieces of armor. There were only a select few in the city that had the skill and wealth to be able to do so.

Thankfully, it worked out good and Henry was able to create a remarkable shield. Initially it would have been a chest plate but he hadn't gotten it quite right and lost some of the material in the process and had to shift his efforts into salvaging it into a shield. Inspecting his competitors prices, Wilfred's father priced it at 175 silver pieces, a fair deal cheaper than elsewhere. If he could keep selling higher than he was buying the ore for, mithril would soon be one of the materials he'd be an expert in and would be able to add for order to his customers.

Seeing the problems his father faced, Wilfred wondered why there was no such thing as banks to help lend money to artisans. Perhaps the concept hadn't been thought of yet. There would be the matter of insuring the loan also. What if a bank lent money and it became a total loss.

It does prove a bit problematic when the person has no asset to put forward as collateral but it should be doable. As Wilfred headed to the markets, he decided he would try to make a bank some time later when he had more money.

After learning from Primus that it was possible to teach some spells using a form of enchanting, Wilfred knew there must be at least one shop that provided this service. Before he headed out, he used his [Construct Artifact] to create another Mana battery in preparations for his plan.

After roaming around the market area and finding many stores that provided cultivator/adventurer goods, Wilfred was able to learn from one of the storekeepers about one shop in particular.

The suitably named Galerion's Mystic Emporium wasn't in the main market area, it was off to the west side nearer the housing district. It didn't quite look run down but there was plenty of work that could have went into fixing up the exterior.

Inside, shelves lined the room, all holding some sort of trinkets or ingredients on them. Browsing the selection, Wilfred could see many herbs, enchanted items and their descriptions. He even noticed a locked display that had Zoisapite inside. The price listed was astronomical, a grand total of 55 gold piece.

It's days like these that Wilfred wished he had a system like in those light novels he used to read. Something that could tell him the exact properties of items and secret recipes, even help him with leveling up and becoming stronger. It was all wishful thinking however.

After over two years in this world he was now resigned that this was the way things would be. It did make it interesting however. Nothing was given to him and he was really overjoyed when something worked out his way. It was a bit like playing a really hard video game. There was a pride in accomplishing something without cheating or turning on easy difficulty.

Seeing a customer browsing, the owner called out to him.

"Welcome, if there's anything specific you need, feel free to ask. "

"Well now that you mention it, might save me some time from looking. I need some spells, do you have scrolls with some? "

"Ahh, we do indeed have some. I must advise you that they are quite expensive. We have a small selection only but can acquire more should you wish to order. "

"That's fine, please show me. "

The owner bent below the counter and retrieved a small metal box. He opened the lock and lifted the top. Inside were a dozen small scrolls, all rolled up and tied with a ribbon. A small description was attached to every ribbon. The owner began reading them out.

"[Detect Life] scroll 5 Gold, you'll need Mental proficiency to learn it. [Ice Bolt] scroll 15 Gold, you'll need Water proficiency to use it. [Lesser Enhance Constitution] scroll, 5 gold, you'll need Alteration proficiency to use it. [Light Recovery] scroll 10 gold, you'll need Light prof.. "

Wilfred cut him off at that point, seeing what he wanted.

"I'll take the [Lesser Enhance Constitution] scroll. If you ever get one for strength, I'd like that too. "

Wilfred pulled out the 5 gold pieces from his pouch, it was given to him by his father a year ago at his birthday, it was made with leather thick enough that one couldn't cut it without the owner noticing. The silver coins were a bit smaller than the gold ones, it was easier to carry this way too but Wilfred assumed it was due to the worth of the metals. Perhaps 100 silver coins, if they were the size of the gold one, could be melted down to make jewelry worth more than their currency worth. The whole economy would crumble. As such, the silver coins were about the size of what a quarter would be on earth. The copper ones were smaller still, more closely the size of a five cent coin while the gold coins were comparable to the old one dollar coins that were in use in the U.S or equivalent to the Canadian one dollar coins.

The store owner was quite shocked when Wilfred handed him five gold pieces. He was just a little boy after all, who would trust a kid to go buy some expensive magical supplies. His demeanor changed quickly and he became much more friendly as he assumed Wilfred must be a young noble.

"Why thank you young Master. A pleasure doing business. My name is Galerion, I am the owner of this humble store and at your service. "

Wilfred did not like people who simply treated others well based on their social status. However, Galerion was not mean to him, perhaps the nobles would cause him trouble if he was not meek towards them. Wilfred changed his mind, he would not be hard on old Galerion.

"Thank you. Say, would you buy magical things as well? "

"Well, naturally. I would have to pay less than what I can sell it for, surely you understand? "

"Of course. I do have something for sale, it is similar in a way to that Zoisapite you have back there. It is a magical item that allows a mage to recharge their Mana. They must however first add Mana into it and then it can be used at a later time. "

Primus had asked him not to sell weapons, he had never mentioned anything about other items. After all, Wilfred needed the money in order to get stronger. He was curious about alchemy and enchanting and those two professions required a lot of money.

Galerion's interest was piqued and he looked questiongly at Wilfred.

"Do you happen to have it with you? "

Wilfred nodded and fetched the battery from his pockets.

Galerion turned it around, looking at the foreign construction. This material was unknown to him and only served to produce more questions. Plastic was not something that would exist in this world for a long time if ever. Galerion was a mage though and could sense magic coming from it. After Wilfred explained how it worked and that he could try it, Galerion drew magic from the battery, becoming charged with energy.

"Wow! This feeling.. This is just like Zoisapite, amazing! Where did you get this, how? "

"let's just say that I can create them. It's take a long time though, so don't expect me to make hundreds. It's a unique skill that I posses. "

Galerion then analyzed Wilfred to confirm what he had just said.

"Hmmm, it does seem true indeed. I do have my reservations though. I am part of a group of merchants who deal with a mage who can inspect items, after he confirms the inspections I think we could do business. Sound good? "

"When is the earliest this could be? "

"I will send out a messenger, so later this afternoon. Did you want to wait around? "

"I'll come back. I'll go look around the other shops. "

Wilfred retrieved his battery and headed out into the district. He was actually pretty excited about learning the new spell he purchased and set out to do just that.

Finding a quiet spot away from traffic he unrolled the scroll and read it. Just like with Primus, some symbols were etched unto it and at first did not make sense but the longer he looked they started to make a pattern and Wilfred realized that this pattern was the foundation of the spell. The symbols, or from Wilfred perspective runes, started to glow faintly and slowly disappeared into a light which was absorbed by Wilfred. The knowledge seemed like it had always been there now, it was so simple, why didn't he know this sooner.

Of course, that was the effect of the enchanted scroll with the spell imbued into it. While spell scrolls were great for him it wasn't available to everyone. Not only did you need to have affinity towards the spell you wanted to learn and had to pay large sums of money but not all spells could be inscribed upon scrolls too. Similar to the ranking system of the adventurer guild, which had taken this idea from the mages in the first place, only apprentice spells could be inscribed. Cultivators could also learn techniques this way but the prices were even worse.

While Wilfred had learnt he could create brand new spells back at the academy, it was no small feat. Mage scholars spent decades perfecting their craft before it was available to other mages or taught. Obviously there was still a lot of room for research about magic. This interested Wilfred naturally but he was never the best academic at least not in his old life. This was a new beginning however, he could become whatever he wanted. While developing new spells and becoming a great scholar or sage would have some appeal he was more of a hands on approach kind of person.

Away from prying eyes, Wilfred opened his status window and used his newly acquired spell.

"[Lesser Enhance Constitution]! "

At first the changes weren't very noticeable but when he began looked at his status display, the changes were apparent.

Wilfred Lamarche [Lvl 8]

Health: 140/140

Mana: 6073/6088

Str: 10

Con: 11(26)

Agi: 10

Dex: 8

Int: 53

Wil: 46

Wis: 55

Lck:???

Skills & Spells: [Analyze], [Wind Aura], [Construct Artifact], [Barrier], [Wind Blade], [Deconstruction], [Lesser Enhance Constitution]

His health had gone up quite a bit and his defenses likely had as well. It wasn't exactly clear how Constitution helped reduce damage yet but just the extra health helped. As a mage Wilfred was rather frail, he learnt the hard way from his injuries, and aside from his barrier there wasn't much in the way of helping him live. A cultivator of the same level as him could have easily broken his arms or legs and simply kill him. Mages need to keep the fight far away and utilize their varied arsenal to deal with the cultivator.

But this wasn't why Wilfred got this spell, initially he wanted a strength one but this would do as well. He had a theory that he wanted to test out. If he was right, he could cultivate like an adventurer and become more well rounded. While being a mage was very interesting and unique, especially having access to his construct artifact spell, he was more used to being a soldier and being physical.

Calculating the passage of time and looking at his Mana deplete on his display, it came out to roughly 5 Mana per second.

"I should round it up to 6 just to be in the safe side. I still need a few days to prepare for this though. If it's 5 per second.... 300 a minute then....1,800 per hour..

.. 7,200 plus 36,000 is.. let's round it up again to 45,000. Wait, I already regen about 1 per second. Oh, but I didn't take it into consideration earlier when I checked the Mana usage so it's actually closer to 6 but my own regeneration brings it to 5. Phew, almost made an error there. So if I need 45,000 Mana to last a day, I should prepare up to 135,000 for the three days I'll be doing this."

Doing a bit more math in his head, he figured out that he'd need around 100 Mana batteries! Wow, that was much more than he thought he would need. The time needed to make all those batteries would be quite insane. The Mana needed to create one battery, it came fully charged at least, was close to 4500 Mana! If he worked nonstop without sleeping he could make 10 per day but would need 10 days of doing that to reach his goal.

How can I solve this little problem.. Perhaps alchemy has something that could help with Mana regeneration. It would make sense he told himself. It was a good ways past noon now and Wilfred remembered the appointment he had with Galerion. Oops.

He walked back to the shop, which thankfully was around the corner, at a brisk jog. But when Wilfred entered the shop, it was not someone he was expecting to see.

"Lucius! What are you doing around here?"

"Hey Wilfred, glad to see you. I was called for work. I started a side business doing inspections of magic items, it's paying me quite well I must say."

"Ooooh, I see. I really didn't expect it was you though. Is [Inspect] really that rare?"

Lucius nodded.

"I'd say so yes. There's maybe a dozen people in the city with it. Most of them far too important to run around the market and inspect items all day long."

Galerion interrupted their talk.

"Wait, you know each other?"

They replied simultaneously.

"Yeah we go to the academy together."

"I see. But..how do I know you won't be cheating me then? Exaggerate your friend's item to inflate its value."

Lucius sighed.

"If I did that, I would lose all credibility. Every other shop that employs my services would stop doing so and I would lose all my customers. Plus, you could potentially get it checked by another mage to re-confirm."

Galerion's worries were soothed slightly but it was visible that it still bothered him. Wilfred came up with an idea.

"Alright, tell you what. Lucius will analyze it for you and then we'll do a brokered sale."

Galerion was visibly confused at Wilfred's choice of words.

"Okay, so to explain it more simply: I will leave the item in your shop for you to sell at what price you deem fair. I will receive 80 % of the price and you will get 20 %, that way you're incentivized to sell it for the most you can and I'm not taking any money from you upfront."

"Ah, I get it now. That does sound interesting...but I'm the one having to sell it, I want 40 %."

Wilfred scoffed.

"You wish. I want at least 75 %."

Galerion shaked his head negatively.

"I need 30 % or find another shop to sell it."

Wilfred thought about it for some time.

"Alright but on one condition, I want 15 % off anything I buy in your store."

"Intriguing counter offer...I can only do 10 % though."

Wilfred clenched his fists. That fucking snake! The vein on his head was bulging from the anger that Wilfred was feeling.

"Fine. Greedy bastard.."

Galerion smiled from ear to ear.

"Pleasure doing business. Now Lucius, if you would please."

"[Inspect]!"

[Artifact Item]

Lithium Ion Battery, Lv23

Mana Stored: 1475/1475

Effect: Can store and retrieve Mana from this device by channeling magic either from or to the device.

Lucius then described the effects and statistics of the item to Galerion. Wilfred was pleasantly surprised that it was stronger than the last time he made one. Perhaps his attributes were influencing the results? Which meant that the stronger he got, the stronger his artifacts would be.

"This is going to be hard to price.. Zoisapite from my experience with it, will give the user about 1800 Mana depending on the crystal size. This item is a bit less but it's also reusable. The fact that it's also an artifact definitely adds value. I'll try it out at 400 Gold and lower if it doesn't sell. "

Wilfred put on the biggest poker face he could, trying not to reveal how ecstatic he was about the whole arrangement. After Galerion's cut he'd still have 280 gold if it sold at that price!

"Well, glad to be of service but I have to go, I've got other shops to see today. Talk to you later Wilfred! You should come visit me during your time off, we have a small estate in the noble district."

"I'll try to, thanks again Lucius! Now Galerion, let's talk about alchemy supplies.."