Glenn arrived at Singh's room on the third floor of the Black Tower. Singh was the sorcerer who had sold Glenn his Ashen mask and the Bat Kiss which could summon up the wind element bat. He was also the one who taught Glenn rudimentary alchemy.
"Ha, Glenn. What brought you here?!" Singh stopped what he was doing and stared at Glenn in shock. He could remember Glenn as he once became more widely known because of Glenn.
Glenn grimaced for a moment as horrible memories rushed back to him, of when he was being investigated by the many sorcerers right after the first-year student trial.
But the man before him was a sorcerer, he didn't dare offend him in any sort of way.
He instead said respectfully. "Sorcerer Singh, I'm here to see if you can help me repair this mask. It got broken in a fight. Besides, I also wanted to know if there were stuff that can be used for the Holy Tower tryout occurring in three years. Ordinary magical tools would be of no use for students like me."
The Ashen mask was one of the top class magical tools and it could boost the effects of some sorceries even in the tryout. Glenn desired to own one or two more pieces of such magical tools. Most of Glenn's time was going to be devoted to his research on the Destructive Force of Fire Blast Sorcery and the fastest method of strength enhancement that Glenn could think of would be resorting to magical tools.
Singh took over the broken mask from Glenn's hand. He discovered a cut that almost destroyed the mask and he then scowled. "Key parts of it are damaged. I'll have to check the stockpile to see if there is the appropriate material to get it repaired. You come back for it in 15 days. On the second matter, I don't have any first rate magical tools you mentioned. But I know an old guy who has brilliant tools on sale."
Catching Singh sneering, Glenn knit his brow. "Who is it?"
"The gal has foresight. She'd stock the tryout tools and sell them when the tryout is around the corner. Thus, buying the stuff you need immediately might cost you lots of extra magical stones. But I believe the whopping high price wouldn't be a problem for you."
After having said that, sorcerer Singh gave Glenn an address and the name of the seller.
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On the fourth floor of the Black Tower lied a sumptuously-decorated room.
Glenn was almost taken back at the sight of the dazzling objects in the room.
"The Flame Fusion Bead? Sold in pairs at 30,000 magical stones? The pact to summon up life from foreign lands? The body-odor-concealing medicine? The flare stone? The enclose scroll? The top notch life leaf? The enchanting and lethal poison? The one-off space pocket? The interjection material? The high-grade and even highest-grade magical tools..."
The list was long and yet what surprised Glenn most was a glaring blue key lying in a corner of the room----the Stigmata Friendship key.
"Hey, little boy. Are you interested in the Stigmata Friendship key? It's a top-notch tool that can be used in the tryout. It's even more useful than the Flame Fusion Bead! Although it's one-off, it can summon up extremely powerful magical tools that real sorcerers use. It costs only one super magical stones!" The old witch encouraged Glenn, showing her blackened teeth.
Every student who ever set foot in this room were invariably rich in magical stones and it was for that exact reason they were introduced to this shop.
Also, Glenn made another discovery----this old witch was that level-two sorcerer who had taken away Kyrie and Bionna the minute Glenn and the other students landed on the sorcerer continent.
Glenn coveted the blazing objects in the room while his hate for the old witch grew. "Only one super magical stone?" Glenn repeated what she just said in his mind. "That's 100 high-grade magical stones or one million low-grade stones!!! That's an astronomical number for ordinary students who usually possess only one high-grade magical stone. What is worse, the articles are highly overpriced compared to the market. She is such an avaricious witch."
While abusing her in his mind, Glenn couldn't resist his hankering for the invaluable merchandize. He became determined as he grit his teeth and pointed to the one-off Space Pocket. "I'll have three of that."
The old witch giggled and fished out three one-off Space Pocket in the blink of an eye.
Despite the fact that it could only be used for one time, it was still a top-level ware.
"I also wanna get that constitution-building medicine, and that slice of first rate life leaf." Glenn inclined his body and pointed at a vial of medicine and a purple-and-green leaf.
Another giggle was heard.
Glenn's face was somewhat distorted after the spending binge. The old witch made a satisfied grunt the second she caught Glenn's heartache and pain at the lavish spending. It seemed that her happiness originated from the torn expressions shown on the students' faces when they bought these "luxuries".
Glenn's eyes moved to the psychedelic and lethal poisons but didn't dwell because poisons at such toxicity would not affect anymore. Instead, he fixed his eyes on a small iron box. "Wow, is this Vanishing Slit selling at 50,000 low-grade magical stones? Can you lower the price a little bit?"
"Sorry, no bargaining in this shop."
The high-pitched squeak increased as Glenn became more torn at the prices. It was as if she had gained pleasure from something extremely agreeable. She almost drowned herself in the sensation, so great was her joy, and couldn't help herself with it. Her body was even quivering a little bit.
"Get me that Vanishing Slit." Glenn put his foot down. He decided to give up on some unnecessary wares after calculating his remaining magical stones, and finally paid his attention to the biggest goal of this visit----the magical tools.
Several dozens of high-grade magical tools of varied sorts with their respective functions were displayed on the closet for luxuries. There were seven or eight finest grade tools of its kind among them, but the prices...
Glenn's eyelids jittered.
He then narrowed down his choices to two magical tools and was making his final choice between them. One was a large sword and the other was a magical wand.
The Glowing Wand: increase fire element attacks by 5% for attacks under 300 degrees ; increase basic attack degrees by 30 points; be able to enclose the Kiss of Flame Tongue at 125 degrees.
The Nine-Headed Snake sword: can be activated when attacking using most of the basic elements, basic durability is 500 degrees (It will be destroyed when exceeding 500 degrees)
Glenn stared at the Glowing Wand for a long time and sighed. "It only works when the attack is less than 300 degrees? If I succeed in pulling off the blast sorcery, then..." His eyes moved to the Nine-Headed Snake sword and finally said: "I'll have that!"
The sword was 1.4 meters in length and 20 cm in width. The size fitted to the figure of ordinary humans.
Thinking about his remaining magical stones, Glenn made up his mind and aimed his finger at a metal armor too. "I'll have that Moisture armor, too."
Moisture armor: Deflect attacks of the water, radium or life elements under 100 degrees ; Increase speed of magical strength restoration; Absorbs water element and maintains skin luster and moisture. The skin improvement attribute was quite a feminine aspect which Glenn ignored.
An hour later, Glenn came back with a pouch of magical stones and bought the stuff he ordered. His inventory of stones ran low.
After that, Glenn locked himself in the dormitory for a long time. He focused all of his time on the research of blast sorcery and found time to observe the radium veins in the two twigs.
Glenn took back his Ashen mask 15 days later and proceeded with hard work. Like a laborer catching the production deadline, he worked like crazy on the many element reaction formulas and ran tests to verify them using the basic magical matrix on his soul.
Basic magical matrix varied individually like one's unique fingerprints. Hence, theories guiding a certain kind of sorcery might turn out to be the same but the process of exploring them was vastly different.
Another 15 days passed.
Glenn stood before a mirror. He took off his gray-colored cloak and revealed his muscles, brawny as metals. Every angular muscle contained unimaginable power. This was what it would be to have a 108 degree of body constitution!
He would not become narcissistic though. He then put on the Moisture armor carefully. The metal silver luster shone. The mysterious aura was gone and instead he gave off an image of rough, raw wildness as if he was a vigorous leopard. The Nine-Headed Snake sword suddenly appeared on his back with a rushing sound. The seal cuttings on the sheath made Glenn look more strong and overbearing.
Glenn put on the repaired Ashen mask, and his eyes behind the mask appeared calm and rational. His long, blond hair rustled, which helped recover his mysterious aura.
"It's time. The Black Tower mirror is going to open up." Glenn strode out of the room.
