6 Give me the book

'An Essence Practitioner? And a 3rd-Rank at that?' Claude's eyes narrowed as he looked at the shabby looking man at the run-down stall.

'Copy' He said silently in his heart.

At this moment, all sorts of knowledge regarding Essence Arts poured into his mind.

"Huh, unlike Magic, Essence Arts is vastly different despite being essentially the same. In Magic, I was directly promoted into 4th-Rank, however, Essence Arts requires me to gather Essence in order to get promoted." Claude analyzed.

Indeed. Despite being essentially the same, Essence Arts requires the practitioner to gather 'Essence' from the world.

That's why Essence Practitioners are called thieves, as they do not borrow the Essence from the world, they steal it and take it as their own.

"Not only that, but I also need a matching Martial Arts Technique. How troublesome!" Although he was cursing, his body slowly moved towards the run-down stall.

Soon, he was faced to faced with the shabby looking man he copied from earlier. He was laying lazily with his arm supporting his head.

Noticing Claude's presence, he simply said, "Everything on the front row is five silver taels each. Everything on the back row is ten silver taels each. No bargaining."

Claude nodded and thought to himself, 'I wonder what the limit of my copy cheat is. If it can gather and evaluate people, it should also has the ability to gather and evaluate these books right?'

Even though he already has Intermediate Essence Arts knowledge, he still felt a little confused when he looked at these books.

'Let me try it.' With that said, Claude urged his ability.

But, a long time has passed and it didn't do anything.

'Huh, no luck. I suppose it only works on people I can copy from.' He sighed and began to inspect the books instead.

He randomly took a book and skimmed through it. He did the same for other books at the front row as well. However, none of them piqued his interest.

Then, he moved on to the back row and skimmed each book as well. When he was done, he returned back to his position and was deep in thought.

'Apart from the Nine Revolving Suns, everything is trash. But the Nine Revolving Suns is merely a fragment and only a few pages are left. Should I... buy it? Argh, I'll just buy it, anyways it's only ten silver taels...'

Just when he was about to buy the book, an arm stretched out followed by a voice, "How much is this?"

Claude frowned and looked at the person who took the Nine Revolving Suns.

The person had fair skin and wore a nobleman outfit. Behind him were a few armed guards with stern expressions. Presumably, he's one of those people in the Royal Family.

The shabby looking man behind the stall repeated what he had said to Claude previously.

Without a second thought, the person in a nobleman outfit threw a few dozen silver taels and said, "I'll take it."

"What do you mean you'll take it? I was here first." Claude said coldly as he looked at the man.

If it were before, he would be too afraid to speak. However, now that he was a 4th-Rank Mage, he can't just let someone take something that he looked at first.

"Ha? Who do you think you are to stop me, Vincent Leonhardt, from getting what I want? Guards, beat him!"

The surrounding people heard the commotion and gathered around.

"Is that Vincent Leonhardt? Did he come here again to cause a ruckus?"

"Indeed. I wonder which poor guy became the victim now. I heard the last person who offended Vincent was maimed and thrown into a river."

"Alas. If that guy just shut his mouth, he wouldn't have suffered the wrath of Vincent Leonhardt."

Most people lamented but what can they do? It's Vincent Leonhardt we're talking about. He's the young master of the Leonhardt Family who has some power in River City due to them having a Pinnacle 2nd-Rank Mage.

Although they're not comparable to the likes of the Terranova Family, the Igneous Family, or the Azuris Family, they're still quite powerful.

The moment the guards took action, Claude was already fuming.

He flicked his wrist and a fire ball materialized in an instant.

With another few flicks, dozens of fire balls materialized around him, creating a sort of divine light.

Without hesitation, he threw all the fire balls towards the guards with killing intent. After all, the people he hated the most were people abusing their power.

The fire balls quickly arrived at the guards and, before they could even react, their body was caught in flames. Screams resounded in the square as everyone watched in horror.

Vincent also noticed that something was odd and turned to look back, only to see that the specially trained guards that his father gave him are engulfed in flames.

One should know that, even against 2nd-Rank Mages, these specially trained guards can still put up a fight. However, in front of this young man, the guards couldn't even resist and can only burn to death.

After he was done with the guards, Claude walked towards Vincent Leonhardt and said coldly, "Give me the book."

Although he was suffocating from the terrifying aura that this young man gave, Vincent still managed to take out the book and gave it.

All of a sudden, the pressure suffocating aura disappeared and he was left there on the ground. Furthermore, he now felt the hot liquid on his pants.

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