Chapter 11

"Well, that was new… Thanks for the donation. Much appreciated." Darius took the mage's backpack and went over the mage's pockets. After taking the belt and rope from the corpse and scattering of coins from the pockets again. He found one shiny stone in one pocket and also put that into his travel sack. In the next corner, Darius surfaced onto the streets with two sacks on his back. After orientating to where he was, Darius started light jogging with minimal sound towards the tavern. He was nervous and did not want to meet anyone else. To his surprise, he met no one but then again, midnight had passed already. Before entering the tavern, he took the robe off him only to notice several bloody spots on his arms and legs. He sighed and put the robe back on. It had blood on it too, but it was not as noticeable as other colours. Then he walked into the tavern, rushed to the stairs, and into his room. After a while, Darius heard light footsteps nearing his door. He took his bloody dagger in his other hand and waited until he heard a soft knock on the door.

"What is it?" Darius asked in a tight voice in an attempt to use his normal voice.

"Umm sorry, but do you want any food? You missed the meal." said the maid behind the door.

"Thanks, I am exhausted now. Can you get me a bucket of water instead?"

While he heard the maid departing, Darius sighed and put the dagger away with shaky hands. He removed the robe and shirt and cleaned the blood and sweat. The maid opened the door and hurriedly left after noticing Darius half naked.

*Just as planned* Darius smiled with the comfort of secured solitude. He cleaned himself with increasing speed and treated his wounds. There were only minor scratches here and there, mostly from running into wood beams and crawling for hours rather than from fighting. After patching himself for a while, Darius greedily eyed two backpacks on top of the bed. He would have to get a chest with a decent lock for his room. Darius started going through the mage's travel sack because he was curious. He had taken other items and decided himself, but mage items were different. These were very hard to come by and would cost a fortune. With similar greedy eyes as the slaver had when looking at his alchemy equipment, Darius took items from the bag individually.

There were several books. The books were definitely worth a lot, and now that he could keep them, he could memorize them and maybe exchange or sell them. The covers of each of the books were unique. Poison green, black, fiery red, and brown but not the kind of normal brown. Even this book cover was heavily dyed. Darius noticed this book was very similar to what he had seen before. It seemed that brown covers might be for alchemy for unknown reasons. The acolyte reader of alchemy was its name. From the other basic book Darius had read, he knew that there were acolytes and mages. Still, there needed to be more telling information on how these differed. But judging from how this mage had acted in the sewer he was probably an acolyte beginner of magic.

*It would be nice to know when one becomes even acolyte. * Thought Darius.

He knew that his body had changed, but he could not measure by what degree. He didn't even know if he was going in the right direction. The body felt, and mind felt better and sharper than ever but what he didn't know was how to go forward on the road of mages. Other books were on meditation, summoning and fire magic. Meditation would be the most needed now since Darius had already used all the knowledge from the first book. But while leafing through the green book from the first chapter, he could tell that it was nothing he could use. It seems there were limitations on what meditation method to use based on the particles. This book only said that with wrong particles, the meditation would not just fail, but the practitioner could die easily. Darius felt foolish but, at the same time, tired. How many of these kinds of books would he have to chance upon to find out that he could not use them? Similar frustration rose from the fire magic book. Technically anyone who was an acolyte could make some simple fire spells. Still, only those with abundant red particles within their body could do advanced fire magic successfully. Other than a very simple campfire or candle lighting, most of the fire magic would be useless or just too inefficient for anyone else. Darius didn't like these limitations, but this information also heightened his curiosity towards what particles he might have. After examining the two books he couldn't use, he still gained a lot for a beginner in magic without a mentor. Darius could see that spells required symbols, particles, numbers, and calculations. He would have to learn all manner of symbols and calculate different things to be able to cast magic. It all came to creating a spell model in a sea of consciousness, whatever that might mean, and the list of requirements differed by every spell. Darius would need many more books and general knowledge to advance in magic. He sighed.

Sun was rising already when Darius started reading the third black book on summoning spells. He faced similar problems there than with the fire magic, but summoning seemed more versatile to some degree. Summoning was easier for those with negative particles because they could use more readily corpses and dead spirits more as a corpus for their familiar spells. Therefore, there was already some substance to build the familiar. In all the other cases, the familiar could be built with each elemental magic or even a rarer kind. Still, any other type of magic would need considerable effort and particles to build familiarity. One of the by-passing methods was to create an object that would be turned familiar later, like in cases of iron golems. Everything depended on the willpower, particle consistency, amount, and power of particles. Therefore, enchanting and rune magic also had advantages in summoning. With this book, Darius didn't get much else than a similar arrangement of increasingly complex spells with numbers and symbols on the pages.

Darius sighed again and dropped the black book on top of the others. His most significant benefit would be if he knew how to measure particles within his body.

*Maybe the fourth time is the charm* he wished.

While the sun rose in the sky to midday, Darius read a lot of details from Acolyte reader on alchemy. He did not find what he otherwise wanted, but the whole book was, on the other hand, excellent. There were more described alchemical processes, all manner of tools, how to measure substances and a bigger collection of herbs and alchemy metals than in the previous book. Also, each colouring was explained at the beginning as an alchemy particle system. If he could learn how to control certain particles, he could infuse them into the potions and improve them. This also increased potion prices. However, the book didn't tell Darius how much and how infusion was made. The recipe section of the book started with easier healing potions without infusion. Darius was exhilarated. Maybe he could start with alchemy earlier if he had all the tools, herbs, and other ingredients for the potioneering.

Darius had made notes and plans for hours until he felt hungry. Outside the daylight was already waning.

"Oh yea, there was money too," Darius laughed, amused by himself forgetting all other things than magic books. He put the burned coin as a book marker and started counting coins and putting them in different purses. Coppers Tranguils were the size of a child's thumb finger, picturing wheat and sun and an emperor's face like silver Tranguils that were the size of an adult thumb. Silver coins were much sturdier, weighing at least eight or ten times more than the coppers. However, the price of gold was huge, as 100 coppers equalled only one silver, same with silver and gold. One gold coin would be worth ten thousand coppers if anyone would want to make that trade. Although copper coins were very thin, you could bend them with your teeth if you wanted to. Darius thought about how much it would still weigh to have a large sack of ten thousand coppers for one gold coin. The idea just felt funny to him. Darius had heard that gold Tranguils were smaller than silver Tranguils, but still, he had never seen any gold coins.

Darius counted that he had half of his old coins still in the sewer, at least several tens of silver worth of coins. He currently had 251 coppers and 14 silvers left but many extra items to sell for a proper buyer. He could make ends meet before the month ended. Darius still had nearly three weeks. Calculating coins soothed his mind. Maybe he could get somehow to the sewers later to find other items. Darius left half of the coppers in his purse underneath the table and went downstairs to eat, but this time he ate at the counter. He got lucky because the tavern owner was serving the food this time.

"Greetings Edwin, can I have the meal now?"

"It's a bit cold, but cold soup is still soup, eh." Smiled Edwin

With practised movements, Edwin acquired a spoon and glass of cider for Darius with the small bowl of lukewarm mushroom potato soup with herbs and garlic. Although it didn't seem much, it was better than most places offered for this price.

"Aahh, that is good. Second please, and can you give me three bread puns? Was it for a copper?"

"Yes, there you go, Darius. Do you need anything else?"

"Indeed, I do, I have been thinking of selling potions, and I need all manner of items and ingredients. Where could I find good traders that don't cheat me blind?"

"Well, boy, you have few good options and whole a lot worse ones. You know, the red house at the merchant district, that place is owned by a guy I wouldn't do business with. He sells overpriced stuff. Then you have Yul's son trading all herbs and potions at the other side of the district."

"Is there anyone who can buy wholesales or something more special?" Asked Darius hesitantly.

"Well, uh, there are stores and eh.." While Edwin was stalled and hesitated, Darius lifted silver between his fingers and put it underneath the napkin. Edwin smiled and continued, this time with a low whisper while cleaning the napkin away from the table.

"I see you have special needs for your wares. One guy in the slums sells and buys almost anything, including people and souls, if he can get them. His name is Mr Trader. You can find him at the back wall of the slums. He doesn't give full price on anything you sell him, and he overprices everything, but no questions are asked. Remember to go there at midnight only and remember not to anger him. If you go into trouble with him, we don't know each other."

"Thanks for the food, Edwin," Darius said louder, leaving Edwin to clean the bar.