Fresh herbs

Night Academy, teacher's dormitory.

Wells with golden short hair lay on the bed, tossing and turning.

During the day, Carlos points and gestures in his classroom, which makes me more and more angry. I am a senior teacher and a fourth-level mage. How can you, a junior teacher who is not even considered a mage, dare to lecture me?

I graduated from the Orlai University in the capital city, majoring in Dark Magic Instruction. Could it be that my understanding of basic magic like the Rampage Spell Formation is inferior to yours?

When Wells closed his eyes to go to sleep, Carlos's words came to mind: "Others can completely destroy the 'Rampage' spell circle by casting a Holy Light Mark..."

Wells suddenly sat up and quickly extended his hand to open the raging magic circle, muttering to himself.

"How could a mere Holy Light imprint destroy a standard proportioned 'Rampage' formation that is so stable?"

While speaking, he opened his right hand to form a 'Holy Light' magic circle and projected a beam of light onto his left hand. The light entered the 'Rage' magic circle, causing the dark elements surrounding it to become chaotic and creating a rift in the outer layer of the 'Rage' circle.

The fire element contained inside burst out. Fortunately, Wells timely deactivated the magic circle, preventing the fire element from spreading. However, his palm was slightly burned by the fire element.

Staring at the palm of his left hand, Wells was in disbelief.

"It's impossible..."

This completely subverts his understanding. How could such a tiny amount of light element from the Holy Light Mark cause such massive destruction?

"No, it's not a problem with the Holy Light imprint, it's a problem with the magic circle!"

Wells remembered another sentence Carlos said during the day: "Why not try adding 0.1 part of water element for neutralization?"

Water element? What effect can such a low content have?

With doubts in his mind, Wells reactivated the 'Rampage' magic circle with his left hand and traced a delicate water element pattern between the dark and fire element lines. The addition of such a small amount of water element had minimal impact on the Rampage magic circle itself.

Then, Wells projected the holy light mark onto the frenzy array again. After a slight tremor, the array quickly returned to stability. Looking at the more solid frenzy array in his hand, Wells fell into deep contemplation.

.....

The next day. Red Leaf Academy.

Carlos woke up and pressed his slightly painful shoulder. Yesterday, while trying to escape from a chasing dog, he accidentally fell when climbing over a wall. Now his shoulder still hurts a little bit.

Of course, this is just a small matter to him. After washing up, he became more alert and walked over to the desk, spreading out a map.

The map was borrowed from the library in the main campus yesterday. After calculations last night, Carlos has already deduced the coordinates of the capital city. One coordinate unit roughly corresponds to 3 kilometers in reality.

Of course, Carlos will definitely not be directly teleported into the city of Adley. After all, it is densely populated. The location he has chosen for teleportation is approximately the coordinates of a plantation forest outside the capital.

This plantation forest is located to the east of the capital city. It is usually not crowded, and there are no wild animals because the trees are artificially planted.

Carlo carried a backpack filled with white orchids. He entered the coordinates (-325, 293) and was instantly transported to a location over a thousand kilometers away.

Opening the map, Carlos roughly checked his location and then headed towards a small town on the outskirts near the plantation forest.

In order to avoid being discovered, he teleported to a location that was still twenty kilometers away from the capital city. It would take him until nightfall if he were to walk there, so he decided to take a carriage instead. After spending over an hour, Carlos arrived at a small town on the outskirts and hired a carriage to transport himself to the capital city.

Fortunately, Carlos had lived in the capital for a few years before, so he didn't have a regional accent and wouldn't be mistaken as an outsider by the coachman. After all, in this world, the general level of education among the population is relatively low, and it is common for locals in the capital to bully outsiders.

After another two hours, Carlos arrived smoothly in the city of Adley. With his memories from living in the capital before, he headed towards the Mage Trading Market in Adley.

"Welcome!"

The shop owner is an overweight middle-aged man. When Carlos walked in, he greeted him politely but without much enthusiasm. This is because he couldn't sense any magical elements from Carlos.

"Selling medicinal herbs."

"Okay, please wait a moment."

The shop owner lazily yawned and lifted the lid of the wooden box. With just one glance, their eyes instantly lit up in astonishment as they exclaimed, "White Orchid?!"

The shop owner's surprise is not because the white orchid is particularly precious. After all, being able to open a shop in the magician's trading market means they have seen and experienced a lot, so they shouldn't be amazed by just one medicinal plant.

The reason for this behavior is that the white orchid is still very fresh. If it is planted in soil rich in magical elements, it can live for a long time. Fresh white orchids are quite rare.

This herb grows in the depths of the Misty Forest, and it is already difficult to gather. Moreover, after picking it, it takes several days or even more than ten days to leave the forest.

In this process, the white orchid that has been detached from the soil for a long time is no longer fresh, and even withered. Not to mention it takes time to be transported here to the capital city.

Only powerful Archmages can quickly leave the Misty Forest after harvesting, or use 'Life' magic to sustain the survival of White Orchids. However, at the level of an Archmage, it is unlikely that they would go through great lengths for a mid-level medicinal herb like White Orchids.

So on the market, fresh white orchids are very rare unless advanced pharmacists plant them regardless of cost.

"Are you sure you want to sell?" The shop owner's tone immediately became respectful.

In his eyes, the guest who didn't emit any trace of magical elements immediately became unfathomable. He thought to himself that this could possibly be a powerful archmage hiding their true strength, which is why he couldn't sense their magical elements.

"Of course, if I don't sell it, why would I come to you?"

"What price range can you offer for this white orchid?"

The shop owner picked up the wooden box and carefully examined it without immediately answering.

"The white orchid is still very fresh, but it was clearly harvested too directly, resulting in multiple breaks in the roots. Although it can still be planted and survive, it definitely won't grow again... umm... how about I offer 14 gold coins?"

The price of a common white orchid in the market is around 10 gold coins, while fresh ones can easily double in price in some places.

But the acquisition price is definitely lower than the market price, for sure. However, lowering it by half seems a bit excessive. Carlos didn't answer, but instead looked silently at the shop owner.