Chapter 81: Tricks, Dungeon
Gauss strolled through several similar stalls and shops.
Overall, the quality was quite uneven.
Some stalls were slightly more "honest", where a cantrip scroll could be bought for just 1–2 silver coins, and some were even priced at a few dozen copper coins.
However, the stall owners weren’t exactly truthful. When Gauss couldn’t help but ask whether the scrolls were genuine, he received solemn oaths and chest-thumping assurances of “no deception here, triple compensation for fakes.” But obviously, what real goods could possibly be sold at such a cheap price?
There were also more honest vendors. Upon discovering that Gauss was an Apprentice Spellcaster and not easy to fool, they candidly admitted that their manuals, books, and scrolls were sourced from others.
Truths and lies, hard to tell apart — even the vendors themselves weren’t sure what was real and what wasn’t.
Aside from these scattered stalls, there were proper stores selling authentic scrolls, but the prices were prohibitively high — not something he was considering for now.
Just as Gauss was about to head off and buy some adventuring gear.
He passed by a stall and abruptly stopped in his tracks. His gaze lingered among the many torn pages laid out there.
At that moment, the Bone Wand at his waist was releasing a warm flow.
He stepped closer to the stall, gripped the wand, and focused carefully. After confirming the target, he began asking the stall owner for a price.
"How much for these torn pages?"
"1 silver coin each."
"Can it be cheaper?"
"No."
Gauss couldn’t be bothered to haggle. He tossed a silver coin to the vendor and pretended to pick and choose, then finally took the specific torn page that made the wand heat up.
Only after walking away did he look at the content on the paper.
"Light Spell."
"Isn’t this just a regular Tier 0 Cantrip?"
Gauss glanced at the Bone Wand.
It had returned to its usual calm, as if the guidance from before had been just an illusion.
So the torn page was genuine?
Being able to buy something real for just a silver coin — Gauss was quite pleased.
If he could learn it, it would at least enrich his magical skill set.
Still, he was puzzled why the Bone Wand had shown such particular interest in this.
He had just passed a shop that had a lot of genuine cantrips and spell manuals for sale, and the shopkeeper had left a deep impression on him.
But the prices were too high — cantrips generally cost several dozen silver coins, even up to a gold coin or more.
He had looked around and judged that the items were likely genuine, but couldn’t bring himself to make a purchase.
So the Bone Wand reacting likely had nothing to do with authenticity.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t just be a Wand Base Material, but an excellent tool for detecting forgeries.
Was there something different about the Light Spell compared to other spells?
Shaking his head, Gauss made another round of the market, bought a few inexpensive items, and returned to his rented inn.
Sitting on the bed, he began flipping through the torn page of the Light Spell he had just bought.
Although it was a torn page, the page with the main spell model had been preserved. Gauss skimmed through it.
If not for the wand’s reaction, by his own judgment alone, he wouldn’t have made the purchase. It didn’t look very authentic.
And with incomplete information, even if it were real, there was a significant chance he wouldn’t be able to learn the cantrip or spell recorded on it.
Still, since he’d already bought it, Gauss decided to give it a try.
A silver coin — he could afford it.
He lit the oil lamp, picked up the torn page, and began studying it slowly.
He had heard that wealthy apprentices could buy blank spellbooks and special inks for transcription, which helped accelerate comprehension and learning of cantrips and spells. But he was short on money, so he had to rely on the old-fashioned method — reading with his eyes and memorizing with his brain.
Fortunately, his 7 points of Intelligence made him considerably smarter than the average person, so he wasn’t completely without support.
But after reading the content several times, Gauss only felt dizzy and foggy, gaining very little.
This was his first time self-studying a magic spell — the difficulty seemed far greater than he had imagined.
The model of the Light Spell didn’t look complicated, but for some reason, it vanished from memory the moment he looked away, let alone constructing a stable, clear model in his will.
Just then, he suddenly remembered the Bone Wand.
He quickly grabbed the wand from the bedside cabinet.
Gripping the wand, he read the torn page again.
"?"
Reading the same difficult concepts while holding the wand suddenly felt different.
And under Gauss’s gaze, the Bone Wand began to emit a faint white glow, flickering on and off. But overall, it seemed to be improving — the glow stayed on longer and longer.
"?"
A question mark popped up in Gauss’s mind.
Wait, I haven’t even learned it yet — how are you already learning?
He went to the window, shut it, and pulled the curtain closed.
In not too long, the Bone Wand had fully “mastered” the Light Spell.
Watching the wand continuously emit a bright light in front of him,
Gauss wiped off a cold sweat.
He inexplicably felt like he had just been mocked by a wand.
Fortunately, after shining for a while, the wand finally dimmed and returned to its normal state.
At the same time, a strange consciousness flowed from the wand into Gauss’s brain through the hand holding it.
Looking at the content on the torn page again, everything suddenly became clear.
So it was that simple?
With the help of the Bone Wand, Gauss immersed himself once more in the torn page’s knowledge.
The next day.
"Tier 0 Cantrip Light Spell lv1 (5/10)"
Waking up early, he glanced at the information on the Adventurer’s Handbook attribute panel.
The hard work from late last night had not been in vain.
With effort and talent, he had managed to self-learn and master a new cantrip in just a few hours.
Feeling the presence of a new cantrip within his will,
Gauss was quite satisfied.
Although the Light Spell would not directly boost his combat strength, its core function was to provide a stable light source in dark environments, eliminating disadvantages caused by darkness, and aiding him in exploration during adventures.
It could also, under certain circumstances, counteract magical effects related to darkness.
It was a very practical cantrip for those out and about.
The only thing worth noting was that the addition of the Light Spell in his will seemed to slightly increase his mental burden.
So, self-learned spells would add some mental strain?
But the strain wasn’t significant. If one didn’t pay close attention, it almost felt like nothing at all, so Gauss didn’t dwell on it.
He got up, washed, had breakfast in the inn’s dining room, and hurried out.
He still had plans for this morning.
He had agreed with Lawrence yesterday that they would be training spells at the Mutual-aid Association over the next few days.
Having finally found a training room, Gauss certainly hoped to push the proficiency of Mage Armor a bit further.
Four days passed in a flash.
"Mage Armor Lv3 (23/50)"
Gauss, feeling the renewed Mage Armor, wore a satisfied smile on his face.
The principles and mechanisms of that Magical Resonance had become clearer with continuous training and increasing proficiency over the past few days.
"You're in a good mood today." Lawrence patted his shoulder.
After several days of interaction, the two had grown quite familiar with each other.
As the Vice President of the Mutual-aid Association, Lawrence was a local whose family ran several medicinal herb shops — a minor wealthy second generation.
Apart from participating in the association’s events and training cantrips, his days were spent eating, drinking, and enjoying life.
Despite being just in his early twenties, he was already living a retirement lifestyle envied by many.
Although Lawrence’s strength couldn’t compare to Gauss’s, he was already quite accomplished among Apprentice Spellcasters.
Especially with his necromantic cantrips and the power of his own wand, many careless Professional Apprentices could easily be singed or psychologically shaken.
He could also somewhat suppress enemy healing and recovery spells.
"Not bad." Gauss shook his head with a smile while eating to recover magical energy.
"By the way, Gauss. We’re planning to explore a newly discovered micro dungeon soon. Interested?" Lawrence suddenly remembered the main topic and extended the invitation to Gauss.
"Micro dungeon?" Gauss blinked.
"You don’t know about this?" Lawrence looked at Gauss in disbelief.
"Nope. Tell me about it." Gauss admitted honestly.
After a moment of surprise, Lawrence began explaining.
Simply put, long ago, there existed a great kingdom, now referred to as the Forgotten Realms civilization.
After their magical research reached its peak, they were suddenly destroyed by an unknown catastrophe.
The land cracked, the civilization collapsed.
The former prosperity vanished like smoke, with only the occasional dungeons, caves, and underground cities "refreshed" and forced up to the surface as evidence of their existence.
Modern human civilization had developed rapidly through exploration of various ruins, from micro to large scale.
Micro dungeons were the smallest kind of ruins. Though small, they could still yield unknown treasures and wealth, though of course they also carried unpredictable potential risks.
For someone who had only known Gauss for less than a week, Lawrence’s willingness to share this information voluntarily was not only a recognition of Gauss as a person, but also an appreciation of his powerful combat ability.
His presence would make the dungeon exploration much safer.
"Anyone else besides us?"
"Yeah, I’ve also invited a few Apprentice friends from other professions. Not many — with us, it’ll be about 6 or 7 people." Lawrence continued explaining. "Since it’s just a micro dungeon, bringing too many people would be inconvenient and reduce the overall gains."
After asking Lawrence more about the dungeon, Gauss began weighing things in his mind.
Over the past few days, he had sparred with nearly everyone in the Mutual-aid Association.
Mage Armor had basically reached a point where he could no longer gather much new data here.
Theoretically, staying here any longer would slow down his proficiency growth.
Might as well go explore the dungeon. According to Lawrence, many micro and small-scale dungeons weren’t too dangerous — even apprentices like them could handle it.
With his current level of Omni Protection, he believed he could withstand two or three attacks at the level of a Professional without much problem.
As long as some degree of safety was guaranteed, dungeon exploration was definitely worth trying.
After all, it might yield money, magical tools, magical items, spell learning scrolls, and equipment — all things he urgently needed.
"Count me in then."
After some consideration, Gauss finally decided to go.