Magic Shop System

"You are here, Mr Kadyn."

 Kadyn lifted his head only to find Hayla standing at the entrance, smiling. He struggled through the crowd that was eager to enter the auction house even in such cold weather and reached the girl. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

 "Oh, I was just waiting for you," she said. "After all, if you didn't show up, we would have become the laughingstock of the town. It's good you are here, I was just about to go and find you."

 Kadyn nodded and examined the crowd as he inquired. "How did you spread the news in such a short time? From the crowd, it looks as if everyone knows about today's auction."

 "Of course," Hayla said. "After all, no matter how much our chamber of commerce's reputation has been reduced, behind it is still standing a gigantic Woulsto House. No Rank 2 and below water mage would say no to the Rank 2 elemental essence. So it didn't take a lot of effort."

 Kadyn nodded, and then the duo went into the building. He turned towards Hayla and said. "I won't stay until the end of the auction. I am here just to deliver the elemental essence and to take the paper of the shop."

 "So you won't stay?" Hayla asked with a surprised expression.

 Kadyn shook his head. "I have work to do," he said. "I will come tomorrow or send someone to get the money." 

He had already gotten the rune, but he had yet to start etching. He could control himself until now because he hadn't found a place to stay, but now he had settled, and he didn't want to waste his time anymore. 

He could feel that he was too weak as compared to the standard of the Ceston Empire. He had no news about his parents, and vicious vampires were searching for him because he had saved Cecelia. Who knows how many unknown dangers were lurking in such a big empire.

— — 

After a brief talk with Omm Woulsto, Kadyn went back to the shop. Excitement was written all over his face. He wanted to try and build the World Lotus Rune as soon as possible.

He knew that every Spell Caster rank was divided into four minor levels — Low, Intermediate, Upper, Peak. He would be a low rank 1 mage if he built less than 25 per cent rune and intermediate at the 50 per cent, and when he completed the rune, he would reach the Rank 2 mage. Other ranks would also follow the same system.

Kadyn didn't even go to have dinner and entered his meditation chamber. As he sat at the centre of the formation, he took out a scroll from his pocket, covered it with the spiritual energy, and started to probe it. 

He needed to understand its structure before he could start building it. Every single detail needed to be exactly the same. Otherwise, the rune would completely change, becoming something else entirely in place of the World Lotus Rune. It could even harm his consciousness and turn him into a dolt. So Kadyn could not afford to make any such silly mistake.

As his spiritual energy touched the surface of the rune, his elemental pool started vibrating. However, after a brief tremble, it became silent once more. Therefore Kadyn resumed his probing. It took around four hours before he memorized the structure of the rune. Only then he started to build it inside his consciousness. He needed to use his spiritual energy to etch it inside his consciousness beside the elemental pool. 

When he began, he felt as if he was tearing his head apart from inside; pain burst into his skull, and his body shuddered. But he gritted his teeth and continued. Slowly an almost invisible line started to etch on his consciousness, but it was really slow. 

Nonetheless, Kadyn didn't stop. Pain or no pain, he needed to move forward. Even if it was slow and tardy work to do, he didn't stop. He didn't know why but as time passed; he felt that he needed to become strong; he needed to do something, but he didn't know what that something was. Therefore, he persisted. 

But shortly after he faced a problem. He needed spiritual energy to continue building the rune, but he had already used it entirely. Without the spiritual energy, he could not continue building the rune. He fell into a dilemma. Just when a thought of stopping came into his head, a warm feeling entered his body, and it replenished his spiritual energy in no time.

'Formation?' Kadyn thought. It was the formation that was etched on the floor that replenished his spiritual energy. He had always thought that the only use of the formation was time acceleration and mana gathering. However, only now did he realize what was the biggest use of the formation!

Wizards could build the runes with only their spiritual energy. Without it, they could do nothing and let it replenish on its own. Only after replenishing it could they resume their rune building. It was the reason Kadyn was so much surprised when he realized that the formation could replenish it. 

If people knew about it they would not stop at any price until they obtain his shop. 'Looks like I can't let others use the meditation room anymore.' He thought. 'I can only let my trusted people use it.'

— — 

At the same time when Kadyn was lost in meditation, far away outside the elven village, a group covered in dark appeared amid the thickets.

"Is your intel correct?" asked a voice.

"Yes, milord," another voice replied. "I have confirmed Magnus is hiding in this village."

"Very well," the first voice said. "We will paint this village red tonight. We will have a party of Elven blood."

The group snickered behind the man. Their red eyes glittered as the icy wind rustled and their sharp protruding fangs looked vicious.. The man at the front moved towards the village and his companions followed from behind.