Chapter 17 : Chapter 17
Chapter 17 : A Special White Crystal
After choosing his specialization, Ryan’s schedule became noticeably clearer. He attended every lecture directly related to the Magic Tool path he had chosen, listening carefully and taking notes at great speed.
As for lectures unrelated to it, he no longer wasted time on them and instead devoted his energy to more practical preparations.
Saint Roland Magic Academy covered an enormous area. Rather than a mere institution of learning, it was more like a fully functional and pleasantly scenic magical city-state.
Aside from its densely packed academic buildings, dormitory districts, grand library, heavily guarded laboratories, and training grounds, the academy had also naturally developed several commercial streets of very different styles.
Some streets were filled with the aroma of food, gathering snacks and restaurants from all across the Empire and even from foreign lands. They were good places for students to satisfy their cravings after class, or to gather and chat. Other streets were much quieter. On both sides stood shops with old-fashioned signs, specializing in precious magical materials, rare herbs, finished potions, enchanted scrolls, and even certain ancient relics of dubious origin but unusual effect. Naturally, the prices were not cheap, but the variety was complete and the basic quality guaranteed, saving students the trouble of frequently traveling back and forth to the outer city.
Ryan’s destination was an area in the academy’s northeastern corner known as Craftsman’s Lane.
Quite a few shops were gathered there, selling magical tools, basic alchemical equipment, secondhand or defective Magic Tools, and all kinds of common magical metals and expendable materials. Compared with the streets that sold high-end finished goods or rare materials, this place was much more down-to-earth, and the prices were better suited to Ryan’s currently shriveled wallet.
That afternoon, with no relevant lectures to attend, Ryan left the dormitory with Cosette and headed straight for Craftsman’s Lane.
Cosette was still wearing her standard maid dress and followed half a step behind Ryan as always. Her hazel eyes curiously observed this street, which was completely different from the market district she remembered in White Bell City.
Ryan’s goal was very clear: to find some low-grade Magic Tools with relatively simple structures, slight defects, or merely old and obsolete designs, buy them back, take them apart for study, and practice basic repairs and modifications.
That would deepen his understanding while allowing him to accumulate practical experience at the lowest possible cost.
They entered a secondhand shop that looked rather cluttered with goods, while the owner was dozing with his head on the counter. Ryan began rummaging through a pile of dusty old items and quickly took a liking to an old-style crystal lamp base with unstable Mana conduction, a simple temperature-maintaining insulated box missing a key rune plate, and several old dagger hilts engraved with basic reinforcement and sharpness runes, though their Mana circuits were somewhat worn.
He set these aside and began estimating the price in his mind.
Cosette, meanwhile, stood quietly a little farther away, her gaze somewhat lost as it swept over the piles of assorted junk in the shop. She knew nothing about magic, and these strange-shaped objects meant even less to her. Yet just as her line of sight happened to brush past a wooden basket of scraps in the corner, her heart suddenly gave a light, inexplicable jump.
Most of what was inside were cut-off stone fragments, broken pieces of metal, and ordinary crystal shards without any Mana fluctuation at all. At a glance, they looked like the sort of things treated as trash or filler material. But among them, one fist-sized piece of cloudy white crystal ore, riddled with natural cracks and impurities and looking crude to the extreme, firmly caught her attention.
She could not even say why. It was just... a feeling.
It was as though that dull, ugly stone was faintly glowing somehow. She could not stop herself from looking at it several times, and even unconsciously shifted a small step in that direction.
Ryan had just finished bargaining with the sleepy-eyed shopkeeper over the price of the old junk and was preparing to pay when the corner of his eye happened to catch this tiny anomaly from Cosette. She was staring at the basket of scraps in the corner, her eyes slightly unfocused, her fingers unconsciously clutching the hem of her skirt.
What is that about?
Ryan felt puzzled. He followed her line of sight and saw only a pile of rubbish. Just as he was about to look away, text appeared above Cosette’s head in his field of vision.
[Action: Showing inexplicable interest in “Crude White Crystal Ore (Disguised)”]
[Probability of direct consequence: None]
[Probability of hidden chain consequence: If this object is purchased and its outer layer broken open, probability of obtaining a rare magical crystal from inside ≈ 98%]
Ryan: “...?!”
His movement paused for a moment.
A 98% probability of cutting open a rare magical crystal?
What is this, some kind of gambling-stone script?
More importantly, Cosette herself clearly had no idea what this meant. She was only acting on instinct—or rather, on the innate value-perception talent that belonged to her as the unawakened Witch of Envy.
In an instant, Ryan recalled the settings regarding the Seven Deadly Sin Witches.
Their special abilities tended more toward the manifestation of some concept or rule. Rather than acquired magic awakened afterward, they were more like innate traits that accompanied the soul itself.
The core ability of the Witch of Envy was insight into the value and desire of all things. Could it be that before awakening, it already manifested as this kind of vague intuition?
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant, but outwardly, Ryan remained perfectly calm. He set down the silver coin he had been preparing to pay with and, as if acting on a passing whim, followed Cosette’s gaze to the corner and casually picked up the dull, unremarkable white crystal ore, weighing it in his hand.
“Hm? What is it? What are you looking at?” He turned around and asked Cosette in an offhand tone, while very quickly blinking his left eye at her.
Caught off guard at being addressed so suddenly, Cosette jumped, her little face flushing red. She hurriedly waved her hands. “N-Nothing, Master! I was just... just looking around...”
She herself had no idea how to explain that strange sensation from just now.
But Ryan acted as though he had not heard her denial at all. Carrying the stone, he returned to the counter and placed it together with the old items he had selected earlier.
“This piece of white crystal is fairly large. The quality is poor, though, and it has a lot of impurities, but if I take it back to practice with, it might still work for carving a few basic test tubes or making padding for Mana-inert containers. Add it in. How much altogether?”
The shopkeeper lazily lifted his eyelids and glanced at the stone, that useless piece of junk which had probably been sitting in his shop for a year or two without a single buyer. He replied casually, “That one... if you want it, just give me one silver coin for it as an extra. It is still a natural crystal, at least.”
He had never expected that thing to sell by itself in the first place.
“All right.” Ryan nodded readily and counted out six silver coins onto the counter. “Together with the others, that makes six silver coins.”
The transaction was completed. Ryan had the few old Magic Tool parts wrapped up, then casually shoved the heavy, dull-looking white crystal ore into Cosette’s arms.
“Hold this. You liked it, didn’t you? I’ll have a look at it for you when we get back.”
Cosette fumbled to catch the cold, rough stone. Her face reddened even more, and her heart was full of confusion, embarrassment, and a subtle sense of shame at having been seen through by her master.
Did Master think she was interested in this stone because it was pretty?
But it was not pretty at all...
Ryan offered no further explanation. Carrying the wrapped parts, he turned and walked out of the shop. Cosette hurriedly hugged the added stone and followed after him.
On the way back to Silver Fir House, Cosette could not help sneaking glances at the stone in her arms. That faint attraction was still there, and in fact seemed even clearer now. At last, she could not help asking softly, “Master... is there something special about this stone?”
Ryan walked ahead without looking back. His voice was flat.
“I don’t know. You thought it was special, so I bought it to take a look. Who knows? There might be treasure hidden inside.”
His tone was half joking, half some sort of deliberate guidance.
Cosette lowered her head and looked at the dull stone in her arms.
As for Ryan, walking in front, he was thinking about something else entirely.
A 98% probability... that was almost the same as certainty. What exactly was hidden inside that crude piece of white crystal ore?
Once he got back, he would have to find a suitable method and tool to open it up without causing too much commotion.
This seemed to be the first time he had actively used both the Eye of Probability and Cosette’s latent witch talent for an investment.
It did not feel bad at all.
At the very least, it was a great deal more interesting than sitting in lectures listening to incomprehensible theory.