Apparently Aaron had been leafing through the booklet for too long.
The magic caster named Vara snapped out of his daze, impatience on his face as he looked at Aaron. "Are you done choosing or not?"
At the question,
Aaron finally pulled his gaze from the booklet and looked up. "I'm done. But I have one more question I'd like to ask."
"Go ahead."
Vara's expression eased a bit. He took the booklet from Aaron and spoke casually.
"I saw there are two kinds of Paper Creation scrolls. What's the difference between them?" Aaron asked curiously.
While flipping through the booklet, he had noticed that Paper Creation, this spell unique to this world, existed as both a zero-tier and a 1st-tier scroll.
Zero-tier magic was unique to this world, so this was Aaron's first time seeing the same spell across different tiers. It piqued his interest.
Humans in this world had actually managed to develop a life spell up to 1st tier?
In YGGDRASIL,
spell tiers were fixed.
Whether a character was level 100 or 20, a 1st-tier spell was the same spell. Power varied according to the caster's magic attack stat, but its fundamental nature did not change.
Some spells were special, such as the 3rd-tier Fireball.
That spell could scale in power and range depending on how much mana the caster poured into it.
But 3rd-tier was still 3rd-tier. That part never changed.
Skills like Low-Tier Magic Immunity, which Ainz and the other Floor Guardians possessed, would still nullify Fireball.
So,
in YGGDRASIL, if you wanted to hunt a level 100 player, you generally needed to use at least 8th-tier magic.
"Not much difference."
"If anything, the 1st-tier Paper Creation scroll just makes paper that's whiter, finer, and of better quality. It's fully suitable for writing on."
Vara answered lazily, clearly unwilling to linger on the topic. His gaze slid Aaron's way as if to say: time to buy.
At those words,
a thought suddenly flashed through Aaron's mind, startling even himself.
He pushed it down for the moment.
After a brief pause, he said, "I'll take one zero-tier Paper Creation scroll and one Heating scroll."
"And one 1st-tier Odorless scroll and one Magic Arrow scroll."
At his list,
Vara finally nodded and walked toward the back.
Behind the front counter, a wall hung with several paintings blocked the way, and Vara walked straight toward it.
Under Aaron's eyes, he stepped right into the wall and vanished.
"A magic barrier? I couldn't tell at all," Aaron thought, a bit taken aback.
Before long,
Vara returned, holding four scrolls.
"Two zero-tier scrolls: 2 gold."
"One 1st-tier Odorless scroll: 1 gold, 10 silver. One Magic Arrow scroll: 3 gold, 10 silver."
"That's 7 gold, 7 silver total."
He laid the scrolls out in front of Aaron.
Tch.
At the price, Aaron's eye twitched. After a brief hesitation, he pulled out 8 gold coins and set them on the counter.
Despite both being 1st-tier, the offensive Magic Arrow cost nearly three times as much as Odorless.
Vara gave Aaron a slightly surprised look, but said nothing more. He took the gold and counted out 6 silver in change.
That left Aaron with 14 gold, 7 silver, and 4 copper. Not a lot, but enough to cover the supplies he needed next.
He put away the scrolls and coins, then turned to leave.
Once outside the guild,
a thought sent all the scrolls into his Item Box as he quickened his pace back toward the inn.
He needed to test his earlier hunch.
The sun had already set.
The sky was now completely dark. Magic lamps lit the streets and squares, but they were spaced far apart, only just enough to see where one was going.
Perhaps because this was a border city, the streets were nearly empty at this hour.
Tap.
Tap.
Suddenly, a figure stepped out from a nearby alley, not far ahead. The man toyed with a dagger in his hand and deliberately stomped his steps to make them loud.
Aaron frowned and slowed down.
Because, not only had someone appeared ahead, but another figure had also emerged behind him.
"Hey there, kid. How about buying us a drink?"
The man in front stepped out of the shadows. He wore black clothes and a mask over his face, with a dagger in his hand.
The figure behind him also stopped, standing in the middle of the road and cutting off Aaron's retreat.
Out of the corner of his eye,
Aaron saw that the man behind him was also wearing a black robe over his clothes, hood up to conceal his face. At night, it was impossible to make out his features.
"Looks like I'm being robbed," Aaron said, thinking through his options as he spoke.
"No, no."
"We just want you to buy us a drink, and lend us a little money," the dagger-wielding thief said, spreading his arms and shrugging.
The man behind said nothing, which made Aaron feel he was the more dangerous of the two.
"And how did you know I have money?"
Aaron narrowed his eyes, sliding his short sword out under cover of his robe. "The Magic Caster Guild? No…"
"The people there have no reason to do this. And I just left. Even if they were short on funds, they wouldn't stoop to going after my pocket change, not with their pride."
"And I only arrived in E-Rantel today, so…"
By this point, he had a good idea and let out a cold laugh. "You've had your eyes on me since I entered the city, haven't you?"
If his guess was right,
these two had spotted him when Dosari handed him the coin pouch at the gate.
They might even be the kind who targeted travelers entering and leaving E-Rantel, looking for isolated marks to rob.
"Oh, aren't you a clever one."
"In that case, we'll skip the small talk. Hand over all the scrolls you just bought and your money, and we'll let you live."
"Otherwise—"
The dagger-wielding thief chuckled and let his voice go cold. "I don't mind cutting off both legs of a black-haired brat like you and selling you as a slave."
"I'm sure a black-haired divine caster who can use Low-Tier Healing would be very popular."
Aaron's eyes hardened at that.
His information had leaked?
Aside from the Rock party, only the Bareare pair knew he could use healing magic.
Neither of them had any real reason to sell him out.
The Bareares could be ruled out first. As for Rock, aside from him saving their leader's life, they had clearly been hoping to recruit him.
It seemed unlikely they would leak his info.
A slip of the tongue?
That was even less likely. Rock were at least a Silver-ranked party. They had some professional standards; they would not give up key intel that easily.
No matter how he turned it over in his mind, it all pointed back to Rock… wait.
Strictly speaking,
they were not the only ones who knew he could heal. Back at the Adventurer Guild in the capital, plenty of people had seen him cast his spell.
And the thief's words made it clear he was not just after Aaron's money—he wanted to sell Aaron himself into slavery.
That kind of behavior—
"Eight Fingers."
Aaron suddenly spoke the name.
The thief playing with the dagger froze for a heartbeat.
______
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