42 Chapter 42 : : Sky & Mountain Plantation Center

General spells or attributeless spells are the spells that have an equal amount of difficulty for any mage to learn and master, as the name says general spells don't have any particular attribute. Although this world had general spells but there was no General Mage, the reason was simple, becoming a General Mage cannot help in class advancement or bottlenecks at Level 10n.

Moreover, even if someone becomes a General Mage then their battle power would only decrease compared to their peers because they don't receive any benefits after life level advancement. Almost all mages only learn general spells for convenience and as auxiliary spells but not as main offensive or defensive spells.

At present…

"This spellbook containing a Tier 2 general spell known as ‹Mana-Resilience Cycle›," He said.

"‹Mana-Resilience Cycle› is a spell that allows the user to converts their mana into stamina, it's a must-have spell for Martial Mages, the mana to stamina conversion rate depends on the spell mastery and the conversion speed on the user's level. The conversion rate can even reach 100% at the Ethereal mastery level.

It's very efficient for anyone until Level 20, and although it's conversion speed might not be able to keep up after Level 20 but depending on the way the user uses it, the spell will still have great value, the minimum bid for this spellbook is 11 Gold," The auctioneer said while looking at Layla from the corner of his eyes expecting to see her excitement but he was disappointed.

His conjecture was wrong, Layla wasn't a Martial Mage, she won't put efforts into learning such a spell when she mostly rides mounts to move, what good would be exchanging mana to stamina do to a Mage? But he had successfully piqued someone else's attention.

"20 Gold," Kale said without hesitation, he wanted this spell, the reason he gave out such a big price at the start was to show his confidence and at mental pressure on the bidders. He directly gave out the maximum price he could pay for the spell, the spell was precious but there are always alternatives, if he couldn't buy it in this much then he wouldn't spend more money.

The other bidders looked at him and Layla on the side and hesitated. In the end, no one bided. Many options could replenish stamina so the spell didn't look that appealing to them. Furthermore, the spell's best value will only be shown at Grand Master or Ethereal Level and who had so much time to spend on a General Spell?

Layla looked at Kale but didn't say anything. It was his choice what good it would do to give suggestions when they weren't asked for.

The auctioneer was slightly disappointed that Layla didn't bid but the profit was still high so he quickly counted from one to three and sold it.

Many other items were auctioned after that but Kale didn't participate in the bidding mainly because his savings weren't enough. As for Layla, it wasn't good to use outside items in the academy, even the Magic Cube she bought was mainly for outside use when doing outside tasks or in case of emergencies.

"Is there anything else you want to buy?" Kale asked.

"Hmm… Just some Body Cleansing Potions to help me in removing minor impurities from the body, now that I am almost at Level 10, I need to prepare for establishing a good foundation, my father won't let me go until I build an A-Grade foundation," Layla said.

'She is already so close to Level 10? Is it the benefit of just cultivating a pure path or am I too slow? Maybe it is the so-called prodigy aptitude of a Mage?' Kale thought, many things in this world were beyond his scope of knowledge but he also knew many things that weren't known by people of this world.

As for why he thought of it being aptitude, it was because in last life after making the deal with Amon, he got the aptitude of a genius, when he had just started walking on the martial path, he had seen many people that tried very hard, trained so much that their body started breaking but they were still way slower compared to him, it was because of their low aptitude.

Hard work alone cannot make up for the aptitude difference, there was another factor… Smart work, good resources can make up for the bad aptitude, and to get them one needs to do work smart way. For example, securing good opportunities, making the right decisions, trusting the right people, and being vigilant of wrong ones.

There were also lucky ones that sometimes got the heaven-sent opportunity but luck was an unexpected factor that isn't stable, someone can be lucky one time but being lucky for the whole life was simply unheard of.

The rest of the shopping was uneventful, there were many shops selling potions, they just entered the closest one to buy the potions, Mortal-Rank potions weren't rare especially in this part of the market.

Kale was also curious about the effects of this Body Cleansing Potion so he too spends 5 Gold to buy a Mortal-Rank Rare-Grade Body Cleansing Potion. As a result, his saving that was once 38 G 30 S were reduced to 13 G 25 S after spending 25 G in Black Market and the 5 S on traveling between the academy and home, and food. If not for being a Mage that much money was a huge amount to a commoner.

Potions didn't reach too high grade like beasts, Epic-Grade was already very high making a potion of higher quality wasn't impossible but instead of wasting more precious resources, it was better to refine the same type of potion of a higher rank instead.

Soon after their shopping was complete, they headed back the way they came from and left the market.

There were many night restaurants in the city, it was no problem to get the dinner packed, by the time they reached the home it was almost midnight.

On the way, Layla was highly talkative especially when driving, Kale had no choice but to reply and continue the conversation or she would look at him instead of looking in front to reprimand him for not listening.

Because of the conversation, he also came to know a lot of things he had ignored before. Like, that slate-grey haired boy Ron indeed had the blessing of Wind God, and the other girl was his sister, she wasn't a simple character either, she was a genius walking on the path of Mind Mage.

One of the most mysterious paths for a mage was Mind Mage, as the name says these mages are experts when it came to playing with the mind of their target. He now understood that why were those two foxes that he attacked in the tunnel didn't dodge, they were likely under the effect of Confusion or some similar spells.

From what Layla said, Timtim wasn't as young as she looked but it was because of a curse passed down their lineage, one person bears this curse from birth every one-three generations in her family and it was her turn. Layla herself didn't have much knowledge about the curse and only knew that it alters her appearance to that of a child but on the good side, her mana reserve and her resistance towards other curses of dark type magic is was higher compared to her peers.

Blessings and Curses were similar yet different at the same time.

People only differentiated them based on their effect, for instance, Ron could control wind way better than others while Timtim had advantages too but she also got a serious disadvantage and had to sacrifice her mature appearance.

After dinner, Kale wanted to head back to his room but Layla kept him to watch a random movie, it was only when she was on the verge of falling asleep that he was able to leave.

Kale spent the rest of their time into his study of ‹Fast Growth› to increase its mastery to the Ethereal level, by the time he achieved the success it was almost morning and he didn't have time to work on ‹Wood Hammer›. In the end, he decided to rest because he had a more important task to do today.

***

At afternoon…

Kale got ready and headed downstairs, he saw Layla sitting in the living room and cultivating, she opened her eyes and looked at him, dressed up and carrying a bag in his hands.

"Going somewhere? Want me to drive?" She asked.

"Hmm… Sky & Mountain Plantation Center, I have a trade to make there. I got some memories back, I want to try driving myself," Kale said.

Layla grinned, she didn't believe he could really learn driving at one glance but didn't say anything, when he can't do it he will come to her anyway.

"Listen, there would be someone coming here from Sun Flower Kindergarten to take the two pair of rabbits, take care of it for me," He said.

Layla was slightly surprised "You are giving them to kindergarten?"

Kale nodded "They have a short lifespan and there isn't someone here to take care of them so it's better if they enjoy their time playing with the kids,"

Layla slowly nodded.

In fact, he wouldn't spend such efforts in Kazeer but when looking at the intelligent rabbits fearing him, he thought killing them wasn't worth it moreover it was a good move to build his image, as for the contract he had already canceled it when Layla was asleep till late morning.

Building a contract required many efforts but for canceling, a few minutes was all it takes. The intelligence the rabbits gained won't disappear even after the contract is canceled but their intelligence wasn't at a level to get suspicious about, in this world many creatures had slight wisdom from birth, so it wasn't that unusual for those rabbits to be slightly intelligent.

The people here didn't live on the edge, they weren't vigilant or suspicious as the demonic cultivators in Kazeer.

This time, Kale used the car to head out, he was a Martial Venerable that could copy low-grade martial arts at a glance, what would be learning to drive a car count? Especially when he had the ‹Auto-Photographic Memory› that allowed him to remember things like he had recorded them in his head.

***

Sky & Mountain Plantation Center was present near the western border of the Imperial City.

It was a reserved area for cultivating the herbs and rare plants, it is the main source of supply of medicinal herbs of GHO headquarters in Imperial City, and much other organization that needs them to make medicine and potions.

In this world, under the combined effects of science and magic, especially magic used by Plant Mages has resulted in the production of countless new species of plants, just like how new children are born every day, it won't be exaggerated to say that new plants species are found or made every day.

Kale drove his car for about three hours before reaching the location, he could have driven faster but he wasn't hasty and was getting used to driving after so many years.

After arriving at the location, Kale saw a 6-8 meters tall wall in a curved line, the main door was present at the entrance, the setup was somewhat similar to the academy except that the wall was made of stones and the big gate of redwood.

The area outside the wall was open for parking, Kale parked the car on the side, then arrived at the door, there was no doorbell on the side, he tried pushing it and realized that it was open.

The second he entered the door, a sight he hadn't expected greeted him, he felt like he had left the city because in front of him were grasslands, open grasslands without any trees, short dense grass covered the ground with some flowers and shrubs occupying some space, there was mostly greenery up to what he could see.

There were also several circular ponds around these widespread grasslands, they looked like ponds used to cultivate rare fishes but seeing that some of them were filled with strange louts like flowers and seaweed-like plants he had never seen before, Kale guessed that this area was used to cultivate plants that require excess water to be cultivated.

He sighed in relief, if Sky & Mountain Plantation Center wasn't a place he wanted it to be then coming here would be a waste of time.

Kale looked down at the stone pavement that showed the way to the front and started walking, after walking straight for around 20 minutes, he finally saw some walls made of wooden sticks covered in thorny vines that separated several rectangular long plots from each other.

The path he was walking on was blocked by a thorny vine wall on both right and left side, but the wall was only tall enough to reach up to his chest so he could see the plants grown in the plots on both sides.

On the left plot were light blue star-shaped flowers that gave of a dim light radiance and on the right plot were small plants resembling Venus Fly Trap with a vine-like tongue coming out of their leaf mouth as they turned towards Kale like they could smell or hear his movements.

Kale looked at them and a faint smile appeared on his face, he started to take short strides as he slowly made his way to the inner part of the facility.