Chapter 9

The golden text detailed the formula for the Magic String potion in great detail, comprising seventy-two basic materials, each with detailed attributes listed at the back. At the end of the formula, the author left a sentence that made Salin somewhat wary.

"The Magic String potion can transform the body of a magic apprentice, forming a special magic string. However, this unnatural method will exact an unpredictable price from the apprentice. I remind whoever reads this passage that what you pay will exceed what you gain."

What you pay will exceed what you gain!

An unpredictable price.

Salin hesitated, genuinely admiring the author of the book. He couldn't ignore the warning left by the author. What kind of price would he have to pay?

Death? Impossible.

Any magical potion that posed a danger to the user would have detailed annotations at the end of the formula. For example, the elderly cannot take it, low-level mages should not take it, or people with heart injuries cannot take it. If the magical potion could cause side effects, there would also be final notes.

If it wasn't a threat of death, what could it be? The author warned with extreme caution, and Salin couldn't comprehend what could be so severe, apart from death, to match the formation of a magic string.

Salin racked his brains but couldn't understand what the author was implying. He closed the book and silently recited the names of the seventy-two materials, estimating their approximate prices.

The cheapest material cost only one silver coin, while the most expensive material was only two hundred gold coins. It would roughly cost a thousand gold coins to gather the materials for one Magic String potion. Salin's current funds were not enough for the materials of even three potions. The formula didn't mention the success rate of the Magic String potion. According to common rules, the success rate of such a potion would be very low, probably less than 10%.

The success rate of concocting magical potions had nothing to do with luck; the most crucial factors were experience and mental power. Salin had enough mental power but lacked experience. He had only studied magical potion knowledge for three months, and the success rate of easily producible magical potions was only around fifty percent.

That was for materials worth one gold coin; Salin could accept whether they succeeded or not. The Magic String potion was different. A single failure would mean a loss of a thousand gold coins.

Since discovering this formula, Salin had never thought of giving up. He couldn't forget the days of poverty, let alone the almost fatal accident he had experienced. If it hadn't been for Jason's arrival, he might have died in prison. Jason wouldn't always be there. If he wanted to survive well, he had to have his own strength.

Becoming a true magician was the only means Salin knew. But he couldn't squander resources recklessly. Jason didn't give him spending money; he had to find a way to earn money to obtain the materials for magical potions. Where could he earn money?

A thieves' guild, led by Dika!

Salin's eyes lit up; that was it. Thieves needed all kinds of potions for their operations. Regular equipment shops wouldn't sell dangerous potions. To obtain the magical potions that thieves needed, they must have a magician familiar with thievery to help. Salin smiled; it seemed that knowing a thief wasn't a bad thing.

After a week, when Salin entered the city, he left a message with the owner of the equipment store to find a person named Dika. Half a month later, he contacted the teenage thief.

This time, Dika didn't ask anything; he just waited for Salin to speak his mind. Joking with a magician was not allowed. Last time, Salin's message was passed on to the leader of the thieves' guild, who immediately gave up trying to recruit Salin.

"I have magical potions for sale," Salin didn't beat around the bush.

"Good, I'll take them," Dika readily agreed.

"I don't trust your leader. Is there a way to kill him?" Salin's second sentence startled Dika.

"Salin, absolutely not. They have over twenty people," Dika panicked.

"Last time you mentioned a secret room; I checked the books afterward. It's an old industry practice. I think you all gather together every week on the last day. I have a poison; once touched, it's deadly. I'll give you a week to consider. If you agree, you'll be the leader of the thieves' guild in Sylan City."

Salin left with his large pouch, smiling.

Could Dika refuse his proposal? If he did, he would have to report Salin's words to the guild leader. Then he might face the magician's wrath.

Indeed, Dika dared not refuse Salin's proposal. A month later, city guards found the bodies of thieves in the secret room. Twenty-four in total, all dead from poison.

This was Salin's first time killing, not by his own hand, but with his poison.

The forged Magic String potion formula was indeed effective; those affected died instantly. Salin was also secretly shocked; he had to beware of such means in the future, or a moment of carelessness could cost him his life.

With the external thieves dealt with, Dika quickly organized the local teenage thieves. Salin's magical potions had a stable market, and his gold coins increased day by day. In a year, Salin had earned over three thousand gold coins.

There wasn't such a big market locally in Sylan City. Dika was clever; Salin's potions were customized for the needs of thieves. Except for his own use, most were sold to other regions. In just six months, he established a stable market, and nearby thieves' guilds knew that Sylan City sold special potions. Dika also made some profit from this.

Accumulating over five thousand gold coins, Salin's potion-making skills also improved rapidly. He finally reached the level of a 3rd-level magic apprentice, able to consecutively cast five 0-level spells. He also mastered seven 0-level spells: Read Magic, Detect Poison, Acid Splash, Burning Hands, Elemental Infusion, Magic Alarm, and Detect Magic.

After recuperating, Salin's body had also become much stronger. Although he still looked a bit frail, he was actually able to carry over a hundred pounds of pouches with ease. Every week, he would enter the city to purchase items, and Jason always made sure that the huge pouch was filled to the brim.

Slowly approaching the final stage of his plan, Salin had already gathered the materials for three Magic String potions. Due to his shrewd merchant heritage, Salin didn't spend all his gold coins. What if he succeeded in the first few attempts?

In the first week of June, the weather was hot and humid, with sweat always dripping from people's skin. Just as Salin turned fifteen, he decided to start concocting the Magic String potion. Salin felt somewhat uneasy and even thought of kneeling down to pray, but unfortunately, he had no faith.

Although the priests of the Holy See always said that temporary divine grace wouldn't show any partiality, Salin didn't believe it. Making the Skotinya people believers was not as easy as making the Qin people abandon their pride.

Salin pulled out his box from under the bed and took out the family crest. Almost everything left by his father had been sold, except for this, which he kept with him.

The black metal emblem was shield-shaped, palm-sized, and very heavy. The dark green magical patterns represented the uniqueness of the family; a great magician had once designed the emblem for them. If anyone dared to replicate this emblem, they would be challenging the dignity of the magician.

This meaning was something Salin only understood after following Jason.

The emblem was as thick as a thumb at the center, with a deep lightning-shaped scar. This scar destroyed the integrity of the magical pattern, making it impossible for Salin to deduce who the magician was who had designed the emblem initially.

Once upon a time, a great magician had served the Metatelin family. What an honor that was!

"Father, may you bless me to become a powerful magician too," Salin caressed the emblem, feeling the uneven secret patterns on it. These were another set of magical patterns, also destroyed by the lightning-shaped scar in the center.

Huh?

Salin suddenly noticed a faint blue light flashing in the lightning-shaped scar. He rubbed his eyes, but the blue color disappeared.

What was this? Could it be a magical mark? With their family already in decline, even if they once had magical marks, they would have long since disappeared.

Salin felt uneasy; the more books he read, the more he understood how vast and profound the world of magic was. Similarly, it was a world full of danger; one misstep could lead to utter destruction, beyond recovery.

Salin instinctively cast a Detect Magic spell on the emblem.

A faint light enveloped the emblem in Salin's hand, and time seemed to stop in an instant. Salin was horrified to find that the Detect Magic skill suddenly interrupted, like a person falling off a cliff, stopping in mid-air halfway down.

This pause probably didn't even last a fraction of a second; if Salin hadn't already begun to grasp the principles of magic's instantaneous effect and had a finely honed mental power, he wouldn't have noticed this pause.

Then the magical light enveloping the emblem was absorbed into the emblem in an even shorter time, and the elemental power crazily rushed toward the lightning-shaped scar at the center of the emblem. A 0-level magic's summoned elemental power was simply not enough for such absorption; Salin felt his hand holding the emblem turn as cold as snow, and his body's elemental power, mental power, and blood were all sucked away in an instant.

With his body gone, Salin's body became like an empty shell. His eyes lost their luster, his vitality extinguished, and his heart stopped beating.

Salin felt himself plunged into darkness, surrounded by nothingness. There were no colors, no sounds, no tastes, nothing at all, and it seemed like all memories from birth to fifteen had vanished.

Was this death? Salin retained only one thought, the purest reaction of life when facing death.

Salin's body fell backward, crashing onto the floor. In the center of the emblem in his hand, within the lightning-shaped scar, a blue light once again appeared, and a fine electric current shot into Salin's body, heading straight for his heart.

Salin's heart had already stopped beating, but in that instant, it was violently stimulated by the electric current, and blood was forcefully squeezed throughout his body.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Salin's body came back to life, and his senses returned simultaneously. The nothingness around him disappeared. Salin's body rebounded violently from the floor, almost hitting the ceiling, before crashing heavily back down.

This fall caused blood to flow from his nose and mouth; the blood was purple and contained hard lumps.

Salin was in indescribable pain; as his senses returned, all the negative states descended upon his body. Weakness, pain, cold, burning...

These terrifying sensations repeated over and over again, and Salin had no strength left to struggle. He couldn't even lift a finger, his eyelids were tightly closed, and his spirit was on the verge of collapse.