"How may I be of service?"
Behind the counter, the disgusting woman from before was gone, replaced by a kindly-looking old man.
"Where is the woman who was here before?" Leilin asked.
"Dockster? She's dead!!!" A faint shadow of sorrow crossed the old man's face.
"Here!" The old man handed Leilin a notebook made of parchment.
Leilin opened it and flipped through. The very first page displayed a Zero-level Spell of the Fire element, the page radiating a bright crimson glow that proclaimed the spell's attribute.
Leilin continued flipping. Zero-level Spells of the Water, Plant, Light, and Necromancy elements appeared one after another.
As for Zero-level Spells of the Shadow element, Leilin had already collected most of them, so he didn't bother looking through those.
As he browsed the notebook, comparing the prices to what he had seen before, Leilin found that the cost of Spell Models had dropped by more than half — practically being sold at a loss.
Unfortunately, for an ordinary apprentice, mastering even a single Zero-level Spell would take several months at minimum. For the imminent blood battle, that would be utterly useless.
"The Fire-element Minor Energy Fireball, the Water-element Wet Ground, and the Necromancy-element Bone Manipulation — and this one, this one... give me one of each of those."
Since the prices of Spell Models had dropped so dramatically and Leilin had plenty of Magic Stones on hand, he naturally bought a pile without any hesitation.
For him, this was a rare opportunity to stock up on clearance items.
After handing the old man a heavy bag of Magic Stones and having him send someone to deliver the books to his room, Leilin finally asked, "Do you have any First-level Spell Models here?"
"Sorry, this counter only sells apprentice-level Zero-level Spell Models!" The old man shrugged with an expression of helpless regret. It was clear that Leilin was not the first apprentice to ask him this question.
Receiving the answer he had expected, Leilin nodded and left the counter.
His earlier inquiry had been nothing more than a one-in-a-million hope, so he wasn't particularly disappointed.
Click!!! Creeak!!!
First came the sound of a copper key sliding into the lock, followed by the creak of a wooden door swinging open.
"This is it — set the things down here!"
Leilin opened his room's door and spoke to the several servants carrying boxes behind him.
Thud!!! Several servants set down boxes filled with a large quantity of spell materials and books, producing a tremendous noise.
After placing all of Leilin's supplies inside, the servants bowed to him and walked out through the door.
"It hasn't changed much at all!"
Leilin looked around the room, which still radiated a bright light. Aside from a bit more dust, everything was exactly as he had left it.
“Aramus!!!”
Leilin snapped his fingers, and a green cyclone suddenly rose from the floor of the room.
The cyclone spun continuously, causing the bed sheets and tablecloth to flutter slightly, while some of the dust was drawn directly inside it.
The green whirlwind quickly swept through the entire room, picking up much dust and turning a dark green hue, before finally dropping straight into the waste bin.
“That looks much more comfortable and clean now!”
Leilin gazed at the refreshed bedroom, nodded with satisfaction, and then proceeded to organize the spell materials and books, putting them away in their proper places.
Once everything was finished, Leilin first went to the dining room for a hearty meal before returning to his room and picking up a book on spell models.
“Lesser Energy Fireball, is it?” Leilin looked at the fiery red cover of the book. “Chip! Record!”
“Beep!!! Scanning!!!” The Chip’s mechanical voice sounded.
A few hours later, the Chip’s feedback came again: “Spell Model for Lesser Energy Fireball has been recorded. Currently undergoing analysis. Progress: 9.23%.”
Following Leilin’s advancement to Third Level Acolyte, the computational capacity of the Chip, fused with his soul, had also seen a clear increase.
For Leilin, while other acolytes needed to continuously memorize and use their Spiritual Power to trace the model framework within their minds to learn a Zero-level Spell—a process consuming vast amounts of time where a single mistake meant starting all over again—the Chip changed that entirely.