The spell shop was a ten minutes’ walk away from the entrance. Though their leisure stroll while window shopping in the other stores took over thirty. The towering restaurant and the artifact shop had sandwiched the dwarfed ‘bookstore’. But the vibrant words on the plaque that read ‘Grandpa’s Spell Shop’ announced its presence aloud.

  True to its name, an old man sat at the desk by the fa?ade. When Thorin’s group approached him, he knocked on the desk then went back to enjoying his bowl of rice. Its steaming aroma was inviting, especially the bits and pieces of meat. It was most likely roasted and glazed chicken, Thorin gulped. A small board sat on the desk where he’d tapped. It said, ‘Call me Grandpa if you’re under hundred, and you can ask me anything. Don’t lie about your age.’

  Clay looked at Quin then the two looked at Thorin. “You’re up,” Clay said.

  “You’re the oldest,” Thorin said. “You go.”

  “He’s asking for the youngest,” Clay said.

  “He just said under a hundred,” Thorin grumbled. “We’re not even twenty yet.”

  “Don’t mind me,” Quin said. “I’ll chill in the middle.”

  “Whatever,” Clay said and pushed Thorin to the front. “Just go ask him.”

  Thorin clicked his tongue but had to relent. “G-grandpa, we’re here to buy some spells,” he said.

  “We have it all,” the old man said with a genial smile, putting his bowl aside. “The aisles are sorted by the arcanas. You can look around. Bring out the ones you like, and I’ll give you the full version.”

  “What’s the price?” Thorin asked.

  “Depends on the arcana,” the old man said. “Most are under ten mana shards though.”

  “Is one arcana cheaper than the other?” Thorin asked.

  “On the wall to the right, there’s a giant list with different colored stones,” the man said and pointed towards the shop’s interior. “That’s the list of arcanas arranged according to their popularity and efficiency. The brightest colored ones are the most expensive, and the darkest ones are the cheapest. You can go look around, see where your arcanas are on that list.”

  Thorin’s eyes lit up. The excitement of seeing their ranking affected Clay and Quin as well. Regardless of what they’d gone through, their inner child still lived well and happily in their hearts. Their hard outer shells protected their childish innocence. So, they raced in, dodging the aisles of book, shoving each other for the first position, and gathered before the list of stones.

  His enthusiasm boiled, and so did his expectation for his arcanas. Thorin started from the whitest stones at the top. The Arcanas like fire, ice, water, thunder, and such occupied the top positions. None of his five Arcanas were among that group of stones, so he moved down to a cloudy shade of white. Clay and Quin both exclaimed and high-fived, for they found theirs in this second zone. Clay’s Mind Arcana and Quin’s Blood Arcana occupied good positions in the list.

  Thorin wrinkled his nose at them and moved down another shade. Yet again, he found none of his, but Quin had one—Artifact Arcana. The next shade, the dirtier shade of white, had Clay’s Shadow and Illusion Arcanas, as well as Quin’s Weapon Arcana. Thorin still got nothing, and his heart thumped with anxiety. His radiant smile that brimmed with expectations was long gone. Now, he just wished to see any of his arcanas before the blacker shades took over. However, reality slapped him again, hard across the face.

  The next shade of stones listed none of his five, though it wrote Quin’s War Arcana. The next had Clay’s Insect Arcana. The two grinned with satisfied nods. Their Arcanas occupied good positions in the list. They dodged the blacker shades. But Thorin wasn’t in the mood to congratulate them, let alone be happy for them. Fuck his cousins, he at least wished to see his Arcanas with theirs if not above them.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “This list is shit,” Thorin said as the irritation set in. Clay and Quin stifled their laughter and backed off. If they poked him right now, he might explode, they knew that well.

  Now, Thorin wished none of his Arcanas were on this list. At least the unknown factor and the ambiguity would keep some hope alive for him. Perhaps his Arcanas were good but remained obscure. Alas, today was not his day. As the darker shades took over, his first Arcana popped up—the Death Arcana. Its position was a good chunk below the median. The next shade of black had another of his—the Space Arcana. Soon, as the black got darker, his Arcanas surfaced one after another. His Potion Arcana was next, while the bottom most group of stones, the darkest batch, had his Temperature and Paper Arcanas.

  He had five Arcanas, more than his cousins. But they didn’t make him complete. They made him unstable…

  “This list is absolute garbage,” Thorin shook the depressing thought off and grumbled again as they headed out.

  “How was it?” the old man asked, taking the last bite of his rice and putting the bowl away.

  “Who decided this list?” Thorin asked. “It’s utter nonsense.”

  “Yours were at the bottom then, I presume,” the old man said with a chuckle. “Don’t lose heart, child. The list is based on popularity and tested efficiency. But it’s not absolute. If the Magus is strong, he can make the Arcana strong as well.”

  “But if the Arcana itself is weak, doesn’t that mean that the Magus will be weak as well?” Quin popped up from behind and asked with a snicker.

  “Look at it this way,” the old man said with a playful smirk. “All the spells that you need will be the cheapest.”

  Clay and Quin burst into a fit of laughter at the old man’s comment, holding their stomachs. Thorin took a deep breath and tried to ignore them. But he couldn’t, at last, and elbowed their chest to hush them down. When the two groaned on the floor, he asked, “How much?”

  “All the Arcanas in the black shades are one mana shard per spell,” the old man said.

  Thorin nodded. “Do you also buy materials? We have something to sell.”

  “If it interests me,” the old man said.

  Thorin took out a vial that carried the ashes of a Ghost he’d eaten. “How about this?” he asked.

  The old man shook the vial against the sunlight, squinting at it. “Ashes of Death,” he said. “But it’s of the mortal level and mixed with dirt and soil. Heavily impure. I can give you one mana shard for it.”

  “Grandpa, we fought really hard to kill this Ghost,” Thorin said and mellowed his eyebrows.

  “I’m sure you did. But how hard you fought has no relevance on the price of the product,” the old man said, putting the vial down. “When you collect it next time, make sure you keep the ashes pure. It’ll sell for more then.”

  “How do we do that, Grandpa?” Clay asked when he’d recovered from the blow. “No matter what we did, we couldn’t collect it before it fell to the ground.”

  “I have a spell for that,” the old man said. “I can give it to you for this vial.”

  The three backed away and discussed in whispers. “Alright,” Clay said when they finally decided to sell all the vials here. They’d already confirmed the price of the ashes in other shops. Most quoted the same number as the old man, while some even tried to buy it with mortal coins because of its impurity. “But we have more vials, can you buy them all?”

  “Sure,” the old man said. “Take them out.”

  Thorin was seventeen this year, and his heart had been a problem since he was twelve. He’d lost his heart of flesh on the day he took that dagger to his back. Over the years, he’d hunted several Ghosts for his new heart. Thus, his collection of ‘Ashes of Death’ boasted a good number. When he sold them all to the old man, the three cousins were twenty-five mana shards richer.

  “Grandpa, do you only sell sequence-0 spells?” Quin asked.

  “This is just a sequence-0 street market, what do you expect?” the old man retorted. “You’ll be hard pressed to find sequence-1 products here, let alone higher leveled items. Eldeth has finally recovered to sequence-2, but we’re still far from the level of prosperity we had in the past. And why do you need higher leveled spells anyway?”

  “I was just curious,” Quin murmured and the three explored the aisles of books for their spells.

  Quin and Clay found their section not far from the entrance. Before long, they lost themselves in the introduction of the spells. Thorin had to wander some more. He turned corners and passed several aisles. Finally, when his two cousins had gone through a couple of spells, he found his section in a nondescript area. It had all the Arcanas of the black shades.

  The shadows were deep here as it hid from the diffused sunlight, and so was the musty whiff with a hint of biblichor. The stack of books it contained had no order. But before Thorin could dive into the pile, a separate section on the shelf attracted him. The books arranged on the wood didn’t relate to any spells. Instead, the tag of this aisle carried the word ‘Classes’. And its subtitle wrote, ‘Specializations of a Magus’.