The smell of an old bookstore is still that of paper and ink, mixed with some sense of staleness and the faint smell of incense that protects the books. Lu Ning approached the dimly lit store and immediately saw the person sitting in front of a screen.
This was a man with long black hair. He didn't take care of his hair particularly carefully and let it fall naturally. He was also wearing a black robe that looked like pajamas, tied loosely around his waist and slightly opening his chest. He had a serious face, holding an old book in his hand, and sat cross-legged on a futon. He was so absorbed in reading that even Lu Ning walked in without disturbing him.
There were no tables or chairs in this bookstore. There were only a dozen futons and three hard couches on the floor. Lu Ning was stunned for a moment. The wind caused by opening the door finally disturbed the room and rattled the wind chime by the window.
The boss closed his fingers slightly, put the old book down, and looked up. His expression was still as serious as when he was reading.
“Buy a book or study?”
"Ah...uh...I want to buy a book."
"what book?"
"I... want to find books on magic and alchemy." Lu Ning stated the purpose of this trip.
The boss nodded slightly, put his hands on the ground, and stood up. His large robe was actually dragged on the ground. Fortunately, the place seemed to be cleaned frequently, and the ground was not dirty at all. Some places were even covered with bamboo mats.
"Alchemy is easy to talk about, but magic contains much more content. Be more specific."
"Uh... crystal magic."
Now the boss looked at Lu Ning suspiciously. His look clearly meant that you didn't look like someone who could practice crystal magic.
"I need to understand, not learn." Lu Ning explained.
The boss’s eyes became even weirder.
"Alchemy, crystal magic?"
Those who can learn both at the same time are not the wealthy families of the country, but the royal children of medium-sized and above countries. Small countries may not even be able to afford them.
"Just tell me if you have it." Lu Ning gave up explaining.
"I don't know if there is anything you need. The rules here are that the big categories tell you to find the books yourself. If you want to read after you find them, you can pay two copper coins for tea and you can read here for a day. If you buy a book, you can pay and take it away. "
The boss explained slowly and came to a pile of books with his blouse bulging.
These books were not put on the bookshelf, but put in a basket, so full that the basket was buried.
"Alchemy is all here."
"ah?"
"The basic theorems of alchemy are very boring. The three books for beginners, intermediate and advanced can almost cover the core knowledge of alchemy. What's more, it is the extension of creativity brought by different experiences. Basically, everyone here is so poor that they are almost exhausted. The alchemist selling the trousers saved the money by selling the codex in exchange for some materials. Of course, I have also screened it. Those bullshit codexes can never be exchanged for a single copper coin from me."
The corner of Lu Ning's mouth twitched, wondering how many copper coins the old alchemist's biographical manuscript could be exchanged for in the shopkeeper's hands.
"Thank you, about crystal magic..."
"here."
This time it was on the bookshelf.
The number of books on crystal magic is much smaller, probably because many people cannot afford to learn it, and the collection of books here is just a row on the bookshelf. After the boss pointed it out to Lu Ning, he walked back to read. Lu Ning quickly asked him his name.
"My name is Anri."
The boss said something.
Lu Ning began to take out books from the basket. These notebooks were completely different in terms of size, paper quality and completeness of preservation. She was really afraid that they would fall apart if she made a too big move.
In this pile of books, there are also many books on the three great alchemy books, "Basic Alchemy", "Intermediate Alchemy" and "Advanced Alchemy". Some of them were annotated, and some of them simply wrote inspiration records in the margins of the pages, causing most of them to look dirty.
With Lu Ning's current knowledge of alchemy, she could understand some things about elementary alchemy, but she still quickly eliminated a few useless manuals.
In alchemy, formulas are the foundation and imagination is the flesh and blood. As an "exchange" discipline, its exchange cannot be determined by the subjective will of the alchemist. It is every alchemist's responsibility to explore the mysteries of these exchanges. Favorite thing to do. And if you see something that is contrary to your own way of thinking, even if it is not necessarily wrong, it will not be of any benefit to you.
While Lu Ning was looking for a book, someone else walked into the bookstore.
This is a girl wearing a white mage robe. She looks to be about the same age as Lilian. She has a small bell-like ornament tied to her waist. This is the only decoration on her body. After entering the bookstore, she bowed slightly and respectfully to the boss, Anri, placed two copper coins on a futon, and then came to the bookshelf.
Lu Ning glanced at it from the corner of her eye. She was walking around the bookshelf marked with magical arts, pulling out a book from time to time. It seemed that her goal was very clear.
In the classification of magic, divine magic is a major category. Its effectiveness relies on meditation and prayer, and sometimes it even requires memorizing extremely long prayers and learning difficult-to-speak divine words. The most annoying thing is that if you need to cast magical spells belonging to different gods, you have to learn many more divine languages - the languages of those gods are completely different.
Although Catherine and others commented that magical arts are "not very expensive", magical arts place great value on talent and diligence, and the average life span of magical students is shorter than that of other magicians.
"No path is easy."
Lu Ning murmured something in a low voice so that the girl could not hear it, but the boss raised his head and glanced at her.
Fortunately, with such a large basket of notebooks, she could always find some ideas that were similar to Lu Ning's. She picked out three books, and another "Elementary Alchemy" with clean annotations, and took them to the boss together. At this time, the girl was already sitting next to him and reading a book quietly.
"Did you buy it?" The boss took the book and flipped through it, "I'll give it to you for one silver coin, and you'll get the change."
"Well……"
"No money?" The boss looked up at her.
"No, just... can it be cheaper? I also want to save some to buy materials."
"There is a cost for collecting books, and I am not a place to collect garbage." The boss curled his lips, "If you are really that poor, don't do alchemy, crystallization, magic or the like, learn from Jiefenni to practice magic The techniques are much more reliable."
"Mr. Anri, magical arts are not suitable for everyone. Many people spend their entire lives unable to find a god to whom they can pray." The girl raised her head.
"I'll just pay." Lu Ning quickly took out a silver coin.
"Are you an alchemist?" The girl glanced at the books, "I don't know much about alchemy, but if you really want to learn something, there is a store called Rainbow Mushroom, where you can shop every day There will be alchemists refining potions on site, and they may be able to provide you with a lot of experience."
Lu Ning glanced at her in surprise: "I know, thank you very much. Your name is...Jefni? I'm Lilian, nice to meet you."
"Nothing." Jefni smiled slightly and continued to read.
After collecting the silver coins, the boss stuffed the four books back into Lu Ning's hands and said casually: "Welcome to come back next time."
Lu Ning took the book, put it into the wide pocket inside the apprentice's robe, and walked out of the bookstore.
"You really like to be nosy."
"The gods advise us that when we encounter help within our ability, we should lend a helping hand."
"Then did the gods say how to make money?"
"Exchange diligence and wisdom for corresponding wealth."
===================
【Rainbow Mushroom】.
Can you imagine a store with five giant colorful mushrooms growing out of it instead of words?
Lu Ning asked two or three people, and they all pointed in the direction, then smiled mysteriously and said, "You will definitely recognize it." Now she understood why.
What an intuitive "rainbow mushroom".
Even in the magical world, there is business competition, so there is definitely not only one alchemy shop. The popularity of this one is probably due to such a personalized sign, which is not low. There are also a lot of bustling people in the store, and even the store clerks are wearing eye-catching rainbow mushroom hats on their heads.
After Lu Ning walked in, a "mushroom" immediately greeted him.
"Welcome to Rainbow Mushroom! Everything from tools, materials, array diagrams, and handbooks are available! If you have time, you can also watch the intermediate alchemist refining potions on site! The process is completely open and transparent!"
"May I ask where the potions are made..."
"It's right in front, through the corridor behind the big room! Just keep quiet when you go in and don't disturb the alchemist's work." The clerk said enthusiastically, "I hope you can trigger more inspirations! Is there anything else you need? Of?"
"Thank you, I can just go shopping by myself." Lu Ning nodded to the clerk.
"Then if you have any questions, you can go to any clerk. Every member here will serve you!" The clerk bowed and turned to leave.
This is a shop that knows how to do business.
Lu Ning walked around the store for a while and realized that the reputation of this store must not only be because of the sign. The attitude of the shop assistants is undoubtedly satisfactory, and the placement of items in the store is also very particular. Different products are displayed in several rooms separated from the front and back, but they are not arranged according to rarity or type. However, this seemingly disordered arrangement wonderfully guided the flow of customers in the store. Logically speaking, such a popular store should be a bit crowded, but Lu Ning felt that she was following the crowd very smoothly, without any hindrance. No.
"It's alchemical thinking." She quickly figured out the arrangement here. Everything is placed next to related items in alchemical thinking, so that when a customer sees the product, he can mentally imagine how it compares to other items. When you think about what will happen if you use something together, you will see something suitable with a quick glance, and your steps will naturally move towards it.
From this point of view, the person who designed this layout must be a person with extremely high attainments in alchemy. Lu Ning curiously followed the crowd into the intermediate alchemist's room.
The room was quiet, except for the slight collision of bottles and jars on the alchemy table and the small sounds of adjusting instruments. Four alchemists wearing light gray alchemical robes were skillfully performing refining work at one end of the room. The alchemy table they used was also an obsidian alchemy table treated with inscriptions. It was an expensive item that Lilian had never seen in her life.
The four alchemists are refining different things. From left to right, they are potions, runestones, rare metals and artificial life.
The subject of alchemy can theoretically make everything in the world, even things that do not exist in the world, through "exchange". Including the "World Stone" in Lu Ning's mission, according to the contents recorded by the old alchemist, it is a microcosm of the world. Of course, it is impossible for an intermediate alchemist to reach that level, but what you see in front of you is enough to make you greedy.
Rune stones are one of the "non-existent" things created by alchemy teachers and students. Even if there is only one stone naturally containing runes, it is a precious material that can be used by a large number of magic disciplines, and the refining process is also extremely complicated. Rare metals are naturally magic metals and composite metals that are very rare in the world. This is why magic and martial arts mages most want to find an alchemist as a friend, because even if you can afford to pay for some things, you may not be able to buy them. .
As for the last artificial life form, it is almost the pinnacle of the intermediate alchemist.
The creatures created in this way have all the same characteristics as life except the soul, and their composition can be diverse. After injecting instructions into the alchemy process, these beings became the most loyal servants and partners. The most basic "golden artificial life" is made through a widely recognized transformation formula at the cost of a large amount of gold. It is usually used to supplement the guard strength and even for military use.
Lu Ning still walked quietly to the potion refiner. The other three were still far away from her. She always grabbed everything at hand first.
Compared with the three long-lasting alchemy processes, the output of the potion alchemist is very high. However, this does not mean that the alchemist's level is low. Lu Ning found that he did not need to use scales and other measuring tools to weigh other than liquid materials. He just pinched it and threw it directly into the refining array. When she looked carefully, she discovered that there were actually three drainage tubes in the refining formation, which meant that he was using the same refining formation to refine three potions at the same time!
No wonder he's so fast!
Lu Ning began to carefully feel the flow of magic power on the Qi Lian Transformation Formation and the condition of each material. In addition to the inimitable rarity of various raw materials, she could still learn a lot.
Soon a potion was refined. The alchemist quickly removed the drainage tube, placed the prepared base in another position of the alchemy array, then connected a new drainage tube and pulled out the Midas Touch. After guiding the flow of magic power, he corked the finished potion and put it aside.
A clerk there quickly put a label on it, and Lu Ning saw the alchemist's mouth move, probably telling the clerk what potion it was.
What attracted Lu Ning most to the methods used by this alchemist was the savings.
The continuous flow of magic power in the alchemy array saves the use of magic solution; refining three potions at the same time saves time; most importantly...these potions are different.
