Chapter 12: Spell Formula

After confirming that Amy didn't follow, Gao De wandered around the street, looking for a suitable shop.

A city's commercial district, besides often being located in the center of the city, also has a characteristic, which is that it often develops around the City Lord's Mansion, the church, or the market square.

Hogan City was the same, the commercial district was built around the city square.

Although it conformed to the law of development, in fact, the street layout of Hogan City's commercial district was still very chaotic and lacked unified planning.

There was only one main road, running north-south, leading to the city square.

There were several branch roads, forming several narrow alleys.

Because the flow of people in these alleys was not large, but the corresponding shop rent was not high, many shops and workshops doing small business were hidden.

After Gao De drilled through several alleys, he finally found his target.

This was a grocery store; compared to the magnificent storefronts of other large shops, it was much simpler, and the location was remote.

At the simple door, there was a simpler wooden sign.

It was written very sloppily with a few sentences: Pierre Grocery Store, selling all kinds of finished potions, magic water, herbs, herb seeds; selling all kinds of materials, ores (including magic crystals); selling all kinds of low-rank magic ornaments, amulets; part-time item recycling and treasure appraisal.

Looking at the wooden sign with a strong small workshop temperament, Gao De nodded slightly.

This was exactly what he needed.

When Gao De walked into the grocery store, the shopkeeper Pierre was curled up on the recliner behind the counter, resting with his eyes half-open.

It could be seen that the business of the grocery store was not very good on weekdays.

"Look for what you need yourself; what's not displayed on the shelf doesn't mean the shop doesn't have it, and there are some goods in the warehouse in the back." The shopkeeper Pierre was an old man who looked quite old; he clearly heard Gao De's footsteps but didn't even lift his head, greeting him casually.

Gao De swept around casually and found that although the items here were numerous and messy, they were managed very neatly.

"I saw on the wooden sign at the door that it says item recycling, do you accept everything?" Gao De went straight to the point.

"Of course not," Pierre shook his head, still not intending to get up, "This is a grocery store, not a garbage dump; it must be something with a certain value."

"Potions?" Gao De said while browsing the potions displayed on the shelves; the types were extremely numerous, but they were all 0-rank potions.

"Let me see the goods." Pierre's eyes flashed with a faint light upon hearing this, which was the sign of casting the cantrip 【Detect Magic】, and then nodded: "The light is very bright, the color is good."

Mastering a spell can be called a mage apprentice, so the shopkeeper in front of him is at least a mage apprentice, and at his age, no matter how bad his talent is, his strength must be higher than his own... Gao De muttered to himself.

"The acquisition price of a set of primary spider venom potion here is generally 30 silver. Your goods are of good quality, I will add 1 silver per small bottle for you, 33 silver per set." Pierre offered directly.

It was definitely a very realistic acquisition price; the long-term acquisition price negotiated by Master Seda was only 40 silver (2 gold).

"Deal." Gao De was very satisfied and agreed immediately.

After the money and goods were handed over, Gao De didn't leave. "Is there anything else you need?" Pierre asked actively.

Gao De approached the counter and lowered his voice, "Do you have spell formulas for sale here?"

A moment of dead silence.

"In Saint Xi En, it is strictly forbidden to trade spell formulas privately." Pierre's politeness faded, and he became expressionless.

In fact, not only the Principality of Saint Xi En, but almost all countries on the entire continent have similar regulations, listing spell formulas as controlled items and restricting private trading.

Mages who want to buy spell formulas can only go to official mage associations or certain mage organizations permitted by the official.

There are many reasons for this.

In the world before Gao De's transmigration, controlled items were generally three types:

One is those with powerful lethality that may pose a strong threat to social security, such as firearms, ammunition, controlled knives... One type is items that infringe on intellectual property rights, including pirated software, pirated audio-visual products, etc.

The last type is items that can provide huge profits and the products themselves may cause harm, the most typical of which is tobacco.

And spell formulas, these three conditions are all met.

First, it allows the buyer to master spells with powerful lethality or destructive power, equivalent to "firearms and ammunition," and even more so.

In addition, spell formulas are extremely profitable; after all, it's just a piece of paper + some text, almost no cost, but it can be sold at a sky-high price.

The average price of a 0-level spell formula is as high as 6 gold, which is already a profit of hundreds or thousands of times, and the average price of a 1st-level spell formula is as high as 25 gold... because it actually sells knowledge, and paper is just a carrier.

Finally, spell formulas are too easy to fake, and private trading cannot guarantee the authenticity of the formula.

Once fake formulas are rampant, it will cause serious harm to the entire country—it is called a spell formula because the mastery of magic, besides needing hard work and talent, also requires taking corresponding magic potions.

Therefore, a complete spell formula, besides spell introduction, magic model, and casting technique, also contains the corresponding potion formula.

If you buy a fake spell formula, you will brew fake medicine, and it's not just about losing all your money; it's a high probability event that taking fake medicine will cause accidents and death.

Combining all these, countries strictly control spell formulas, which can increase national income, maintain market order, protect the "intellectual property rights" of mages, and avoid the proliferation of magic, killing four birds with one stone.

Of course, no matter how strict the control is, it is impossible to completely prohibit the private trading of spell formulas.

Because the act of trading itself is difficult to identify.

For example, Master Seda teaches cantrips to apprentices; this is clearly not a transaction and is allowed.

So many private trading behaviors of spell formulas, as long as there is no evidence, can be completely called teaching; who can do anything to you? Of course, in most cases, mages would rather buy spell formulas from official channels at a high price than choose private trading, even if the price of private trading is much cheaper—the spell formulas from official channels are expensive, but they can guarantee authenticity, while other channels, who can guarantee the truth?

After all, the threshold for formula forgery is too low, everyone can do it, and the materials needed for magic potions are often much more expensive than the formulas.

To save a little money, buying a fake formula, and then wasting more money to buy materials to brew a bottle of fake magic potion, is just not worth the loss.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 13 =====

To save a little money, buying a fake formula and then wasting even more money purchasing materials to brew a bottle of fake potion is simply penny-wise and pound-foolish.

(End of chapter)