Chapter 49: Return

Half a month means half a month.

After the last day of Spring Bud Month, Green Leaf Month began, and the city grew lush with greenery.

Gao De delivered five sets of Chujizhuduyaoji to Phil’s Apothecary and purchased another half-month’s supply of green spider sacs from the same shop.

After finishing this, he stopped by Pierre’s Grocery and was startled to find the shop door, closed for half a month, now open.

The familiar old man lay lazily on his rocking chair, basking in the warm morning sun, utterly at ease.

Gao De’s face lit up with joy as he approached.

“You brat, you haven’t been standing outside my door every day, have you? I just got back yesterday, opened the shop half an hour ago, and not a single customer has come in—yet here you are.”

Pierre noticed Gao De’s arrival, shifted his body slightly, then reluctantly rose to greet him.

“Pure coincidence.” Gao De’s mind was full of spell scrolls and the anxious hope of imminent wealth.

“Alright, I know what you’re thinking,” Pierre, a shrewd old fox, wouldn’t drag this out, “Wait a moment.”

He moved his rocking chair aside, stepped into the shop’s storage room, and returned moments later.

Seeing Pierre emerge from the storage room, Gao De’s eyes brightened instantly.

In the old man’s hand was a scroll! “I told you you’re lucky—Strike Spell has low usage. Last year, the Emerald Alliance’s scroll scribes made only three Strike Spell scrolls total.”

“Of those three, one was sold publicly, one was used internally by the organization’s mages, and this one was left—so I got my hands on it.”

Pierre boasted as he handed the scroll to Gao De. “Check it out.”

Gao De received the spell scroll as if it were a priceless treasure and examined it closely.

The scroll felt extremely tough and tightly woven, with fine fibrous textures giving it a natural, classical beauty—likely made from finely processed animal hide.

The parchment had probably been specially treated to preserve its magical energy long-term.

Along the edges were runes and magical symbols drawn in dark ink.

These patterns weren’t mere decoration—they held the key to unlocking the spell’s power.

The scroll itself was tightly rolled, bound at both ends with rope in a slipknot—pull gently, and it would open.

“You can untie it without triggering the spell—don’t worry,” Pierre noticed Gao De’s restless hesitation and added.

At this, Gao De immediately untied the slipknot and unrolled the scroll.

Before his eyes appeared incantations written in an exotic script.

The characters seemed alive, occasionally flickering with faint light, revealing the magic contained within.

Gao De didn’t recognize the script—it was magical writing.

Only if he mastered [Read Magic] or was fluent in this script could he understand it.

But that didn’t prevent him from using the scroll.

To use a spell scroll, one simply unrolls it, focuses the mind on the incantation, and silently intends the desired effect—then the sealed spell is released.

Of course, before use, the user must first identify the spell and its level.

The user must also possess sufficient mental strength; otherwise, they cannot control the spell’s activation.

Spell scrolls require mental strength one spell tier below the spell’s level—minimum Apprentice Mage.

That is, an Apprentice Mage can use a 1st-tier scroll, a 1st-tier Mage can use a 2nd-tier scroll, and so on. After studying it for a while, Gao De retied the scroll and smiled.

“You’ve really helped me out.”

“Just business,” Pierre shrugged casually. “The scroll costs seven gold. The meal I treated you to? That’s on me.” He extended his right hand, palm up, toward Gao De.

Gao De quickly rummaged in his pocket and counted out seven Sein gold coins, placing them in Pierre’s palm.

Money exchanged, goods delivered.

After months of hard work selling potions, his savings had reached twenty-one gold—he’d just begun feeling flush, and now he was back to square one.

“My account’s down to fourteen gold again.”

“And in a few days, I’ll need to buy seedlings of wormwood and snake-tooth grass to plant in the herb garden.”

“Otherwise, at the current consumption rate, by year’s end, the output of these two herbs won’t keep up.”

“If that happens, I’ll have to buy all three main ingredients from apothecaries—cost per potion will rise from twenty to twenty-five silver back to thirty silver, cutting my profit per set by ten silver. That’s too thin.”

“I must buy these seedlings—and I can’t delay.”

“Buying seedlings is one expense, but I’ll also need to buy fertilizer to nurture them—that’s another expense.”

Doing the math, Gao De uttered a sigh universal across all worlds.

It’s hard to live anywhere.

“I can only hope Seda the Mage’s inheritance isn’t a letdown.”

Though Gao De felt fairly certain he’d score a “big jackpot,” what if? What if Seda was a sneaky old bastard who pulled some reverse trick?

What if the heavily guarded box was empty, and the real treasure sat plainly in plain sight? It wasn’t impossible.

If that happened, all he could do was curse a few “old bastard”s.

He couldn’t dig up the corpse and whip it in rage.

“The recent anomalies outside the city might not be as simple as they seem.”

As Gao De tucked the scroll away and prepared to leave, Pierre hesitated, then called out to him with a warning: “Stock up on food when you can. If something bad happens, you’ll be unprepared.”

“Huh?” Gao De’s heart jolted. He asked earnestly, “What do you mean by ‘something bad’?”

Knowing Pierre, Gao De didn’t believe the old man would speak without cause or exaggerate.

If he was warning him, he’d seen something.

“I can’t be certain yet, but the increase in geoflora creatures is no accident. I originally thought it might be a high-tier magical plant maturing, drawing them together.”

“But this has lasted too long,” Pierre’s expression grew heavier, “By now, that plant should’ve matured. I still don’t know what’s happening—I need to watch further.”

“But my gut tells me something bad is likely occurring—I just don’t know if it’ll affect us.”

Pierre sighed, revealing more: “I went to Bremen City to arrange an escape route. If things turn bad, I’ll flee there.”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that—after all, I can run, but my shop can’t.”

At his age, if he abandoned the shop, he’d find no new livelihood in Bremen—only live off his savings.

That’s a last-resort option.

“So, if you can, prepare too,” Pierre said, ending the conversation.

“I understand. Thank you for the warning,” Gao De nodded seriously, his mood sinking.

(End of Chapter)