Chapter 535: Magic Bead, State of Mind

However, Xia Duo's sudden appearance caused the two people in the small workshop to fall silent at once. Before Xia Duo could speak, the old man pulled the middle-aged man down to kneel on the ground, begging for mercy incessantly:

"My lord, spare our lives! This boy was muddled for a moment and deceived you. I am willing to offer up all my property, I only ask that you spare his life!"

As he spoke, he even tore that necklace from his neck and held it up with both hands before Xia Duo, "My lord, this is a treasure I obtained in ruins when I was young. I beg you to let us go!"

"……"

Xia Duo was a bit stunned. He hadn't even opened his mouth yet, and they were already offering up family property and treasures. Did he really look that heartless?

When it came down to it, the buyer and seller were both willing. Knowing the item was fake, he had still bought it, harboring some intent of entrapment. However, he could also be considered to have cleared a mine for this family; if it had been another Mage, they might have truly demanded both money and life.

Of course, other Mages might not be able to find the other party as easily as Xia Duo. 【Scrying】 is a 4th-circle spell; wasting a 4th-circle spell just for a fake item that only cost 10 Gold Coins was simply not worth it.

But since Xia Duo had come, he certainly wouldn't leave empty-handed.

He first picked up the necklace and carefully observed the bead-shaped pendant nearby, discovering that it was indeed as he had guessed: this was a Magic Item capable of detecting Scrying spells.

Although Xia Duo did not cast 【Identify】, the magic on this pendant had not been encrypted at all, and it had been added via 【Magic Permanence】.

This discovery caused the value of the pendant to drop significantly in Xia Duo's eyes. Although manufacturing Magic Items using 【Magic Permanence】 might seem much more flexible—even capable of attaching spell effects to the human body—its stability was far worse than using Mithril Components.

Moreover, the threshold for spellcasting was very high. Basically, regardless of how many circles of magic effects needed to be added, it required a spellcasting difficulty at least one circle higher. This involved element circulation, simply because 【Magic Permanence】 was not a specific spell, but a technique.

This did not align with the research direction Xia Duo had chosen. He needed a manufacturing method with a lower threshold so that he could expand the range of Spellcasters capable of participating in manufacturing, while also promoting the iteration and updating of various types of spells.

After a careful inspection, Xia Duo tossed the necklace back into the palm the old man was still holding out, and said in a calm tone: "Stand up first!"

When throwing the necklace, Xia Duo did feel a bit of reluctance in his heart. With almost no cost, he could obtain this Magic Item worth over ten thousand, and it would completely conform to the behavioral standards of a Netherese Mage; no one would blame him for it.

But—

Almost not needing to, did not mean not needing to at all. What he actually needed to pay was a bit of conviction and a bit of principle in his heart. He did not actually fully identify with the current environment of Netheril.

His values were still somewhat different from those of Netherese Mages. Although he had been here for so long and had been influenced to some extent, there were some principled things that could not be changed.

Entrapment, then coming over to kill and seize wealth—asking himself, Xia Duo could never bring himself to do it. Even if he didn't kill and only seized wealth, Xia Duo still felt it was somewhat dishonorable.

If it were an enemy, it wouldn't matter. Just like that Arcanist Aquilain from Hawk Territory, Xia Duo had carried out a sneak attack as a matter of course, and if there had been an even "stranger" method, he wouldn't have minded trying it out.

But the two parties were not enemies, so there was no need to resort to such devious ways.

Although Netherese Mages did not advocate for justice, they also rejected evil; even evil people might not necessarily like to associate with other evil people.

If this were the protagonist of some novel Xia Duo had written before he transmigrated, perhaps the first sentence he would say would be—"Mere worldly goods, you dare use them to disturb my state of mind!", and then he would kill or hack them, and finally loot the corpses.

That might look more pretentious or "chuunibyou," but applied to Xia Duo himself, whether considering it from reality or from his own state of mind, he was still unwilling to accept this Magic Item.

However, not wanting the Magic Item did not mean not wanting the person.

Of course, before that, some questions still needed to be asked clearly.

Seeing that the two were still trembling as they knelt on the ground, Xia Duo said once more, "Stand up! I don't want to say it a third time!"

In fact, Xia Duo was very repulsed by this form of kneeling at every turn. Although it looked a bit satisfying to be high and mighty, if he changed his perspective, would he one day encounter an existence that required him to prostrate himself?

It didn't matter when others knelt to him, but it was unpleasant when it was his turn to kneel to others.

This bad habit must be resolutely banned. You and I are both Great Arcanists, or even seeds of lofty gods; why should I kneel to you? If everyone had such a conviction, perhaps this would be a world suitable for the development of civilization.

To date, Xia Duo had not been required by others to kneel, but he knew that if some Great Arcanist demanded he kneel and pay respects, he would have no room to refuse.

Although Spellcasters could be considered to have great power belonging to themselves and did not need to highlight authority through various complex rituals like ordinary rulers, there was no guarantee that someone wouldn't enjoy that sort of thing.

Every time he thought of this possibility, Xia Duo felt a wave of irritation.

When one's strength is inferior to others, what can one do but sigh.

……

The old man and the middle-aged Adventurer in the small workshop finally stood up under Xia Duo's two commands, though they remained trembling and cautious, fearing that the Mage lord before them would strike with a spell.

"Tell me, how many people have you deceived like this?" While inquiring, Xia Duo unobtrusively cast the Judgment Spell: Inquiry he had learned from the 【Projection Plane: Arcane Empire】.

It was actually a psychic spell.

【Inquiry】 was similar to the 【Domain of Honesty】 that Laidun had once cast, capable of judging whether the target within the spell's field was lying, only it involved no Holy Power and was pure Arcane Magic, which was quite easy to use.

"My lord, we only arrived in Seventon from Xibodeng Territory yesterday, and we only sold one item, which was bought by you, my lord." The middle-aged man's tone seemed somewhat aggrieved.

It was the truth, but not lying did not mean not concealing. Xia Duo continued to ask: "Then did you deceive anyone else before coming to Seventon?"

"……" The expression on the middle-aged man's face began to struggle, and finally, his face fell. Just as he was about to speak, the old man stepped in first: "My lord, we only sold a few before, and we stated beforehand that they were just ordinary silver ornaments; it was they themselves who thought they were Mithril."

"Oh? How is it that upon arriving in Seventon, your courage has grown instead?"

When Xia Duo bought it, that middle-aged man had clearly said it was a Mithril ornament. Not daring to say so elsewhere, but saying so upon arriving in Seventon—did he think the Mages of Seventon were more foolish than those elsewhere? Or were they planning to pull just one job and then never come to Seventon again?

He glanced at the pile of silver-white metal wire that had fallen to the ground. The appearance of silver and Mithril was still quite distinct; that pile of metal wire looked no different from Mithril Wire from the outside.

If it weren't for the fact that Xia Duo frequently came into contact with Mithril, he really would have been deceived by them. The craftsmanship of these two was truly not bad.

"Where did you learn the style of these ornaments?" After two ordinary questions, Xia Duo finally asked about the main point.

The middle-aged man looked blank and only looked at the old man. The old man did not hide it either: "My lord, when I was young, I found a damaged Ancient Magic Artifact in ruins. It had many complex Mithril structures. I took it apart and sold it, and later, later—"

"Later, you felt that selling just one wasn't enough, so you started making fakes?" Xia Duo helped him finish the rest of the sentence.

"Yes."

"……"