Chapter 68: Knowledge and Value

The struggles of those underground races, the ambitious Red Horn Tribe expanding the Kobold scale, that Kobold King with lofty aspirations.

Luge was thinking of these things at this moment, quietly watching the bonfire.

He saw there were many people nearby, and some would occasionally look over curiously, so he put on his hood; the firelight reflected on his face, and the hood's brim cast a slanted shadow.

"If you have anything you want to trade, you can go check out that Lizardman Camp," the Flame Man suddenly turned his head and said to Luge, "There are also quite a few low-level Apprentices there who privately set up stalls to trade little gadgets they have on hand."

Hearing this, Luge's eyes lit up; the long-awaited step of integrating into the supernatural world would begin with a Kobold browsing a market.

But on second thought, he thought of the Kobolds' old enemies, the Lizardmen; although these guys had now completely become a certain Apprentice's subordinates, would he be instinctively blocked or even attacked if he approached?

Although he thought this, he had already stood up and walked over there.

For contact with the supernatural world besides Half-Man and them, he still yearned greatly, especially hearing there were low-level Apprentices like him; he absolutely had to go browse around, preferably getting some interesting Spells. And he could also opportunistically sell some things, for example the few Notes in his Storage Bag from that Wizard Apprentice who researched the Fireball Technique.

He tightened his hood and gradually approached those two abnormally tall Lizardmen.

The two guys guarding both sides of the entrance twitched their noses, looking over curiously, but didn't dare move rashly.

Luge passed through smoothly; he even deliberately paused his steps midway to look at those two stinking Lizardmen's entangled, dazed appearance.

What met his eyes were some tents, and a few strange square little golden metal houses.

He was first attracted by the scent of some food, but quickly shook his head and started heading toward the street-side stalls; this Camp was a bit larger than imagined, roughly divided into three streets, and a street corner even had a tavern; one street was entirely scattered vendors.

Luge noticed some Wizard Apprentices' attire and demeanor; in Kalu Diary's words, they were obviously some Wild Wizards, and there were some differences in temperament from Wizard Apprentices who received orthodox inheritance. Most Wild Wizards, besides the accidental ones who picked up a Wizard's Inheritance and embarked on the Wizard Path, were those rejected by Wizard Organizations for insufficient aptitude.

Strictly speaking, he was also a pure Wild Wizard.

Luge swayed unsteadily, arriving at a stall, and suddenly discovered many things he didn't recognize placed on top — dried and wet, bottles and jars, and unrecognizable shriveled limbs. The stall owner was an old man wearing a tattered Wizard Robe; seeing his arrival, he wasn't particularly enthusiastic, just curiously examined his height and the face under his hat.

He scanned with his eyes twice and continued walking forward.

He needed to find the kind he could understand, with text — like books, like various Scrolls.

Soon a target appeared before his eyes, and there were also twos and threes of figures in front of the stall, with some discussion sounds.

His small stature immediately squeezed over to watch the excitement; he felt everything was novel now, having been cooped up in the Kobold Nest for so long without seeing this many people.

His eyes swept over the stall and he knew the object of their discussion; it was indeed a book, but a brand new publication, titled "Mystery City Truth Revealed"; a thin copy cost five Magic Stones, and that was on the condition of leaving a Secret Technique Mark on the stall's Contract forbidding showing it to others casually; if not leaving a Mark, it would be seven Magic Stones a copy.

Luge saw he just wanted to sell for seven Magic Stones, so he set the price so close. And most Wizard Apprentices chose this way too; no one liked casually leaving their Secret Technique Mark on a Contract.

What he lacked most was all kinds of information; when the spirits chatted, he couldn't get a word in.

He then took out seven Magic Stones and bought a copy.

He continued walking, occasionally wandering into corners to see if Half-Man would seize an opportunity to appear. He had already decided to walk out from the Camp's other exit later, to a secluded place to stay alone for a while.

Stopping before a middle-aged man who was obviously a Wild Wizard, Luge looked at the Spellbooks on the stall; these had obvious differences from the books in his hand, lacking a sense of refinement and solemnity.

"Private hand-copied version, absolutely no unauthorized alterations; the first half contains basic Spell Models, the second half has insights and experiences..." the stall owner dusted his long robe and said to Luge.

Luge raised no objections, his eyes swiftly scanning among the few books.

Pity after a good long while, there was still no Spirituality's palpitation.

"Can I pick it up and have a look?" he said.

The stall owner made an inviting gesture.

These few pitiful books actually still had the Fireball Technique; one could see the boss's business absolutely wouldn't be good.

Luge looked a few times and felt the more he looked the more unreliable; in the end he only chose a Zero-Circle Spell, Light Spell — this kind of small Spell surely wouldn't have any problems.

"Fifty Magic Stones."

The stall owner spoke, making Luge freeze.

Although he didn't understand market rates, this was just a copied version, not some rare Spell; besides Wild Wizards, probably no one would give it a second glance. He had Magic Stones in his pocket, but not for spending like this; this absolutely couldn't be tolerated.

"I have a good thing here," Luge took out one of the Fireball Technique Notes and said, "Don't be anxious, you can take a look."

The stall owner frowned and accepted the Notes.

Luge understood that among Wild Wizards, the Fireball Technique was a Spell with a very high solidification rate; this Notes, even if the stall owner couldn't use it himself, could absolutely be resold, or even copied multiple times for sale.

The stall owner's expression hadn't changed the whole time, but this was the best change — it showed he was controlling himself.

"Two hundred Magic Stones, I'll give you that Flash Spell, and you can pick one more book here." The stall owner didn't continue further, closed the Notes, and spoke slowly.

"Three hundred Magic Stones, I won't want the Spells anymore."

Luge knew he might lose out a bit, but couldn't be bothered with nonsense; he had read the content on these Notes long ago.

The stall owner pretended to hesitate for a while, finally agreeing through gritted teeth, and gave Luge three pieces of those large Magic Stones Ba'angte gave last time.

He browsed around once more, walked out of the Camp from the other side, sat down in a deserted spot, and started reading that "Mystery City Truth Revealed" he had been itching for, while waiting for Half-Man's appearance.

This so-called Great Reveal, as he flipped it open, an unreliable aura assailed him.

First, it actually directly wrote three so-called conjectures: one said it was an ancient relic of an alien demon city; one said it was an Alchemical Device made by some powerful Wizard from even longer ago; the last was even more outrageous, directly stating this was an Eternal City — as long as one became a resident inside, one could attain Eternal Life, but the price was never being able to leave this City.

Luge was most interested in the Wizard's relic theory; it wrote that this involved a strange world, the Knowledge World. Earliest when the Nightmare World was discovered by Wizards, someone proposed a hypothesis: since countless beings' subconscious could create the Nightmare World and become the pillars of its continued existence, would there exist an even more peculiar world born from infinite thirst for knowledge, from countless minds?

Finally, through Wizards' efforts, this bizarre-to-the-point-of-inconceivable world was confirmed and named the Knowledge World, but just like the Nightmare World, this world was also far from as beautiful as imagined.

(Chapter End)