Chapter 99: Luxury and Stinginess

The beast cart rushed along the whole way.

Luge sat in the corner by the window, watching this young master Lorigo who might become the Starry Sky Family's First Heir in ranking.

Lorigo was silent the whole way, his sitting posture still upright with a straight waist, his head tilted at a very small angle looking out at the constantly passing street scenery, staring blankly in a daze. No one knew what he was thinking at this moment, not even Motel who had been with him for a long time; Luge could see from this red-haired lady's worried eyes that bewilderment and helplessness born of Lorigo.

Another reason Luge didn't want to stay at the gladiatorial arena was to let this red-haired lady stay by Lorigo's side, rather than disrupting the two's years-long interaction pattern because of his arrival; Lorigo always brought a spellcaster like this to protect his safety, there must be a reason for it.

Of course, there were many other reasons for not wanting to stay there, such as not wanting to be disturbed by those nobles after Lorigo left, such as leaving together with Lorigo being a statement, and also more in line with his own interests.

While thinking, he silently took out the newly obtained Spirit Heart Potion to inspect; the marks on the bottle body, seal and other positions were all intact; this thing was also his strongest reason for not wanting to stay at the gladiatorial arena.

Adding the one bottle originally left in his hands, he now had two bottles of Spirit Heart Potion in total; perhaps he could be luxurious for once.

He leaned against the window, repeatedly pondering, confronting and weighing against the impulse in his heart.

A creaking squeak sounded as the axle twisted.

The beast cart stopped in front of the manor.

Luge and the butler got off the beast cart, just in time to see a robust young man with three parts resemblance to Lorigo, riding a ground-standing underground beast that stood on two feet, raised its upper body, with four front claws like hook-sickles. That bent, nearly leaning-back posture seemed to be finding balance in a static stand.

"Second Brother!"

The young man confirmed the carriage frame then happily shouted loudly.

Lorigo pulled the window open to the maximum, also with a delighted appearance.

"I guessed you were at your own manor; sure enough, just as I arrived I saw you." The robust young man said.

"Alright, let's go to the castle together," Lorigo interrupted his words, "you get up here and sit, let the mount beast follow alongside."

The young man complied, vaulting up from the mount beast in a flash, jumping onto the beast cart.

Luge took all this in with his eyes, slowly turning and walking toward the depths of the manor.

As that second-floor small house drew near, he had already made a decision in his heart. Use two portions of Spirit Heart Potion to attempt to master the Stingy Technique, this rather strange Zero-Circle Spell.

He did this not to gamble with that wine-loving elder, but because in his heart he believed this was a spell worth the cost.

And he believed this spell could succeed; besides that Gathering Host guaranteeing the elder spoke the truth, he also had his own judgment, believing he had not been deceived.

He returned to the second-floor small house, first starting his routine daily meditation, then calling the maid Daisy to bring lots of food, and enjoying it together with the two kobolds.

He did not rush to begin.

Until a day later, young master Lorigo indeed as he predicted had not returned to the manor.

Nor was there any unexpected news.

After he and Aijin and the others finished sunbathing, they returned together to the small house; after instructing Daisy not to let anyone come disturb, he entered the Abyssal Bedroom Space.

Belly stuffed full of pre-prepared food, he was going to use the Spirit Heart Potion here.

He sat alone on the stone bed; the Stingy Technique's spellbook had nearly been flipped to pieces by him, but he still took it out and quietly read through it once, then tilted his head back and drank down the first bottle of Spirit Heart Potion.

As the potion went down, entering that near-transcendent state of extreme focus, the elusive side of the spell model unveiled its veil; those mischievous little things seemed to become docile too, or rather their frolicking in his eyes at this moment no longer counted for anything; all would be within his grasp.

A throbbing from deeper in his heart, that was the part he had always believed involved the soul, also the hardest to understand and control; it was the basis for his several suspicions whether this spell came from the elder's hand; he had even jokingly thought that if these things could come from that elder's hand, it must have been when that guy was drunk, and what he drank was the strongest liquor.

The confusion of many days, and those locations that proved he hadn't made a mistake at this moment but had always been unable to grasp, were all organized clearly one by one; the Spirit Heart Potion truly did not disappoint him.

Before he drank the Spirit Heart Potion, his biggest worry was that two bottles of potion would be exhausted without being able to thoroughly master the Stingy Technique.

Now it seems his worry was unnecessary; perhaps during the second bottle there would still be a little time left, incidentally learning that Zero-Circle Spell Writing Technique as well.

Previously seen in the diary, a typical Zero-Circle Spell model has about twenty nodes; for example Foul Skin has nineteen nodes, Secret Technique Mark only fifteen, Bull Strength twenty-one nodes.

And one of the difficulties of this Stingy Technique lies in that on the surface it appears to have fifteen nodes, but in the dark there are another fifteen nodes that cannot be directly constructed; those hidden little mischievous things in the dark are like flowers in a mirror and moon in water, elusive and intangible, connected to the surface nodes yet not as simple to understand as a mirror image; one must grasp the regularity and adjust the surface nodes to reflect and construct them out; it is precisely this never-before-seen thing that made him determine to spend two bottles of Spirit Heart Potion.

Until the discomfort after the first bottle of Spirit Heart Potion's effect faded interrupted his train of thought, did he press his forehead and stop thinking.

He originally planned to leave himself a day of recuperation between the two bottles, but that intense craving, that obsession of imminent completion, let him rest only half a day; even so he still desperately persuaded himself for fear a bad state would affect the medicinal efficacy.

At this moment he also somewhat understood those Official Wizards who dared not approach Mist City.

Finally forcing himself to rest a short while more, he drank the second bottle of Spirit Heart Potion.

As if an unknown door was opening to him; somewhat unexpectedly, the final stage was extremely difficult; the time envisioned to be left for the Writing Technique simply did not exist.

The spell model that originally moved the whole body by pulling one hair, under this seeming light-dark reflection situation, had its difficulty more than doubled.

Time passed bit by bit; the instant the spell model construction succeeded, before he could even be happy, he was submerged by the abnormal dizziness brought by the potion losing effect.

He fell onto the stone bed, grinning under the intense discomfort.

Aijin and Dasha had been watching him tensely from afar; hearing his laughter they hurried over, but Luge only hazily heard them say two sentences, then was fed some water, and fell into deep sleep.

Waking after one sleep, he lay on the stone bed blinking, completely without any refreshed feeling; his head was no longer dizzy, but had become very painful.

Aijin was right not far away.

"Aijin, how long did I sleep?" Luge had asked her to watch the crystal clock.

"Brother Luge, two days! You slept a whole two days!" she said.

Luge nodded, looking at the previously prepared food Dasha carried over, his appetite immediately surged; he wasn't overly worried about his body — dragonborn kobolds are very strong, and he was transformed from Different Dragon Blood with recovery ability.

After a hearty feast, he left the Abyssal Bedroom Space satisfied.

When he came out it happened to be the time of best light; the three kobolds again sunbathed on the recliners in front of the door.

While sunbathing he meditated to recover spiritual power; when he saw the dozen or so spell models unknowingly already possessed in his spiritual power space, rotating around three magic marks, an inexplicable sense of satisfaction arose in his heart.

He opened his eyes, called the maid Daisy.

"Has young master Lorigo still not returned?" he said.

"Reporting to you, sir, the young master has not yet returned; however someone came to visit you yesterday, I followed your instructions and said you were practicing spells and had no leisure." Daisy said meticulously.

"Visit me? Who?" Luge asked in surprise.

"He wore a spellcaster's clothing, did not leave a name, and his face could not be seen clearly; from the voice he might be a middle-aged man." Daisy said rigorously.

Luge leaned on the recliner and nodded.

With Daisy's withdrawal, he had also recovered more or less; finally about to begin the long-awaited Stingy Technique experiment.

(Chapter End)