I am the Enchantress!

Chapter 29 I am an apprentice!

"jingle--"

The animal bone pendant above the entrance of Zhulingbaozhai jingled softly.

Baggins peeked out from behind the counter, caught sight of that familiar figure, and immediately perked up.

"Young man, are you going to make a move on that dragon scale?" he asked enthusiastically.

"No." Wilder shook his head.

"Did that girl really give you five gold coins?"

"no."

"I knew it!" Baggins stroked his beard. "Two golds is the fair price."

"Well……"

Wilder smiled. "If I remember correctly, the final price you mentioned last time was two gold and fifty silver."

"Hahaha," Baggins chuckled, "Right, right, right! Two golds and fifty silvers! I'm getting old, my memory's really not good."

Wilder shrugged.

Why do I think you're getting more shrewd with age?

"I don't plan to sell the scales for now," Wilder changed the subject. "I'm here to buy a staff."

He noticed during his last visit that there were many slender and exquisite sticks displayed in the cabinet, which must have been magic staffs.

"It seems you've officially become a professional."

Baggins smiled, as if congratulating him, "My staves may not be the most complete in Ironweave Town, but they are definitely of good quality and inexpensive. I guarantee you'll find one you like."

Wilder nodded.

"So, are you planning to buy a brand new one or a used one?" Baggins asked.

Wilder's eyes lit up.

You can actually buy this secondhand!

Having seen Fina's exquisite staff, he was worried that he couldn't afford it, but a second-hand one would probably be much cheaper.

"I'll buy it secondhand," he replied.

"well!"

Upon hearing this, Baggins' eyes lit up, and he turned around excitedly to rummage through the cabinet, almost falling off his high stool in his excitement.

Wilder frowned.

What is he so happy about?

Is it possible that secondhand goods are more profitable?

Before long, Baggins returned with three slender boxes, each one exquisitely crafted, with dark ink-colored velvet exuding luxury and dark gold inlays on the corners.

He raised the corners of his mouth and introduced them one by one with considerable pride:

"This was used by the great mage Kade during his apprenticeship. It has a birchwood base and moonstone crystals, making it incredibly light."

"This weapon was used by the Evocation Mage Magnus in his early years. It has a hard maple base and is made of stardust crystals, which greatly enhances elemental spells."

"This staff is made of holly wood with ruby ​​crystals. Its previous owner is hard to verify, but it is equipped with two level-three spells: Snowstorm."

Wilder didn't quite understand terms like "substrate" and "crystal," but the three staffs were exquisitely crafted, each with an impressive origin.

He is satisfied.

"What are the prices?"

"Five hundred gold, three hundred gold, two hundred and fifty gold," Baggins replied with a smile.

"How many?!"

Wilder was startled.

Having been in this world for some time, apart from the bounty offered by the association for investigating the forest fire, he had never seen such an outrageous price.

"You think it's a good deal too, right?" Baggins clearly misunderstood him. "To be honest, I'm not making any money at this price."

"Uh..." Wilder shook his head. "I mean, it's too expensive."

"You think it's too expensive... I remember there are two that cost around 100 gold each, I'll go find them for you."

"One hundred is too expensive," Wilder stopped him.

"What's your budget? It's hard to find cheaper secondhand items these days."

"Eight gold coins."

He will be participating in the junior mage assessment in a few days. Based on his experience, he should keep at least two gold coins for the cost of materials.

"Eight?" Baggins was stunned. "That's not even enough to buy a base for a secondhand staff."

"What about the third-hand ones?" Wilder asked tentatively.

"Are you kidding me?" Baggins closed the three exquisite boxes and then said, "If your budget is really tight, you should take a look at the brand new ones."

"what?"

Wilder didn't understand. "A brand new one can be cheaper than a used one?"

"Of course, brand new ones are the cheapest."

Baggins paused for a moment before realizing that Wilder didn't understand these things. "The more people have used a staff, the more expensive it becomes, especially if it's left behind by a famous mage."

Why is that?

"Two reasons."

Baggins held up two fingers.

"First, a secondhand staff will retain the magic power of its previous owner. Don't underestimate that little bit of residual power; sometimes it's enough to make a stagnant mage suddenly realize something and advance in level."

"Secondly, many second-hand staves retain the magic that their previous owners had used. A stave that retains multiple high-level spells can easily sell for a thousand gold."

Wilder hadn't expected this kind of gameplay and immediately pressed for details:

"So, anyone can cast those stored spells? What are the conditions?"

"As long as you're a mage, that's fine."

"Wouldn't the mage make a killing if he bought a few more staves and filled them with high-level spells?"

"Making money? I don't think I've ever met many mages who are short of money."

Baggins smiled at Wilder. "Of course, except for some young mages, but they don't understand high-level spells yet."

"Oh," Wilder scoffed, "then I'll take a look at the brand new ones."

"No problem, let's take it one step at a time. The path to becoming a mage is long."

Baggins pulled out several more staffs from the cabinet behind him. This time, not only were there no boxes, but the staffs themselves were also much rougher.

"It's produced in our town, with ironwood as the base and quartz crystal. The craftsmanship is a bit rough, but it's definitely sturdy and can even be used to charge a spell once."

"How much is this?"

"Ten gold coins, that's the lowest price."

Baggins leaned forward and lowered his voice, "The Adventurers' Guild added a box and dared to sell it for thirty gold coins, but the source is the same one."

Wilder nodded, secretly relieved that he had escaped unscathed.

but……

Although the brand new ones were indeed much cheaper than the hundreds of gold coins he had just bought, ten gold coins still represented almost all of his wealth.

"I bought it."

After all, it's something that can save your life; his life is worth more than ten gold coins.

"Alright, pick one that looks good to you," Baggins laughed. "We're destined to meet, so I'll give you an extra box."

"If you're going to give me a box, you might as well give me a discount of one gold coin."

"...The box cost less than ten copper coins."

"We're destined to meet, as you just said."

"I really can't lower the price. I'm not even willing to make a profit of ten gold coins."

"I'm an apprentice!"

"?"

Baggins, of course, didn't understand the joke and frowned in confusion.

A moment of silence.

"Fine," he sighed.

In his youth, Baggins was also an adventurer, and he always saw a reflection of his younger self in these young people who had just set foot in the border forest.

"However, ten gold coins are really necessary, but I can help you replace the quartz crystal with a ruby, which can slightly increase the spell's power."

"Fine... then." Wilder seemed somewhat dissatisfied.

"Be content. A ruby ​​is worth ten silver coins. I've calculated that I haven't made any money from this staff at all."

Baggins gave a wry smile, but seemed to be in a good mood.