Chapter 12: Chapter 12
Darius made the conversion and watched as the book changed significantly. It became a large tome with many markings on its spine and covers, while the pages glowed with a soft blue light.
Darius inspected it.
[Unused Spell Manual - Material
Durability: 200/200
Description: An empty spell manual of the highest quality, any type of spell can be safely stored within and will never drop in quality. All users who read this have an extra 50% chance to perfectly comprehend the spell within.]
Darius clicked his tongue. As was to be expected from this elitist ability, it made the best possible spell manual for the situation. He wasn't sure what exactly the value of this would be among mages, but Darius could hazard a guess and say it would have to be extremely valuable.
Darius sighed. He could easily make a huge merchant association in this world with his Transmutation ability alone, but that would bring more problems than solutions.
Where did he get his raw materials from? Which craftsmen did he hire to make such high-quality goods? In that hypothetical scenario, if answered that he himself made everything he sold, the next reasonable question would be where did he learn such skills?
Of course, one could choose not to answer, but that would raise suspicions. Once that happened, the ensuing events could be easily pictured, Darius would be harassed until he spilled the beans.
As such, he decided to go about this from a different angle. Darius gazed at the System Brand on his finger. This tool would be his path to success, enabling him to raise cannon fodder to the Grandmaster level in different aspects of life.
[Would you like to change the empty spell manual into a fireball spell manual? This will cost 18 Conversion Points.]
Darius sighed. It seemed like the jump was still too high for him at the moment. He would have to accumulate enough points for a one-time conversion, or he could try to partially convert it and see.
[Would you like to change the empty spell manual into a 1/10th completed fireball spell manual? This will cost ??? Conversion Points.]
[Sorry, partial conversion is not available at your current stage.]
He grimaced slightly. At least he had been told that it wasn't completely impossible, so it wasn't completely off the table. Darius put the spell manual into his Inventory and rose to his feet.
He had rested enough and the carcass of the Wild Boar was beginning to smell. Flies had also converged on the corpse for their daily bread, and Darius was sure that sharp-nosed predators were not far off.
He quickly left the clearing and resumed his trek through the thickets. He was not interested in fighting any more wild beasts compared to reaching his destination.
However, Darius had to pause when he noticed a large python crossing between two trees. He could not even see its head, but only the length of its body as it slowly snaked along.
Darius was not too knowledgeable on animals in the wild, but his perception warned him of imminent danger. This should be one of the traits of the Intellect stat showing itself.
It was a faint feeling that tingled at the back of his mind, and interestingly it had nothing to do with the serpentine torso moving along stately in front of him but… something to his left?
Darius didn't turn his whole head, but only moved his eyes to the corner of his vision on the left. Had he not been a grown man who had experienced the vicissitudes of old age, he would have flinched and screamed.
The head of the python in question was lowering itself from a nearby branch towards his body. It was moving slowly and gently so as not to alert its prey - him. While he was distracted by the moving torso, the head would strike and subdue him quickly.
The body length needed to achieve this was too scary to consider. Darius began to sweat as the fear surged through him, but he forcibly calmed his mind, which had always been his forte, and began moving his right hand slowly.
It was a strange period of silence where Darius was getting his hand into position for casting while the python got its upper body into a firm spot for lunging. The only difference was the fact that the snake was unaware that Darius had spotted it.
Unfortunately for the snake in this case, Darius only needed to point a single finger in its direction, not move his whole arm that way. Immediately, he cast the Sparks spell and jumped back.
At that same moment, the python, which had a faster reaction speed than a human boy of age 13, lunged at him with fangs bared. However, it came into contact with the electrical sparks from the spell Darius cast, much of which entered its mouth and eyes.
It froze and fell limp for a few seconds, twitching violently as its eyes and mouth smoked slightly. Darius quickly Inspected the snake to assess his fighting chances.
[Reticulated Python - Level 2 Beast
HP: 5/8 MP: 0/0]
It was a monster one level higher than he was, and its health was greater than the boar from before for obvious reasons. Still, Darius was surprised to see that his Sparks spell appeared to have done 3 points of damage instead of 1.
Unless the snake had entered this fight with some sort of hidden injury, he reasoned that his own attack must have benefitted from a multiplier of some sorts, whether an elemental weakness – which was a bit far-fetched –, an improvement technique – which was unlikely for a level 1 spell he had learned just today –, or a critical hit. According to the principle of exclusion, the last option seemed to be the most likely one.
Darius recalled that the Sparks had entered the Reticulated Python's eyes and mouth, before dealing its damage. Since those could be considered weak spots on any living organism, it was reasonable for such an attack to become a critical hit.
Going by the damage caused, critical hits seemed to make attacks 3x as effective. At Darius' current stage, that was marginally useful, but at the higher levels where his damage was bound to increase, this would be an important mechanic for him.
Darius didn't waste this chance. He quickly ran up to the still dazed Reticulated Python and opened its lower jaw, pointing his finger inside.
Many would call him foolish, but once the Sparks spell spread out within the beast, taking away another 3 points of health, all such fellows would be forced into silence.
Chapter 13: Chapter 13
[You have gained 20 EXP and 1 Bronze Ando Coin.]
Darius had immediately cast another Sparks spell into the gullet of the snake, immediately killing it. It was charred internally, and a pungent trail of smoke wafted out from its esophagus.
Darius placed the carcass down and withdrew his iron dagger. Just like with the boar, he collected the fangs of the snake, which was a much easier task since it was surrounded by flesh.
Even though such things nominally had no value, to Darius they were precious. The day he wanted to convert an item upwards that was similar to these things, he would be eternally grateful for his thoughtfulness.
He also noted something interesting. Since the experience reward for killing enemies at the same level was 5 exp, he had wondered how much it would be for enemies above his level.
Well, it seemed like Darius had received his answer. For one level above, he gained 20 exp. That was four times his base reward, which made him certain that his path to progression lay in defeating stronger foes.
He also received a single Bronze Ando Coin. The currency for the Andrato Kingdom was called the Ando Coin, and there were three tiers. There was the lowly Bronze Ando Coin, the middle-class' Silver Ando Coin, and the elite's Gold Ando Coin.
The gap in value between these three tiers was truly great. 1,000 Bronze Ando Coins were needed to make 1 Silver Ando Coin, and the same applied for Silver Ando Coins to Gold Ando Coins.
Darius only knew that Ando Coins at the Bronze level could guarantee a living for all peasants and low-tier adventurers. The purchasing power of 1 Bronze Ando Coin was enough to buy groceries to last a family of four 1 week if they rationed carefully.
It should be noted that groceries were dirt cheap in Andrato due to an economical issue pertaining to dungeons, but Darius did not have enough information from the infopack to highlight this.
As for a Silver Ando Coin, in terms of economic value, it could be used to buy good quality housing or property, afford one a few servants and keep an extended family of about 12 living like a middle-class family for about 3 months depending.
As for Gold Ando Coins, they were almost exclusively used by the nobles and royalty, as well as top-tier adventures and professional mages. They could buy estates, fleets of slaves and servants, as well as maintain a whole clan for a year.
Darius held the Ando Coin and flicked it around. It was genuine bronze with the sigil of a sword bathed in holy light on one side, with the carving of a woman with delicate features wearing a crown on the other.
Thinking like this, Darius rubbed his chin. He had obviously considered manifesting currency with his Transmutation ability, but wanted to encounter society first before he judged whether that would be wise or not.
His Small Database Infoblock had provided him with a good amount of basic information, but that was it, all the information had been basic. It wasn't called a 'small' Infobock for nothing after all, as what it gave him was limited.
Darius had to pause his journey after walking about 10 kilometers because he was exhausted. As he rested with his back against the bark of a tree and his bum on the grassy forest floor, he had to admit, those games he had played with his nephews and son had never bothered to display how tiring long-distance walking could be.
As someone who had relied on vehicular transportation from the modern world, Darius was not really ready for long-distance trekking of this nature. At first, it had felt wonderful and invigorating, now Darius wished he could sprout wings and fly.
While rubbing his chin, Darius collected some earth from the forest floor and filled his flask to the brim with it. After that, he concentrated.
[Would you like to change the flaskful of sand into a flaskful of drinking water? This will cost 0.01 Conversion Points.]
It literally cost a pittance to change sand to water!
Then again, water was a simple substance and sand was also quite simple, so the conversion was basically only in terms of matter, not design, like with man-made things.
This also told Darius that changing matter from one type to another that was considered natural or of nature, cost far less than artificial changes. Once again, this should be a given, but building a habit of assumptions based on 'it should be obvious' when one can draw a factual conclusion was bad.
Darius made the conversion and felt the flask become slightly heavier almost instantly. He gazed into it and saw the clearest water he had ever seen that almost sparkled with purity.
Instead of being colorless, it actually glowed a little, showing that this wasn't simple water at all.
[Pure Water - Liquid
Durability: 1/1
Description: Water distilled by the most powerful methods known. This liquid can nourish the body of those who drink it, improving blood flow, lifespan, and vitality when consumed repetitively over a long period of time.]
Ah, the fabled water of purity. Back on Earth, when Darius had attended church to keep up his image of a god-fearing man, the pastor had held a sermon telling his flock that once upon a time, when their world was still young, the people had drunk from water that was so pure, it had boosted the longevity of early humans, which was how they had lived so long… aside from the various deaths by conflict or predators in the wild.
Curious, Darius drank a mouthful of the water. It tasted… strange. It basically tasted clean… like really clean. It was a hard sensation to describe, but it felt like he was washing his mouth and throat with something that removed all of his body's filth.
However, its effect was almost immediate. Darius felt energized and hale, his former fatigue greatly bleeding away as if he had rested for an entire day.
Darius gazed at the almost full flask with respect. If just one sip could yield such amazing results, then he should be fine for as long as the flask remained full. Afterward... well, all he had to do was convert some sand to water to retain this effect.
Darius rose to his feet and continued walking through this unnamed forest. It was truly located in an unassuming place, smack dab in the middle of the Plains of the Green which was treated as the outskirts of the Andrato Kingdom.
Towards the side of Plains of Death, the north was unconquered land that was considered to be where the territorial line of the Kingdom was drawn.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
6 Power
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