After exchanging a few pleasantries, Kyi stated their purpose for visiting.
Mu Zhuo smiled and replied, "How could I not take your request seriously, my lord? I've collected quite a few things. Let me show you."
He then raised his voice and called out towards the center of the tavern, "Orta, stop drinking and come here!"
Orta, the beastman, had already defeated his opponent in the drinking contest and was basking in the cheers and flattery of the surrounding crowd.
Hearing Mu Zhuo's call, he wiped his mouth and strode over.
As he approached, his gaze briefly lingered on Sunan, his pupils seemingly contracting for a moment. Then he looked at Mu Zhuo and grinned. "What's up, boss?"
"Time to work," Mu Zhuo said, pointing towards the backyard. He then turned to Kyi and Sunan with a smile. "Please come with me."
The Fire Fox Trading Company's carriages and goods were stored in the backyard, guarded by more than a dozen fully armed men.
Judging from their uniform attire and weapons, they weren't mercenaries but the company's own private soldiers.
Sunan's eyes flickered.
In this day and age, only large trading companies had the resources to train private soldiers.
It seemed the Fire Fox Trading Company was quite influential.
Following Mu Zhuo's instructions, Orta retrieved a heavy wooden chest from one of the carriages and placed it on the ground with a thud.
Opening it, they saw more than a dozen thick books and five small boxes.
"These are the things you requested, my lord," Mu Zhuo said with a smile.
To his surprise, Kyi simply nodded without making any move to inspect the items.
Instead, Sunan stepped forward, crouched down, and began examining the contents of the chest.
There were fourteen books in total, four of which were duplicates of ones Sunan already possessed.
This was unavoidable.
Ordinary people couldn't understand the words in wizard books and couldn't be expected to differentiate between them when collecting them. Duplicates were inevitable.
The remaining eight books were also not the type that could trigger skills.
But Sunan wasn't disappointed.
Even if they couldn't trigger skills, it was always good to have more knowledge.
After all, for a wizard, knowledge was power.
Besides, with his player status, as long as he reached 100% reading progress on a book, he would completely master its knowledge.
This alone gave him a huge advantage over other wizard apprentices.
However, one book did pique his interest.
Extraction and Modification of the Green Chameleon's Abilities!
According to the preface, this book described how to extract the bloodline containing the color-changing ability from a lizard called the Green Chameleon and integrate it into a human body, granting the person the ability to camouflage themselves like a chameleon.
"An interesting experiment."
Sunan set the book aside, planning to read it carefully later. He then opened the five small wooden boxes one by one.
Three of the boxes contained scrolls made of parchment.
The moment he opened the boxes, Sunan sensed the fluctuation of energy particles emanating from the scrolls.
Clearly, these were spell scrolls.
Moreover, they all recorded first-ring spells: Freezing Ray, Mist Cloak, and Summon Monster I.
"Excellent!"
A hint of joy flashed in Sunan's eyes.
His current spiritual power wasn't enough to learn first-ring spells, but he could use first-ring spell scrolls.
Spell scrolls could be activated by injecting a small amount of spiritual power, making them usable by any wizard apprentice.
Of course, if one's strength was insufficient, using a spell scroll of too high a rank could easily result in being injured by the energy fluctuations it triggered.
However, this wasn't a problem for first-ring spell scrolls.
These three spell scrolls could be quite useful in combat!
After a moment of excitement, Sunan turned his attention to the remaining two wooden boxes.
They also contained parchment scrolls, but instead of spells, they recorded other things.
To Sunan's surprise, the first scroll contained the formula for the Activity Potion.
"Concentrated Mind-Clearing Tree Sap, Nether Python Bone Powder, Thousand Soul Grass, Magic Sound Flower... these are all rare and precious materials."
Sunan grimaced inwardly.
It wouldn't be easy to gather all these materials in the current Starlight Continent.
It would take a lot of manpower and resources.
Even if he wanted to use the Cube to synthesize suitable substitutes, it would still require numerous experiments.
In comparison, it was much easier to synthesize the Activity Potion using the Inferior Activity Potion.
The second scroll recorded a technique called Energy Runes.
Sunan had some recollection of this.
Energy Runes were a branch of enchantment, involving manipulating energy particles to form runes with elemental properties, which could then be applied to oneself or other objects to imbue them with corresponding elemental effects.
For example, applying a Lightning Rune to a weapon could temporarily grant it lightning damage and a paralyzing effect.
Applying a Gale Rune to oneself could make the body lighter, greatly enhancing agility and flexibility.
In essence, Energy Runes were a technique for temporarily turning ordinary objects into magic items or temporarily enhancing oneself.
Since Energy Runes consumed very little spiritual power, after mastering them, they could be combined with close combat to unleash considerable power, making them highly practical in battle.
"In other words, it's an advanced technique for manipulating energy particles, requiring extremely high proficiency in energy particle control, which is why it requires at least a level 3 wizard apprentice to use."
However, Sunan clearly remembered that in his previous life, some players had developed a special method that allowed level 1 and level 2 wizard apprentices to use Energy Runes.
If he used this method, he might be able to master Energy Runes in advance.
"I'll try it when I get back!"
Sunan made up his mind, closed the box, put it back in the chest, and slowly stood up.
Mu Zhuo now understood that it was actually Sunan who wanted to collect these things, so he said with a smile, "I hope these items meet your expectations, Master Sunan."
"They're not bad."
Sunan nodded slightly, his expression betraying nothing, but inwardly he was very satisfied.
Not to mention the books and spell scrolls, the Energy Runes alone made him feel like this trip was quite worthwhile.
Kyi, seeing that his brother was satisfied with the items, called two soldiers over to carry the chest back to the inner castle. He and Sunan then bid farewell to Mu Zhuo and left.
Watching Kyi and Sunan leave, Mu Zhuo fell into deep thought.
Books and other items related to wizards were valuable collectibles.
Many nobles had a hobby of collecting such things.
But as far as he knew, the two brothers weren't in a good situation and shouldn't be thinking about collecting such things.
After all, these items weren't cheap; a few dozen gold coins were enough to buy several sets of armor.
But if not for collecting, why did Sunan want to collect these things?
After pondering for a while without finding an answer, Mu Zhuo shook his head, no longer dwelling on it. Turning around, he saw Orta staring intently in the direction Kyi and Sunan had left.
"What's wrong?" he asked curiously.
Orta hesitated for a moment. "That nobleman named Sunan... he gives me a very dangerous feeling!"
Very dangerous?
Mu Zhuo's expression shifted.
Due to his beastman bloodline, Orta had a beast-like intuition, able to vaguely sense whether someone posed a threat to him.
But Orta, as his chief bodyguard, possessed the strength of a mid-level knight!
For him to sense danger from someone, that person must be at least a peak knight.
Although Sunan didn't look fra
il at all, he didn't seem like a peak knight either!
Mu Zhuo was even more puzzled.