章 32: But no one has gold

The old man kept escaping from the peeking of Stephan, finally, he snapped in his face. "Can't you just be courteous for once and leave me for my own research? I hate when brats like you come and disturb my moment with my formulas."

Stephan stepped back smiling. His eyes examined the room before returning to the old man and replying to him. Shelves, cupboards and cabinets lined the walls, all filled with potions, bottles, jars full of all kinds of organs and herbs, weapons that weren't enchanted yet and had an order to follow, armours the same, and all kinds of strange objects that looked like artifacts in his eyes.

"We are here to get your wisdom. How can we have the greatness of it if you keep hovering about your research?" He shrugged as the old man frowned.

The mage shuffled past the general clutter and slumped down into an old oak chair. Everything was just messy. It reminded Stephan of his room. He got a sense of familiarity from everything. He pouted missing his old home. However, if he were given a choice to turn back or stay in this new world, he would choose the latter.

Gillibrian stayed in his place while Agandaur more to a near shelf, attracted by an odd bow that was broken but looked like a great weapon from ancient times. Sensing as if someone would touch something in his room, the mage glanced back abruptly at the elf, glaring daggers at him. Who had the audacity to touch something that wasn't theirs?

"Stop, Agandaur, do not touch that," Stephan yelled energetically, speaking as if someone touched something in his room. He was the same. If something changed in his room, it would bother him. Touching the mage's belongings would bring his wrath above them and he didn't want that; he was already acting too familiar with him. "No matter what you do, do not touch anything."

"Why? I just want to check that bow and the mage didn't seem to be bothered by it," the mage in question frowned. They were talking about him as if he didn't exist. Furthermore, having so much visitors and talking exhausted him. He wanted them to state their business quickly and disappear from his sight. "Do you know the wisdom of the untidy? Do you know about it?" Stephan yelled making the mage's frown further. "Do you understand that if you change anything, you will bother the great mage?" Stephan turned dramatically at the old man. "Excuse us for barging into your mighty room like this."

"I did not hire you as my mouth, apprentice mage. Nevertheless, you said good words; I will give you a discount if you intend to buy anything. And boy, don't touch that boy, the strings are poisoned. If the boy didn't stop you, you would have been dead."

Agandaur retracted his hands immediately to his chest. His heart pounced inside his ribcage; the boy saved him again. Stephan didn't take the whole thing as a great deal. He was more concerned about the research the man was working on: The project Alpha. He got glimpse of the words since they were a title. However, they were familiar to his mind. He was confident they were in the game.

'Does it mean I have to stop this as well?'

'Therefore, whatever I do is recorded by you and shows the degree of my final grade. I see. It's not my problem so I will stick to the main quest.'

The mage stood up and went to his blackboard, he picked the chalk and started writing frantically. Stephan saw how the words formed in a different language. However, there was something like a translation under the words privy only to him. No one could see it.

"I understand you came here to buy a product of mine. Once you choose one or more, put the golds next to the chalk, everything will materialize in front of you once you put the appropriate amount. All instructions are written clearly on the labels attached to the items. Unfortunately but luckily for me, everything has a single use."

There were a bunch of potions and items for sale. However, no one of them had gold. Stephan checked the system but he had zero coins. Some potions caught his sight such as potion of anti-poison; it could raise his immunity against poison.

The old man returned to his research. He was so absorbed in it while the three stared at each other. They didn't know how to tell the man they didn't have anything to trade with except for their times. Gillibrian thought of doing the same thing he did in the past; trade his own time to let Stephan choose something from the board. However, Stephan already returned to the old man disturbing him in his research.

"To create a homunculus, you need something of equal value and you might lose your life. Do you think you can seriously do it? It's a waste of time. You will put yourself in trouble even if you manage to make one. You will need to sacrifice a lot of souls and bodies… You will also need to give something in return for creating it."

The mage snapped his eyes back at Stephan. He waved his hands and both the dwarf and elf found themselves outside and the door shut close. "How did you know about the project? Are you a spy sent to me by those ruffians?"

"Ruffians? I am not a spy but my master got the same project and she declined it," he raised his hands in the air as surrender. "I understand your frustration but my master explained to me that it was pointless, it was something that defied nature and it would create a curse that would envelop the whole Masmoenia."