Luke had told him that the princ.i.p.al would be allowing his transfer as the first semester wasn't over yet, and he'd be on his way there tomorrow morning.

Well, that didn't matter right now. He wanted to look around this city of marble and majesty!

"Be back in an hour. You two are still under our surveillance for being students starting tomorrow!"

Gareth shouted at Griff and Sylvie, who was now using her spell "Morph." Griff had no idea what it's attribute or level as a spell was, but he didn't want to pry in to her secrets.

"Yeah yeah whatever."

Sylvie simply waved her hand dismissively, and grabbed Griff's hand running out of the gates. Gareth simply grit his teeth watching her actions.

"Breathe in Gareth... they're just kids... they'll learn respect at the academy... d.a.m.n it I can't deal with brats. This sort of s.h.i.+t is up Bailerion's alley."

———————————–————————————

"Just slow down n.o.body's chasing us!"

Griff shouted as he pulled his hand back from Sylvie. They were in the middle of a trading district with several shops around them. The area was bustling with activity as hundreds of thousands of people walked through the streets in a casual day. Humans, elves and other k

There weren't any shops floating above ground, it seemed to be a casual trade zone.

"Hey hey Griff!"

Sylvie was standing outside of a butchery, looking inside with her mouth wide open.

'This d.a.m.n dog...I swear if her tail was out it would be wagging maniacally."

"No food for you right now!"

He grabbed her by her collar and started to drag her, finally the roles were reversed.

"But meat!!!"

"You are NOT eating raw meat. We'll find something to eat later... plus we don't got a lot of money on us."

Gareth had, under Luke's suggestion, gave both of them a piece of silver to look around the city and buy something if they wished to do so. Well... it seemed Sylvie knew what she wanted to buy.

Griff facepalmed, seeing her still fixated on the butchery.

"d.a.m.n it fine, but meet me back here in half an hour. I'll check some stores around in the meantime."

Sylvie instantly disappeared... leaving Griff to eat her dust.

[She's not as angry as she seemed to be before, huh?]

'She's just a stupid dog. Show her food and she's your friend...'

Caphriel cackled at that.

Griff sighed and started looking around, and his eyes landed on a particular shop.

'A magic shop? It wouldn't hurt to learn more about magic before going to a school.'

Alatar only did teach him how to unleash his mana after all...

The shop was bustling with people of all ages looking around. It was fairly larger than what it seemed to be from outside, and the inside was certainly more lavish compared to the outer, wooden texture.

[Enlargement Runes, don't get too surprised. It's one of the basic runes here.]

As Griff walked through the shop he came to notice all sorts of aspects of magecraft. There were jars filled with specific materials required for alchemy, a section reserved for purely scrolls and books on magical elements, affinity and history, a section for magical tools, which definitely interested Griff, and finally a small section for something called basic attributal lacrima.

The prices seemed affordable to him too! He was getting enthusiastic. Yes, he liked fighting, but being honest with himself he was sick of his crude, technique-less fighting style. He needed to learn more about magic, and Luke had given him the perfect opportunity!

Donning a determined, yet funny looking face, and squeezing his fist, he started to run around the store.

The magical tools were too expensive sadly... the cheapest being sold at 5 silver pieces, and it was only a pair of gla.s.ses embedded with zooming runes.

There weren't a lot of books he could buy as well... all of the books that seemed to be in top quality or had the most up-to-date knowledge were very expensive. One of them was even being sold at 2 pieces of gold?! Oh the audacity!

'Tch... like I care about Lost Magic... I totally don't care... yeah! I don't!'

[You're not convincing even yourself you weirdo. Well... at least it's great that you don't only want to be a muscle head. I can tolerate a geek better.]

'Was that supposed to be a compliment?!'

Griff's face lost all of its energy as he was talking with Caphriel.

[Yes.]

'Ugh. Why are you like this!'

[It's just how I want to be like.]

He could feel her nonchalant shrug even though he couldn't see her. He grit his teeth in annoyance.

'Oh you'll see! I'll stop being a so called muscle brain.'

He put the book he was skimming through back on the shelf, and started to make his way to the last section he hadn't visited yet, the basic attributal lacrima section.

The section was slightly dusty compared to the other well kept areas of the shop. It was also easier getting there as no one even bothered to look. There were several bags filled with very small orbs, all in different colors.

Griff picked up one of them and started to inspect it.

'I don't really get what's up with this thing.'

[That's just a small gem that's called a lacrima. It can store small amounts of attributal mana such as fire. Kids like watching the mana from it. Nothing important, try finding something more useful.]

'Hmm...'

Griff out the red orb back in the bag, but just as he was about to walk out of the shop something clicked in his mind, and he started to walk back fast.

[Hey! Why are you going back there, it's just a kids toy!]

'Just wait a second! Trust me for a change!'

She sighed.

[Alright alright... surprise me Griff.]

Griff grabbed the red lacrima again and brought it to eye level.

'This one is fire right?'

[Yep.]

'So think for a second. My magic works by contradicting an existing attribute, right? But as far as I know I can only do so with an attribute I'm conceptualizing.'

[Oh... Oh!!! I like where this is going!]

'So, why can't I just buy as many of these as I can and use these lacrima to use different attributes! Who knows if in the future I have to fight someone at the Academy and people notice I always use the opposite element of my opponent.'

[d.a.m.n it. And I thought you'd never actually grow a brain! How the heck did YOU manage to come up with such a smart idea!]

Griff slightly blushed from annoyance and embarra.s.sment. The people who were walking by were getting pretty confused... why would a handsome boy be looking at a child's toy and blus.h.i.+ng?!

It was least to say that a couple people started to turn around and walk the opposite way seeing him...

[You... you just solved your own problem without realizing it!]

Suddenly Caphriel shouted with glee from his mind.

'Uhh... which one there are a lot.'

[Almost all of them! Think about it, using lacrima you can even hide your attribute from others, simply pa.s.sing off as someone with a Copy Attribute instead of Contradiction. Well... the Copy Attribute is still a Unique Magic, but there are quite a number of people out there with said attribute compared to yours that is simply unheard of...]

'Now all we need is a way for me to always be in contact with lacrima...'

[That's for later! Just buy some first.]

'Yeah right we're getting too carried away... we're seriously geeking right now.'

[It's magic, it's worth it.]

'Point taken.'

Griff quickly sized up the fire lacrima, and grabbed it. Water would certainly be useful.

'Dark? Don't mind if I do... Light? Yep yep... if I can compliment all of their contradictions it can even be harder to understand how my magic works! Oh, this seems to be the water lacrima, yep yep.'

It worked in his favor that a single lacrima costed 10 bronze pieces. He could buy 10 of them!

After a few minutes Griff was walking out with a small bag in his hand, and a couple weird stares by the customers and the shop owner. Well, it's not like he noticed in his current happy state.

'Hey, aren't we forgetting something...'

[If we forgot it, it shouldn't be important.]

'Yeah you're right.'

Griff continued to walk back to the Phoenix Headquarters, leaving a shocked Sylvie behind him who was trying to wave at him.

"That jerk just pretended like I didn't exist!"

She was at a loss for words. Normally she'd be the one bullying.

She sighed in defeat. Karma was a b.i.t.c.h. She started to run after him, hoping he'd notice her.