<~> Chapter 216Tenna led us through the city to a store that specializes in spellbooks. While spellbooks aren't strictly necessary tress as a mage, they help a lot. They allow mages to cast spells they wouldn't ordinarily have access to aually learn the spells that they practice as system-granted magic as they level up. I learned most of this through Bel's study of nature magi the book we got for her in Traehall.

  "This is the pce," Tenna said opening the door to let us through. "The prices are pretty high but this pce has the best sele of magic grimoires.

  Walking into the shop I could feel the tingle of magi the air. Uhe book I had purchased for Bel back then, these books had magic woven into the bindings themselves. The building was rge and had two stories. Despite all the chaos in the capital, the store was surprisingly busy as well. Dozens of mages young and old were looking through the tomes on the shelves.

  "This pce looks really expensive, are you sure we afford anything here?" Raya asked while nervously looking around the store.

  "This pbsp;is really expensive," Sibyl firmed. "But if we want you to catch up to the rest of the group, Lilith o buy you something that will help you get up to speed."

  Raya looked over at me awkwardly. "Well... I want to be helpful but I also don't want to feel like I'm moog off of you either, Lilith."

  "I know, but Sibyl is right. Right now you're the one I'm most worried about being able to protect yourself. If you want to make it up to me though, maybe you help Mimi learn to read?"

  "Really?!" Mimi said louder than robably appropriate in a pce like this. "Yonna help me learn to read?" she asked Raya enthusiastically.

  "Uhh... S-sure? I mean, that would be a lot of work but I suppose it would be worth it to me..." Raya said eyeing the stands of books we were walking past.

  Tenna was curiously looking around the shelves without toug anything. Even though she wasn't a mage to my knowledge she seemed ied in the different magic books they had on sale.

  "Couldn't icked something like this up at the Library? Why did we e to a bookstore if we have access to the Great Library?" Torien asked.

  Man shook her head. "I actually asked about that but they don't keep these kinds of books at the Library. They have lots of books on magic theory but these spell grimoires are more like tools or ons than actual books with information ihey have spells encoded in the pages that help you focus yic to cast the predetermined spells inside of them. The strohe grimoire the stronger spells you cast with it. The book that Bel showed us is more of a hybrid of the two. It's mostly theory but it has a couple of spells at the end. These books are almost entirely spell formations."

  A thin looking human woman suddenly walked up to us. "Correct! Are you looking for anything in particur I help you with?" She was wearing a grey robe and was dressed a bit like a stereotypical witch with her pointy hat.

  I pushed Raya forward who suddenly looked a bit uncharacteristically bashful. "I'm uh, looking for an early to intermediate fire spellbook? Something that would help me catch up to some of my stronger friends?"

  The woman tapped her . "Hmm... how strong is your affinity with fire magic?"

  "Uh, the dy at the adventurer's guild said that my fire and illusion affinities were both very high," Raya responded.

  The woman's eyebrows rose. "Oh? Hm, alright then. Do any of your party members here use magic?" she asked.

  Raya nodded and pulled a flustered Man over. "Yep! Man here has been showing me a lot, even though she's a wild mage. It's been super helpful!"

  The shop attendant smiled. "Great! I think I know the perfect thing. It be a little advanced for someone just starting out but if you have es around to help you through the hard bits, it's the kind of book that take you pretty far. Right over here!" She said before starting to lead us toward one of the rger ses of the bookstore. The area felt a bit toasty, the se actually seemed a bit warmer than the rest of the store from the fire affinity mana hanging in the air.

  The woman's firailed across the spines in the fire magic se until she reached one of the thicker books and pulled it out. "Here it is! The one who makes these grimoires is very talented, I've told her she should bee a teacher many times but she always waves me off saying she's not good with people. I usually offer this book to people a little farther along than you but since you have such a good affinity for it and es to support you, I think you could get away with it. Here!"

  She handed Raya the thie bound in red leather. The book has a rge buckle across the front holding the tome closed and the spine just simply says: 'Notes on Fire Magic.'

  "Since fire magic is a on disciplihis grimoire isn't very pricy either, o gold!" the shopkeeper said enthusiastically.

  Raya however sputtered at the prid suddenly looked much less sure of herself. "E-eight gold?!" She turo look at me. "That's way too much, Lilith. Are you sure about this?"

  I frowned. "Eight gold is a bit higher than I would have hoped but not pletely out of expectations. I've spent more on things like armor and ons before so this price seems reasonable."

  Raya shook her head. "No no. This is way too much. I 't take this just for helping Mimi learn to read..."

  I sighed. "Alright, how about this? I'll pay for it now and you e half of it, fold. Once we start doing some group missions I'll take some out of your share of the rewards until you've paid me back. In the meantime, you'll still help Mimi learn to read."

  Her eyes widened, she almost looked like she was going tue again but sighed and nodded. "Alright. I think that's fair. I still think you're doing me a huge favor here though."

  I patted her on the head. "That's okay, I don't mind doing you huge favors."

  The shop attendant smiled. "Well, it's good that that's gotten sorted then. Anything else I help you with?"

  "Do you have any grimoires on spatial magic?"

  "Uh..." the shopkeeper was caught off guard. "You're serious?"

  I frowned. "I am, is there a problem?"

  The shopkeeper cleared her throat. "Of course not, follow me please."

  She led us to another er of the bookshop that was just beled 'misc.'

  "We don't have many options for spatial magifortunately. Just these two books aher are good matches finners. Spatial magic is both rare and dangerous so it's usually taught directly by masters. Which of you wants to learn spatial magic?"

  Mimi raised her hand. "Me! The guild said I have very strong affinity for spatial magic!"

  She looked at Mimi with a frown before turning bae. "Isn't she the one you were saying didn't know how to read...?"

  I coughed. "Yes, well, we're leaving the capital soon and we don't really have aer options for buying something like this. Even if we buy it for her a little early, there's not much we do."

  She g Mimi again before looking back at me. "Spatial magic is very dangerous aeric. Even with a good affinity for it, I don't reend learning spells from a book like this."

  I sighed. "Mimi, will you give me my sword from your pocket dimension."

  She looked at the woman for a moment before materializing my sword and handing it to me. The woman froze in shoot expeg Mimi to casually use what was supposed to be very advanced magi front of her. I tapped on the hilt of the sword to demonstrate it was real and solid before handing it back to her. "Thanks, Mimi, you put it baow."

  Mimi looked fused but followed along. "Why did you need your sword? I don't get it."

  I pulled her into a side hug. "Just proving a point. Nothing to worry about."

  "Ah, I see," the attendant said. "Very well, I reend this book. It's a bit advanced but if your... friend is that adept then it shouldn't be an issue. This book is quite a bit more expehough at twelve gold."

  I frowwenty gold total for the two books was quite steep and would wipe out most of my remaining gold. It would leave me with only thirteen gold left. Bel should have around five gold and Mimi herself should have about twenty gold ooo but we're quickly burning through it. Still, there isn't much else we should need for a while and if everything goes acc to pn we should be making good money in Traehall finding dungeons.

  " I take the both of them for sixteen gold?" I asked, hoping to haggle a bit.

  The woman's smile twitched. "I'm sorry all our prices are firm in this establishment. Categorizing the books is troublesome enough, we 't take the risk of losing too mu our iments."

  I sighed with disappoi. "Alright, we'll take the two of them. Thank you."

  She nodded and her smile returo its full iy. "Then please follow me to the ter so that I finish our transa!"

  The weight of my money pouch was signifitly lighter after pg four stacks of five gold s oray in front of me. The woman carefully weighed each on a scale before approving it and moving to the ohankfully there were no issues with that, so at the end, she nodded again and smiled. "I've firmed the amount. Thank you for your patronage. Please e again the ime you're in the capital."

  Raya carefully ed the grimoire in cloth and put it int and Mimi took the book and simply made it vanish into motes of light that she absorbed. It might be a while before the spatial magic book will be useful, but Mimi being a spatial mage seems like a good use of her talents. I also sidered asking about terra magic books but after dropping twenty gold owo grimoires we did pick up, I thought better of it.

  While we were in the capital we also decided to find a pce to offload the blue sapphire we found in the dungeon a while back. After spending so muy money I was suddenly more ed about selling it si wasn't very useful to me as a gem. The blue sapphire that Mimi said was 'grade B,' whatever that meant, sold for fold after some haggling.

  I looked at my friends. All of the ohat went into the dungeon back then were fortunately with me right now. "Hey, guys. Since we found this gem in the dungeon, we should split it four ways right?"

  Man and Torien looked caught off guard.

  "That would be one gold for each of us," I added. "We weren't splitting with Mimi back then."

  Man and Torien looked at each other before Torien shook her head. "We were sves back then and if I remember right, you gave us a bit extra to cover that at the time. You paid us more than enough."

  "Nah," I said dismissively. "I think it would be good for you two to hold onto some money anyway since you're not sves anymore. And for that matter, we should spend a little bit of time clothes shopping before I have to head over to finish my measuri at the cartography guild. Oh, but I'll still pay for that, you two should spend your money on something fun."

  I got the jeweler to pay us in silver and give me two extra pouches for the two. The twins were a bit relut but I was able to push the money on them without them having any reason to refuse it. Now that they were free I would o start pushing them a bit more toward independenot so I could abandon them or anything, but so they could get used to having some trol over their lives for once. I had to start slow though, they wouldn't accept it otherwise.

  "Alright, let's get your clothes fixed up a you some uff!" Bel and I practically dragged them to the tailor after that. Tenna smiled with amusement as she followed after our merry little group.

  Saine

  Hello! Grimoires secured! We're tying up all the loose ends before we prepare to leave the capital. Buying books is one of the first reasons they suggest going to the capital in the first pce so we're taking care of that. This also ys the groundwork for the character's progression, fun stuff! Mimi's bound to bee quite the powerhouse ihanks for reading!

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