5,112 Gold Coins!
This was the sum Pei Ze earned after selling all his potions!
An absolute fortune!
At least, he had never held this much money before.
"With this money, I can finally acquire a lot of things."
A smile spread across Pei Ze's face. He got up and left his stall, first heading to the management office to return the stall and get his deposit back, then began to wander around.
With less than a month until the trial, he planned to purchase a few Magic Items to enhance his strength.
To his disappointment, while there were plenty of stalls selling Magic Items, observing them with his Eye of Omniscience revealed that most were defective. They were likely the failed practice attempts of some Enchantment Apprentice.
After making a full circle, Pei Ze hadn't found a single item that suited him.
Finally, he stopped in front of a shop.
Amidst the numerous small and cramped stalls, this shop, spanning over a hundred square meters, undoubtedly stood out like a crane among chickens. It was hard not to notice.
The shop was filled with all sorts of weapons, armor, Magic Items, and potions, a dazzling sight to behold.
Many who passed by couldn't help but cast greedy gazes, wishing they could take everything for themselves.
However, not a single person dared to act on it.
You didn't need to be a genius to know that anyone who could open a shop in the Black Market had to have a profound background. It might even be a business owned by the Black Market's organizers.
A shop like this was certain to have a Wizard watching over it, perhaps even more than one. Only a fool would try to cause trouble.
Entering the shop, Pei Ze's gaze immediately fell upon the shelf to his left, which was filled with various Magic Items.
Pei Ze even saw a Wizard Tool!
Magic Items are divided into grades.
The lowest is Alchemical-grade, also known as Sub-Magical Items.
These kinds of Magic Items often possess only a single enchanted characteristic.
For example, a dimensional bag.
Or many Enchanted Weapons.
But even though they are the lowest grade of Magic Items, their prices are still beyond what an ordinary Knight can afford.
A common Longsword enchanted with the Sharpness characteristic would sell for no less than one thousand Gold Coins.
In contrast, killing a ferocious beast at the level of a Middle Knight often yields only about 100 Gold Coins.
After deducting the cost of potions used in combat and any healing expenses, the final profit might be less than half of that.
A Senior Knight adventurer would typically have to work hard for more than half a year to afford a single Enchanted Weapon.
Above Alchemical-grade are Glimmer-grade Magic Items, also called Low-Magic Items.
Magic Items of this level usually have multiple magical characteristics, and their value is so precious that it can no longer be measured in Gold Coins.
They don't circulate on the open market.
If one wants to acquire such Magic Items, the only ways are through official institutions of Chenxi City like the Wizard Academy, or by purchasing them in the Black Market.
For instance, this very shop had four or five Glimmer-grade Magic Items on display on its shelves.
The cheapest among them cost fifteen Magic Stone Coins!
That price... Ordinary Second-level Wizard Apprentices and Grand Knights could only stare and drool.
Above Glimmer-grade is Magic-grade.
This tier consists of true Magic Items, also known as Wizard Tools.
A Wizard Tool typically possesses at least one activatable Magical Power, and its might is astounding.
Equally astounding is its price, which can easily reach hundreds or even thousands of Magic Stone Coins.
Generally, only Official Wizards are qualified to possess a Wizard Tool.
Pei Ze looked up at the Wizard Tool placed on the topmost shelf.
It was a pair of leather gloves, blood-red in color, faintly emitting an unsettling and demonic aura that made one's heart palpitate.
On the nameplate next to it, its price was clearly written—eight hundred Magic Stone Coins!
Pei Ze estimated that even if he buried himself in potion-making for four or five months, he still wouldn't earn enough to buy this Wizard Tool.
Shaking his head, he shifted his gaze elsewhere and soon found what he was looking for.
A dimensional bag, priced at one thousand eight hundred Gold Coins.
Pei Ze scanned it with his Eye of Omniscience and, after confirming it wasn't defective, immediately decided to buy it.
The dimensional bag's space wasn't large, only about one cubic meter.
Still, Pei Ze was quite satisfied.
After all, it was the lowest grade of Spatial Item. He couldn't have overly high expectations; being able to carry some miscellaneous items would be enough.
Considering he had to participate in the trial soon, for his own safety, Pei Ze also picked out a Protective Ring priced at one thousand five hundred Gold Coins.
As its name suggested, it was a Sub-Magical Item enchanted with a protective characteristic.
When the wearer is attacked, a Protective Force Field automatically appears on their body, providing 360-degree, gapless defense against attacks from any direction.
The Protective Force Field will only collapse if it suffers an attack of 7 degrees or more in an instant, or when it has accumulated over 100 degrees of damage.
This meant that any enemy below the rank of Grand Knight would be completely unable to break the Protective Force Field in a short amount of time.
Even a Grand Knight would have to use a combat technique and unleash a full-power strike to have a chance of breaking through this protective layer.
'With this ring, even if I'm ambushed at close range, I won't be caught off guard.'
His previous encounter with the Demonized had left a deep impression on Pei Ze. If he'd had a Protective Ring back then, he wouldn't have ended up in such a sorry state.
Of course, that was just a thought.
Back then, he was still a First-level Wizard Apprentice; even if he'd had Magic Items, he wouldn't have been able to use them.
"Shopkeeper, I'd like to check out."
Carrying the two Alchemical-grade Magic Items to the counter, Pei Ze spoke to the large, bald man behind it.
Customers who bought two Alchemical-grade Magic Items at once were rare. Seeing a big spender, the bald man's face immediately broke into an enthusiastic grin.
"That'll be three thousand three hundred Gold Coins in total."
Pei Ze nodded and asked, "Do you have the ingredients for making Ferocity Potions here?"
He planned to purchase all his potion-making ingredients from the Black Market from now on. Otherwise, spending over a thousand Gold Coins on ingredients at the academy's logistics department would be too high-profile and could attract unnecessary trouble.
"Of course, we do!"
Hearing there was more business to be had, the bald man's eyes lit up.
"Eighteen Gold Coins per set. How many do you want?"
Pei Ze nodded to himself. 'Not bad, ten percent cheaper than the academy's logistics department. I just wonder about the quality.'
"I'll take 100 sets."
"Right away."
The bald man beamed and immediately instructed a staff member to retrieve the goods.
Before long, 100 sets of ingredients for the Ferocity Potion were placed in front of Pei Ze.
Pei Ze didn't stand on ceremony and began to inspect them one by one.
A moment later, he nodded in satisfaction and paid without hesitation.
After placing all the ingredients into the dimensional bag and putting on the ring, Pei Ze finally left the shop, bag in hand.
The over five thousand Gold Coins he had just earned were spent in the blink of an eye. Even someone like Pei Ze felt the sting.
But then he remembered that he had the potion ingredients, and it wouldn't be long before another large sum of income came in. His mood brightened again.
As he walked out of the shop and was about to head back, a commotion in the distance caught the corner of his eye. A crowd had gathered, and they seemed to be arguing loudly about something.
Curious, he walked over to get a closer look.
"...A hundred Magic Stone Coins? That's highway robbery!"
"You can't say that. If this thing is real, then a hundred Magic Stone Coins is actually a bargain."
"Are you kidding? Advanced Meditation Techniques are incredibly rare. How could one possibly appear in a place like this?"
"But what if?"
An Advanced Meditation Technique?!
Pei Ze's heart skipped a beat.