Elemental Cats

The first few tents in the officially designated grimoire section of the Resource Center had resorted to selling other training materials alongside their grimoires since their tents looked so empty otherwise. Having to sort through all the miscellaneous rubbish made it more difficult to spot the grimoires. It seemed to be a tactic intentionally employed by the sellers.

The peddlers could get people interested in their other goods by making people stop and look through their items in search of a grimoire. It might work on people who were actually interested in things like 'The Basics of the Elements by Rando.'

Unfortunately for the sellers, Toz and the cats only wanted to buy stuff that piqued their interest or would help them get better at magic. And they were already quite knowledgeable about the basics of their attributes, maybe not so much about other attributes. But they didn't need to know in-depth how an element worked for them to beat it or its user.

But unlike the smaller tents that had resorted to selling most things related to magic and books, the larger, more established tents still sold mostly grimoires. It was just that, following the laws of supply and demand, the prices of the grimoires had shot through the roof.

Even the most basic and boring spells like Waterball cost as much as a more advanced and complex spell cost at the beginning of the war. And the grimoires containing spells suitable to be called weapons of mass destruction were so expensive that even Toz shied away from them. Not that there were any spells that they really wanted.

Metal, fire, and lightning were all relatively common elements, so the grimoires of those elements were all mostly taken. Darkness, space, and void were significantly rarer, especially void and space. Though space grimoires were so rare because of their value and how fast they were picked up by others who weren't even space mages.

There actually were a couple of darkness grimoires, but none that seemed like anything Lucy would like. He had already made a couple of spells on his own, and while the grimoires might provide some inspiration for Lucy, Lucy was the type to find inspiration when shadows covered a pebble on the roadside.

Toz considered buying them anyways, but he had realized that his contribution points wouldn't cover everything they wanted in that case. The darkness grimoires weren't that cheap, after all.

But if they didn't find anything else, he would buy them. A couple of grimoires for Lucy would be better than returning completely empty-handed, especially since Lucy missed their outing.

However, Toz and the cats had only begun looking through the various tents in the grimoire section of the Resource Center. They hadn't even gotten to the good tents yet, so it was too early to say that there would be nothing good in store for them.

A little disappointed that they hadn't found anything but still not discouraged, Toz and the cats went deeper into the grimoire section and started entering the bigger, more luxurious tents.

They began finding grimoires with their elements, but the spells themselves weren't anything extraordinary. At least not enough to make them worth what they cost.

Unfortunately, Toz and the cats couldn't just call dibs on the grimoires they found interesting but weren't sure they wanted to buy at the moment. They had to either waste all of Toz's contribution points on grimoires that weren't special or wait and hope that they would find something better.

Since they had only begun to scratch the surface of what the Resource Section had to offer, Toz and the cats decided to keep looking instead of settling for something they didn't really want. Even if they didn't find anything later on, they could still hopefully return fast enough to snag the Firewall spell or the Piercing Bolt grimoire.

Eventually, Toz and the cats stopped in front of one of the tents that seemed to be backed by a considerably influential faction from the Transcendent Realm. There was no way they would have the number of grimoires and manuals they did if that weren't the case.

The price was suitably high, so Toz wasn't sure he even wanted to enter. But he would regret it if they missed out on something just because he didn't even want to look at things that would dig into his contribution points.

Toz noticed the different feel to the tent as soon as he entered.

The other tents they had stopped by were just that, tents. But this one, with a signboard that read 'Dexter's Den,' was no different from a real shop. The walls were still the tent's cloth hanging down. But shelves sparsely decorated with grimoires lined the tent's outer edge. And the ground was covered in wooden blank and self-cleaning carpet.

And as soon as they stepped inside, most of the sound outside disappeared. The tent even had silencing enchantment to allow the customers to shop and browse in peace. It was quite luxurious for a tent made for a temporary setup in the middle of a battlefield. But the profits that they owned from what they sold were probably more than enough to make up for it.

The display goods stationed outside the tent were only a hint as to what the things inside cost. It seemed like the cheapest things were put outside, almost like an afterthought, while the actual wares sold by Dexter were on display inside. And it seemed like the grade of the items rose the further inside the tent they were placed.

The grimoires on the shelves were better than what others sold, but they weren't as good as the grimoires put in the display cases. And the very most expensive and valuable grimoires and manuals were locked behind the front desk. Either behind the employee or behind the glass front of the desk itself.

Though it seemed like a few of the grimoires had been squeezed together to make space for a sign hanging on the desk that said 'No refunds.'