My Servant System

Closing the books with a sigh, I rolled my shoulders as I leaned back into the chair, not having realized I was hunched over and straining my back the entire time that I had been reading.

Time had passed swiftly as I studied the first tome, and after a while I got up and got myself some blank paper and ink, jotting down all of the ideas in my head and working out some of the questions the book posed as I used my own mana to move the ink from the inkwell onto the papers, practicing and taking notes at the same time.

The words on the pages of the book were scrutinized heavily by myself as I likely joined a cohort of hopeful mages who used this tome, and during my small breaks I couldn't help but think about those people that had studied these very words and tried to locate a new meaning from them, wondering if my thought process was similar to any of theirs or if I was blazing my own path...

It made me curious, but there was little way to know since I had no idea who might have used this book before, and even if I was able to speak to multiple people who had, what good would it do me currently?

The various answers would only lead to more and more questions that I would need to pursue, diverting my already split attention from the tasks at hand, which could lessen my study time tremendously... which would be detrimental at this time.

I needed to begin making progress with my arcane studies in leaps and bounds to maintain course with the others, who were progressing as steadily as ever...

They would make leaps without any signs of a struggle, their bodies, talents and minds just working in ways that was different from my own, though that didn't invalidate the hard work they put in.

Anput was the one I was likely to close in on with my training, the Jackalkin progressing not in her strength, but instead in her ability to amplify our strength with good gear.

And I was certain that as soon as she made a good set of armor for us all and improved our weapons, the Jackalkin would be diving head first into her training again, taking the steepest cliff to the next level by training with Lady Fenryas, which would break her like she had me.

Staring blankly at the ceiling of the empty library, I closed my eyes after a moment and relished the silence, before I opened the System and made my way into the Shop section, a smile tugging at my lips as I heard the all too familiar, comforting voice of my ever present companion.

[Welcome back to the Shop~! Almost thought you forgot about this nifty little place! Had me worried for a bit... Whatcha lookin' for?]

The smile tugged further at my lips as I rolled my shoulders again, removing the kinks in the muscles and easing the pains in my back as I mentally said 'Anything related to enchanting. Books or materials preferably, though I do also have a desire to learn about these Magic Pens that Leone and Kolia were talking about.'

[Very well! Let us see, let us see... Here are a few interesting tomes in regards to enchanting, each one priced appropriately. Remember, you are buying a... 'flash drive' that 'downloads' the contents directly into your brain to be studied, not a physical book. That's why they are... pricey.]

[Morgania's Compendium : Enchanting knowledge written down by a fabled enchantress from the early years of the Empire, known for making basic iron weaponry capable of cutting through Drake scales. (45,000 SP)]

[Cerulean Tome of Enchanting : A collection of the Cerulean Mages of old that specialized in mana gathering enchantments and mana amplifying enchantments. (60,000 SP)]

[Crazed Thoughts of Athenia the Violet : All the delusions of grandeur scribbled down by a madwoman who attempted to enchant her own brain and partially succeeded; Host will NOT go insane upon purchase, however any action taken after purchase using the information provided is NOT the liability of the System. (60,000 SP)]

They were just a few of the various books and tomes that I had provided for me, and I mulled over the entire list for a few moments, taking in the various titles and descriptions as I weighed the price against the potential gains.

'Some of these are just... worrisome, and others seem far too outdated. Early age enchanting knowledge of a multi millennium spanning Empire seems... interesting yet also risky. Yes, getting a look into the mind of someone as talented as that would be incredible, but at the same time there's the chance that everything she knows is so far outdated that it's unusable. If I had such an excess amount of SP then I'd consider it just because... honestly that sounds cool, but I don't...'

[Mhm, mhm... that's why its marked down~! See, whilst I do~ have an idea on what it could contain, it does have some risk to it, and it does have less valuable information compared to the others, but again, who knows right? Sometimes that cheap food you buy at a stall could be better than a high class restaurant!]

'Or it could just be cheap street food.'

[Or it could be cheap street food.]

Rolling my eyes, I pushed the tomes to the side for a moment and instead focused on something else, deciding that I should be more reasonable with my 'money'.

[Waterfall Azurite : Gemstone imbued with rich, abundant Water Mana. (30,000 SP)]

[Riverbed Silver Ingot : 500 grams of Water Mana imbued metal; malleable, flexible, and extremely durable. (37,500 SP)]

[Borealis Emerald : Gemstone imbued with rich, abundant Wind Mana. (30,000 SP)]

[Galestone Chunk : 500 grams of Wind Mana imbued mineral; extremely light, flexible, and durable. (37,500 SP)]

[Frigid Diamond : Gemstone imbued with sharp, unbending Ice Mana. (60,000 SP)]

[Winter Steel : 500 grams of Ice Mana imbued metal; naturally cold, durable, and conductive. (75,000 SP)]

Each material I looked at cost a pretty penny to buy, but when I asked 'How do they compare to the gemstones we got back at Ungrida?' I understood that the price was warranted.

[They hold roughly 1.5 times more mana than the average gemstones that you found, while the pureness of the mana inside is double. Not as strong as that one crown jewel you found though, which is nearly double the strength of these ones. As for the metals, they're rather rare to find, so the price per 500 grams is reasonable too.]

I nodded, before taking a look at the last two things on the list that I wanted to see for the moment, knowing that I needed to plan things out before I bought anything, since impulse buying was a bad habit to get into.

[Magic Pen : Mana focuser used by enchanters to strengthen their enchantments and imbue the materials on a deeper level, reducing the strain and amplifying the enchantment. (25,000 SP)]

[Hecrete's Quill : A mana focuser made by a renowned Saintess from years past, crafted from a feather of an Anzu and perfect at amplifying any and all mana; sometimes the latent mana of the Anzu amplifies your enchantments by double their strength without any additional strain! (250,000 SP)]

Now, I wasn't swimming in enough SP to purchase that second Magic Pen, but it gave me an idea on the upper quality items inside the Shop that I could purchase if I wanted to.

All in all, the Shop had many items worthy of being purchased inside itself, and some were more tempting then others... to the point that I wanted to make a purchase now, but I decided that I would do best if I gave it just a bit more thought.