Chapter 100: Unique Find
Leon watched as Rinna walked away with a light step, twirling her wand in her hand.
"Expect the unexpected," he muttered.
However, the floating cloak once again hovered back to him. It flapped its collar dramatically, as if ordering Leon to come closer.
"...I thought I told you no," Leon muttered, pushing the staff aside.
It came right back.
He sighed. "Persistent little thing, aren’t you?"
Leon sighed again and allowed the cloak to stay close to him as he moved. He looked around and saw that this part of the space had fewer students.
The reason was simple. Most of the items here were lower-grade mage tools. Everyone’s eyes were already set on the intermediate-grade items, and they were trying their best to resonate with them. After some time, most had succeeded.
Now, it was Leon’s turn to choose his.
"Let’s see..." he murmured.
He wandered off, ignoring the annoying cloak floating behind him.
On his way, his eyes landed on several other items, but he rejected them one by one, either because of their ridiculous drawbacks or his inability to resonate with them.
’This is taking too much time.’
He didn’t have much time left. But since this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he decided to inspect each item carefully with his skill.
He still didn’t know what he was going to choose. But if he had to pick one thing, it would probably be something mana-related. That would help stabilize his mana core and support him when he used the Moonblade.
And till now, he had found nothing suitable.
A wand or a high-quality staff was an option, too, since they could stabilize mana flow. But they would shatter the instant the Moonblade drew unstable mana.
For them to work, Leon would need at least a High Grade item.
Leon noticed that all the items here were labelled as ’Low Grade.’ And there wasn’t any other item hovering near him anymore... except for that stupid cloak.
Slap—!
"Ouch." Leon jumped a step back away from the cloak.
It slapped him.
"What the hell?!" Leon grumbled. "Alright, it’s decided. Forget the items, I’ll just take you and use you as my bathroom carpet."
The cloak this time stopped and made a fine distance from Leon.
"Oh, what’s this... scared?"
He mocked the cloak with a grin.
"Haaah..." He sighed. "What am I even doing?"
He lost interest.
’I should return.’
But before he could turn around, he saw a golden spark of light emitting from his left.
"Hm?"
It was so faint that he had to squint his eyes to see it through his blurry vision. Curious, he walked toward it.
After reaching a certain radius, he looked back and saw that the cloak had stopped following him after a certain distance.
’That’s weird.’
It shouldn’t have done that unless it sensed some kind of threat.
Now fully alert, Leon slowly approached the golden spark. He was just an arm’s length away from it.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz—!!
He heard a high-velocity rotating hum. Squinting his gaze, he was now able to somewhat see the item in question.
There was something spinning at high speed in the middle of two white-bluish lightning rings.
"A ring?"
He clearly saw what it was. Rotating in the middle, it was a golden ring, reflecting the golden spark around it. And just like the others, it was labeled as ’Low Grade.’
Leon could feel his Ice Affinity mana reacting to it. His eyes widened as he quickly deduced what it possibly could be.
’Nah, it’s just a lower grade. It can’t be...’
Without wasting another second, Leon used [Analyze].
[Item: Spirit Ring]
[Type: Spirit Container]
[Rank: Low (Current Form)]
[Spirit Affinity: Ice]
[Effect]
-Greatly stabilizes ice mana circuitry when drawn into the body
-Increases ice spell control and clarity
[Risk]
-Spirit draws power from the host as its energy source
Leon’s eyes widened. "A spirit container?"
His skill wasn’t lying.
It really was a Spirit Container. And not just any spirit, but an Ice Spirit, one of the affinities he possessed.
He didn’t think twice. He reached out and picked it up.
The moment his fingers touched the golden ring, he felt a cold, steady pulse of mana run through his palm.
It resonated perfectly with his core.
Eclipse must have misjudged this item or failed to identify it properly. It made sense, though. Spirit Containers were rare. Seeing an actual spirit in this world was even rarer.
Every spirit was born from extremely dense mana of a single affinity.
That mana condensed and took form, shaping itself into existence. Unlike the traditional fairy tales from Earth, spirits weren’t cute little glowing creatures. True spirits had humanoid forms. But because this particular item was only Low Grade, the spirit existed purely in mana form for now.
"This is a unique find," Leon muttered to himself.
This wasn’t something most students would even look twice at. The armory had probably classified it as a simple Low Grade ring, overlooking its true nature. But to Leon, it was perfect.
"Perfect," he smirked.
He held the ring carefully.
In its current state, it was only Low Grade, but that wasn’t its limit. If nurtured properly, the spirit could evolve, pushing the ring to Intermediate or maybe even High Grade in the future.
And who knows, Leon could one day have a humanoid spirit at his disposal.
"Today wasn’t bad," Leon muttered as he turned and began walking back the way he came.
— — —
After taking the Ice Spirit Ring, Leon happily wandered out of the dimensional space back to where Esther was waiting.
He quickly registered his choice with her.
As expected, she raised a few questions, clearly curious about why he would pick a simple Low Grade ring out of everything available.
Leon didn’t bother giving a proper explanation.
He just shrugged and said, "It looks cool."
Esther gave him a flat stare, clearly not convinced, but she didn’t push further. She had seen stranger decisions before.
Leon, on the other hand, was too excited to care. He didn’t want to waste time.
After the check-out was complete, he decided to ditch the rest of the class. One of the perks of being a research scholar was that he had the freedom to skip unnecessary follow-ups if he wanted.
It was already past afternoon when Leon stepped outside the group.
He walked across the stone-paved path leading toward the dormitories.
’I need to check this thing properly,’ he thought. ’Eclipse can detect faint mana signatures if I use it here. I need to do this outside the institute grounds.’
As he walked toward his dorm, he spotted someone near the garden.
Myra was kneeling on the ground, carefully tending to a row of blooming roses.
Leon slowed his pace and stopped in front of her.
"Hm?"
Myra noticed the shadow and looked up.
"Young Master?"
Leon folded his arms lightly, glancing around the garden.
"Flowers, huh..."
’I nearly forgot... I guess this would work too.’
She stood up with a proud smile. "Yes. I sowed all of them myself."
She stretched out her arm and pointed at the wide patch of flowers in front of her.
Leon’s eye twitched. ’Seriously, all of it?’
This girl was super talented.
"Do you need something, Master?" Myra asked politely.
Leon nodded. "Yes. I want you to take some of these flowers to the infirmary."
She tilted her head. "For whom, Young Master?"
"Alice Nightson," Leon answered without hesitation.
He started walking away, then paused and added, "Oh, and only add red roses."
.
[A/n: Wow! 100 chs, would you look at that!!]