Above the mage

Chapter 12 Spell Recipes

After confirming that Amy hadn't followed, Gaode wandered around the streets looking for a suitable shop.

Besides often being located in the city center, a city's commercial district also has another characteristic: it often develops around the city lord's mansion, church, or market square.

The same applies to Hogan City, where the commercial district is built around the city square.

Although it conforms to the laws of development, the street layout of Hogan City's commercial district is actually quite chaotic and lacks unified planning.

There is only one main road, running north-south, leading to the city square.

There are several side streets, forming several narrow alleys.

Because of the low foot traffic and correspondingly low shop rents, these alleyways are home to many small businesses and workshops.

After navigating through several alleys, Gaode finally found its target.

This is a grocery store, which is much simpler and located in a remote area compared to the magnificent facades of other large stores.

At the already simple entrance, there stood an even simpler wooden sign.

A few sentences were written very hastily above:

Pierre's General Store sells all kinds of ready-made medicines, holy water, herbs, and herb seeds;

We sell all kinds of materials and ores (including magic crystals).

Selling various low-level magical accessories and amulets;

Part-time job: item recycling and treasure appraisal.

Looking at the wooden sign that exuded the air of a small workshop, Gao De nodded slightly.

This is exactly what he needs.

When Gao De entered the grocery store, the owner, Pierre, was curled up in a recliner behind the counter, resting with his eyes half-open.

It's clear that the grocery store doesn't usually do very well.

"Take a look at what you need. Just because something isn't on the shelf doesn't mean it's not in the store. Some of the goods are in the warehouse at the back." The shop owner, Pierre, was an old man who looked quite old. He clearly heard Gao De's footsteps but didn't even look up, casually greeting him.

Gao De casually scanned the surroundings and found that although there were many items and they were messy, they were actually very tidy.

"I saw a sign on the wooden door that says 'item recycling,' does that mean they accept everything?" Gao De asked bluntly.

"Of course not," Pierre shook his head, still showing no intention of getting up. "This is a general store, not a junkyard. The items must have some value."

"Where are the potions?" Gao De asked, browsing the shelves for a wide variety of potions, but they were all Rank 0.

"Let's take a look at the goods." Pierre became slightly interested upon hearing this, and finally opened his half-closed eyes and got up from the recliner.

Basic spider venom potion wasn't anything rare or precious, so there was no need to hide it. Gao De immediately took out three small bottles of basic spider venom potion from his bag and placed them on the counter.

"Basic spider venom potion," Pierre said, a glint of light flashing in his eyes—a sign of casting the [Detection] spell—before nodding. "The light is bright; the quality is good."

Mastering a spell makes one a mage apprentice, so the shopkeeper in front of him is at least a mage apprentice. Moreover, given his age, even if his talent is poor, his strength is definitely higher than his own, Gao De muttered to himself.

"My usual purchase price for a set of basic spider venom is 30 silver. Yours is of good quality, so I'll add 1 silver per small bottle, making it 33 silver per set," Pierre quoted directly.

That's a really reasonable price. The long-term purchase price negotiated by Master Seda was only 40 silver (2 gold).

"Deal." Gao De was very satisfied and readily agreed.

After exchanging money for goods, Gaode did not leave.

"Is there anything else we need?" Pierre asked.

Gao De approached the counter and lowered his voice, "Do you sell spell recipes here?"

A moment of deathly silence.

"In Sean, it's strictly forbidden to trade spell recipes privately." Pierre's politeness vanished, replaced by a blank expression.

In fact, not only the Principality of Sien, but almost every country on the continent has similar regulations, classifying spell recipes as controlled items and restricting their private trade.

If a mage wants to purchase spell recipes, they can only do so through the official mage association or certain officially authorized mage organizations.

There are many reasons for this.

In the world before Gaode's time travel, regulated items generally fall into three categories:

First, there are items with strong lethality that could pose a significant threat to public security, such as firearms, ammunition, and controlled knives.

One category is items that infringe on intellectual property rights, including pirated software and pirated audio-visual products.

The last category consists of items that can generate huge profits but may cause harm, the most typical example being tobacco.

And this spell recipe actually meets all three conditions.

First, it allows the buyer to master powerful spells with strong killing or destructive power, equivalent to "guns and ammunition," or even more powerful.

In addition, spell recipes are extremely profitable. In the end, they are just a piece of paper with some words, with almost no cost, but they can be sold at an astonishingly high price.

A recipe for a level 0 spell can cost as much as 6 gold, which is hundreds or even thousands of times the profit. A recipe for a level 1 spell can cost as much as 25 gold. This is because what is actually being sold is knowledge, and paper is just a medium.

Finally, spell recipes are too easy to fake, and private transactions cannot guarantee the authenticity of the recipes.

Once fake recipes become rampant, they will cause serious harm to the entire country. They are called spell recipes because mastering magic requires not only diligent study and talent, but also the consumption of corresponding potions.

Therefore, a complete spell recipe, in addition to spell description, spell model, and casting techniques, also includes the corresponding potion recipe.

If you buy a fake magic formula, you'll end up with fake medicine, which will not only bankrupt you but also likely cause you to die from taking it.

In summary, countries have implemented strict controls on spell recipes, which can increase national revenue, maintain market order, protect the "intellectual property rights" of sorcerers, and prevent the proliferation of spells—achieving four benefits in one fell swoop.

Of course, even with the strictest controls, it's impossible to completely prohibit the private trading of spell recipes.

Because the act of trading itself is difficult to verify.

For example, when the sorcerer Seda taught his apprentices magic tricks, this was clearly not a transaction and was permitted.

Therefore, many private transactions involving spell recipes can be considered as teaching, as long as there is no evidence. And who can do anything about it?

Of course, in most cases, mages would rather buy spell recipes from official channels at high prices than trade them privately, even if the price is much cheaper. Spell recipes from official channels are expensive, but they can guarantee their authenticity. Who can guarantee the authenticity of spell recipes from other channels?

After all, the barrier to counterfeiting a recipe is too low; anyone can do it, and the materials needed for potions are often much more expensive than the recipe itself.

In an attempt to save a little money, you buy a fake recipe, only to waste even more money buying materials to concoct a fake potion – a losing proposition.

(End of this chapter)