Chapter 87: Searching
The next day, Charles woke up early, had breakfast in the inn, and went out.
His first objective now was, of course, to find some loyal helpers. After some thought, he moved towards Main Street.
From his knowledge and experience, Charles knew that many kids from villages and rural towns would come to cities for better jobs, so he chose them as his target.
He found a suitable roadside bench, sat on it, leaned his back against the wood, and started to observe the people.
At the same time, he also started paying more attention to others' conversations and started asking doubts about the Lark language to the Holem's Crown.
Hours passed as he continued to search for suitable candidates and sighed in disappointment as he saw the setting sun.
He didn't get discouraged, though; instead, he stood up with some difficulty, supported his body with the black cane, and slowly returned to 50A Harpy Street. Then, he went to his room and locked the door from inside.
'I should construct the remaining spell models in the free time.' He sat on the concrete floor in a cross-legged position and opened the game interface.
'Hmm, which spell model should I construct first?' He pondered for a moment and soon chose to construct the corresponding spell of [Burning Thoughts] spell.
[Mind Burn (3,000), Fire Seed (3,600), Burning Web (2,050)…]
Among the corresponding spells, a spell model named [Fire Seed] piqued his interest. Unlike Burning thoughts, this fire could hide in one's consciousness, burn one's memories slowly, turn them into information, and send them to the user's mind!
It was almost like a similar version of Mind Reading skill!
Not only that, the user could even control the Fire Seed from afar and burn their opponent's current thoughts!
Once he saw the effects, he didn't hesitate any longer and chose to construct it.
Same as last time, he entered the Inner-world through the [Flame Body] spell model and watched the constructing process. Unlike last time, constructing this spell model took almost 8 hours for the system!
After that, Charles opened his eyes and rested for a few hours before going to the main street around 8 A.M.
Due to his unluckiness, he didn't find a suitable candidate on the second day too.
In the last two days, he saw more than 100 rural kids entering the city. But most of them appeared too naive due to illiteracy, so Charles strikes them out from his list.
He returned to 50A Harpy Street and shifted his attention to the game interface.
He then pondered for a whole minute and chose to construct the corresponding spell of [Blue Fire] called [Soul Heal] spell model first. It cost him around 2,500 Exp points.
Once the system finished constructing the spell model, he once again turned his attention to the Game interface and checked the Exp bar.
'I still have 4,977 Exp remaining.' He thought for a moment and chose to construct the upgraded version of [Crimson Robe] spell for 3,420 Exp points.
By the time the system finished constructing the spell model, it was already morning, so he skipped the day to search for suitable helpers and lay on the cot to get some rest.
Hours went by, and soon the dusk arrived. Charles woke up around 8 P.M and went to the reception hall to have some food. Like he had expected, the Inn owner only gave him a bow of vegetable soup, peas pottage, and a few slices of bread.
Charles first stuffed the pea pottage in the bread and started to eat slowly. Once he finished the dinner, he drank the vegetable soup slowly and felt better.
After that, he returned to his room, took out a wooden trunk piece from his space ring, and placed it on the cot.
'Mr. Runeth, how long could this space seal spell last?' He asked in a serious tone.
'It should take a month or two. Before that, find a way to earn some money and buy a house in a safe area. Then, I will tell you a method to subdue the Traveler Tree's Twin Leaf.' Upon hearing the Holem's Crown's answer, Charles's wrinkled face turned gloomy.
'That's where the main problem lies.' He let out a heavy sigh, stored the wooden trunk into the space ring, and lay on the cot with a solemn look on his face.
The cold night passed slowly.
For the next few days, Charles visited the main street multiple times but returned to 50A Harpy Street in disappointment.
He finally realized how dangerous the unluckiness effects would be!
After some thought, Charles postponed the search mission and concentrated his attention on comprehending the Rank-2 [Incinerate] spell model.
Thankfully, the unluckiness couldn't find a way into his 'Inner world' and obstruct his improvement.
Although he met misfortunes like drawn into some random thugs fight, bumped into a mad person, entering into a wrong room while the other person was changing their dress, etc., he somehow managed to solve all those troubles after apologizing constantly.
Soon, it was November 3rd.
Charles sat in a cross-legged position and opened his eyes around 9.30 A.M.
During the past few days, not only did he finish comprehending the [Incinerate] spell model up to 80%, but he also learned to speak Lark Language.
"Finally." He took a deep breath and stood up with a rare smile on his face.
Then, Charles walked outside, asked the Inn owner to give him a bucket of water, took a bath in the public bathhouse, and returned to his room while wearing a single towel below his waist.
After that, he closed the wooden door, wore a pleated linen shirt, grey pants, and leather shoes, and then went to Main Street.
Like before, he sat on the park bench and silently watched the passerby like a jobless old man.
It was around 11 A.M.
While observing the passerby, Charles suddenly saw a few rural kids entering the city and soon squinted his eyes.
It was not their cautious behavior that caught his attention, but a Rank-3 Ring in a black-haired girl's hand.
...
[Item Name: Ring of Frost
Rank: Rare
Effect: This ring has a spell called 'Ice Land' engraved in it. When activating, this spell would send out ice elements and freeze the surroundings.
Caution: To use this ring, the user must have a minimum of 15 Wisdom Points.
Cooldown: 2/ Week.]
…
'This girl is not a normal one.' He frowned.
At that moment, the group of four kids, who were around 12 to 15 years old, walked on the street road and started at the city in curiosity and wonder.
Two were male kids, while the other two were female kids. They first went near a dressing shop and purchased a hat for a chubby-faced male boy. Then, they moved to the nearby shops and started to inquire about many things like the cost of the dresses, shoes, etc.
Once they gathered enough information from various shopkeepers, they discussed it secretively and started moving deep into Chester City.
The one who led the group was a long, whirly blonde-haired girl. She looked around 14-years-old, had emerald-green eyes, a round face, and a lean body, and wore a plain sleeveless white shirt and brown leather pants.
The other girl was a black-haired one, and she looked more like a foreigner because of her pale white skin. She wore a long brown skirt, full-sleeved shirt and she appeared to be around the same age as the blonde-haired one.
"Titus, watch your footsteps." The blonde-haired girl suddenly pulled a straight brown-haired kid's old linen shirt as they walked past Charles and warned him while pointing her finger below.
Meanwhile, the brown-haired kid named Titus stumbled due to her pull and turned his gaze towards the front.
"Gold coin?" His deep-set brown eyes widened as he stared at the wheel-symbol engraved gold coin for a moment and then looked around.
Instead of taking the coin, he maintained his vigilance and checked if anything was abnormal in the surroundings.
His gaze first landed on few thugs, who stood there in the corner of the main street, then on the opposite side store's owner, and soon moved towards the white-haired old man, who sat on the roadside bench.
A second later, his heart skipped a beat as he noticed that the old man was staring right back at him!