"So many manuals!" Ezio looked at the giant pile of books in front of him in awe. After destroying and plundering Poseidon's Kiss, he acquired lots of books about the occupations. He was lacking many of them.
"Give me the books about Botany! It has been ages since you gave me something good." Botty said as he stretched his neck out of the window.
"Let me see." Ezio started to check the books one by one to sort them out. It took him more than two hours to check each and every one of them, in the end, he was able to separate them based on occupations. Out of all 300 books, 30 of them were about cultivation. Although the main cultivation art the sect was using was the disgusting manual they showed him before, there were still other arts in their treasury.
"All of them are thrash." Ezio sighed as he threw them to a corner.
"There are more than a dozen about formations. Formy, you are lucky." Ezio smirked as he passed them to Formy.
"Give them to me." Formy excitedly grabbed them as he started to study.
"40 about botany, 20 about smithing, 100 Battle Arts, 60 alchemy, 12 about medicine, 37 about body cultivation, some for beast taming, and other occupations. Not bad." Ezio gave the manuals to respective avatars and took one of the books with a golden cover. The title was "Aura Shape."
"What is this?" He opened the manual in wonder and the description blew his mind. "This is good."
"Hmm?" Manny walked to the window and looked. "It can help you to alter your aura. You can use it with the disguising technique, it would be helpful."
"Yeah, sadly the disguising technique is not good enough. People can see that I am altering my appearance." Ezio sighed helplessly.
"Why don't you use the trade center to trade manuals? You already mastered that technique right?" Manny asked.
"I can trade manuals there as well?" Ezio asked with his mouth wide open.
"Of course," Manny said with a duh expression.
"Let me try." Ezio jumped on his feet excitedly as he ran to Trader Ezio." Buddy, I want to trade this."
"Of course, Main. Let me have it." Trader reached out and took the manual Aodhfionn gave to him. It was the very technique he was using to change his appearance.
After Trader took the manual, he placed it on top of the altar standing in an inconspicuous corner of the room. The altar shone with white light and in the next second, the manual vanished. A breath later a new one appeared in its place. Trader took the manual and handed it over to Ezio. "Here you are, Main, Heaven-Grade, Low-Tier Disguising Qi Manual."
"Same Grade, same tier, Qi Manual for Disguising. Everything's the same except the manual itself." Ezio asked.
"Of course. That is the definition of trade right?" Trader said with a smile. "You get something of equal value to the item you place."
"Where did my manual go? And where did this one come from?" Ezio asked as he held the manual. It didn't look fresh. There were some worn notes in the book.
"Who knows?" Trader said mysteriously. "Universe is boundless. It can be anywhere by now."
"Will the person know it was me who traded it?" Ezio asked in worry.
"We don't know where that manual came from, likewise the other party doesn't know who we are." Trader set his mind at rest.
"That is a relief." Ezio sighed as he read the book. "This technique is a little different from the other one. If I learn both of them and use the best of both techniques, I may be able to improve my disguises."
"That is the idea," Manny said. "Though, you cannot trade the books you get from the Room."
"Even this one?" Ezio asked in surprise.
"Those do not count. You can trade it when you're done with it, but there isn't much to learn from same-tier techniques. But you can still improve if you trade them. You might strike gold, who knows." Manny said then asked. "What was the rate of higher exchanges, Trader?"
"10 to 1 for a small stage and 100 to 1 for a big tier." Trader said.
"100 to 1?!" Ezio asked in disbelief. "So to get Heaven Grade, Middle-Tier Disguising Manual, I have to exchange 10 Low-Tier, and to get an Astral Grade, Low-Tier I have to exchange 100 Peak-Tier?"
"They don't have to be Disguising Manuals, but yes, you have to trade 100 Low Tier." Trader explained.
"Daylight robbery!" He exclaimed.
"Why are you worked up for?" Alcy said from the side. "Don't you have two of them now?"
"Two?" Ezio looked imperceptibly. "I only have one, since I traded the other."
"C'mon Main, you learned the first one, so just copy it. Later, when you learn this, copy this one too. Then when you trade this one, copy the third one as well. Do that until you have 10, and trade all 10 for a higher one." Alcy explained with a snort. "Normally, to copy a technique you have to learn it into Great Accomplishment. But with us here, you passively cultivate all your techniques. That is why it is easier to learn them. So, it is not that hard to reach that level."
"That is true. I didn't know that was feasible." Ezio nodded in understanding.
"Later, we will copy the manuals you lend us, so you can exchange them too. Luckily, occupation manuals are better when it comes to trading. After all, not all books about alchemy cover the same formulas. Thus, by trading ten, I can learn new formulas and techniques." Alcy smiled.
"In no time at all, I will have an endless amount of manuals and arts. This is a gold mine!" Ezio shouted in excitement.
"You spend your precious time copying the manuals, thus you are working for what you are getting. Although it sounds like a cheat, it is indeed not." Manny shook his head. "By the way, you need to find some spells."
"Yeah, I will get to it as soon as I can." Ezio nodded then started to cultivate the technique in front of him.