Madam Aria's face was full of question marks, so Kai decided to elaborate, "Well I have been brewing these potions called [Deer-liver Potion]s, and he had been selling them for me. If someone were to-"
"Wait! You brewed the Potions?" Aria interrupted him, with a strange look on her face. She had naturally heard about the potions that were sold for a high price at the auction, and so she too had bought one of them and used it. It was indeed as the rumours said, and was effective on her.
One had to know, that the library did indeed have Potions that could affect those at Rank 2, however almost nobody was able to actually make them, due to their incredibly high failure rate. It was simply a loss making business since they would need at least 25 portions of ingredients in order to get one successful potion, whose total cost alone was greater than the highest possible price it could be sold at.
"Yes. We already sold three of them, but I gave Fred a few more to sell today before coming. And high Ranking Magi are likely to take notice of this. He will be in danger first, then they will come for me as well. So, I would like to request your help."
"Huh… Alright. I will handle this matter. But, what is your success rate?"
"About 50%. Sometimes I can get better, and sometimes worse results, but on average 50%."
Although Kai wanted to trust madam Aria, he simply could not bring himself to do so. Therefore, he gave a conservative estimate. Unfortunately for him, the average success rate for most Magi was an astoundingly low 4%!
"… Never mind then. I will ensure nobody targets you or your friend. Just try not to act too high and mighty towards normal students who do not have mentors like me. Someone from that group might even advance to Rank 1 or Rank 2! Remember this alright, Kai? I have seen far too many talented students turning arrogant, and later being killed or seriously injured by those they bullied."
"Of course, Madam!"
"Alright then, go ahead."
Kai nodded and closed his eyes. The system had already run the simulations and had fed all the relevant information directly into his mind. For Kai, it felt as though he was just doing a task he had already done hundreds of times.
Furthermore, with the practice that Yu had with controlling Spiritual Energy, Kai had almost zero difficulty inscribing the first rune. After careful selection, Kai decided to choose [Blood Burn] as his first Rank 0 spell. Unlike all the defensive and offensive spells, as well as the single de-buff spell Kai planned on learning, this one was different.
[Blood Burn] did not directly affect the enemy in any way, nor did it affect the enemy's attacks. Instead, it caused Kai to sacrifice some of the blood within his body, effectively burning it away in order for his body to gain a tremendous and instantaneous, yet temporary boost in all physical abilities.
Based on the description, he would sacrifice half a litre of blood in exchange for power comparable to an Inferior Knight. Of course, this was still a Rank 0 spell, so that was all it could do, but to Kai, whose main ability of combat at the moment was physical combat, and would likely remain the same for some time even after learning all his Rank 0 spells, This was the single largest increase in his combat prowess since learning the Five Elephant Palm External Art.
The rune for [Blood Burn] was rather simple, and he immediately and successfully inscribed it into his Mental Space.
Immediately, he could feel a portion of his Spiritual Energy, which would have normally recovered over time, flow into the spell permanently, and settle inside it. He could no longer control that bit of Spiritual Energy, which was about 1 tenth of the total.
Kai allowed himself to calm down from the success of completing one rune and finally taking his first steps into the world of Magi, while he examined the rune. Somehow, without any external runes surrounding it, it was gathering Mana from the environment, and collecting it inside itself.
However, he did not waste too much time seeing how much Mana is required to cast and instead began inscribing the next rune as soon as his Spiritual Energy had recovered. To nine-tenths of the original.
[Spacial Blade], [Fireball], [Waterball], [Healing Spring], [Weakness], and [Stone Spike], each was inscribed into his mind one at a time, until finally, he did not have any Spiritual Energy left.
"Do not cast any spells at the moment. You will need a bit of Spiritual Energy to cast spells. It is not used up in the process but is used to guide the runes in your Mental space to activate in certain ways. Go and rest for a few days, before trying to increase your Spiritual Energy. Only, and only when you have Spiritual Energy are you allowed to cast a spell. Do you remember that?"
"Yes."
"Alright. Go on then. I will handle the matter with your Potions and your friend."
"Thank you."
…
Kai left, but Madam Aria was still standing, her head lowered as she was pondering.
'His speed and fluency in inscribing the spells, means that he completed the calculations to perfection. His assimilation rate should be nearing 95% at least. If he has done a similar job for the Rank 1 spells… Ha! I can only guess how powerful he will be. Well… it seems like he had everything sorted out with a 50% success rate on the potions, and he seems confident. Let us see how this plays out.'
'I wonder how Master would react if I told him I have a Seven-Elemental Rank 1 mage…' she mused as a slight smirk appeared on her face.