But most academies accepted students from very young age when they had just received their first job and their paths were less fixed. Getting admission through halfway was not easy at all, especially if you were a commoner.
She looked at least 16-17 years old. She should be a graduate by now, Why was she still talking as if she had yet to go there.
"I thought you were already a mage..."
"I am a mage. A very good one at that."
That last part was totally unnecessary, Damian just tried his best to ignore it.
"Why are you not going there then...?"
Her happy and proud face turned to solemn expressions at that and she looked slowly away from Damian and stared into the distance for a while without saying anything. Sensing that it was a bit personal topic Damian also did not force her and remained silent.
"My family doesn't want me to do so..."
"If the day comes when people tell me I can't learn any more new spells I might as well blow them all up..."
"Pfft.. Hahahhahahaha...!!! That's.. hahaha.. You are my favorite student you know that..?"
"I'm your only student..."
Seeing she was back to her usual mood Damian decided to work towards his second goal for staying in this city and fished for some details about the higher society.
"What do you think I should do if I want to keep learning new spells and reading for all my life..?"
"You could join one of the library academy, it might be bit hard to get through the admission process though but I think you could do it. There you can learn and discover your own new spells and do thousands other interesting things. You would have to become a professor for that though..."
"If you could go to any kingdom and start a new life, where would you go...?"
"Hmm.. Dawnstar maybe.. They have nice scholars and mages... The empire is also good with it's all new runic tools.. living their would be a bit hard though with all the rules.. I would definitely stay away from Eldoris and Ashenvale that's for sure..."
"Hm? Why?"
"Don't you know? They are preparing for a war among themselves because of all the border skirmishes.."
"What? The empire wasn't enough..?"
"Eldoris has a border with the empire so they are busy just like the rest of us but Ashenvale does not, and it seems they are itching to fight for a while..."
"Wow! Just wow!"
"Yeah, they are dumb... Okay let's head back... I hate the heat and sun..."
"Woah! Don't let those robes guy hear you say that..."
"Hahaha.. Your mind is just as rotten as mine..."
Damian walked back to the library while processing all the information he just received. Technically the best place to live in this time would be the empire with it's advanced technology but they wouldn't let him live in peace. If he showed even half of what he could there he would be forced to join the royal army. Faerunia was too close to Goldilocks and the whole incident with the knights thing it was not an option at all. Eldoris and Ashenvale were preparing to fight each other... There just might be a chance in all the chaos...
Spending the rest of his day in library reading all his money's worth Damian walked back to his inn in the evening and ate at the tavern, then instead of going in his room where he would have to light candles Damian just stayed in the tavern working on his runic spells and figuring out things that he could change after understanding it sitting on one of the tables in the corner. The tavern had that tool that worked like a lantern and had enough light to see everything with decent clarity. It needed mana stones to work, Damian had noticed it on his very first day here. Many big shops and establishments had those here, this city being the center point of trade the tools were more easily available here. The lantern had a fire rune spell and the same invisible spacetime wall spell mixed in.
Just by comparing the watch tool that he had and this lantern tool, Damian had figured many things out about the complex invisible box runic circle. It wasn't 100% clear yet but Damian was confident he could figure it out with some time.
The next day Damian got up at 7 and went to the abandoned building where he made his potions yesterday. He had collected enough materials to last him for a week if he made one batch a day, so that was one thing less he had to worry about. Following his method of tomorrow with exact ratio and all other details for a consistent product Damian made another batch of Basic healing potion with 26 bottles full this time, he did not drink one to taste it like yesterday.
Storing it all he went to the same street and the same corner as yesterday and set up his little stall. He was early today so the sun wasn't as hot as yesterday, Yet Just to not get roasted Damian used the [Earth wall] spell as chanting through his mouth, he couldn't show his scrolls in front of all these people so he acted just like a somewhat average kid. People were surprised to see two dirt walls coming out of the ground from the sides of his table and making a little cabin with another two coming out on top of those two making a little house type structure that covered him and his little stall completely. It was small enough that it did not trouble any other stalls around him and also provided him the much needed shade.
Many people were still staring at him but Damian ignored them and made a little dirt chair for him where he sat waiting. He didn't have to wait much though people were really coming to his stall and buying the potions without even tasting. Damian guessed that these must be the people who were recommended his potions by the ones who bought it yesterday. He also saw some familiar faces in there who bought 3-4 at once rather than one like yesterday. To Damian's absolute surprise he was done selling all 25 bottles in just over 2 hours.
Damian was done with today's business so he took his things back in his storage tool hidden away from people by his walls and brought out two papers with a runic magic circle drawn on it. It was one of the new modified version of the spell that he had made with his research.
All magic needed a source of mana, normally the chanting of spell handled the amount required from user but the ones that used atmosphere's mana required the input of how much mana the spell could use which Damian had set to maximum with these two drawn spells, and the best thing about this was wherever Damian attached this papers the mana of atmosphere began attracting from the point of contact and so with just a simple water rune spell if the values of storing mana was beyond the paper's limit the dirt walls beneath it will get sucked dry of mana and would turn to dust while the paper getting overload with the mana attraction beyond it's limit would just burn up.
The result? Easy destruction of dirt walls.
He couldn't just leave it like that in the corner of the busiest street so he had to do something about it. This trick only worked for weak magical structures though with minimum amount of mana inside them. The natural structures could exist without mana so that wasn't a proper eroding spell, it was just something Damian had thought up to solve the question of dealing with dirt structures after using them by molding them into various shapes.
Damian had an early lunch then he walked to the library where his 'teacher' was waiting. Damian finally had a fixed routine in which he could get behind. Gathering money like this for his trip wouldn't take long at all, of course he didn't know what was to come.