Chapter 013: The Magic Wand

“The Roland Academy’s admission exam?” The Duchess thought for a moment before saying, “If you want to pursue further studies at Roland Academy, that’s fine. After all, none of our Green family ancestors were magicians, and magic skills haven’t been useful to the family. So if you want to go, go ahead. I’m already used to you spending all your time in the church these days.”
Du Fan grinned and said, “Mom, thank you. I’ll go take the admission exam right away. Don’t worry—I definitely won’t embarrass our Green family.”
The Duchess sighed and murmured, “Go then… If your current abilities aren’t even enough to pass the admission exam, there’s no need for you to come back and see me.”
“Got it!”
Du Fan bowed slightly and quickly left.
Watching him go, the Duchess frowned and tapped her fingers on the table. “Reaching level three in both magic and martial arts within three months… That speed is way too exaggerated. If it were just thanks to the Milak potion, such results would be impossible. Could it be that little Fan has some other advantages… Should I investigate? Never mind. With that kid’s temperament, he’ll never suffer losses no matter what he does…”
…
The afternoon sun cast a gentle glow over the land. In the prosperous capital of the Gavin Empire, people were bustling about everywhere. Merchants from all directions displayed various specialties from the Roland Continent at street corners, while young masters and ladies dressed in splendid noble attire strode down the main streets, surrounded by their servants.
Meanwhile, some seemingly destitute beggars huddled by the walls, their lifeless eyes scanning passersby.
This place was the capital’s commercial district. Unlike the noble district where Du Fan lived, it vividly reflected both the prosperity and degeneracy of the capital.
Duan Fan, dressed in a simple priest’s robe, stood out little among the crowd. He had already walked around the street several times, holding his ring, but still hadn’t decided which shop to enter to sell the magic stone he had. After all, this was his first time doing something like this, and he wasn’t familiar with it.
Finally, he arrived at the entrance of a rather large weapons shop. After hesitating for a moment, he stepped inside—after all, it was the largest weapons shop he had seen in the area after comparing them.

As soon as Du Fan stepped through the door of the weapons shop, he felt a gust of cold wind hit him, making him shiver involuntarily. He narrowed his eyes and glanced around the shop before realizing that the cold wind was caused by several small magic arrays inside, likely installed to keep the shop clean and fresh.

The weapons shop seemed quite large. A few young men dressed like nobles were discussing something, while others who appeared to be mercenaries were loudly negotiating the price of certain weapons with the owner.

Seeing someone enter, a waiter who had been standing by the entrance hurried over. He sized Du Fan up before saying, “Esteemed priest, how may I assist you?”

Du Fan wrapped his hands around himself as he looked around the shop before asking, “Do you have any high-quality wands in your store?”

The waiter was slightly surprised but not overly astonished, as most priests of the Holy Church knew some healing magic related to light. Since the sale of wands wasn’t something a mere waiter could decide, he quickly bowed and said, “Esteemed sir, would you mind coming with me to the inner hall? Although weapons are also sold here, as you surely know, wands are extremely rare, so they certainly can’t be displayed in the outer hall.”

Du Fan nodded and said, “Then lead the way.”

The waiter gestured and led Du Fan through a small door into the inner hall.

There were no unnecessary items in this inner hall—only an extremely expensive-looking low table and a set of sofas.

After Du Fan sat down on the sofa, the waiter brought him a cup of black tea before retreating with his hands lowered.

It was then that Du Fan had time to examine the inner hall carefully.

Perhaps for secrecy reasons, there were no other doors or windows in this hall except for the small entrance. Although the decorations on the walls looked exquisite, Du Fan could faintly recognize that those seemingly ordinary patterns were actually runes of some kind of magic array.

However, it wasn’t strange for the owner of a weapons shop to have such arrangements—after all, not every customer was honest. In this continent where strength meant everything, killings and thefts happened frequently.

After Du Fan had sat there for a few minutes, the small door was pushed open again. A middle-aged man who looked as fat as a pig squeezed in through the door. He greeted Du Fan from a distance, and only after sitting down on the sofa did he say with a smile, “This guest seems unfamiliar. It seems you’re here for the first time. I wonder, what do you need?”

The hood of Du Fan’s robe concealed his expression well. He replied calmly, “I need a high-quality wand. I’m not sure if you have one here.”

The fat man laughed heartily. “It seems you, sir, are an extraordinary magician. You certainly have good taste. Not only in this commercial area, but even throughout the entire capital, I doubt there’s another weapons shop that sells wands aside from ours. As you know, wands are already extremely rare, and even fewer are available for sale. But you’re lucky—we’ve just received some fine goods recently. I wonder if you’re interested.”

Wands were difficult to make, not only because of the materials required but also because no one other than alchemists could create them. In fact, most magical weapons and equipment couldn’t be made by anyone other than alchemists—something Du Fan was well aware of. He knew that good wands were hard to come by.

Now, intrigued by the fat man, he nodded and said, “Then I’ll leave it to you.”

The fat man smiled slightly and gave a light tap with his hand. Moments later, several servants entered carrying boxes. After setting them down, they quickly left.

Du Fan reached out and gently touched three of the boxes for a while before slowly opening one of them.

As he did, a faint magical fluctuation wafted toward him. Du Fan narrowed his eyes and saw a wand inside that appeared extremely dark. It was made of soft peach wood, covered in magical runes, with what seemed to be a small magic stone at its tip, further enhancing its magical resonance.

Perhaps sensing Du Fan’s interest in the wand, the fat man slowly pulled it out and waved it in front of him pretentiously before saying, “This is a grade-two wand with a certain amount of magical amplitude. It was put up for sale by a descendant of a magician not long ago. We bought it for five hundred gold coins. If you’re interested, we won’t make a penny off it. How about that?”
Du Fan smiled faintly and said, “Boss, are you looking down on me? I guess this is the least valuable wand in your shop, right? If I wanted something like this, why would I come to your shop? In my opinion, why don’t you just show me the best wand in your shop?”
The fat man laughed heartily and said, “You truly are remarkable. Since you say so, I won’t try to fool you with other junk. Someone, bring me that one!”
A few servants came in from the door, took away the boxes on the table, and after a while, someone placed a jade box on the table.
This time, the fat man didn’t open the lid himself. Instead, he pushed the jade box toward Du Fan and gestured for him to take it.
Du Fan felt a bit puzzled. Without hesitation, he opened the jade box and was immediately stunned.
As he did so, a faint green light emanated from inside the box, along with a strong magical fluctuation that was impossible to ignore.
Du Fan glanced at the wand in slight surprise and couldn’t help but praise it in his heart.
The wand appeared to be only as long as an ordinary person’s forearm. Its dark blue shaft was covered with faint magical runes, and round magic stones were embedded at each end. Together, these stones and runes formed a magic array, though Du Fan couldn’t immediately recognize what kind of array it was.
“How is that possible!”
Chenchen exclaimed in Du Fan’s mind.
Du Fan froze and quickly asked in his mind, “Chenchen, what’s impossible?”
After a moment, Chenchen said with awe, “This… the magic array on this wand is a level-seven magic array. Although the wand itself is just average, with that magic array added, its power increases countless times over.”
Du Fan asked, “What’s the purpose of this magic array?”

Chenchen seemed to hesitate for a moment before saying, “If I’m not mistaken about this magic array, besides amplifying magic power, its other function is to reduce the casting time of spells below level seven. For mages, this is probably the best… and most useful effect…”