After Valyr made his choice on what grade of [Mana Affinity] he would obtain, he and the young woman attending him then headed to the section containing all of the element manipulation skills, which Valyr and many other players considered as Pseudo-Special Skills.
Of course, similar to before, Valyr chose to buy [Basic Mana Manipulation], the lowest grade of [Mana Manipulation] that he could buy from the emporium. After that, he went ahead and bought the element manipulation skills corresponding to the four basic elements, causing the young woman's eyes to glisten with delight as she felt like she could gain a slightly hefty bonus from the man she was attending.
Looking to see if he was planning to buy any other element manipulation skill while he was still in the section that had it, Valyr glossed over the element manipulation skills he had elected to buy.
[Basic Mana Manipulation] was a no-brainer since combining it with [Basic Mana Affinity] was considered the bread and butter to setting a foundation for magic. Where one skill was focused on attuning one's self surrounding them, the other was focused on allowing one's self to harness that energy and bend it to one's will.
As for the element manipulation skills that corresponded to the four basic elements, Valyr felt like having the ability to control the elements would help him out in the long run, even if he were to only use them to speed up his travels. Then again, as he told the young woman that he would buy [Basic Fire Manipulation], he wondered if it would clash with the [Basic Crimson Flame Manipulation] skill he already had or merge into something greater.
'Speaking of which, I should get their elemental affinity skills while I'm at it.' Recalling the fact that he still had no elemental affinity skill even though he already had [Basic Crimson Flame Manipulation], Valyr and the young woman made their way to the section of the emporium that contained all of the elemental affinity skills, with Valyr naturally picking up the affinity skills for the four basic elements.
Thinking as to whether or not he should get anything else aside from the [Polymorph] skill Braum had mentioned to him earlier, Valyr eventually thought that he should take the time to expand his skill repertoire, quickly thinking of many reasons where an expanded skill repertoire could prove to be useful.
With that, he went ahead and picked up [Basic Spellcasting], [Basic Incantation], and [Basic Mana Magic Style] without hesitation. Curious as to how the magic system worked as he had never delved in-depth into it back when he was still a player, Valyr felt like now was a good time to buy a few skills that would allow him to find out.
Just as the two were about to make their way to the section that housed [Polymorph] and other similar skills that disguised one's identity, Valyr stopped in his tracks as he picked up the Special Skills that pertained to the four basic elements, their naming scheme similar to the Special Skill for pure mana.
Bitterly smiling at the fact that he would have to familiarize himself with a lot of skills after this buying spree, Valyr and the young woman headed to the section that contained the skill Braum wanted him to buy, slightly surprised to find out that the skill was considered Uncommon grade.
Wondering if there was a more basic version of the skill, Valyr rummaged through his memories to find out, eventually encountering a memory that contained a guide on getting [Polymorph] without having to buy the actual skill itself.
With the guide in his memory telling him that obtaining [Polymorph] in this manner would allow him to have even greater control over his disguise, Valyr decided to follow it as he grabbed all of the skills listed on the guide, which amounted to eight skills in total.
"How much do all of the skill books I've grabbed cost in total?" While he and the young woman were making their way to the section of the building that contained physical skills, Valyr decided to ask how much everything he had gotten cost so far, briefly feeling the weight of the money pouch he had brought with him.
Though the money he had earned from the Crimson Forge was quite a large sum, Valyr was planning to pay off the debt he owed Arcenne and her father with part of the money, which amounted to 2,000 gold coins. However, this thought of paying back debt slipped past his mind after pulling an all-nighter, causing him to forget about the debt he owed, only to recall the matter by the time they were already far away from the city.
Feeling a tinge of regret, Valyr found solace from the fact that Arcenne told him that he was free to take his time in paying back the debt. Nevertheless, by not paying the debt he owed Arcenne and her father in the meantime, the amount of money he currently held amounted to around 50 platinum coins, or around 5,000 gold coins.
"The pricing the Boundless Skill Emporium uses for its skill books is based on the rarity of the skill contained within the book, excluding some skills whose usefulness transcend their rarity," the young woman responded to Valyr's question with an explanation. "For a skill book that contains a Common grade skill, its price would be 50 gold coins."
"An Uncommon grade skill would cost four times as much, having a price of 200 gold coins," she continued. "For each increase in rarity, the price would quadruple, so a Rare skill would cost 800 gold coins, an Epic skill 3,200, and so on, and so forth."
"In any case, you have currently picked up a total of 25 skill books that contain Common grade skills, which is equal to 1,250 gold coins." Once he was done listening to the young woman's explanation, Valyr could not help but suck cold air through his teeth, feeling a hint of pain at the amount of money he was spending.
Though, this feeling of pain swiftly disappeared as he thought back to the time he was in Astarto Village, recalling the time he used to carry corpses back to the village in order to sell them for copper coins. Realizing that he had not only improved in terms of strength, but also in terms of wealth, a faint smile soon adorned his face within the helmet as he nodded at the young woman soon after.
Keeping the skill book pricing in mind, the two of them then proceeded to the section that housed physical skills.
