"Yes I know a bit about it." Neer nodded and explained.
"As you know young master, almost every academy would send their envoy to select disciples to Zexin city. To shorten the recruitment process, various academies gather together and organise tests in one place and select disciples there. This gives equal chance to each academy to select if any rare talent were to emerge during the tests and avoid any conflict that may arise between academies.
I heard that this time there will be three tests, same as previous recruitments. The first test would be to test one's mana affinity. The minimum requirement is to have a grade two affinity. In he second test, one's strength will be tested according to their mage realms and those who don't posses strength comparable to their mage realm would be disqualified. Third test will be a battle in elimination format. According to their requirements of number of disciples, they would select people. Normally, top five academies has very few vacancies as they only want best talent to join them."
Max got a rough understanding of the process. He shouldn't have any problem to pass first and second test. As for third test, this one should be easy for him with his strength unless... 'Unless I get paired up with someone stronger than me and gets eliminated before I could show my prowess.'
"If that's the case, let's buy some healing and mana recovery pills." Max said.
"Umm, young master, shouldn't you also buy a weapon and a few defensive amulets?" Neer asked. He said this not because he thought that Max was weak but because during the battles, usually even two star mages get heavily injured and some also die. Because to impress the envoys, no one shows any mercy and hold back in order to perform their best. So for their safety, everyone buys defensive amulets/talismans. However, once you used a defensive talisman, you would be considered defeated.
As for weapon, although he was too poor to afford one, he knew that magic weapons not only can make your attacks stronger but also provides a boost to your mana control which gives you an edge if you are matched with someone of equal strength.
"Okay we'll buy them too." Max agreed. After all, his safety was his top most priority. If he could survive in this beautiful yet deadly world, then he can experience and enjoy everything that this world has to offer.
"We should head to the main market district. We would be able to find best quality products we need there." Neer suggested because he knew that these temporary markets rarely had good quality stuff.
"Let's go there then." Max, Neer and the driver headed to the main market leaving the temporary market established by small merchants.
The main market area had comparatively fewer people but still, it was very congested. Neer asked some people where they could buy medicine pills and found a shop nearby that almost every type of magic medicine.
Seeing Max and others arriving, the shopkeeper gave his professional smile and asked "Customers, how can I help you?"
"Please give us some healing and mana recovery pills." Max replied politely.
"Customer, can you tell me, what grade of pills you require and how many?" He asked after confirming what Max wanted.
"What's the price of healing and mana recovery grade one and two pills?" Max asked. Medicine pills and magic artefacts are divided in grades which corresponds to the realms of mages. For example, grade one medicine is most effective to the mages in one star realm and grade two to the two star realm mages.
If a lower realm mage, for example, a one star mage consumes a grade two healing pill, his body won't be able to endure the potency of the pill and it may injure him further. The same is true for magic artefacts.
If you use higher graded magic artefacts, you won't be able to endure the toll it takes on your mana and body, in some cases, people can die even.
If a higher realm mage consumes lower grade medicine, it won't be much effective on him. Therefore it is very important to use the medicine and artefacts suitable to your realms and precisely because of this reason, The half step monarch grade sword is still untouched in his spatial pouch. He wondered a few times if this was the case how can his mother, who was a three star mage could use it?
"Grade one mana recovery pill costs 50 silver coins and a healing pill of the same grade costs 2 gold coins. As for Grade two mana recovery pill, it costs 2 gold coins and a grade two healing pill costs 10 gold coins." The shopkeeper explained.
Max nodded "Okay, Give me twenty grade one pills of each type and the same for grade two."
The shopkeeper nodded and he quickly took out four small jade bottles that had 20 pills each and handed them to Max.
After inspecting the pills, he paid 290 gold coins from his spatial bag. After noticing that the young boy had a spatial bag, he gaze toward him became more respectful.
Max gave grade one pills to Neer who accepted them reluctantly and stored the grade two pills in his spatial bag.
After wandering around the market for a while, they brought six grade two protection talisman for 100 gold each. He gave two to the Driver and Two to Neer.
Although Neer was only a one star mage, these talismans doesn't need one to be of matching strength to use them like Pills or artefacts. They already have energy stored in them. To use these talismans, one only need a small amount of mana. That's why they are always in high demand. Neer and the driver refused to accept them but Max insisted so they had to accept.
Just then, he caught sight of a crimson sword on a blacksmith's shop's display. He quickly walked towards the shop wanting to buy it.
