I Refuse To Be A Mage - Chapter 7

Even after walking out of Grandpa Bard’s wand shop, Evan still hadn’t figured out what had happened.

He looked at Ji Chi in confusion. “What was wrong with Grandpa Bard at the end? Why did his face suddenly look so awful?”

Ji Chi shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe he accidentally sold a high-quality wand at a low price.”

His tone was casual, but there was a hint of gravity hidden in his eyes.

He had been careless after all. In holographic online games, equipment couldn’t be stolen, so every player would casually equip their purple and orange gear without anyone bothering to specifically identify them.

But the real world was different. Ji Chi hadn’t expected that someone could recognize equipment attributes just from seeing a small exposed corner. The natives were indeed much more perceptive than he had imagined…

He’d have to be more careful in the future. He hadn’t even unlocked his offensive skills yet. Ji Chi lowered his head in thought.

“Ah…” After hearing Ji Chi’s words, Evan believed them and his expression also turned unpleasant. “I hope the person who bought the wand will discover it soon and return it to Grandpa Bard…”

Ji Chi came back to his senses, glanced at him sideways, and continued walking forward, teasing. “I think he probably won’t discover it.”

Evan looked slightly troubled. “You’re right, and even if he discovered it, he probably wouldn’t return it…”

After sincerely praying for Bard a few times, he led Ji Chi forward. “Since we’re here, I want to sell my Light Amulets first to earn some money.”

As he spoke, he opened the bag on his chest and pinched his money pouch that had deflated by more than half, sighing, “The gold coins I saved for so many years… gone in an instant…”

In exchange for an epic-level wand, that’s quite enough, young man! Ji Chi was getting tired of complaining.

Evan led Ji Chi skillfully to a recessed alley entrance. There were no luxuriously decorated shops there, only a long stretch of open ground where some people had spread square blankets on the ground, sitting cross-legged and hawking miscellaneous goods.

Evan walked to a small booth at the entrance of the alley, leaned against the window and spoke a few words with the person inside, pulled out some copper coins from his pocket to hand over, and received a number plate carved with a small magic circle.

He smiled and thanked the person in the booth, then turned back to Ji Chi and waved the plate in his hand. “For the next two hours I can sell amulets at position 133. Do you want to rest here or go look around by yourself?”

Ji Chi glanced at the wooden number plate. “I’ll go with you first to see where position 133 is, so I can find you later.”

Evan nodded and led him to find a small vacant spot.

He pulled out a square dark gray blanket from his backpack, patted it and spread it on the ground, then took out over a dozen Light Amulets from the bottom of his backpack and arranged them one by one on the blanket.

The hexagonal transparent crystals were strung on thin silver chains, with abundant light elements flickering within the crystals, complementing the bright afternoon sunlight and appearing particularly eye-catching in the noisy alley.

Ji Chi crouched in front of the blanket, helping him arrange the amulets one by one, enjoying the view of all these sparkling items in a good mood. He liked these kinds of dazzling, lively objects. “What do these amulets do?”

He had been playing the game for so long but had never seen this type of amulet. It must be a detail that the real world had developed on its own.

While Evan took out his wand and used light elements to write “2 silver coins each” on the brick ground in front of the blanket, he answered, “Light Amulets can make believers’ prayers more easily heard by the gods, and for adventurers, Light Amulets can protect them from being corrupted by dark magic.”

After finishing his preparations, Evan plopped down on the blanket and relaxed contentedly. “People who come to buy amulets from me are generally these two types. I really haven’t seen any others…”

“Are these Light Amulets?” A young, dry voice interrupted Evan’s confident statement.

At some point, a figure completely wrapped in a black cloak had appeared in front of Evan’s stall. This figure wasn’t tall, at most about 1.3 meters, and from the voice, it was a young boy.

The boy was extremely thin – when the wind blew through the black cloak, it outlined a skeleton-like silhouette.

Seeing that Evan seemed a bit stunned, he reached out to slightly lift the hood that covered most of his face, revealing a jaw as pale as paper. He asked again somewhat urgently. “Are these Light Amulets?”

Evan nodded with his mouth slightly open.

The cloaked boy breathed a sigh of relief and carefully pulled out a gold coin from under his cloak. He clutched it reluctantly in his palm for a moment, then handed it to Evan. “Can I buy six amulets with this? I really need Light Amulets, but I only have one gold coin…”

Evan had always been compassionate toward people in difficulty. He wouldn’t mind giving the boy an extra amulet, but as a highly talented light mage, Evan had sensed the boy’s identity as soon as he approached.

He was an undead.

“The Light Amulets I make contain very abundant light elements…”

Before Evan could finish, the boy eagerly interrupted. “Then can you hold them for me first? I’ll definitely earn enough money. I’ll come buy them when I’ve saved enough!”

He thought Evan was making excuses and didn’t want to give him an extra amulet.

Evan shook his head and reminded him, “They will hurt you.”

The boy was startled and quickly stepped back, frantically looking around, pulling his hood tight and watching them warily, ready to run at the first sign of trouble.

Seeing this, Evan felt a bit soft-hearted. There were rarely young undead, as children who died were usually confused and ignorant, not filled with unwillingness and resentment. Every child who became undead had an unknown tale of suffering behind them. “Light Amulets are of no benefit to you at all. What do you want them for?”

“It’s none of your business! If you won’t sell to me, forget it. I’ll find someone else!” The little undead panicked and stepped back several paces, growling with false bravado.

Despite saying this, the boy stared at those amulets and couldn’t move his legs – these amulets were of very good quality, and this light mage didn’t discriminate against undead. The little undead knew that if he missed this chance, he’d never find another.

Evan was somewhat troubled but finally sighed, pulled out the blanket from under the amulets, carefully selected six of the brightest amulets, wrapped them tightly in the blanket and handed them to the little undead. “Hold them carefully, don’t let them come loose.”

The little undead looked at him in disbelief, then slowly extended his ice-cold, pale hands to hold the bulky bundle of blanket in his arms.

Even so, the little undead’s palms were still burned by the escaping light elements, producing wisps of black smoke.

This kind of harm was extremely painful for the undead, but the little undead only drew in a light breath, then happily tucked them into his cloak.

He looked up at Evan and whispered an almost inaudible thanks, then pulled his cloak tight and ran away quickly.

Seeing Evan watching the little undead’s direction with concern, Ji Chi stared at him curiously. “I thought you light mages would really hate dark creatures.”

Evan withdrew his gaze and lowered his head to tidy up his now-messy stall, feeling somewhat downcast. “They were living people like us when they were alive. If they hadn’t experienced too much pain, they wouldn’t have become undead.”

After saying this, he also became curious. “What about you? I noticed you don’t dislike them either. I’ve met many people who, despite having no connection with dark creatures at all, look at them as if they want to kill them.”

“Mm.” Ji Chi turned his head to look at the various races coming and going on the street. “They’re no different in my eyes.”

“I noticed that too.” Evan sighed. “It feels like everyone is the same in your eyes. Nobles, commoners, professors, classmates, humans, undead… it’s like you don’t care about any class, profession, or species.”

No, young man, you don’t know – I actually still discriminate against mages.

Ji Chi kept his mouth shut and didn’t speak.

Evan didn’t mind whether Ji Chi answered or not, and continued on his own. “That’s really nice. If everyone were like you, this world would probably become wonderful, wouldn’t it?”

Your socialist thinking has great potential, Ji Chi looked at him with wonder.

But Evan was just making a passing comment. As a barely significant junior mage, thinking too much about such things now wouldn’t change the world and would only affect his state of mind.

Seeing that he had reinvested himself in the great business of selling amulets, Ji Chi didn’t disturb him anymore. He patted his robes and stood up. “I’ll go stroll around the main street and come back before you pack up.”

“Okay~” Evan responded, then thought of something and turned to remind him, “Don’t sell any precious potions – that would be a huge loss!”

Ji Chi froze. If you hadn’t said that, I almost would have forgotten.

“Got it, got it.” He answered perfunctorily and quickly left the range of Evan’s nagging skill.

That SAN value dropped way too severely. 

(TL: SAN值= Sanity value; Common in Chinese-speaking fan communities to humorously express mental breakdowns or extreme shock.)

Ji Chi felt lingering fear.

With Evan’s reminder, Ji Chi rebelliously changed direction and headed straight to the potion district.

The potion district had no stall positions – these fragile and precious potions were all carefully displayed in shop windows, with palm-sized potion bottles being the most common shape in this area.

Ji Chi raised his head and carefully observed the signs of these shops, choosing one with the most exquisite sign to enter.

He wanted to know what kinds of high-level potions could be sold in this world.

“Welcome~ Sir Mage, are there any potions you need to purchase?” Seeing a rare customer, the shop assistant immediately came forward.

Although potions could greatly enhance combat power, they weren’t exactly necessities. Apart from adventurers who lived dangerously, only rich second-generation kids with money to burn would come buy potions.

So there were only two customers in the potion shop now – Ji Chi who had just entered, and the evil rich second-generation classmate Brandon who was waving his hand and instructing the shop assistant to pack up potions.

“Except for these strength potions and speed potions…” Brandon’s pale, slender fingers pointed to several types of potions one by one, “pack up all the others.”

The shop assistant hadn’t received such a large order in a long time. He responded with delight and ran behind the counter to find packing boxes.

Having finished selecting the potions he wanted, Brandon’s attention shifted from the display case to the other customer in the shop.

“Hey hey hey! Why are you running? Why do you want to run?!” Brandon simply couldn’t believe that someone’s first reaction upon seeing him was to run away in disgust.

Ji Chi, who had turned to leave the moment he saw Brandon but was still too slow, regretfully stopped his quick steps and turned around. “Oh my, what a coincidence, Classmate Brandon. Who would have thought that walking into the wrong shop could still lead to meeting you.”

Brandon didn’t believe it. “If you just walked into the wrong shop, why did you flee so fast?”

“That was fast?” Ji Chi was genuinely puzzled, but after thinking about it, he understood. “Mm, compared to your speed, it was indeed flying fast.”

“Hey you—” Brandon was unexpectedly furious at the personal attack, his little curls standing up on his head.

He saw the teasing smile in Ji Chi’s eyes, took a deep breath, and tried his best to maintain his noble dignity, speaking affectedly. “Oh? Then which shop were you originally going to? I still have potions to buy. Why don’t you recommend one to me?”

Tsk, are the noble young masters in this world all this troublesome?

Without thinking, Ji Chi randomly pointed to a potion shop across the street. “That one.”

Brandon turned to look, then stared at him suspiciously. “Are you sure? That shop only allows high-level alchemists and above to enter.”

Ji Chi’s expression became serious, and he looked at that potion shop with some surprise, then turned back to look at Brandon and smiled with curved eyes. “Young Master Brandon, help me out, will you?”