“Where can I get one? I’ll go as well!” Angor quickly asked.
Dave glanced at him. “You sure? The price for new editions never went below a hundred magic crystals.”
“Then why…” Angor looked around the empty market.
“You can rent it from Cloud Library, or from wizards. If your mentor is really nice to you, maybe you can borrow one for free.” When talking about this, Dave’s depression deepened a little.
“I see…” Angor wondered if he could go to Sunders and try his luck. “But why are you being all frowny over here?” Angor asked.
Dave shrugged. “I’m envious. I don’t have a mentor.”
“You… didn’t have a professor poster? But didn’t you get assigned to a random professor in that case?”
“I had one before,” said Dave. He paused for a long time before speaking again, “Too bad, my professor died on his path during a plane expedition.”
Angor’s expression froze. So that was why Dave looked so sad.
As Angor tried to think of something to comfort Dave, Dave chuckled and spoke first, “I’m fine now. Master Prome can teach me something occasionally. This feels better than being all scared in front of my previous mentor. And… you didn’t answer my question yet. What are you here for?”
Dave squinted his eyes as he asked, “Don’t tell me you already find yourself untalented for Tooling so you’re here to return the materials?”
Before Angor could answer, Dave revealed an “I knew it” attitude. “It’s fine. I kinda expected this to happen, so I never accounted your purchase yet. Just send the materials back. Do you need me to find people to help you carry? Hey, I’m talking to you. Do you need help or not?”
Angor watched Dave expressing his “generosity” with a smile. When Dave stopped talking, Angor finally spoke out, “No, I’m not here to return them.”
Dave frowned. “Are you sure about it?”
“Of course I am! I just want to ask a question,” Angor complained.
“Question?” Dave put on a strange look mixed with joy and the satisfaction for getting to teach someone. He cleared his throat and pretended to be an experienced teacher. “Asking what you don’t know is a good habit for a young man like you. Since you’re asking humbly, I shall gladly enlighten your mind.”
Angor was speechless. Humbly? Oh, come on.
“Go ahead, young man,” said Dave. He was still looking at Angor with an “old man’s kindness”.
Angor took a deep breath to suppress his urge to leave immediately. “I just want to know, once I turn material into a liquid using Thaw, how do I shape it?”
Dave froze up when hearing the question. “Wait, what? You learned how to use Thaw?”
Angor repeated his question, “The book says that I should use mana to shape something. But when I channel mana in the liquid, it did nothing. I came to ask why.”
Dave’s face was now like a painting palette with different colors. Frustration painted in green, shame painted in red, anger in yellow, and sadness in black.
Dave was silent for a long time before speaking in a sad tone, “You really learned Thaw?! It’s barely half a month! How??”
“Um…” Dave’s exaggerated expression proved to Angor that his learning speed was far quicker than other people. Angor carefully arranged his words and said, “Maybe my talent is really good?”
Dave slumped on the stairs from receiving too much shock. He seemed to be doubting his reason to be alive now.
Dave thought about his own learning experience. With Master Prome’s teachings, he spent an entire year to know how to cast Thaw spell. Now, he was struggling with level-1 Tooling cantrip, Smelt. And he had made zero progress in it.
But Angor only spent half a month! The world was so unfair!
“I think I’m ill… I need to sleep,” said Dave. He climbed up from the stairs in a stiff manner and walked into the shop slowly.
“Wait!” Angor called.
Dave turned back with a really sad face.
“So um, how to shape materials while using Thaw?”
Dave struggled in his mind about whether he should tell Angor an answer. “Devil Dave” and “Angel Dave” fought inside his spirit, using envy and friendship as weapons.
“Alright, I’ll tell you,” Dave sighed in the end. He added, “The mana mentioned in the books isn’t the mana you usually used. It’s a level-0 cantrip called Hand of Spell.”
Dave waved a hand at Angor. “You already got your answer. I’ll just go cry—I mean, sleep.”
“Thanks,” said Angor. He was sincerely thankful for his help.
Dave stopped again and curled his lips. “Any wizard with alchemy experience can tell you that.”
“But I don’t know anyone else,” said Angor. He smiled and added, “Thank you, really. Otherwise, it’ll take forever for me to figure it out.”
Dave remained expressionless. “You don’t have to. Your talent will surely take you far on the path of alchemy. I just hope you can help me in the future.”
Angor revealed a big smile. “That’s not a problem.”