Absolute Mana Dominion: All My Talents Are SSS

Chapter 44: 44 - First SSS Item

They had been walking for several minutes when Adrien found himself looking around more than he was looking ahead.

Elyndor was still strange to him. Elves made up most of the crowd, naturally, but they were far from the only race moving through the market. Dwarves argued over metalwork beneath one awning, while two beastkin merchants unloaded crates further down the street.

"I said it before, but it’s still strange seeing other races living together like this." Adrien glanced toward a shop displaying enchanted jewellery behind glass. "Makes me wonder what kind of items I could find around here."

Amelia looked over. "Probably quite a few. Do you actually need anything?"

"Not really. I’m mostly curious." Adrien lifted one shoulder. "I wouldn’t complain about finding something useful, though. Umbral Root is the only proper item I own."

"Hmm." Amelia thought about it while they walked. "Mage accessories would probably be the easiest place to start. Rings, necklaces, bracelets. Most decent ones have useful effects, and accessories don’t drain anywhere near as much mana as active items."

"Is the difference really that big?"

"Usually, yeah." Amelia stepped around a group of children running across the walkway. "Say you were Three Stars. You could probably keep four normal accessories manifested without caring much about the drain. Your core might recover mana faster than they spend it."

She pointed at him before he could get too interested. "Normal accessories, Adrien. Start filling every finger with A-rank rings and you’ll discover consequences very quickly."

"That sounds like advice from experience."

"It isn’t."

"You answered too fast."

Amelia ignored him.

The main market road widened ahead of them, paved in pale stone and completely closed to vehicles. Foot traffic filled almost every part of it, with stalls packed between permanent shops and branches from the enormous trees overhead forming a broken roof of green.

Amelia slowed near an opening between two buildings. "It should be through here. We turn down this alley and the shop is halfway along."

Adrien looked into it. Compared to the bright market behind them, the passage seemed oddly narrow, barely wide enough for four people to walk side by side.

"Charming little alley."

"It’s not that bad."

"That’s something people only say about places that are definitely that bad."

"Come on."

Amelia led him inside.

There was only one shop halfway down, squeezed between two tall wooden buildings. Amelia slowed as soon as she saw it.

The storefront was dark wood with a narrow green sign hanging above the door. Several grimoires sat behind the window, mixed with staffs, small boxes and pieces of jewellery.

Amelia frowned. "That’s... different."

"You sure this is the place?"

"I’ve been here before." She looked further down the alley and then back. "The shop was brighter, and I’m pretty sure the sign was blue. Maybe the owner renovated."

"Or you have an incredible memory."

She gave him a flat look and opened the door.

A bell rang overhead.

Adrien took two steps inside before Absolute Mana Sense went wrong.

He stopped.

Mana was everywhere in the shop. In the shelves, inside the grimoires, running through items displayed beneath glass. Normally his talent separated those signatures almost without effort.

Here, everything felt blurred.

He focused harder and the sensation became worse, as though something had placed fog between his talent and the room.

’That’s new.’

"Something wrong?" Amelia asked.

"No. Just looking."

He absolutely did not believe that answer himself.

A curtain behind the counter moved, and an old man emerged from the back. Adrien needed a second look to work out what he was seeing.

The man was short even by dwarven standards, though his ears rose into unmistakably elven points beneath a mess of white hair. His beard barely reached his chest, and the wrinkles around his eyes looked deep enough to store coins.

Amelia blinked. "You’re not the owner."

"Observant girl." The old man climbed onto a stool behind the counter. "He’s sick today. I’m doing the poor bastard a favour."

"You know him?"

"Long enough to regret it." He rested both arms on the counter. "Now, are you buying something, or did you come here to investigate my family tree?"

Adrien almost liked him immediately.

"I’m looking for a Zephyr grimoire. Lightning Aspect. Two Stars spells, preferably."

The old man studied him for a second, then snapped his fingers.

Mana shifted.

A thick book appeared instantly in his hand.

Adrien’s attention sharpened. There had been no visible delay at all. The grimoire simply existed between one moment and the next.

Its cover was black with thin silver lines running across it like branches of lightning. Two words had been pressed into the leather.

Lightning Manual.

"Two-Star Lightning spells." The old man placed it on the counter. "Ten thousand crowns."

Adrien stared at him.

"Ten thousand?"

"Very good. Your hearing works."

’Fuck me.’

Greymoor was finally beginning to recover, and Adrien was currently trying to rebuild a noble house that had been financially gutted from six different directions. Ten thousand crowns for one spellbook was the kind of purchase Evelyne would somehow sense from several kilometres away.

Adrien put a hand on the cover and reluctantly started pulling it back.

"I think I’ll survive without it."

The old man caught his sleeve.

Then he leaned closer.

"For the sake of not embarrassing you in front of your girl," he whispered, "I’ll give you ninety percent off."

Adrien stared at him.

"One thousand."

"That’s not how shops work."

"It is how this one works."

Adrien glanced toward Amelia. She was examining a set of earrings several shelves away and apparently had not heard them.

He looked back at the old man.

"You know what? Fine."

"Excellent decision."

The exchange took less than a minute. Adrien paid the thousand crowns, tucked the grimoire under one arm and left with Amelia while the old man waved pleasantly from behind the counter.

"Come again."

Outside, Absolute Mana Sense returned so suddenly Adrien almost stopped walking. The market snapped back into clarity around him, every item and person carrying their own clean mana signature.

’Yeah. There was definitely something wrong with that place.’

Amelia was saying something about finding food when Adrien finally focused on the book.

"Give me a second."

He reached for the grimoire through his Inventory.

Nothing happened at first.

Five seconds passed.

Then seven.

At ten, mana began folding together between his hands. The Lightning Manual slowly appeared, page by page and cover last, until its full weight settled against his palms.

At the same moment, Adrien felt his core being pulled on hard enough to make him straighten.

’What the fuck?’

The drain was enormous. Bottomless Core could handle it, but the difference from Umbral Root was ridiculous.

A window opened.

[Item Detected]

[Analysing...]

[??? | Rank: SSS]

[Type: Grimoire]

[Description: Contains simple spells of the Zephyr Affinity: Lightning Aspect.]

Adrien stopped walking.

Amelia got another two steps before noticing. "Adrien?"

He stared at the letters.

’SSS.’

He dismissed the book immediately. The drain vanished with it.

"We’re going back."

"What?"

"That book was sold to me as Two Stars." Adrien turned toward the alley. "It isn’t."

They reached the entrance less than a minute later.

Adrien stopped.

The alley was different.

The dark storefront was gone. In its place stood a brighter shop with a blue sign, exactly where Amelia had said it should be from the beginning.

Adrien looked at her.

"Amelia... is this normal around here, or am I finally losing my mind?"

Her face had gone completely serious.

"No. I saw it too."

She went into the shop alone while Adrien waited outside with his attention fixed on the doorway. A few minutes later, Amelia returned considerably more confused than when she entered.

"That’s the shop I remembered."

Adrien looked past her toward the blue sign.

"And the old man?"

Amelia shook her head.

"They had no idea who we were talking about."