Magical Cat

"How's it going? Pretty good, right?"

Old Finch had clearly seen Melina's satisfied expression, but he still deliberately wanted to confirm it again.

Melina, of course, knew old Finch's temperament well, and praised his skills over and over again, making old Finch very happy.

Li En and Elaine, who were standing nearby, both forced themselves to keep a straight face.

"What master craftsman? This is just treating him like a child!"

Li En secretly thought to himself that Melina was demonstrating how to use Old Finch.

Old Finch was flattered and his attitude immediately changed completely, becoming incredibly nice.

At first, he didn't give Elaine a very friendly look, but in the blink of an eye, he began to introduce the store's products to her in a kind manner, and even specially selected a free gift for her.

It's a magical toy slingshot. When used with magic, it can increase the range of the magic, and the weaker the magic, the farther the range—it can even multiply several times over.

But this was clearly not a proper magical artifact; it was just a toy that old Finch had casually made. It had been sitting in the shop for years without selling, so he gave it to Elaine as a gift.

Elaine didn't seem to mind; instead, she thanked her sincerely.

Regardless, this was a gift from someone, and it was her first magical item in her life, so it naturally had special significance.

Seeing Elaine's politeness, old Finch had a better impression of her and couldn't help but laugh even more heartily.

They stayed in old Finch's shop for a while longer before saying goodbye and leaving.

As she left the store, Elaine turned back, trying to remember the store's name.

"Magic Dust, what a strange name."

Elaine looked at the sign and couldn't help but say something.

"Magic dust is waste generated during the creation of magical items. Although it has magical properties, it is almost useless," Melina explained from the side.

Li En tilted his head, unable to decipher the scribbles on the signboard.

He couldn't understand any other scripts in this world except for magical scripts.

It was fine when I was only in the academy; I mostly used magical script.

However, being illiterate is still very inconvenient when you go out into the world, and Li En doesn't want to be illiterate.

"When will I learn these languages?"

Elaine thought for a moment and said, "The academy doesn't seem to have any specific requirements; it should be a decision made by themselves, right?"

She's only in first grade, so she doesn't know much.

"Self-study would take quite a long time, but if your mental strength is sufficient, you can learn through magic books." Melina said, looking at Li En, and after a moment of silence, she said, "With your mental strength, it should be no problem at all. First-year students can't borrow that book, so I'll borrow it for you."

"Thank you, Ms. Melina!"

Li En thanked him happily and took the opportunity to call him "teacher".

"You're quite studious. When you get to second or third grade, you'll see a spectacular sight of magical beasts skipping class en masse," Melina remarked.

"Oh, are magical beasts so naughty?" Elaine was quite surprised.

"Eleanor, you don't know how lucky you are. For most magical beasts, learning and training go against their nature. Even Luna, back then..."

As Melina was speaking, a mask appeared on her face, completely covering her mouth.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn't a mask at all; it was clearly Luna covering Melina's mouth completely.

Elaine couldn't help but cover her mouth and chuckle.

Li En burst into laughter.

Enraged, Luna swung her tail and smacked Li En's buttocks hard, making a crisp "smack" sound.

Li En's buttocks were burning with pain, so she quickly covered them and hid in Elaine's arms.

"Wow, that hurts when you hit the cat!"

Li En never expected that snakes could attack in this way.

Moreover, Luna's movements were so fast that Li En couldn't react in time.

Didn't we agree that a cat's reaction time is seven times that of a snake's?

How come when it came to Li En, he couldn't even see Luna's movements clearly?

Moreover, Li En has undergone the tempering of the passive skill Psionic Body Tempering, so how come he is not as good as Luna, a little white snake?

"If you dare laugh at me again, I'll spank you until your butt is bruised!" Luna threatened, not forgetting to glare at Melina.

Melina's eyes narrowed into crescent moons as she smiled, clearly overjoyed.

Luna used her trump card, gently biting Melina's earlobe. Melina immediately blushed from the tickling and cried out for mercy.

Seeing that she was scared, Luna crawled back into Melina's clothes, leaving behind only the words, "Don't say anything more about me!"

Melina still had some scale marks on her lips, and the blush on her face was gradually fading.

"The little one is shy," Melina joked.

Noticing another disturbance inside her clothes, Melina quickly said, "Alright, alright, let's not talk about it anymore. How about we go browse some other stores?"

The group then strolled around the shopping street again.

This place is called a shopping street, but it's actually an area.

Everything was provided: food, drink, clothing, and daily necessities.

Li En and Elaine were very curious about every shop, and Melina didn't mind taking them from shop to shop.

They entered a shop that only sold drinks, and in addition to regular alcoholic beverages, it also sold specialty drinks.

The cool spring water that Melina had given Li En before was among them. A water bag of cool spring water cost a full ten silver coins, which was an exorbitant price compared to the normal drinks in the shop.

But Li En had drunk this stuff before; it had the effect of restoring magic power and mental strength for magicians, making it an essential item for going on adventures.

At this shop, Li En also met magicians other than the academy students.

These mages, travel-worn and carrying various staves and wands, usually arrived in groups, clearly adventurers.

They buy these special drinks without batting an eye, buying them in sets or twos at a time.

One group consists of twenty units.

Li Enzheng was wondering how they could fit so many water bags in, and found that they had stuffed them all into the small pouches at his waist.

The small package, which looks only the size of a schoolbag, can actually hold so many things.

"Teacher, is that the magic backpack?"

Elaine looked at the magician who was filling the container with water, lowered her voice and asked, her eyes full of envy.

If we had such good things when we were working at home, Mom and Dad wouldn't have had to work so hard.

This was the first thought that popped into Elaine's head after she saw firsthand how convenient the magic backpack was.

She used to live in the village, where farm work was tiring on a regular basis, and during the busy farming season, she was exhausted.

If there were magic backpacks in the village, they wouldn't have to suffer so much.

Melina stared in disbelief at the convenient magic backpack.

Melina, who also came from a commoner background, naturally understood what Elaine was thinking. She reached out and touched Elaine's hair before saying, "That's right, that's a magic backpack. It may not look big, but it can hold a lot of things, and similar items can be stacked. Even the cheapest magic backpack can hold several hundred kilograms of wheat at once without any problem, and the person carrying it can only feel about one-tenth of the weight. Better magic backpacks are even weightless."

Elaine opened her mouth, her expression a mixture of surprise at the magic backpack and something she wanted to say.

But her mouth only opened slightly, ultimately uttering only a sigh:

"If everyone in the village had a magic backpack..."