Chapter 89

"Sorry, I'm late!"

Passing through the street lined with food stalls, we moved on to the street lined with tool shops.

There were various stalls selling tableware, cooking utensils, farm tools, weapons, accessories, fabrics, metal goods, and miscellaneous items.

I took a quick look at the cooking utensils, but there was nothing I could use.

In a world without stainless steel or aluminum, I couldn't lift iron pots or cauldrons.

The knives sold at the weapon shop were about the same width as a Chinese cleaver but as long as a yanagiba knife.

They were ordinary weapons.

At the various stalls, Arshain reacted to the weapons, Digray to the accessories, and Yugram to the books, but none of them were worth buying.

Casually looking around, I spotted a black, squishy thing.

Curious, I stared at it, and Arshain asked,

"Keta, what's wrong? Did you find something interesting?"

"Um, there's a squishy thing over there."

"......You mean a curse?"

"Yep."

Arshain approached the direction I pointed to.

As we got closer, the squishy things turned out to be coming from multiple items in the shop.

The shop, which looked like a general store, had many items whose uses were completely unknown.

"Excuse me, what kind of shop is this?"

"Oh, welcome. This is a second-hand magic item shop. Some of the items are a bit dangerous, so please ask before touching them."

A man of indeterminate age in a black robe explained in a gentle voice.

"Wow, a second-hand magic item shop. When you say 'a bit dangerous,' do you mean they're cursed?"

"Yes, these, these, and these are cursed, so please don't touch them without permission."

"Really! You sell cursed items? Is that okay?"

"Curses come in many forms, but none of the items here are life-threatening. This one, for example, causes your body to itch for about two days if you wear it directly, and this one makes your luck bad for about a week."

"More like prank items than curses?"

"Ha ha, pretty much. They were originally proper magic items, but they got cursed after someone tried to modify them or used them incorrectly for a long time."

"Will they sell?"

"Surprisingly, they do. People use them to harass cheating boyfriends or secretly set them up on annoying bosses. If you can properly remove the curse, they return to their original functions."

"Wow, then what's the original function of this itchy medal?"

"This is a magic item that can store about three times the amount of cargo a grown man can carry."

"Wow! That's amazing! Is it okay to sell it for such a low price?"

"Well, the curse has been on it for a long time, so only someone at the cardinal level can successfully remove it. If you try to remove it improperly, the itching will only get worse!"

"Haha, what an interesting feature!"

"Yes, it's more of a comedy item now. That's why it's priced this way. The same goes for the others."

"Interesting. Hmm, but storage items are quite appealing, and the price is tempting."

While saying this, Digray kept glancing at me, so I gave him the OK sign, and he said,

"I'll buy this!"

He then asked about the original functions of the other cursed items.

As a result, the buckle that causes bad luck for a week was an item that could store up to thirty swords, and the bracelet that makes you laugh uncontrollably for a month was an item that could store as much paper as a small room. We bought these and a few others.

The reason there were so many storage items was that people had tried to expand items found in dungeon treasure chests or attempted to register them as personal property.

Magic bags are valuable, so few people try to improve them, but limited-function magic items often make people want to try and modify them to suit their needs.

A famous adventurer once succeeded in modifying an item and boasted about it, leading to a trend.

However, many of these items ended up cursed, causing significant losses.

Now, no one does it, but many cursed items from that era still exist.

We entered a side street from the stalls and quickly tried to remove the curses.

Yugram once tried to remove a curse himself but suddenly burst into laughter with a blank expression, which was terrifying, so he quickly stopped.

Digray wanted to test the effects of the curses before removing them, and his mischievous smile was quite amusing.

We continued to wander around the stalls.

There were two other shops selling cursed items, and we bought a few after hearing their stories.

Arshain bought lightweight, non-dangerous imitation swords for the twin princes, Yugram bought a few books, Digray bought several rolls of beautiful fabric, and I bought a large amount of seasonings.

We took a break at a café and then returned to the academy.

In the afternoon, we rented a training facility for magic practice.

We practiced casting spells from swords, just like at the castle.

Yugram, who was already good at casting, focused on training with an iron pipe.

When the remote was operated, a humanoid dummy appeared for melee combat.

I found it a bit off-putting that it was muscular despite its blank, white face.

I practiced casting tracking spells at small, fast-moving butterfly-like dummies and destroying them, then repairing them.

I modified the butterflies to become bees, significantly increasing their speed.

I also made the dummies a bit more durable while repairing them.

For some reason, they had faces that resembled Cavendish and the former student council president, and they laughed in a creepy way, but I guess it was just my imagination.

Arshain, who had trained at the castle, was quite skilled.

Digray, who used dual short swords, had a weakness in only being able to attack with his dominant hand.

Yugram was often overwhelmed by the iron pipe.

With no more dummies to repair, I decided to try something I had been curious about.

In this world, there was no magic to enhance physical strength.

However, since it was possible to move the magic power within one's body at will, I thought it should be possible.

My fourth brother, Shuta, appeared in my mind, encouraging me with a smile, "You can do it, brother!"

"Alright, I'll give it a try! I have nothing else to do anyway!"

I focused on accelerating the flow of magic power in my body, which usually circulated gently.

As I felt my body warming up, I imagined directing the magic power to my muscles to strengthen them.

I did a light jump on the spot.

I jumped a bit higher than usual.

I tried to strengthen my muscles a bit more and jumped again.

I jumped as high as Arshain's height! Success!

Next, I tested my strength.

I grabbed two fingers of a dummy part I had just repaired. When I applied force, I heard a creaking sound. It seemed I was much stronger than usual.

But I still had a long way to go!

I further strengthened my muscles.

With a snap, the two fingers of the dummy were destroyed. Success!

Now, let's try running! Normally, I would trip after a short run, but with enhanced strength, I shouldn't trip, right!

Ready, set, go!

I ran without tripping! Feeling confident, I jumped, did a cartwheel, and a backflip.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

While running and jumping around, I was suddenly captured by Professor Kyle, the intellectual yakuza, who had appeared at some point.

In front of me was Chief Tailsmya, with a creepy smile.

"Mr. Keta?"

Scary! His smile is scary!

"Mr. Keta, you were tripping a lot when you tried to run this morning, right? It's amazing how quickly children grow, but is it really possible to grow this dramatically?"

"Hey, spit it out quickly! This guy is persistent and holds grudges!"

Even the intellectual yakuza Professor Kyle was looking at me with a bewildered expression.

I took a deep breath and said with a confident smile,

"Physical enhancement!"

"What's that?"

The two adults looked puzzled.

"Physical, to, enhance!"

Professor Kyle seemed to understand my words.

"Enhance physical strength?"

"Really? Is that possible?"

Chief Tailsmya, who had never heard of this method, was surprised.

"Flow magic power into the muscles, and it works!"

"Flow magic power into the muscles?"

"Right, strengthen them!"

Professor Kyle, after hearing my words, put me down and started moving the magic power in his body slowly.

However, it wasn't moving smoothly.

It seemed to be swirling around his abdomen.

Next to him, Chief Tailsmya also started flowing magic power into his body.

He was better at it, but it was only circulating in his torso.

"From the head to the toes, in a circle."

"From the head to the toes? That's quite difficult."

After struggling for a while, neither of them could flow magic power beyond their torso.

"Flow it like your blood."

They didn't seem to understand my advice.

"Mr. Keta, what do you mean by 'blood'?"

They didn't know what blood was.

"Blood is, you know, the red stuff, and to make it flow, you need to flow magic power."

"Flow magic power like blood?"

I had explained this to the healing instructor during healing magic lessons, but Chief Tailsmya wasn't there, I guess.

I took out a dummy part and showed them the cross-section.

"This is bone, this is nerve, this is blood vessel, this is muscle, this is skin."

As I pointed to each part, I heard laughter from behind.

Turning around, I saw Jus and Shell. Jus was laughing, but Shell, who didn't know the names of the parts, couldn't laugh.

"Teach you, Shell!"

"Ah, sure, sure, what are you doing now?"

"Physical enhancement!"

I demonstrated by jumping on the spot, and Jus's eyes changed.

"Can you really do it?"

"Help me out, will you?"

"Got it!"

With a smile, he agreed, so I left the explanation to Jus.