TBE Chapter 28
Ezekiel then thought that maybe he could use the Phantom Steed spell to hitch the cart to it. That was the purpose of him buying the 3rd level spell, for traveling. He then swapped the spell to a cantrip slot and cast it but warned his brothers what he was about to do so as not to startle them.
He was just glad that his system had a rule of being able to put a higher-level spell to a lower-level slot and the corresponding cooldown would reduce since cooldowns were dependent on the slots. The only downside was the 20 percent spell effectivity reduction every level down so if he put a 3rd level offensive spell to a cantrip slot, the cooldown would reduce from 4 minutes to 1 minute but the damage would be reduced by a total of 60 percent.
If a utility spell like the Phantom Steed was put on the lower level slot, its effectivity would be reduced as well like its size and speed.
Galder’s Tower for example. If Ezekiel put it on the 2nd level slots, the facilities would be reduced. If he put in on the 1st level slots, the floors would be reduced to 1, and if he put it on the cantrip slots, even more facilities and features would disappear. Of course, he could still choose to make the room empty but putting it in a lower slot, it would not be a choice, the spell would just be like that even if you chose to put in the maximum number of the features and facilities of the rooms.
A blue, translucent, ghostly horse appeared before the siblings and Luke shouted, “Ghost horse!”.
“Is it a ghost horse?” Robert asked.
“It’s called a Phantom Steed and I guess you both are right, it’s a ghost horse. With the horse looking like that, I will not be able to use it.”
Ezekiel sighed and canceled the Phantom Steed spell. He then started dragging the cart by its handle while his two brothers were on top of it but he noticed that Robert and Luke seemed to be having a hard time so he spent a copper coin to purchase two small kid’s chairs that his two siblings could use to sit on.
Before they arrived in the village, Ezekiel asked his brothers to step down from the cart so he could put in the boars there. He stored the two small chairs and placed 2 boars on top of the cart. The three siblings then dragged the cart towards the butcher’s place.
It was easier this time since not only the three of them were stronger, the cart with its wheels helped them move the 2 boars tremendously easier.
When they reached the butcher, the burly men took the boars from the cart with help from someone.
“I’ll pay you 80 copper coins for the two boars,” The butcher said and Ezekiel just nodded.
“That’s a nice-looking cart. Where did you get it?” The man who helped the butcher carry the pigs asked.
“I made it,” Ezekiel simply said and just smiled.
The man looked disbelievingly but Ezekiel didn’t bother with him. It’s not as if the man could accuse him of stealing it since there’s nothing like it in the village.
The three brothers then walked towards Mr. Duvon’s house. While they were walking, when Ezekiel saw that no one was watching them, he cleaned the cart using his Prestidigitation spell then he retrieved the two small chairs from his 4th tab and put them in the cart.
Robert and Luke climbed the cart immediately and sat on the chairs while he dragged them toward his teacher’s house.
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When they arrived at Mr. Duvon’s house, he knocked on the door and the old teacher opened it.
“You’re finally here. I thought you didn’t want to learn anymore.”
“I’m sorry Sir. I needed to hunt animals in the forest so we could have coins but I already managed to earn enough so I’ll come here every day until I learn to read and write.”
Mr. Duvon let them in and the two younger boys headed to the courtyard immediately bringing the cart with them.
Ezekiel checked his brothers for a minute and saw they were busy playing with the cart. Mr. Duvon joined him in watching the two younger boys.
“That cart looked good. I don’t recognize the materials it’s made from though,” Mr. Duvon said.
“I made it from the materials I gathered from the forest. I can make you one as well, Sir and it’ll only cost you 5 silver coins.”
Ezekiel’s teacher laughed and said that he would like one and would give the silver coins once the cart was delivered.
They then proceeded to go to the living room and start the lesson. After three hours, the lessons were done and the three siblings said goodbye to Mr. Duvon.
Ezekiel then thought of doing one huge gamble. He would sell one-fourth kilogram of white salt to the spice merchant. He would say to the merchant that it was the last riches that their parents left. Based on the prices of spices, he could probably get as much as 5 gold coins for the salt since he already inspected the spices and their prices, and the salt that he had seen in the market was full of impurities.
He didn’t know if there were going to be any repercussions with that move but what good it was to have the power if he was going to live his life in terror all the time. Besides one-fourth kilogram was hardly enough to disrupt the market. He immediately purchased the one-fourth kilogram of salt for one copper coin.
Ezekiel knew that it was excessive, selling something for gold coins that he purchased for 1 copper coins but it had always been that way. Salt and spices had always been worth their weight in gold during the old times based on the stories that he had read.
He immediately purchased the salt and let it remain in its plastic bag since the plastic bag’s labels were in English and they were tiny. If they wondered what material was the plastic made from and what the writings were, he would just say that the salt was given to him like that by their mother who was a foreigner.
There were many customers inside the spice store but when the merchant saw him, the man greeted him. Ezekiel left his brothers outside on top of the cart.
“Boy! Are you here to purchase spices for your meat? I heard that you hunted a lot of boars,” The man said.
“My name is Zeke and I’m not here to purchase anything. Can we talk at the back?”
The spice seller looked at him curiously and then invited him inside. Another person was looking after the store so the merchant didn’t mind inviting Ezekiel in the back.
“So what can I do for you, Zeke? Right, “Zeke”?”
“Yes, my name is Zeke. My mother left us a treasure. It’s the whitest and purest salt in the world.”
Ezekiel then showed the bag of salt to the man.
“What kind of bag is that?” The man asked when he saw the salt inside the small bag of plastic.
“I don’t know but my mother said that you just need to cut the bag if you want to get at the salt.”
The spice merchant took a knife from somewhere and with Ezekiel’s permission, cut the corner of the plastic bag. The merchant then used his knife to take a pinch of salt from the bag and after looking at it carefully for a few seconds, he then tasted the salt.
The man gasped and with Ezekiel’s permission, took another pinch of salt from the bag and tasted it again.
“You are correct Zeke, It’s the finest and purest salt I have tasted in my life. Your mother was right in treating that small bag as a treasure. So how much are you selling that for?”
“10 gold coins!”
“That’s too much! I can only pay you 2 gold coins!” The man yelled.
“That’s the only treasure my mother left me that is left since I have sold all of them to feed my starving brothers. As you can see we’re very thin! We looked like we came from a war-torn country forgotten by people. Do you not pity us! Other villages would take care of the orphans of their citizens but we were left to die. We’re so hungry!” Ezekiel put on the waterworks as well and acted like his life depended on it.
The spice merchant gaped at him.
“Fine! Fine! I’ll pay you 10 gold coins!” The merchant grumbled.
The spice seller went somewhere and returned with a purse with ten gold coins. The moment he handed the purse to Ezekiel, he stopped crying and smiled at the merchant.
The merchant gaped at him but instead of getting angry at being played at, the man laughed heartily while taking the bag of salt carefully.
“You’re very good Zeke! I know now that your family will succeed,” The spice seller said while shaking his head.
The three siblings then went to the park after they left the spice store. Ezekiel was happy since his total number of coins climbed to 12 gold, 19 silver, and 10 copper coins.
