"Brother Loren, are you alright?" Elissa couldn't help but ask. She had just seen Loren get hit by the thief who was being chased.

"I'm fine." Loren took his hand out of his pocket and shook his head at Elissa. He didn't tell Elissa that his gold card had been stolen. However, thinking of the innocent face of the girl he had just seen, Loren was still a bit dazed.

That glimpse of the girl's tender face reminded Loren of his younger sister, who had passed away from leukemia around the same age. "Elissa, let's go. We should go look at the weapons," Loren said with a complex mood, but still sighed. Losing five thousand gold coins was nothing to him. Besides, he had left his magic mark on the gold card when he got it, so he didn't need to worry about it being lost.

Now his mind was filled with the image of the girl's face he had just seen, but before he could deal with that, his main task was to accompany Elissa in buying the weapons. "I can't believe such a young child is a thief..." Elissa was still muttering, with a somewhat distressed expression. She had seen the tender face of the thief too. Looking back in the direction where the thief had disappeared, she finally left with Loren.

Eventually, the two went to the largest weapon store in the commercial street, "Volcanic Rock", which was run by dwarven craftsmen who had mastered the secret art of forging. Their crafted equipment was of excellent quality, whether it was ordinary or magical, and their craft was widely recognized as the best.

"Brother Loren, if you ever need a staff, you can come here to take a look." After briefly introducing the weapon store, Elissa recommended to Loren, "If you have enough precious materials, maybe you can even ask the dwarven master here to create a custom staff for you."

"A custom staff, huh?" Loren nodded, indeed in need of such an item, but this was not urgent. He would wait until he became a level three mage, unlocking the second seal of the Ring of Infinity and opening the "Mithril Domain".

He wondered if the master here could craft the staff he wanted by then. "Miss Elissa, just tell me which item you like, and the master said your account for purchasing weapons will be kept with Mr. Karol." The receptionist on the first floor of the Volcanic Rock Weapon Store quickly spoke after seeing Elissa enter, and then invited the two to go upstairs. That Mr. Karol was Elissa's grandfather.

Loren showed a surprised expression, "Do you know the people at this store, Elissa?" Elissa blushed slightly and said, "Yes, the dwarven master who runs this store is my grandfather's good friend."

"I see." Loren showed an expression of understanding. The two followed the receptionist upstairs, where the decoration was more luxurious than on the first floor, and each piece of equipment was displayed in a separate counter.

Although there were less than twenty pieces of equipment on the second floor, each one was exquisite, and all of them exuded magical fluctuations. "Miss Elissa, just tell me which item you like, and the master said your account for purchasing weapons will be kept with Mr. Karol."

"So grandfather already knew?" Elissa showed a slightly surprised expression. She had originally planned to save her own money to buy weapons, but her grandfather had found out after all. "It seems that the dean cares a lot about you, Elissa," Loren said with a smile.

Elissa's face flushed: "I don't want my grandfather to look after me in every way, but... how could Grandpa do this? Next time I must have a good talk with him." Elissa murmured, finally accepting her grandfather's kindness, and began to choose the weapon she wanted with her hands behind her back.

The dwarven master had crafted five different styles of long swords, each with different magical properties. Elissa could choose the one that suited her best from these."Big Brother Loren, which one do you think is better?" Elissa thought all five weapons were good, and she herself practiced the "attributeless fighting qi." Although this fighting qi had no innate attributes, it could change in thousands of ways, and theoretically it could transform into any form of fighting qi.

"When choosing a weapon, the most important thing is suitability, so you should try it out yourself. I don't know much about long swords and stuff like that," Loren said.

"Okay..." Elissa nodded in agreement, then reached out and took a water-blue long sword from the counter, infused it with fighting qi, and tried swinging it.

"Miss Elissa, there are also low-level alchemy puppets prepared in this room. You can come here to test it out," the receptionist nearby immediately informed her. Elissa's eyes lit up, "Thank you! Big Brother Loren, I'm going to try out the weapons now."

"Don't worry about me, I'll just wander around here," Loren said with a smile. Elissa then followed the receptionist to the battle room with peace of mind.

As Loren observed the surrounding layout, he also sensed the activated magic emblem. The emblem's location was not far from here, and it was moving quickly. Loren deduced that the little guy was circling around.

"Is that boy trying to get rid of a few people?" Loren thought to himself while glancing over a few magical items on display, then couldn't help but reveal a surprised expression, "The magic engraved on these rings is all level 5?"

He originally stored his magic rings purchased online, such as level 5 and above magic rings which were hard to find. He didn't expect to come across such good deals in an physical store.

Loren didn't know that it was because he came with Elissa that he could go directly to the second floor, as the second floor was generally not open to the public.

The magic items on the second floor were prepared by the dwarf master for his friends' younger generation. Almost all of the items were sold at cost price, and the items were scarce in the market regardless of the price.

Suddenly, he called over another receptionist.

"Sir, what can I help you with?" The receptionist knew he came with Elissa, so she didn't dare to slack off.

Loren pointed to some of the magic items in a few counters, "These, these, and these, I want them all. Give me a price."

The receptionist was shocked by Loren's words, because he pointed at all the magic items engraved with middle-grade magic. For example, one black ring was engraved with the level 5 magic "Flame Demon Summoning," another necklace was engraved with the level 4 defensive magic "Crystal Shield Spell," and there were others engraved with various other types of magic as well. Since the price of these items started at least at 80,000 gold coins and Loren's starting offer was to buy them all, it's no wonder the receptionist was at a loss for words.

Which family's young master is this...

After a while, she hesitated and asked, "Sir, are you sure you want all these items? The combined price of these items is more than 400,000 gold coins."

If Loren wasn't with Elissa, the receptionist might even have thought he was playing with her.

However, Loren's response was simple. He directly took out his personal black card for storing gold coins, "Can I swipe my card here?"

The receptionist's expression changed immediately after seeing Loren's black card, "Yes, of course, sir. Please wait a moment and I will process it for you."

She respectfully brought out a special card reader, a product of magical technology. After calculating the price of the items, Loren swiped his card without hesitation and obtained ownership of the magical items.

Watching Loren pay the bill without any change in his expression, the female receptionist's gaze at Loren became somewhat heated. However, remembering the beautiful and lovely Elissa who accompanied Loren, she could only suppress her own thoughts.

Compared to Elissa, her own beauty was lacking.

Loren didn't care what the receptionist was thinking. He was just routinely storing his resources. The quality of these magical items was good, and purchasing them would enhance his ability to protect himself.The first layer of the Endless Ring opens up the "Golden Secret Realm", which provides Loren with immense wealth. If he didn't worry about drawing too much attention, Loren could easily buy up the entire Imperial City with the fortune from the Secret Realm. However, money ultimately cannot be used in battle, so converting it into resources and combat power is the proper way to use it. By now, Loren's Endless Ring has stored a considerable amount of magic equipment, scrolls, and potions. With these items, even if confronted by a level 7 or 8 archmage, Loren is confident he can escape unharmed. He may even ambush and kill a level 7 or 8 archmage if he plays his cards well.

Not long after Loren finished shopping, Elissa also came out, having eventually chosen an ice-blue longsword with an added ice attribute of magic power. When infused with fighting spirit, it can convert Elissa's fighting spirit into ice attribute, and it also possesses a special formula that, when activated, provides a brief layer of frost armor. Elissa was very fond of the sword and shyly answered "120,000" when Loren asked for the price.

"My grandfather must have known that I didn't have enough money for a weapon early on, so he arranged for this in advance," Elissa said with a cheeky smile as she and Loren walked out of the volcanic rock shop. "What an enviable problem to have," Loren teased, causing Elissa's cheeks to blush slightly.

The two then continued strolling around the shopping street. With her baby magical creature in her arms and her longsword on her back, Elissa curiously looked around. In reality, she rarely had much time to walk around the shopping street, as most of her time was spent practicing at the academy. The competition among students was intense, and even someone as talented as Elissa had to strive to improve herself.

Loren kept an eye out for any traces of the mark, deliberately leading Elissa in a specific direction. Suddenly, a small black figure darted through the crowd from a short distance away. The silver hair slightly peeking out from the girl's hood was eye-catching. Loren saw her, as well as her beautiful wine-red eyes that revealed a will to survive. He continued to lead Elissa onwards without changing his expression.

Soon, a few burly men rushed over, and Loren and Elissa happened to block their path. The burly man tried to move past, but Loren stepped in front of him, an apologetic look on his face. The burly man managed to restrain his anger but was blocked by Loren again when he tried to continue on. After several attempts, Loren, with an innocent expression, said to them, "Why don't you stop moving and let us go first?"

"Get lost, brat!" Out of patience, the burly man swung his arm trying to knock Loren aside. Just as Loren raised his eyebrows, preparing to take action, Elissa stepped in front of him.

With a deft over-the-shoulder throw, she sent the burly man, twice her size, flying through the air. He landed hard on the ground, feeling an intense pain in his back and a suffocating pressure in his chest. He almost blacked out from the pain.

The surrounding crowd was taken aback by the sight of the slender and beautiful girl flinging a bear-sized man. The burly man’s companions glared at Elissa, who had her hand on the sword at her back. Suddenly, one of them noticed the uniforms worn by Elissa and Loren, and realized they were students from the academy.

Just as the surrounding crowd began to disperse, the quick-eyed man hurriedly slapped his companions on the back of their heads, stopping them and pulling them away.Just as his companions turned their heads in anger and incomprehension, the person who recognized Loren and Elissa as students from Valoran Academy had already bent down to apologize to the two.

"Sorry, esteemed individuals from Valoran Academy. It's our fault for being reckless."

The man bowed in apology.

It was only then that the others realized their mistake and quickly lowered their heads. Attacking students from the Valoran Academy in public was undoubtedly a provocation to the colossal institution, and no matter how strong the organization behind them was, it wouldn't protect them! This demonstrated the powerful prestige that the academy had in the city.

"If there's a next time, my sword won't be so polite," Elissa said.

She had no patience for these ruffians and wouldn't use the same attitude she had toward Loren with them. The group hurriedly nodded, helped their battered companion up and left.

Meanwhile, the little girl hiding not far away in the crowd and secretly watching saw the group leave in a panic, pulled her hood back over her head to blend back into the crowd, and ran to another place. Just now, she suddenly realized she was being targeted by a few other people again.

As she left, the girl couldn't help but reach into her pocket, touching the burning-hot gold coin card. Thinking about her encounter with Loren, the girl felt a faint unusual feeling in her heart, but she quickly shook the peculiar sensation out of her mind, and her gaze became determined.

What she didn't realize was that while she was running away, Loren's gaze had also fallen in the direction where she disappeared.

...

"Elissa, that shoulder throw you just did was really cool. You sent that big guy flying, and it scared everyone around," Loren said with a smile as the girl left. He had wanted to show off his magic earlier, but after Elissa took action, he could only regretfully abandon the opportunity.

Upon hearing that, Elissa couldn't help but glance around and blush. "Big brother Loren, let's go."

She didn't want to be looked at by so many people with those peculiar gazes. Loren found it amusing that when she changed back to her usual gentle appearance, she became easily shy.

Loren was quickly led away from the area by Elissa. When they decided to return to the academy, Loren said to Elissa, "Elissa, I have some things to do, you go back to the academy first, should be no problem, right?"

"What do you have to do, Big brother Loren?" Elissa asked, holding the fluffy magic beast cub in her arms.

"Some personal matters, and some things to prepare," Loren replied.

"Do you need my help?"

"No need, just go back to the academy. I just have some simple things to do, and I can handle them myself." Loren smiled, then bid farewell.

"Well, alright." Elissa nodded and didn't ask any further, feeling only slight regret. She waved to Loren, holding the magic beast cub, "See you at the academy, big brother Loren."

"Be careful on your way," Loren said, and couldn't help but laugh again, recalling the sight of the delicate Elissa throwing the giant bear-like man through the air.

Elissa saw the smile on his face, thought of what he might be remembering, and her cheek reddened. She said goodbye again in a fluster and hurriedly ran off.

"I hope Loren isn't thinking of me as a violent woman," Elissa thought, a little embarrassed.

When Elissa left, Loren began to sense the activated magical imprint again. For some reason, he couldn't help but feel worried about the girl with the fleeting young face.

"I won't let you take away the gold coin card I've finally earned so easily," Loren muttered to himself, not knowing why he needed this excuse to persuade himself to find the girl.