At first, no one paid any mind. The stolen items were all extremely valuable and usually stored away, rarely checked on.
But as luck would have it, just a few days after he began his thievery, something happened.
Someone made a transaction. When the deal was underway, the Wizard Apprentice in charge of guarding the treasure opened the box under his care, only to find it empty. He immediately began a search.
And once the search began, other Wizard Apprentices discovered that they, too, were missing many treasures.
After everyone realized they were missing treasures, they gathered to discuss the items that had been stolen from them.
During their discussion, they realized that Casanti, a man who usually attended their gatherings, had been absent during these recent meetings about the stolen treasures.
Instantly, the owners of the stolen goods focused their attention on Casanti.
But with no evidence, the owners could only harbor suspicions.
At the same time, they all began placing defensive Witchcraft around their residences.
To ensure the treasures they guarded wouldn’t be stolen again, these owners went so far as to ask the Official Wizards backing them for help, borrowing many precious Wizard Tools.
The owners set up these Witchcraft Tools in their residences.
It was during this process that a reconnaissance-type Witchcraft captured the image of a masked Casanti.
The reason they identified him as Casanti was because of a specific trait: his Age was nearing its limit, making his movements somewhat slower than others.
And it was this very trait that exposed Casanti.
There were many old Wizard Apprentices in the academy, but not many who were both old and acquainted with these specific owners.
This was precisely why they spent the next few days setting a trap to draw him out.
It was the appearance of these Magic Plants that led to Casanti, who had originally planned to stop, being caught red-handed.
Because of his advanced age, he needed to rely on external forces to restore his body to its youth upon becoming an Official Wizard.
And to achieve this, he had to use a Potion to return his body to a youthful state.
And those auxiliary Potions served exactly this purpose.
It was the appearance of these Magic Plants that made Casanti give in to his greed once more.
During one of his theft attempts, Casanti was caught red-handed.
After being caught in the act, Casanti was sent directly to the Law Enforcement Court to be punished by a Criminal Law Wizard.
Because the items he stole were of extremely high value, and since Casanti himself was nearing the end of his lifespan and thus useless as experimental material...
...Farrete personally took action, extracting his Soul and casting his physical body into a plume of Hellfire to be burned to ashes.
As for his Soul, it was hung on a mountain peak, to be battered by the Nether Soul Cold Wind gathered by a Witch Array for a thousand years.
And with that, this exceptionally grand case of theft was finally closed.
"The older you get, the more monstrous you become!"
Andre sighed in admiration. He had to admit, to be able to break so many Defense Witchcraft spells, Casanti was a true talent.
But the man had nothing to do with him.
’Observing the natural Demon Patterns within the Magic Plants has greatly improved my progress with the Fusion Demon Pattern. Next, I need to collect more items that contain natural Demon Patterns.’
Andre stood up and called Seven Rings back. With a flick of his hand, the door to his room closed.
As the door shut, streaks of Golden Light appeared, signifying that the Witchcraft Array within the Wizard Inheritance Hall had been activated.
Unless Andre or Radak used their authority to open it, not even the dean could get in.
"Let’s go. We’re off to the market to buy you some meat!"
Andre recalled Seven Rings into the Servant Bag and began to trace patterns in the air with both hands.
In the blink of an eye, a set of Multiple Wings of the Wind unfurled from Andre’s back.
Andre rolled his shoulders a few times to make sure the Multiple Wings of the Wind were fully extended, then crouched slightly and began to run.
After a few steps, the Multiple Wings of the Wind lifted Andre into the sky.
Without hesitation, Andre flew straight toward the market.
When he landed outside the market, he saw several Wizard Apprentices holding Magic Staffs, staring intently at the various entrances.
’It seems this incident had a huge impact.’
Andre rolled his shoulders, and the Wind Element dissipated into streaks of cyan light.
Upon entering the market, Andre headed straight for his destination!
The meat stall. Here, the corpses of various Magical Beasts were piled into a small mountain. Every moment, several Magical Beasts were being butchered and placed on the shelves.
Some Body Refining Wizards, who specialized in physical cultivation, were in front of the stall, selecting the Magical Beast flesh they wished to purchase.
Andre walked right up and frowned as he looked at the Magical Beast corpses.
’It’s not that these Magical Beasts are bad, but they’re a far cry from what I’m looking for.’
He was looking for Magical Beasts with a trace of Dragon Race Bloodline, but not a single one of the beasts before him had any.
’But since I’m already here, I should at least buy something for Seven Rings.’
After looking for a moment, Andre asked for the corpses of three Cyan Wind Wolves and two Gale Tigers.
After paying with Magic Stones, Andre placed the Magical Beast corpses into his Storage Ring and began to wander through the market.
Perhaps because of the great impact of the Casanti affair, or maybe they feared copycat thieves, most of the stall owners were on high alert.
But when these vendors saw Andre, their tense faces instantly broke into smiles.
’This one is loaded! Whatever little bit leaks from between his fingers is enough for us to live on for months.’
Andre could only ignore the vendors’ fervent gazes.
He continued to wander through the market, gathering the things he needed.
By now, he had already used the natural Demon Patterns from Magic Plants to fuse water, fire, and earth. The only Element left to fuse was Wind.
For this reason, Andre focused his search this time on items containing the Wind Element.
’There’s certainly a lot of them, but most are just Magical Beast corpses whose Demon Patterns have long since collapsed. Only specific parts have any residual patterns.’
Andre frowned as he passed stall after stall, none of which had what he needed.
Even if they did, the items were damaged.
’I’ll see if there are any Wind Magic Plants, but they’ve always been extremely rare.’
Andre took a deep breath, quickened his pace, and began weaving through the market.
He passed more than thirty stalls before he finally found a Wind Magic Plant.
"A Howling Wind Tree. Usually used by Gale Eagles and Gale Giant Eagles for their nests. A mature one can grow to over a hundred meters tall. How much?"
Andre didn’t waste any time and asked for the price directly.
The stall owner looked at Andre, hesitated for a moment, then held up his hand to signal a number.
"2,000 Magic Stones? Isn’t that too expensive?"
Andre looked at the vendor and rubbed his chin.
"It’s not expensive! Wind Magic Plants are extremely rare among all Magic Plants."
Seeing that Andre wanted to haggle, the stall owner immediately put on a pained expression and began to complain to him.
"Of course I know that, but that’s the price for a mature tree, or one that comes with a companion Gale Eagle or Gale Giant Eagle. You’re selling just a sapling for two thousand Magic Stones and you’re telling me it’s not expensive?!"
Andre began to reason with the stall owner, and his argument immediately knocked 200 Magic Stones off the price.