Nolin focused on writing during classes, but none of the teachers cared about his actions; seemingly, he was ignored. As soon as school was over, Nolin left. He walked back to the shop he had seen in the morning. The moment he arrived a man had left the shop and was smiling. So Nolin opened the door and stepped in.
The interior of the shop was relatively large, but everything was quite old and battered; however, everything was immaculate. The main part of the building was filled with selves. On them, there were different kinds of products, mainly food and drinks. At the back of the store, there was a door; and next to the entrance was the counter where an elderly woman was sitting. She had short grey hair and light amber eyes. She was wearing an apron, and the moment she noticed Nolin, she smiled.
“Good afternoon!”
Greeted the elderly woman Nolin.
“Welcome! How can I help you, my dear?”
“I have seen the sign outside, and I would like to apply for a part-time job.”
“Dear, I am sorry to tell you, but we are not just an everyday shop. We also offer service for wand reparation and modification for wands… I am afraid you are too young to do that… We really need the help because my husband is getting slower and slower, and his eyesight is getting worse as well…”
“Although I am still a student, I am confident taht I would be able to meet your expectations, even in reparation and modification of wands.”
“I would like to believe in you, but unfortunately, my husband has the final word in it, so we must ask him… But be prepared; he is very picky… much to my worry… If you are really interested in the job, please follow me.”
Said the woman and started walking towards the back of the store. Nolin quickly walked after her. The door lead to a small dark room. In one corner, an elderly man was leaning on the table; above him, there was a lamp, and he was doing something.
“Honey, we have another visitor.”
Said the woman, and the man raised his head. He also had white hair, but over his forehead, he was already balding. The man also had large glasses, and as he looked up, he scratched his head with shaking hands.
“Leave; you are too young! There is no way you have the requirements.”
“I do believe I DO have what it takes; I can demonstrate!”
“You have guts, kid… I like that… Fine, in taht case, here is the wand I am currently working on. If you really know what you are doing, then you can diagnose the problem and fix it, right? However, should you fail and damage it, you will have to pay for it. And I have to tell you; this one is very expensive.”
“If I manage to repair it successfully, does that mean I will be hired?”
“Yes… If you succeed, I will not even let you leave without having hired you!”
“Alright! I will get started right away.”
“Alright then, I will come back in about an hour to see your progress. Until then, we will not bother you!”
“I think forty minutes will suffice!”
“Oh, how brave; alright then, forty minutes it is then!”
Said the man and left the room along with his wife, who was kindly smiling at Nolin as she closed the door behind her. After the two elderly left the room, Nolin walked over to the table. On it, there was a red metallic wand with a golden gem at the tip of it. Next to it, there were many different tools. Most of them were similar to taht of a screwdriver; some looked like a file. The table also had clippers and a pen. All the tools on the table were coloured light blue and were made of special crystals. He sat down and grabbed the wand, and looked at it.
“Strange… Compared to the previous one, this one seems quite advanced and has a complex structure; however, it was designed to get broken… Or, to be more precise, it was programmed to break. The programming has been twisted; this kind of problem could be quite dangerous. When people cast spells in this world, they rely on the programming of the wand to transfer everything… The programming, in this case, would twist the intended spell and may even kill the user… Fortunately, it is quite easy to repair.”
Thought Nolin, and then he looked at the tools on the table. Some of them were shorter than Nolin’s pinkie.
“Inscribing, erasing, and modifying tools. It is quite bad that people still use these primitive methods to repair and or alter magical items. Anyway, I think since I am here, I should repair my own wand and maybe slightly improve to my standards… I will have to get used t using it not to be so suspicious!”
Said Nolin, and slowly brought his finger towards the red wand, and tiny blue strings were slowly created on the surface of the wand. The moment Nolin touched them, the wave of green energy erupted from his finger and changed the colour of every string to green. Slight green energy pulses started coming from Nolin’s finger after every string had turned green, and soon the whole red wand gained a dim green glow, and Nolin placed it back onto the table.
“I tried to modify it as little as possible… But even then, I slightly made it a bit easier to handle and an expanded its life expectancy… Now to my wand.”
Nolin repeated the process, but this time, he spent a lot of time with it. Eventually, the glow of his wand was more powerful than the lamp’s light. Once he was finished, he put the wand back into his bag and leaned back in the chair.
“If all I have to do is repair wands, it will be a fun and easy job.”
Thought Nolin, and then the door of the small room opened, and the elderly man walked in.
“Kido, Your time is up… and I presume you didn’t make it… And as it seems, unfortunately, the owner of the wand is here and wants to see it. “
“Of course I understand, sir; I am already finished with it!”
Sad Nolin with a broad smile on his face; however, the man raised his eyebrows and remained silent. The man stepped away from the door, and Nolin left the room while holding the red wand. But the moment he stepped out of the room and noticed who stood there, he was surprised.
