If money is really tight, kill will-o-wisp any of the karanas or eurd's crossing has them, you need a magic weapon to hit them. the best one with little or no pp is a mage summoned weapon. find a mage ask for a mod rod or staff of runes, its a temp weapon (will poof when you log) ask for 2 and corpse one with the /duel command. save the light stones then head to NK and complete the following, and sell the books
http://wiki.project1999.org/index.php/Research_Aid