[Would you keep the prices the same if you knew so many loaded hungry people came to you all at once?]
“Damn it! We were scammed!” Chity Boru exclaimed and looked like he wanted to throw the meat in the face of that slimy food stall guy who sold it to him, but he refrained from doing so. No matter how you looked at it, that would have been a really bad idea.
[When the yearly 100 SSS stipend was announced, I figured a meal should be 1 or 2 SSS, but when I saw the price of 10 SSS for a slab of meat, I knew something was wrong.]
“Wow…” Che gasped with wide eyes. “But if the prices are so high, how are we going to get food? Hunting is not always reliable.”
“True!” Alyx added. “And what if everything in the Sect has inflated prices, what do we do then?”
[Relax. If my suspicions are correct, in about a week the prices will plummet by at least 50%, probably even more. Until then, refrain from buying anything.]
That was it. Our little group from Old Plum was spared from disaster, but for others, it was already too late. When the food fever ran out, most will probably realize they were taken advantage of since they were all pretty smart.
I decided to give it a few more days of this, and then the prices should come back down. The older generations were probably all in on it.
It was a good strategy, even if it was not the most honorable. Take advantage of the clueless newbies and teach them an important lesson while making some dough in the process. They are never again going to blindly buy stuff without knowing its value first. Most of them at least. There will always be some that will get scammed no matter what.
“Now what? Do we just go back home and wait for all of this to be over?” Chity Boru asked. He was feeling down because he got tricked, and his mates were in bad mood also.
[You can if you want to, but I’d like to explore a bit first. Get the feel for the place, you know?]
“Sure!”
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Our group split up as most didn’t feel like roaming around after the bitter revelation, but Alyx, Che, and Chity, as well as a few others, came with us as we explored.
The Inner part of the Sect was much nicer than the forest surrounding it. The grass was trimmed, the bushes nice and proper, and the branching paths covered in cobblestone. Many houses and workshops dotted the land, those close to the main road close to each other, those further away each with its own lawn.
Some pavilions could be seen higher up, elegant stone and wooden structures, decorated by carvings of animals and beasts, and with hanging lanterns.
We observed wide-eyed the weapons on display in one of the shops, and pristine dark orange armor pieces in another. Each item was made with great care and polished to a mirror shine, with tiny price tags beside them.
“42 SS… 69 SS… Oh, look! That sword is 322 SS! Wow, so beautiful.” One of the boys that came with us was constantly murmuring prices and had his eyes glued to all the artifacts around us.
“What is SS anyway? Spirit Stone Shards that we received is triple S, so SS is…?”
“It stands for Spirit Stone, Junior Brother.” A shopkeeper eavesdropping on the conversation chimed in. He was a young guy, relatively speaking. Probably in his thirties. At least he looked like it.
I took a step forward and cupped my fist as it was protocol between Cultivators. [Thank you for your enlightenment, Senior Brother, but could you tell us how much a Spirit Stone is worth?]
After we officially joined the Sect, instead of calling our seniors Senior Disciple, we were told to call them Senior Brothers/Sisters as we were now all part of a big family. And it helped with keeping the hierarchy nice and stable as well.
“Gladly, Junior Brother. The difference is three orders of magnitude between the two.” The man smiled and cupped his fists back.
[1000 times?]
The man nodded. Ouch.
“But then that means…” One of our guys began speaking, but as he tried to calculate the number, his face changed drastically. He became filled with despair.
“Yes, it means we would collectively have to save for decades to afford even the cheapest dagger here.” Chity scoffed. “It seems we will have to work hard!”
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“Haha!” Senior Brother laughed out loud hearing their conversation. “These are Spirit Weapons, it’s not something for initiates to use. Don’t worry lads, weapons of your rank are much cheaper.”
“Oh.”
A few guys became crimson as they realized they were worrying for nothing. And as everything around us was way out of our league, we kept on moving.
[Thanks for everything, Senior Brother.] I bowed as we departed.
“Anytime!” The man waved us off and got back inside his shop.
Establishing friendly relationships in a new place was always a good strategy. You never knew when you needed help from someone.
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“What now, Elder Li?” A disciple spoke to his master after the inauguration ceremony was over.
“Now?” Elder Li, having changed back into his simple white Cultivator robe stroked his beard. “We’ve received news of the Brilliant Sword Sect… Something drastic happened there, and their Elders all went nuts, madly scouring the Ancient Ironbark Timberland, searching for something.”
His lips curved into a genuine smile for the first time in a while as his thoughts churned. “We are to scout them out, gather information, secretly interfere with whatever they are doing, and if possible, do some damage.”
“So, the usual?”
Elder Li grinned. “The usual. Now go and prepare, we depart at dawn.”
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Later in the day, we found another interesting place. It was a drugstore. Well, the name was Snow Lily’s Heavenly Pills, and they had a really cute girl at the counter.
“Hey boys!” She greeted us joyfully as we came by. “Interested in some pills? I got everything you need for Cultivation.”
Pills? Like real pills that Cultivators use? Yes, please! I always wanted to see what the entire thing was about. Though I had some knowledge of alchemy, that was just for making potions. And I wasn’t sure the ingredients in this place were the same as those back in Neloron.
That was a relatively small continent surrounded on all sides by a vast ocean, so the flora there was probably unique.
[Hello, Senior Sister. May we see some pills?]
The shops here were mostly made so that they had a raised counter at the front, and you couldn’t simply get in. Everything sold was handed over the counter so you couldn’t just snatch things.
The lady at the counter smiled and nodded, taking a few vials with white pills inside.
“But, of course! Here is a Soul Condensing Pill. You are free to examine it as you wish. But just don’t break it, or you will have to buy it.”
I was handed over a small white sphere, about the size of a cherry. I always wondered why they would look like that in fantasy novels, but as soon as I got hold of it, I realized why.
The pill, or the medicine inside, was completely encased in wax. White airtight waxy shell. I almost wanted to facepalm. It made so much sense! Usually, these things liked to spoil quickly out in the open, so containing them like this…
[Is this a concentrated brew inside?]
“That’s right! No need to carry around cumbersome vials for just one drink. Now you can store dozens of pills in the same container!”
Yup, that’s what I thought, pretty genius actually. Such a simple thing and yet nobody came up with it back there despite at least a few thousand years of alchemy experience.
[And… What does this pill do exactly?] I was curious. If Soul Condensing meant what I thought it meant then…
“Sure!” The girl smiled. “It can be used by all ranks of Cultivators, but the most noticeable effect is when Mortals use it to condense their Souls for the first time. It makes it much easier to do so and as a side effect some people can even increase their talent by 1-3%!”
Well, she’s excited. But really, 1-3%? If that’s something worth talking about then I guess it must be pretty hard to increase one’s talent, huh?
I activated my Magic Eyes to look at the pill through the magic lens. I could see something, but I’ll be honest, I had no idea what I was looking at.
“Hey, Lilly!” A loud hello came from somewhere behind me as I was examining the pill. A massive giant of a man, more than a few heads taller than me and with a massive grin plastered on his face, came carrying a wooden box that smelled of herbs and medicine.
“How’s your day, baby?” He slammed the box on the counter with a big grin. “The new batch just came! Beautiful flowers!”
The girl’s cheeks flushed red and she pointed with her head down at us.
Whether it was the massive box he was carrying covering his vision or the fact that the man had eyes only for the woman, he somehow seemed to completely miss our little group.
With the gesture from Lilly, he finally noticed us.
“Oh, new customers?” He beamed at us. The best words to describe him would be The cheerful giant. “You guys must be the newcomers, right? I completely forgot the inauguration was today!”
He then straightened his back and cupped his fists. “Welcome to our little pill shop, Junior Brothers. My name is Ren Kong. And if you need any advice on pills, don’t be afraid to ask my lovely Lilly here. She can help you find whatever you need.”
Seemed like a good guy this Ren Kong. I cupped my hands back in return and performed a bow. [Thank you for your hospitality, Senior Brother Ren Kong. My name is Gerald Fireborn, and these are my friends. We were actually just looking around, trying to familiarize ourselves with the Sect.]
“Oh?” Ren Kong looked at me with way too much interest, and it made me feel uncomfortable. “You opened your third eye already, Junior Brother? Congratulations!”
Third eye what? Was he talking about my Magic Eyes? Probably.
But then his smile disappeared and he leaned closer, whispering harshly into my ear. “Listen, I’m not going to say anything since I know you can’t use it to look through clothes yet, but I would suggest you refrain from using it so blatantly in the Sect. Apart from the fact that it's extremely disrespectful, some might mistake it as you looking for trouble. Not everyone is as tolerant as me.”
He then straightened back up and brought his signature smile back on his face. Now would probably be a bad time to mention that I can in fact see through clothes. Partially at least.
My control was still poor, so when clothes became transparent in my eyes, so did the flesh. So, really, it was not all that good for spying. I could still see some stuff, but it was more just the general shapes of things.
The fact that his girl had a really nice shape under that loose robe of hers, I decided I should probably keep to myself. If I wanted to stay alive, that is.
I wisely deactivated my Magic Eyes and handed the pill back. I had no use for it anyway, at least not yet.