"It's a total of 8,500 Moon Coins* or 85 Ethas*, dear customer," spoke the receptionist in a calm manner.
"Is there anything else you would like to sell or purchase?"
The female receptionist stood in front of a young man, pondering if this young looking warrior was an expert or gotten lucky obtaining the, now sold, beast hides and materials. She had seen and handled many transactions with materials brought in by other warriors from their hunt. With her training added on, she was very knowledgeable on their ranks using only a glimpse.
What truly astounded her were that three quarters of the materials sold were of excellent quality. It was f he never killed the beasts in the first place. She stared at the relatively young warrior but felt dazzled by his confident expression. Ignoring the low ranked beasts materials sold, he even sold some ranked 6 beast materials. Being able to hunt down, professionally skin and removing the important materials without damaging it can give some warriors small fame. Hunting such strong ranked beast is considered a good feat for warriors looking to make a name for themselves.
"Hmm, just 85 Ethas for that much materials?" replied Silver frowning inwardly. To a commoner, 85 ethas were a godsend, enough to let them be well-fed for a few years. Yet, to Silver, it was chump change.
"Yes, dear customer, even though you have sold us a few rank 5 beasts materials that were at the peak of external realm, they aren't rare as rank 7 and above," Fei explained to Silver.
"Ranked 7 beast usually needs a group of 3-5 mid-stage Internal Warriors to hunt down. Even then, they would still have casualties. Ranked 8 and 9, would need a group of 6-7 Minor Origins or 2-3 Earth Origins to handle them. Nevermind those ranked beasts, the evolve ranked are more terrifying. Just one would need 20 or more Earth Origins to take down, even a Nova Origin will have a tough time battling a early-stage evolved beast."
'Should I sell the rank 8, 9 and that early-stage evolved beasts I killed...' Silver thought.
'I am in dire need of resources.'
"Alright, please take a look into this pouch and tell me how much would they fetch for," inquired Silver as he placed a tied leather pouch on the counter.
Within the bags were demonic cores from the ranked 8, 9 and early-stage evolved beast he killed. Cultivating the [Chaotic Void Skill] needed [Void Qi] so unless these beast cores contained [Void Qi] he wouldn't sell it. Incidentally, during his travel, an evolved beast was fighting against another evolved beast over a small territory. After on of them had won, riddled with injuries, Silver came in and finished it off with a few strikes.
He would of gotten the other evolved beast demonic core but a blue-striped liger appeared out of nowhere, ate it, and instantly left. Of course once he saw the blue-striped liger during his travel, he attacked it out of anger, which caused the earlier scene when he neared White Lotus City.
'What??' exclaimed the female receptionist inwardly. She felt shocked by the cores inside of the pouch after inspecting it.
"Ahh, I must speak to my manager," informed the receptionist. She then turned around and ran up the stairs to the second level of the shop.
Even though the receptionist kept a facade towards Silver, he see the shock within her eyes. Thinking it through, it's to be expected since hunting a higher ranked beasts alone is akin to suicide to normal warriors. Maybe he could profit from this exchange.
*** Knock. Knock. Knock. . .
"Who is disturbing my peace time?" shouted an middle-aged voice behind the closed door.
"It's me Fei, I have news of someone selling ranked beasts materials!" replied Fei, opening the manager's office door and quickly closing it.
"Someone selling ranked beasts materials? This shouldn't warrant any attention from me, Fei!" scolded a fat middle-aged man sitting on a luxurious chair. Why would this information be a use to him, he could already hunt many ranked beasts with minimal troubles.
"But-t-t," stuttered Fei with a frightened expression.
"But what? Don't stutter so much and tell me."
"Please check the content of this pouch, Manager Poe."
Fei place a leather pouch on his desk, allowing Manager Poe to open and peer inside it. His eye became comically wide once he saw the contents within, instantly looking back up at Fei with a flabbergasted expression.
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"Bring me to meet this amazing master right now, Fei!" exclaimed Manager Poe standing up so fast his huge belly jiggled vigorously, almost tipping his balance.
Fei nodded in acknowledgement and hurriedly brought Manager Poe to Silver at the first level of the shop. Once they reached to Silver, she stood to the side in a polite and professional manner.
Manager Poe stared at the young warrior standing in front of Fei's desk feeling puzzled. He expected to see master emanating strength of early-stage Null Origin or higher. Yet, instead, he saw a toned, young man wrapped in beast fur emanating early-stage Internal Realm.
'This warrior is quite young, how come I have never heard or seen of him before?' Manager Poe thought as he carefully inspected out Silver's realm to see any anomalies.
'It seems he is at the 3rd level of the internal realm yet those cores are from exceptionally strong beast that many Minor Origins would have problems with. Even that evolved beast core he saw can cause trouble to late-stage Nova Origin. If late-stage Earth Origin like me went against an evolved beast, it's aching to suicide.'
"Hello, young master. I am manager of this shop," announced Manager Poe with shining pride.
"You can call me, Manager Poe. Please follow me up the second floor to my office."
"Sure," replied Silver expecting such reactions. He immediately followed Manager Poe to the second floor while Fei followed behind.
Luckily, it was a slow morning for the shop, as he was the only customer at the time. Every warrior and traders knew of Manager Poe personality, an absolute business prodigy yet lazy, down to the very bone. Only those with unique high status or someone who could give him immeasurably profits would easily make him appear.
If they saw him coming down to see earl-stage internal warrior, an uproar of gossips and rumors would definitely travel far like a swarm of snow locusts.
"Have a seat," gestured Manager Poe facing his palm to the chair before his desk.
"Fei serve the Spring Blooming Tea for us."
'Spring Blooming Tea? Only VIP or individuals of high status could drink that tea. Manager must have taken a special liking towards this young warrior,' thought Fei inwardly as she begun the preparation for the tea.
"Here is your tea Manager and young warrior." Fei said as she slowly lifted the white teacups off the grayish blue tray, setting them in front of Silver and Manager Poe.
"Thank you, Fei. Return downstairs and keep watch of the front, please" ordered Manager Poe, waving his right hand in dismissal.
"Yes, Manager Poe," answered Fei closing the office door as she headed downstairs, back to her desk.
"May I have your name, young warrior?" asked Manager Poe.
"My name is, Silver. I'm glad to be acquainted with Manager Poe," answered Silver studying the expressions of Manager Poe, speaking in a slow and calm manner.
"I have a ranked 8, 9 and evolved beasts intact cores within the pouch Fei showed you," informed Silver, slightly waving his hand as three glistening demonic cores floated above his left palm from the pouch. They were respectively a green, red and yellow spherical core emitting a faint light.
Once someone reaches the Internal Realm, it was quite normal to exhibit some form of qi control to move and lift objects.
"My master had hunted them during our training, allowing me to see how formidable and strong these high ranked beast were."
"Do you know the use of these cores?" asked Manager Poe hiding his greedy expression towards the three demonic cores. If he had them, he could finally break through his bottle neck and reach the early-stage of Star Origin, giving him an increase of his salary and status within the association.
"Yes, they are used to increase our cultivation, in blacksmith, formation arrays and even alchemy from what my master had explained to me," smiled Silver with a relaxed expression.
"I remember two days before I got here, he was battling something called a king ranked beast?"
Such a feeling came as fast as it went when he remembered this internal warrior's master had hunted it down.
"KIN-NG RA-A-ANKED?" stuttered Manager Poe gripping his desk, almost breaking it into pieces. He could definitely not handle such an expert, from his point of view, that could fight on par with a king ranked beast. Only someone like their city lord or the patriarch of the major clans could match up to those terrifying king beasts. Even then, they would have to think twice as a king ranked beast had high intelligence, spiritual awareness and could maintain a humanoid like appearance.
Neither did he want to deal with a disciple with a powerful existence behind them. Even with the backing of the Gold Spring Merchant Association, they would most likely let the master kill him to soothe the expert's anger.
"What realm is your master . . ?"
"He told me once I reached the King Realm, he would tell me his cultivation realm," replied Silver faking a glorified expression. He knew exactly what Manager Poe was thinking, nothing could hide from his eyes that has seen countless years of human nature. No one can hide their true heart from his perceptive eyes and divine sense.
'I should stay cautious and treat him with a high status since not many individuals could hunt an evolved ranked beast! Maybe I can gain a favor from his master, with such an expert within my reach, a chance to move up in this association could be at hand. If that may be the case, I can't act brash. Plus this young man is rather calm, which makes it a better choice to carefully lay down my cards onto him. My path to the upper management of Gold Spring Merchant Association seems to have shown a clear path finally,' thought Manager Poe quietly assessing Silver.
His intuition towards people is top-notch that. This allowed him to never receive any loss in profit but favorable gains.
If Silver knew Manager Poe's thoughts, he would definitely feel surprised as this seemingly fat cultivator held a sharp, intuitive mind. Sitting there while sipping the tea, Silver took his time to enjoy the multiple expressions of the pondering Manager Poe.
Whether Manager Poe decided to be upfront and stay honest or be a sleaze would finalize the fate of their transaction. If he decided to be sneaky, Silver would leave right away, taking his business elsewhere. He would always find a way to get stronger.
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Moon Coins (Copper)
Ethas (Silver) = 100 Moon Coins = 1 Ethas
Sols (Gold) = 100 Etha Coins = 1 Sols