The Market Square had expanded quite a lot, so I had quite a lot of stalls to go through. Mainly the items that were being sold were weapons but there were a lot of consumables as well everything else was in a lesser amount. Many of the stalls had similar things with similar prices so soon my mind started to go to different topics.

I had gone and seen the building that housed and protected all the monster cores a few days back. I wanted to pick out a few so I could start my elemental seeds but I was quite disappointed. While the dungeon-dropped monster cores had the same energy potential and material value, they didn't have anything more in them like the monster cores I have gotten before.

Turns out that this is something known but the majority of the monster cores used are the ones that are from raid dungeons. Their prices actually fluctuate depending on the market but they stay around 90 gold per one first-rank monster core of average strength.

Real-world monster cores can sell for two or three times more because there have patterns that you can get from them and other things like what my trait needs for the elemental seeds. The clerk even said that some monster cores can have 10 times or even 100 times the value depending on what monster they came from and what the core contained.

But even with that price difference I could still see why the raid dungeons were the best solution for getting cores, but I also learned that there is a third kind of dungeons they seem to be farming cores from. They were called great dungeons and while you get a lot fewer drops than in a raid dungeon those were stationary.

I wanted to listen more but the adventurers that were talking about going to a great dungeon didn't talk long about it. I need to read the dungeon book that I got and each day I do not the itch at the back of my head gets stronger but I have been able to discipline myself enough to keep the book hidden.

The market was full of small winding dirt streets. While there were some straight streets to get to the other side you could get quite lost if you went off those streets. I most liked when I found small stalls selling exotic street food and after half a day in the market, I was dangerously full.

I finally made it to a stall that was completely different from any other I had seen before. It did not sell any weapons. While they were selling some items those were mostly made from living plants. But the bulk that they were selling were just different kinds of seeds and saplings.

I got quite excited and skipped a few stalls that sold stuff that most others did. Because there were currently a few clients talking to the merchant I started by walking to the left side of the stall so I could examine everything by hand.

There were even some apples and other fruit for sale, and I bought two apples for a few copper coins. I was glad that there was a child that helped the main seller. While exchanging the coins I did look at the child and the merchant a few times and there was quite a lot of resemblance, so I was quite certain that they were related.

The apple was delicious, and I had to smile while eating it. But before I could finish eating the small girl interrupted me. “Why did you kill that man? It's wrong to kill someone,” she said it in a quiet voice that I could barely hear and the question itself was quite shocking, so it took me quite some time to figure out what she actually asked.

I was a bit confused when I finally figured it out but when I started to look around, I could see that there was a way to see the location where I killed the noble. For the first time, I turned my full attention to the little girl and contemplated the question. “Why do you think it’s wrong to kill someone,” I asked the girl but she didn't look happy about that question.

“I asked the question first, so you have to answer me first that’s how it’s supposed to work.” She said in a confident voice and with a serious face. I had to chuckle a bit. She was quite stubborn, and I felt a little bit sorry for her mother. “Well, how can I answer your question if I don’t know why you think it’s wrong to kill someone.”

Her face screwed up like she ate something sour but I could see the intelligence in her eyes. While she was thinking I examined some of the saplings that were being sold. I was so glad to see different kinds of apple trees and all other fruits being sold some even only meant for warm climates.

Eventually, she answered. “I don’t like your question. Killing someone it’s not right because they want to live, and I don’t like killing. Killing should not be allowed and I think you are a bad man.” Her conviction was commendable, but I also felt like this kind of thinking would be quite dangerous for her, especially in this world.

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“For some people, I am certainly a bad man but not for others. I am guessing you are about 9 years old?” I waited until she nodded her head to continue. “You are quite young, but I see that you are selling a lot of fruit and other seeds for plants I am assuming you have work with the plants and trees.” Another nod but I could also see a bit of confusion on her face.

“Has there ever been that time when some of the plants have been diseased and you needed to dispose of them?” She nodded again now a bit unsure of herself. “You said that killing someone was wrong but didn't you kill the plants that had the potential to spread the disease to the other plants? Those plants didn’t want to die and perhaps they would have survived the disease but you decided to kill them to protect the others.”

I was interrupted by her fanatically shaking her head and saying no quite a few times before calming down. “No plants are not the same as people so that doesn't.” But she stopped. I had felt that she had the trait nature connection and I’m quite sure then that she realized the plants were alive like me and her. While it was a different life they were still alive and life always wants to survive and reproduce no matter in what form.

I could see her eyes starting to water up and I felt a bit bad, but I still continue. “If you want to be alive, I’m afraid you will constantly be killing something. It is necessary for survival so to answer why I killed that man. It was for the same reason that you remove the diseased plants. It was to protect the rest.” She was crying a lot now. Big fat tears were rolling down her cheeks and I looked up expecting to be yelled at by her mother but instead, she looked at me with a sad face but mouthed thank you to me.

I was confused like the small child. She had collected herself enough that she figured it best to run off back to the wagon to hide and think. Soon her mother finished with her last client and then took a few steps towards me.

“I’ve been trying to explain that to her for a few years now but with no luck. My husband and I were beginning to really worry. It’s not a nice world out there and she has started to dislike anyone who kills someone. Hopefully, this will help change her mind, but she is stubborn like her grandmother.” She gave me a welcoming smile at the end, and I returned it.

“I see you are admiring our sapling collection are you interested in buying some fruit trees perhaps.” She said in a genuine tone and not the one that she used before that every merchant uses to get the best price. “Oh, admiring is the right word and not only the saplings but everything else as well. I have been looking for these kinds of items but even the local merchants couldn't guarantee that they could get any to me.”

She looked sad after I finished speaking. “A complete tragedy in my opinion. Any noble that made fruit and berries illegal for anyone else should be hanged.” There was sadness but also hatred in her voice but I was quite confused and she picked up on that. “Where are you from that you haven't heard of this well no matter I will explain.”

“Quite a while back some noble decided that fruits and berries should only be eaten by the nobility and unfortunately the idea soon caught on and soon every noble started implementing the ban. It didn't take long until every fruit tree had been cut down and berry bushes removed from everyone who wasn’t a noble. There were even some places that punished anyone who foraged for berries in the forest.” She looked quite angry and sad at the same time when she explained it to me

“Now that practice is illegal as the high society needed to step in. Turns out that that decision changed our world a lot and was one of the reasons that lead to the rise of the plague that eventually destroyed so much. You see thanks to our achievement page diseases were rare at least they used to be but when the large majority of the population didn’t get the necessary vitamins even the achievement page couldn't help them avoid getting sick.”

“So much of our power depends on our body the base that everything else comes from. So many of us were starved for necessary nutrition and soon diseases started to happen more often after the first time the plague happened the higher society quickly try to figure out why it happened and it seems the problem was that we were no longer getting what our bodies needed.” She smiled then before she continued.

“Then something happened that no one expected. New laws came out something that rarely happens and the high society started many programs to help bring back these important food items into the market. While the Kingdom nobles still found a way to make fortunes out of the new changes in general the laws helped a lot and as you can see the prices here are completely reasonable even though we needed to take a portal to get here that's because the high society pays my company about six times the current value for any item sold that’s on their list.” She chuckled a bit.

“If this wasn't the case everything would cost 10s of monster cores. Still, this isn’t the most profitable thing to sell which is why I am the only one that sells these things here. Would you be interested in some of these plants?” She asked in a hopeful tone, but she didn’t know what to make of me laughing quite deeply. I noticed that there were also expanded backpacks for sale that were meant for the transportation of seeds and saplings.

“How much can one of those backpacks fit?” I asked her which surprised her as she looked where I was looking. The price for a dimensional backpack or expanded backpack was quite high 20,000 gold coins. It seems to be at a similar price to everywhere else, but it was also enchanted to keep the saplings alive, and that effect would be quite welcomed.

She looked towards me and brought one of the backpacks for me to examine. The construction was well made, and I was quite pleased with it I looked up and asked her. “How much would it cost to fill this backpack up with different kinds of seeds and saplings.”