Rancho was about to close up shop for the night when the purple eyed youth came back.
He was clutching four strands of the shimmering silver mana. Rancho's eyes widened and he mentally went over any reports he heard when checking up on the local captain of the guard.....Nope, no reports of anything missing. Anyone who had such a fortune go missing would absolutely report it to the authorities and raise hell until something was done. Considering he was really the only person they could sell such goods too he was usually the "something" guards harangued when such items went missing.
"Wow, um....Hmph." Rancho quickly cleared his throat.
"If you could lay them on the counter" Rancho replied graciously, repressing his glee at the potential fortune. The four hair thin strands glistened against the glass and when he used what looked like a metal taser that fed a bit of raw mana into them they glistened even more brightly, giving off a kaleidoscope of rainbows and specks of bright lights to anyone who looked at them.
"Ah, genuine articles. That effect isn't reproducible by anything not made of pure mana. May I ask where you acquired these items? If its not too much to ask" Rancho asked with some enthusiasm.
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"I found them on my way over here at the mouth of a creek " The boy said.
Rancho knew a lot of mana heavy spots in this area of the forest but the most consistent source were the creeks coming out of the ground. Of course, as a peasant, he couldn't see them but eventually patterns show themselves.
"Quite a lucky young lad you are" Rancho said. He wasn't the type of businessman who would deal in stolen goods but nor did he need the customers' life story to do business. He quickly got out a pouch and counted out 30 gold coins.
"This is as much as I can go for, no second offers" Rancho said while putting the pouch on the counter. He was considered unique among business circles for he lack of haggling interest. But to him time was money and time spent whittling deals out of customers for every last copper created huge time sinks, time that could be spent getting more goods for more customers. He had seen too many ludicrous opportunities pass by people as they let their greed get the better of them, also the customers appreciated it as his prices were typically fair and that was something that was hard to quantify.
"For a country bumpkin that is an almost unfathomable amount of wealth. I did not cheat him, that was the price he agreed too and that is that." Rancho thought shamefully to himself as he put the precious strands in one of the metal chests. After swindling the strange boy, Rancho was left satisfied with the exchange