"Alright—33 gold, deal!"
Leon finished trading for an alchemy material with a third-tier beastfolk warrior: Crying Dollgrass.
Crying Dollgrass was a special plant whose leaves resembled a doll's face. When someone touched it, it emitted a "crying" magical sound.
The effect of that sound was to startle and intimidate, placing psychological pressure on nearby creatures and discouraging them from harvesting it.
Because the internal mana channels of Crying Dollgrass were extremely dense, it was an excellent lightweight mana-conductive material—perfect for alchemy or magical engineering.
And since this material only grew high up in Oradu's 25th-floor Water Ruins, it was quite rare.
Only a cliff-climbing race like beastfolk could reliably gather it.
Fortunately, most alchemists already had their own stock of common materials, so this item wasn't especially "hot" either at the guild or here.
So Leon bargained for a long time and bought three stalks for 33 gold—basically squeezing out a 3-gold discount.
"Friend—let's exchange contact info. If you get similar alchemy materials in the future, you can come straight to me."
After exchanging contact details with the beastfolk warrior, Leon headed over to the seller who had announced the Kraken brain core.
And sure enough—competition was intense.
Even at 70% damage, even though it was only second-tier, four or five people were already asking about it.
That was the charm of powerful monsters.
"Friend, I'll pay 45 gold!"
"No—48!"
When the seller displayed the brain core, people started urgently raising bids to snatch ownership.
In the blink of an eye, the price jumped from the 40-gold start to 52.
The brain core was sealed in a glass jar. It was only about half a fist in size, glowing faint purple, with cracks all over its surface—70% damage really did look accurate.
With a fifth-tier illusionist supervising, people's item descriptions here generally didn't stray too far from reality, which was a nice feature.
At other temporary gatherings, it would be nothing but tricks, scams, and constant outmaneuvering.
Of course, part of that was also because the capital's extraordinary circles were relatively stable, information traveled fast, and anyone trying to cheat people had to accept the risk of being blacklisted.
Most people here were acquaintances anyway. Even if someone seemed like a stranger at first glance, you'd usually find they were a friend-of-a-friend.
In the end, the highest bid came from the fourth-tier mage who was searching for fire-aspect magic stones. He called out:
"60 gold!"
That was a 50% increase from the opening price.
Once that number landed, everyone else went quiet.
The seller's face lit up as he shouted cheerfully:
"60 gold! Anyone higher?"
People nearby cursed under their breath—this guy was so loud, like he wanted the whole gathering to know he was selling for 60.
"I'll pay 61."
At that moment, Leon—who had been watching the whole time—spoke up.
The seller's eyes gleamed. He immediately asked the fourth-tier mage:
"Respected mage—will you raise the price?"
The mage turned to Leon and smiled.
"If it's you bidding, I'll yield it to you."
The seller looked a bit regretful, but still chose to sell to Leon—after all, one extra gold was still profit.
Leon took the brain core. As the crowd dispersed, the fourth-tier mage walked over.
He removed his hood, revealing rare aqua-colored hair and a stern, handsome middle-aged face. He greeted Leon calmly:
"Long time no see, Leon. The legendary Sighing Faerie Captor. It's only been a few weeks, and already bards are singing your name."
Yes—Leon knew him.
This man was also a member of the mage corps, deputy commander Caron's younger brother: Kaiku von Hoinpis.
A "2b-" type character—Potential B-, Plot Weight B-—who still had some moments of relevance in the early-to-mid story.
Leon had occasionally met him during mage corps rotations and exchanged a few words.
There was also a little piece of gossip about Caron and Kaiku:
Rumor had it Kaiku was the product of Caron's mother cheating with a beastfolk man. Their hair colors were completely different, which was the most suspicious detail.
And perhaps because of that gossip, Leon had never seen the two brothers appear in the same place.
"Luck, really," Leon said modestly. "Capturing a Sighing Faerie had some luck involved. If the faerie had possessed someone other than a knight-order target, it wouldn't have been nearly as easy."
That part was true.
Without the knight's full plate giving the faerie a sense of safety, the "slow-boil" method required much more delicate technique.
"Luck doesn't matter," Kaiku said.
He leaned close. That stern, handsome face suddenly turned sleazy, and he whispered:
"That Sighing Faerie—what are you going to do with it? If you don't have plans yet, sell it to me. I'll pay 600 gold."
He's that rich?
And that sleazy face looked weirdly similar to Caron's…
Maybe the "not real brothers" gossip was fake after all?
"Kaiku," Leon said, "I won't deny that price is tempting. But I have to ask—what would you do with it if you bought it?"
"Do you even need to ask?" Kaiku waggled his eyebrows. "You're a man. You know."
Leon's impression of Kaiku's "serious, upright" image instantly shattered.
"There are many things men understand," Leon said blandly. "Which one do you mean?"
"You're ruthless," Kaiku complained. "You really want me to say something this embarrassing out loud?"
"Sorry. Depending on the use, I'll decide whether I'm willing to sell."
"…Fine," Kaiku sighed. "I want to see if I can use its charm ability in the bedroom with my wife. Add a little… spice."
"Just that?"
"What else do you want me to do?" Kaiku stared, baffled. "Isn't that what anyone would think of?"
Leon said with disappointment, "Six hundred gold—just for bedroom spice? I thought you were planning some interesting magical research."
"You're young," Kaiku said with a weary sigh. "You're charming to women, and your future is bright. You don't understand the suffering of us older men."
"Once you're older, you've tasted every flower and grass," he continued. "Life gets boring. I've made this much money over the years—if I don't buy happiness with it, should I buy advancement items instead?"
Leon was speechless.
This guy was only in his sixties. He still had nearly a hundred years left. And he was already letting himself go?
"By your look," Kaiku said, "do you think I still have hope of breaking into legend?"
Seeing Leon's expression, Kaiku laughed.
"We humans are naturally short-lived. My talent isn't bad, but to reach fifth or sixth tier, don't you have to learn advanced magic early? And do you know how long a normal fourth-tier needs to learn an advanced spell?"
~~~
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