The Quest for Technique
"Yes, yes, young. Sharp eyes. A little dumb in the head but makes up with sheer talent and fortune—"
"Galf, stop talking about yourself in the mirror... please," Noland mumbled. He was here with Ron and needless to say, both the groups were surprised to find each other here.
"Hey, why're you here?" Vayu inquired after getting close to Ron as the fat youth sighed in distress. "Big Brother said that he doesn't like me getting fatter when he's growing thin. So, he wants me to start cultivating my body, too," He whined. Vayu could sympathize with Ron. Similar situations— being orphan, and having terrible male caretakers— made the two quite appreciative of each other.
Meanwhile, the old man garbed in a hooded robe clicked his tongue, and turned around. A pair of blue gloves covered his hands as he placed the mirror down on the wide counter which divided the shop in two from near the door. A black mask covered the man's face. Even his eyes and lips were covered by the reinforced mask, only allowing his muffled voice to creep through the edges of the mask.
Trilok and others couldn't even see his hair from the corner of the hood for below it, the man did not wear shirts and trousers like an ordinary individual. Instead, a full-body suit tightly covered his face behind the mask. The color of his hair, eyes, or his age, nothing. Nobody knew anything about Galf, the Moral Owner aside from the fact that he was crooked in spine and thinking, and his voice was unpleasant to the core.
"You three interrupted a pleasant discussion on piracy between me, and them. Yes, yes," he hissed with a chuckle, making Vayu and Ron pale but already used to Galf's nature and pattern of speech.
"Will you be willing to sell us?" Trilok inquired politely.
The Second Moral: Seller sells only to those he wishes. An act of fate can never be forced.
"Hmmmmm..." Galf suddenly hummed loudly.
"Fat and greedy there are two... an innocent bundle of menace, and a pair of good-for-nothing whose mothers never returned with that tray of fish," Galf muttered, making the faces of his customer ugly. The fat one knew whom Galf talked about. So did the abandoned ones with mothers who 'forgot' their way home. Only the innocent one tilted his head his confusion.
"I'll sell. But the price of it is a favor this time," Galf cackled, raising his left index.
"Not from all of you. A single one out of you five will make purchases for the remaining. Every item is sold for a favor and the entirety of the favor will be borne on the person who purchases the items. I have five customers now and five of them will have to purchase something. The limit of proxy purchases for each customer is 2 items. A favor of 10. Think, who will it be then?"
Galf suddenly sat on his chair. His counter wasn't a simple desk but had a cut-out space in between for anyone to place things in the space and hide it from those standing tall. Behind Galf weren't shelves filled with items, scrolls, and raw resources. No. It was a plain wooden panel that depicted a strange, erratic carving. No space for a bathroom, kitchen, or sleep could be seen in this single-floored shop.
But somehow, he would always have things to sell.
A popular theory being that the man holds a spatial ring, too.
But the five individuals did not have any mood for solving mysteries.
Instead, they scowled.
Even Vayu seemed to understand that this man was trying to rip them off collectively.
"Then, we'll come tomorrow. Hopefully, your price will be lenient tomorrow."
"Condition of ten comes every ten years," Galf chuckled, "For those who live this price, must always return. Until this sale is fulfilled, and the price paid, be it ten more years, I would still wait.
Heed the moral of this story: A price once asked, is always paid."
His rhymes only irritated the group.
The meaning was clear.
They won't be able to purchase anything from this shop until they complete this transaction first.
"Let's leave... even for this shop, a price is a little too much," Trilok sighed after reading Galf's information.
Noland and Kol nodded, too, and soon, the shop was emptied.
"Oh, well, all the customers aren't gods, and gods if they be, then hold my favors should they," He laughed to himself for a long time before picking the mirror once again.
[Name: Adalf
Age: 109
Spirit Vein: Blue (Upgrade Requirement: 500,000)
Cultivation: Spiritual Summoner— 1 (Upgrade Requirement: 59,000)
Techniques: Art of False Divinity (Mid-Exotic)(Special Trait: Unbreakable Hallucinations— 3)(Upgrade Requirement: 15,000)
]
'Son of a bitch broke through,' Trilok scowled.
Strong cultivators were, of course, scary but the numbnuts with godly hallucinations are scarier. Galf, or, Adalf is one such being. The fact that he broke through the realm of Spiritual Enhancement only made the old man more dangerous.
"So... this was a bust," Noland grumbled.
"You came here for a body cultivation manual, too?" Trilok inquired.
"Yeah. You heard about the situation with pirates, right? It's better to try and get strong as quickly as possible. At least, we'll have a better chance of survival."
"We could be said to have been officially banned by this store and Galf had one of the best techniques," Kol sighed with a desperate expression.
"We try other stores then. The reason we preferred Galf over others is that he didn't take the coin from us but would give us weird tasks. Now, at least, we can look for another technique found in other stores," Trilok shrugged.
Noland, however, wanted to introduce Ron to a few of his other associates so he took Ron away. Meanwhile, Trilok, Kol, and Vayu continued to search through stalls and stores.
Trilok continued to use his abilities to locate body cultivators but the chances of a body cultivator divulging his own technique were quite low. Meanwhile, Kol inquired from other suppliers and well-known fishers who would be present in the market this time of the day.
"Woah! Look at this!" Vayu suddenly crouched down and gazed at the spread of items on a mat placed over the wooden 'ground.'
Trilok stopped and looked at the item which Vayu was enamored by.
"Boss, this is harder than we thought. Suddenly, all of the sellers are holding the information about body cultivators close to their hearts... we will have to spend a few coins for the information," Kol appeared distressed.
But Trilok waved her off and gazed at the information of a palm-sized, pitch-black ordinary fish scale placed alongside other few resources.
"Ah. Boss!" the owner hurriedly nodded towards Trilok and grew a little flustered. He was a young man, probably younger than Trilok, and seeing a celebrity suddenly stopping in front of his minor spread of items made him feel flustered.
Trilok nodded again.
[Scale of Black-Blood Gorgon: A scale of an exotic creature under heaven that leaves imprints of a cultivation technique in every part of its body after demise. Once every single part of the body and every drop of remaining blood is collected, a cultivation technique of their species will be revealed.]
'It doesn't say a body or spiritual cultivation technique and... how would we complete its lost body for the cultivation technique?' Trilok sighed.
'But... Vayu suddenly taking a shine on such an item related to serpents... isn't a coincidence, right? His cultivation technique is related to Serpents and a unique one at that,' Trilok's gaze flickered.
"Brother, can we buy it?" Vayu inquired.
"You get a salary, remember? If you have enough saved up, sure," Trilok shrugged.
"Brother, how much for this scale?" Vayu inquired.
"It will be..." the youth glanced towards Trilok for a moment and then sighed, "23 coins."
"Sure—" Before Vayu could complete, Kol coughed softly and he instantly grew grim.
"Brother, 23 coins for a broken scale? I can purchase three days' worth of food for this amount and you want it for a single scale that doesn't even hold spiritual energy?" Vayu's voice grew louder as the poor youth's expression changed.
"Little brother, look carefully. The shine of the scale. The hardness. This is definitely top-notch material for mortal blacksmiths."
"I'm an alchemist, why would I care about blacksmithing?" Vayu growled, "Are you mocking me? I may not know everything about the world, but I do know that this scale cannot be worth more than 13 coins!"
---
"Sigh... in the end... I had to pay 19 coins," Vayu's shoulders slumped in distress while Kol patted his back with a happy smile.
"You're learning well. Next time, don't reveal your bargaining price too quickly though. Break the seller. Make him feel that he's worthless. And then, as a glimmer of hope, reveal what you want to pay. Remember, negotiations are not about the money. But it is about the opponent. That youth was obviously poor, probably someone with a single parent. Or destitute parents. Poke at their weaknesses."
Kol continued to suggest various strategies to Vayu who nodded with an eager expression. Meanwhile, Trilok had started to peek at the information of every and any item on the stall.
They were on their way to a certified body cultivator who was selling his technique but on the way, Trilok figured to try his luck after Vayu's distraction.
However, he found nothing of importance.
Soon, through the tents, stalls, and spread carpets, the trio reached a well-known Fisher.
Patch Jenc.
With his left eye covered by a red patch, a twirling mustache above his lips, and a burly figure covered with ripped sleeves top and shredded trousers, the bald man smiled towards the trio and waved his hand.
"I've been waiting for you three for minutes," he offered his hand to the three of them one at a time before sitting.
'Ah... now this will be hard to negotiate,' Kol and Trilok glanced at each other.
They weren't going to poke at a man's weaknesses who can snap them like a twig, given their muscles.
"Hush, now! Sell us the technique quickly or you'll lose the other eye, too!"
Of course, Vayu's lesson on learning restraint wasn't completed yet.