Chapter 89: Bargain

Chapter 89: Bargain

"Oh? Unlike this Cyclops, this Twin Shadow Viper is a rank-1 Magical Beast and is rare due to its unique nature. I heard four Acolyte Wizards and Seven Knights spend more than a day chasing it to kill this guy." As Anastasia started raising its value, Raven interrupted her.

"Please don't beat around the bush, ma'am. Tell me the final rate."

A smile appeared on her face.

"8,500 Gold coins. If you arrange the right amount in three days, I'll sell it to you for 8,000."

"Ugh." Raven could only nod his head at her exhorting price.

"If you have any unique mutant goblins, I would love to check on them."

"Goblins, isn't it?" Anastasia gave him a deep look and soon spoke.

"You can get them for a very cheap rate even in the rural town shops, though."

Meanwhile, Raven shook his head and added.

"I'm talking about mutant goblins with unique skills. I heard that large shops and merchant companies often preserve unique corpses to showcase during the Ida festival."

"But they are rare items that attract lots of visitors and wizards. If a high-rank Wizard finds it interesting, we might be able to get ten times higher than the price of an average Rank-1 magical beast." Anastasia shook her head at his demand.

"What if I exchange a corpse with another unique one? And this one isn't registered even in the Wizards' Encyclopedia."

Raven's words made her froze for a moment.

"I'll check it first and then decide, sir."

Raven didn't say anything and quietly agreed. 

"Let's assess the value of the magical beasts you sell." 

Anastasia gestured toward an open space near the center of the room, where a circular platform rested, embedded with glowing runes.

"Please place the magical beast corpses here. Our identification array will automatically assess their value," she explained, stepping aside to give him space.

Raven nodded and touched his spatial ring. He pulled out the first corpse using his spirit power—a five-meter-long ice wyrm whose pure white scales glittered in the light.

After placing the corpse on the array, Raven quietly backed away. Meanwhile, Anastasia activated the identification array by reciting a chant, making the whole array glow in a blinding golden light.

A moment later, an invisible power emerged from the array and enveloped the corpse.

At the exact moment, Anastasia looked at the corpse and started speaking.

"The corpse is still in a good condition. But I don't feel any bloodline essence inside, though." She suddenly looked at the Cyclops' corpse on the left side and asked.

"Are you researching the Warlock Pathway?"

Her question surprised Raven.

'She knew of Warlock pathway?' He got startled.

[Of course, she knows. Before learning about Wizardry, Humans first dwelt into the pathway of Warlocks. But they chose Wizardry over Warlock due to the bloodline shackle and its restriction of only following one bloodline. Also, due to the lack of technology and knowledge, humans can only extract a portion of a Magical Beast's bloodline, resulting in a loss of the purity of the bloodline. That's why the warlocks become more vulnerable during the earlier phase.]

'What if a person can extract high-purity bloodline essence and inject it into his body?' Raven asked.

[Do you know why killing the same rank magical beast is complex, even for a Wizard?]

'Is it due to its big body? Or their bloodline spells? I heard that even two to three Wizards are needed to kill a same rank magical beast.' Raven said.

[Bloodline Magic is more like racial traits, lad. And those Magical Beasts have much stronger bodies than normal humans. For example, a Rank-1 Giant should have a strength of 60 to 100 times that of an average human. Meanwhile, a Rank-1 human, a peak rank Elite Walker's strength, should only be ten times higher than an average human. What do you think will happen if a human manages to absorb 90% purity of even the weakest Rank-1 Giant's bloodline essence?]

'… He should gain at least a strength of 50 humans?' Raven made a guess.

[No, his body will explode before absorbing one-tenth of the bloodline essence. I don't know how your body works due to the influence of Bloodline Devouring ability, but I'm sure your body also has the same limit as an average human. But your only advantage over the other warlocks is that you can choose bloodline spells from different species.]

Noticing his silence, Anastasia shook her head and continued.

"Well, Wizards won't pry on other's secrets. But please be careful of side effects and the bloodline restrictions if you plan on walking on the path of Warlocks." 

"The one researching the Magical Beast bloodlines is my senior. I'm only responsible for buying and selling the corpses."

"Senior?" She looked at him curiously and soon shook her head.

"As long as he knows what he is doing, it's all good. Do you have more corpses, sir?" Anastasia asked while walking towards the array's center and storing the corpse in her ring.

"Yes. I've one more corpse." Saying so, he touched the spatial ring and took out the creepy mind worm magical beast.

As soon as Anastasia saw the beast's corpse, her eyes widened.

"Is this the one you talked about?" She looked at the hundreds of closed eyelids all over the magical beast's body and felt strange goosebumps.

She activated the array again and tried to search its body's interior through the identification array.

"I've never seen or read such a complicated and unique anatomy. This being's value should be more than-" Anastasia abruptly paused at her slip of the tongue and soon added.

"Although unique, it has no bloodline essence like the other corpse. I can buy it for 5,000 gold coins."

[Bargain at a very high price, lad. Didn't she say that wizards sometimes buy unique goblin corpses ten times higher than a normal rate? What would happen if they realized this corpse's uniqueness? It's not one of the unique corpses. It's the only corpse in the whole world.]

"Humph, I can sell it in other shops then." Raven snorted coldly and tried to put it back in the spatial ring.

"W-Wait! I can exchange it with any of the goblin corpses!" Anastasia hurriedly answered. In truth, the worth of this magical beast would skyrocket up to 100 thousand golds due to its uniqueness!

'There is no such thing in the entire Wizards' encyclopedia! That means this being isn't even from this world! Where on earth did he get this corpse from? Should I pressure him a bit?' A thought crossed her mind.

"One unique goblin corpse, Mutant Cyclops, and that Twin Shadow Viper corpse," Raven said, unaware of her thoughts, as he pointed his finger at the left side.

"Shameless!" An invisible force suddenly appeared and entirely made Raven's body freeze.

'F*ck! She is attacking me now?' Raven panicked and instantly signaled Selene to act.

Meanwhile, Selene leaped towards Raven, caught a rifle that suddenly appeared out of thin air, and turned her attention towards Anesthesia.

Although the invisible power was there to restrict her body moment, Selene didn't lose her calm and pointed the muzzle at Anastasia's head.

Her fingers were carefully placed on the trigger, while her eyes were focused entirely on Anastasia's every movement.

"Please retract your spiritual power, ma'am!" She stated calmly.

But Anastasia felt a strange, threatening feeling.

Only then did her attention move towards the rifle in her hand.

"Aether weapon!" Her eyes squinted.

"Yes. My team captain killed an Expert rank Walker with this weapon while he was serving in the army. Although I don't know if I can kill you with this, I'm confident enough to give you a fatal wound." Selene said coldly and moved her fingers closer to the trigger.

"Haa, what a reckless duo! I was only trying to put some pressure." Anastasia retracted her spirit power and sighed.

"Fine. You can take all these three magical beasts. But I want you to promise me that you will give us more priority over other shops in the future."

Raven thought for a second and agreed.

"I promise."

"You can take those two magical beasts with the glass containers," Anastasia said while waving her hand.

Meanwhile, Raven moved closer to the left side of the storage and stored the two corpses in his spatial ring.

"Once your senior extracts the blood essences from the corpses, you can return the Twin Shadow Viper's corpse here. I'll repurchase it at half the price." Anastasia suggested.

"What about the Cyclops?"

"Its heart and liver will dry once the blood essence is extracted. And even the flesh becomes hard as a rock. It will be nothing more than a mummified corpse. But Twin Shadow Viper's skin, eyes, venom gland, fangs, and bones are useful for many things."

While Anastasia explained, Raven moved towards the corpses and stored them in his spatial ring.

"Done? Let's move on to the underground basement storage." Anastasia guided them out of the storage and led them again towards a different path.

After walking on a narrow corridor for a minute, the trio arrived in front of a downstairs staircase. Although some guards and people in robed dresses asked about Raven and Selene, Anastasia informed them they were her guests and soon led them into a large laboratory-like hall. Unlike the storage hall, this one was filled with hundreds of magical beasts' bodies preserved in liquid-filled glass pods. Multiple tubes were connected to many body parts, and unique fluids were moving in and out continuously. What shocked Raven was that some were even breathing under those liquids and appeared to be in a sleepy state.

"These pods keep the body in good condition for years even after they die." She gave him a short explanation.

Raven nodded quietly, walked toward the nearby goblin corpse, and inspected it.

'This is not the one.' He moved to the nearby one and checked again.

After repeatedly checking for three more times, he finally found his target. Unlike other goblins, this monster had black and yellow skin and unique white eyes.

"This is the one," Raven said as he pointed at the goblin.

Thanks to Anastasia's help, he had no difficulty retrieving the corpse from the pod and storing it in his spatial ring.

Afterward, the trio left the underground basement storage and returned to the potion room.

"We'll take our leave, ma'am," Raven said with a smile.

"Please visit the shop anytime," Like a professional owner, she smiled elegantly and sent them off. 

As soon as they left the room, the smile on Anastasia's face disappeared.

"I need to look into this person. I wonder how he gets his hands on that corpse?" She decided to do a detailed check and always keep in touch with him.

…

"Where is our next destination, My Lord?" Selene asked, her face visible with a trace of shock. In truth, she never thought an expert rank wizard would threaten them and was a bit scared.

'If he didn't tell me to prepare for an unexpected attack, we might have lost pathetically. Even though Anastasia said it was to pressure us, I don't think we would've returned without losing anything.'

Raven thought momentarily and soon spoke with a cold glint in his eyes.

"I want to visit the Supreme Court."

"Court?" Selene blinked her eyes in confusion.

"Why do you want to visit that boring place?"

"I've some business over there," Raven said and quietly entered the carriage.

"I really can't guess what he is thinking." She muttered slowly and followed him.

Within seconds, the carriage started to move through the wide cobblestone road.

…