Shoot of Success

Deon and Terros passed through the sparsely populated outer city, heading deeper into the more bustling city region. The outer city mostly consisted of residential and low grade shops, if they wanted to see this prosperous merchant city properly, they needed to head to the inner city.

Deon planned to immediately buy the resources and spirits which he needed in order to complete his spirit refinements within the city. He already knew exactly what he wanted to refine, though it was uncertain whether or not he would be able to procure everything, since Terros hadn't heard of many of the materials that he inquired about.

Whilst they were out this time, Terros agreed to give him a brief tour. At first, he tried to charge Deon for this tour, until Deon casually reminded him about all of those spirits that he sent over for Terros to 'inspect', but mysteriously never received back. Terros returned about 99% of them, hoping that in his busy work day, Deon wouldn't notice the remaining 1%. He did notice and immediately used this matter for his own gain at the first possible opportunity.

Soon enough, they reached the inner city.

The inner city wasn't really a separate region of Flat Mount City, it wasn't segregated by a border or anything of the sort. However, the difference between the two regions became obvious as they travelled deeper into the city.

Whereas there were many dull temples in the outer city, left unpainted and revealing the wooden boards used to support their structures, those sorts of shabby places were nowhere to be seen after heading in a few miles deeper. On top of that, the number of people seen in the streets increased, and eventually, the smooth but natural mud floor beneath their feet vanished, replaced by well-crafted stone roads

Deon looked around at the sights in interest whilst Terros began haggling with yet another shop keeper. Currently, they were only selling the more ordinary spirits, the ones that wouldn't attract a calamity. Terros sold 2-3 spirits at each store to avoid attracting too much attention, but even this was enough to entice the store owners immediately.

Deon was intrigued by the haggling and exchanges at first, but the same scene just repeated itself over and over again, and eventually his interest waned.

As he was looking around the market street, a voice entered Deon's ears. There were many people talking and shouting out within this street, but the source of this voice was different, it originated from a person standing besides an old man with an aura surpassing any 2-Star shaman that Deon had met!

"Elder, am I really ready for this?"

Deon subtly glanced towards the young man and elderly shaman as they walked side by side, clearly heading deeper into the city. He paused for a moment and his eyes lit up, not on the boy, but on that elder.

The old man wore a pristine white robe, unblemished by anything aside from the emblem own his chest, depicting a nine floor temple. Robes were a common form of clothing for shamans throughout the spirit continent, Deon, Terros and Shi had also switched to this sort of clothing soon after leaving the Kingdom of Restari.

Deon wore a simple black robe, it was clearly not nearly as luxurious as this old man's silk robe. These clothes suited him well, because his presence was simply akin to a king walking amongst common peasants!

'3-Star shaman!' Deon thought immediately. The old man wasn't releasing his aura, but he wasn't restraining it either. Because of this, a fair few people in the streets were able to recognise his status as a 3-Star elite!

The invisible pressure released by a 3-Star shaman was palpable. Everyone gave way as the pair made their way through the street, not wanting to obstruct their passage.

This was the first 3-Star shaman that Deon had actually seen in person, drawing his attention whilst Terros was busy inside of a nearby store.

The pair continued walking past the various stalls and temple shops laid out close together on either side of the street. Neither of them paused or responded, even as the shop owners tried to subtly attract the attention of this rich potential customer.

"Don't worry so much my disciple. Although this test from the Trading House aims to push your capabilities such that you prove yourself as competent in business, I am already confident that you have the skills necessary to successfully complete this trial." The old man glanced down at his clearly nervous disciple and chuckled. His disciple was 20 years old, but he was actually a 2-Star shaman already! This sort of talent was very impressive, even for the Trading House, the peak organisation in this city.

"But elder, do I truly need to sell a 3-Star spirit, ten 2-Star spirits and one hundred 1-Star spirits in order to pass the test?" The young man asked with furrowed brows. He was quite experienced when it came to selling spirits, but this really felt like a tall order!

"Mm. This should not be a problem though, considering that the annual auction is coming up one week from today." The elder nodded. However, the young man smiled wryly and shook his head.

"Elder, these spirits aren't ordinary at all! The 3-Star spirit is actually a silver class 3-Star spirit, whilst all ten of the 2-Star spirits are also unordinary! There's even the natural spirit, 2-Star shoot of success! I'm honestly a bit surprised that the sect is trusting me with these treasures…"

Deon's heart skipped a beat when he overheard that last part. He maintained a calm expression and turned away, incase they noticed that he was eavesdropping on their conversation. However, he pointed his ear towards the pair so that he could still hear them, even as they walked further away.

'2-Star shoot of success spirit! Why are they even selling something like that?!' Deon's mind was whirring, shocked by this information.

There were many natural spirits which, although low in rank and perhaps even class, were simply too rare and too useful, meaning they would never usually appear for sale. This shoot of success spirit was one of them…however, he quickly came to understand why it was being sold as the old 3-Star shaman continued speaking.

"It's true that the shoot of success spirit is a rare natural spirit which can only be found in nature by chance…but this spirit, what is the value of it really? It can at most increase the success rate in activating a 2-Star spirit, but just think about it. Do any 1-Star or 2-Star spirits have such a terrible rate of failure in their activation that this is meaningful? And besides, if a spirit fails in its activation, it can just be activated once more!"

Deon's eyes shone brightly. Everything he knew about the larger shaman world came from Blood God's notes and descriptions, but Blood God was such an old and high powered shaman, he had been detached from the lower shaman world for too long. As such, those spirits that he considered to be 'unbuyable', could in truth be found for sale in these small isolated markets on rare occasions!

'I see now!' Deon exclaimed excitedly in his mind. 'They are aware of this spirit's rarity, but it is considered useless due to their lack of superior spirits! Many holy class spirits could benefit greatly from this spirit, but how could this Trading House have any holy class spirits? They have no spirits which have good synergy with the shoot of success spirit, so they're actually selling it!'

Deon continued to listen, but the pair were really getting too far away now, and he didn't feel like attempting to follow a 3-Star shaman. He was initially tempted to walk up to the pair so that he could buy this spirit on the spot, but when he thought about it, his current funds were far too low.

As the pair continued talking, he found out that this disicple would be selling those spirits over a one week period starting the following day, the pair did not have these spirits on their person right now.

He unfortunately didn't pick up on where they were going to station themselves, but after listening in on the chatter that took over the street after the seemingly famous pair passed by, he learned of their names and identities.

"So Elder Dan and his adopted disciple Rigo Dan actually walked by when I wasn't looking!" Terros sighed regretfully. "I could have sold them something if I had known, this Elder Dan is known for his generosity, but rarely shows his face in public! Sigh, I actually missed out on the chance to deal with a mid stage 3-Star elder of the Trading House…say something next time, you damned brat!"

"I thought you didn't like drawing attention to yourself though?" Deon replied unapologetically. He could tell that Terros wasn't really that bothered by it, after all, their profits were already beginning to ramp up, yet they hadn't even sold their highest value spirits yet!

"Whatever, just take your cut." Terros snorted and carelessly threw a handful of small water droplets towards Deon. Deon quickly stuck out his palm, forming a lily which made a slurping sound and drew the spirits inside.

As an initial stage 2-Star shaman, Deon was able to bind ten 1-Star spirits alongside his core spirit. He usually kept battle oriented spirits equipped for the most part, but since they wouldn't be doing much battle in the city, he bound some more useful spirits instead.

These included the gold lily spirit, the highest class evolution of the 1-Star water lily spirit. This spirit was commonly used to store drop spirits. The gold class water lily spirit was able to store five gallons of water, many drop spirits could be stored within this water. Shi, Terros and Deon were all using this spirit…the gold class version was a bit expensive, but the Kingdom of Restari had a few at its disposal.

Feeling satisfied by the funds building up with their wallets, Terros and Deon continued along their way.