Chapter 13 - Darkness Guild Leader: Saurus

Edward and Cornelio returned to the shop after finishing everything they had to do, and fortunately, the man Steffon had called had just arrived.

He appeared to be about the same age as Steffon, around forty years old, but he seemed more fit and healthy. The man's appearance reminded Edward of the goths from his past world. He wore a dark winter coat that complemented his dark shoulder-length hair and combat boots perfectly.

"Oh, what perfect timing! Everyone is here. Why don't we go to a private room to talk?" Steffon was excited to finally uncover the secrets of the unknown herb. "Thank you for coming, Sir Saurus. This young man brought a mysterious spiritual plant to us, and I would like to ask for your help in identifying it."

Saurus only gave Steffon a short glance and nodded silently, maintaining his enigmatic and dark appearance.

"Hey, be careful how you talk around that man, okay?" Cornelio whispered to Edward as soon as Saurus left the room. "He is the leader of the Darkness Guild, someone you must not offend!"

Edward gulped as he looked at Saurus's broad back. From the moment he felt his gaze, Edward was certain that the man was powerful. "A Guild Leader? How did your boss even call someone like that?"

"They're childhood friends or something like that. I don't know the exact details, but please try to be mindful," Cornelio replied, conveying his apprehension.

Edward understood Cornelio's concern and nodded firmly. Saurus could easily be considered one of the twenty most powerful men in the city.

They returned to the previous room, and Edward instantly took out stalks of Moonlight Dancing Grass and handed them to Saurus.

"Are those... the plants?" Saurus fell silent as soon as he grabbed them, lost in deep thought. "Darkness and Light, what a rare combination."

"Do you have any idea what this thing is?" Steffon could only rely on Saurus, who was the most knowledgeable person he knew about the Darkness element.

Saurus didn't answer immediately. Instead, he closed his eyes and began to send strands of spiritual energy to the plant. At first, there was no change in the plant, but after a few moments, the leaves started to emit a faint glow.

"So this is it… no wonder you didn't recognize this spiritual plant, Steffon," Saurus said.

Steffon's eyes bulged as he heard Saurus' response. If someone like him had such a reaction, it was clear that this plant was nothing short of impressive. "From the energy levels, this should be a gold-ranked spiritual treasure, right?"

"Well, that's what's been bugging me… This is actually only at the silver rank, right on the threshold of the gold rank," Saurus said, his eyes growing serious as he suddenly switched his gaze to Edward. "I was wondering if this young man could explain to me how he found those previous plants."

"I already gave the location to Steffon. If you are interested, you will have to ask Steffon for it," Edward said, feeling Saurus' suspicions, but not minding it very much.

"Oh?" Saurus looked around the room with interest. It was truly surprising that the young man would sell such valuable information. "It would be truly shameless for you to tell me the location after selling it to Steffon. I understand."

Steffon's face twitched. He didn't know if Edward did this knowingly or not, but he had just thrown a bomb into his lap. "Uhum… We indeed brought the locations of the two plants, but you don't have to worry about that. I would never hide those things from you."

"You don't have to act like this. I would never take advantage of you, Steffon," Saurus said, playing with the stalks of plants and smiling. "This plant is called Moonlight Dancing Grass, and it could be considered an ancient treasure."

"Ancient treasure? But isn't this only at the silver rank?" Reynald couldn't help but cry in surprise.

"Well, from everything that I have read, the Moonlight Dancing Grass should be at the gold rank, but I guess that this young man plucked up the plant before its maturity period…" Saurus said, not hiding his disappointment. While even the underdeveloped Moonlight Dancing Grass was valuable and rare, they couldn't compare with a mature one.

Steffon and Reynald gave Edward an awkward smile. They couldn't imagine how bad the boy must have been feeling. On the other hand, Edward was busy thinking about the man's words. Every single Moonlight Dancing Grass he had checked was at the silver rank, so he wasn't sure if the man was right or not. "Uhh… So? Are you guys interested in them?"

Edward's question caused the room to fall silent. Steffon was very keen on getting the spiritual plants, but he suspected that Saurus was also interested in them. "I'm not gonna beat around the bush. If Saurus doesn't show interest, we are willing to buy it."

"I would feel bad coming here and snatching something like this from you, but it would be unfair to this young man for him to sell them to you, so that you can just sell them at a higher price for me…." Saurus knew that if he just asked, Steffon would easily back away from the deal.

"That makes sense… Why don't I sell you the spiritual plants, but I give Steffon and Reynald a cut from the deal?" Edward knew that connections were something more valuable than gold, so he didn't mind getting a worse deal.

"Uhm, like a finder's fee?" Saurus smiled at Edward. He expected the man to try to get the most advantage possible, but surprisingly he chose to create a middle ground. "So? How much should this fee be?"

"We could do something depending on the value of the item," Steffon felt relieved that the matter was concluded with such ease. He valued his friendship with Saurus, but he suspected that Edward wasn't a simple person, finding the Sun Bathing Weed that he found today was already hard, but, the Moonlight Dancing Grass was on another level.

-"Well, this is actually the hard part.. the amount of Moonlight Dancing Grass found in the last two hundred years is very few," Saurus said as he put the stalks of Moonlight Dancing Grass on the table and held his chin. "While the maturity level of the plant is low, this doesn't change the fact that this plant is even rarer than some gold-ranked ones."

The room fell silent once again, as Steffon and Edward waited patiently for Saurus to come up with a price. After a long two minutes of thinking, he eventually settled for 100 gold coins for each stalk.

The amount surprised everyone, especially Edward. They all thought that the Moonlight Dancing Grass would fetch quite a good amount, but for a spiritual treasure of the Silver Rank to be worth one hundred gold coins was almost inconceivable.

"Seven stalks would be seven hundred gold coins, but I will need some time to get the funds," Saurus said. Seven hundred gold coins was a steep price for even Saurus, but he didn't mind paying so much for such a rare plant.

"This isn't a problem at all. As for the fee, why don't we settle at forty percent?" Edward offered Steffon a good deal, trying his best to show his goodwill.

"Forty percent is too much. I can't take such a large cut...Let's settle at twenty percent." A Finder's fee was generally around twelve to ten percent, but Steffon knew that Edward was trying to build a relationship, so he didn't mind taking a bigger cut. "As for the money, we can help Saurus pay you. This way you can pass the stalks to him, and he can pay us later."

"That's fine. I would like to buy some cultivation resources too." Now that he was swimming in money, Edward decided to get some things to help him on his cultivation journey.

Steffon and Reynald were more than happy about this, especially since the resources that Edward wanted were mostly in the early stages. Even with the twenty percent fee he paid to Steffon, Edward still had an incredible wealth of almost seven hundred gold coins, so he spent it without worrying.

Not only did he buy fifty gold coins worth of spiritual stones, which could speed up his cultivation, but he also purchased a few things for Whitey and the rabbits back on the farm. However, the most expensive item he bought was a spatial necklace.

Edward acquired a wide variety of items, including food, spiritual stones, and books. There was no way he could carry them all back alone, so the necklace proved to be useful right away.

After settling everything, Edward departed for his house. Despite the fact that it was barely noon, he felt drained because the visit to the city had been quite exhausting. Nonetheless, he was pleased with his purchases and couldn't wait to start using them for his cultivation.