Chapter 10 - Negotiation

Elric smiled and gestured to the female attendant. The female attendant brought a circular plate and handed it to Jack.

It was a circular metal plate with five crystals embedded on it each with different colors, namely red, blue, green, yellow, and purple. It was obvious that this plate could measure affinity as each stone represented the elements: fire, water, air, earth, and lightning, respectively.

"This is the affinity detector. Inject a little bit of your mana into it. The stone glowing would be your affinity," the attendant guided.

Jack did as he was told and... nothing happened. Jack made a wry smile. He knew something like this was going to happen. At such times, it should have at least blown out with his strength, right? Too bad, this isn't a cultivation novel.

"Little hero, why are you just staring at it? Inject your mana already," Natalia urged.

"Big sis, I already did. It seems I don't have any affinity."

"How can that be? Try it again. Inject a bit more than the previous one," said Elric.

"Heh, little hero, make sure to go easy on it lest you blow it up. It's not cheap, you know!" Natalia joked.

With a wry smile, Jack repeated the process, but the result was still the same. So Natalia took the detector from his hands and checked if it wasn't defective by injecting her mana. The green light glowed indicating wind affinity and the condition of the tool to be good.

"Well, that was unexpected. I am quite surprised to see the strongest man of our town not having an elemental affinity," Elric muttered before saying, "Hmm, maybe he doesn't need it, his fists are enough to take care of even the mightiest of his foes!" He jested and they chuckled.

"Hehe, that's right Mr. Elric, we still don't know the true extent of his abilities. Maybe he just needs to sneeze to get the job done," Natalia played along to lighten the atmosphere.

"Pfff!!!" Jack couldn't hold his laughter. If that was the case, his fart would blow out his entire house. Better go in the jungle to do the deed!

"Well, we still have strong Mythril weapons to match your power. You can even choose gauntlets if you are a brawler," Elric guided them further.

Jack was curious about the weapons, especially those that emitted mana fluctuations. So he took a long sword in his hands. It was lightweight, lustrous, and emitted strong mana fluctuations with mana flowing inside it in a specific pattern. It was warm to touch.

Elric knew that Jack was just curious so he explained, "That's one of the high-grade enchanted weapons with special effects. It gets covered in flames which increases its sharpness and piercing capabilities. Though, it can only be used by a fire magician."

"Hm? Enchanted? With magic circles?" Jack asked curiously as he could sense the circular patterns of the mana flow.

"Eh! How do you know?" Elric was dumbfounded, "You are able to see that?"

"Uh, you can say that..."

"Well, we lost the original art of enchantment, so we have to rely on magic circles. Though, they are not inferior to any enchanted weapons," Natalia explained from the side as there are a few noble families possessing ancient enchanted weapons as their heirlooms.

Jack examined a few more such enchanted weapons out of curiosity before taking a look at the Mythril weapons. None of them seemed to catch his attention.

The Mythril weapons were strong and sturdy as Mythril is a lot stronger than iron or steel. But they were too lightweight for Jack. Even the maces were light.

"Since none of them seem to interest you, we better look at the armor and accessories," Natalia suggested and they were guided to the upper floor.

As soon as they entered, a majestic armament with shining green scales greeted them. It was worn by a wooden doll. But what caught Jack's attention was the broadsword that it was holding, or rather, it was resting in its hands.

It was dark silver with a blade of about 10cm in width and about four feet long. It was fairly large for a sword. Jack approached it and took it in his right hand. He swung it with amateurish movements before asking, "Mr. Elric, how is this sword priced?"

Elric was a bit surprised seeing how he lifted such a heavy sword with one hand, "...Young man, you have quite the weird taste. That sword is not for sale, the whole armament is there for decoration." Though, if he truly wanted to sell that, it wouldn't be a big deal for him. But he must play the role of a negotiator as a merchant, and that's why the denial.

"Too bad, I just had taken a little liking to it," Jack shook his head in disappointment and put the sword back as if it didn't concern him that much. Although he wanted the sword, he didn't show his desire, or else this old fox would surely squeeze out a good amount of money.

"Little hero, why do you want that bulky sword? It is a bit large and would be uncomfortable to handle," Natalia voiced out her thoughts.

"Hmm, that's the only sword I felt a bit of weight from. But leave it, it's not for sale anyway," again, Jack implied that he doesn't have much need for it.

"Well, it would be bad if the hero returned empty-handed from our shop and couldn't even get the only sword he liked, right? I must make a special exception for our hero, no?" Elric said with a smile like he is making a big heart to give something.

"It is a sword made by the Barbarian clan from the rare metal 'Orichalcum', the reason for its weight. It is also slightly stronger than Mythril. So it would be a bit expensive," he added.

"How much?" Jack urged.

"Well, I must give a special discount to our hero, right? It will be 150 gold," Elric offered.

Jack smiled and Natalia raised her eyebrows as it was quite expensive.

"Isn't that a bit expensive?"

"That's the lowest I can go, and young man, I have given you quite a generous discount. You won't get it at such a low price anywhere else."

"Hmm, you are right. What about this whole armament?" Jack asked, dismissing the previous deal.

"As I said, it's not for sale. But if I must name a price, it would be 2000 gold," said Elric.

"Oh! This seems to be out of my league... for a scale armor. Its scales are almost the same as the wyvern I defeated yesterday," Jack said casually.

"That's right, I have even named it 'Dragon Armament'. It has a better defense than any other armor out there," Elric smugly replied.

"Oh, so that's why it is expensive."

"That's right!" said Elric.

"That's weird. I only got 250 gold coins as compensation for that wyvern, and that too, including the reward. Tsk, tsk, too bad. I guess, Lord Hardy is a simple man, whoever he sold it to, he was surely tricked. He should have sold it to you... considering the price that you set for your 'Dragon Armament'," Jack shook his head.

Elric's smile stiffened as he was the one who had bought the wyvern materials. "Haha, young man, it takes a lot of work to process and assemble the raw materials of a wyvern to create armor out of it, that's why it becomes expensive. Besides, this particular set was made from a wyvern slain by three 'AAA' ranked adventure parties where they had lost many of their precious comrades. So... it was inevitable," Elric explained in a slightly panicked tone.

'Phew! What a troublesome fellow!' Elric sighed inwardly.

A few armor sets can be made from a single wyvern, so he had brought one from the capital from an auction. Unfortunately, no one was willing to buy such expensive armor, so he had made a decoration out of it.

"Hmm? Because there were no casualties yesterday, you are saying my wyvern got a cheap price?... Anyway, I can't buy this sword for 150 gold coins, as I am a poor hero. I can only go as high as 100 gold." Jack said, suddenly changing the subject.

"Too bad, no one wants such a bulky sword, or it would have sold a long time ago." Jack indirectly said that no one would buy it besides him, and it was true. The sword wouldn't sell for being heavy and unusable. Only those barbarians could use them; who had gifted the sword to Eric's grandfather.

Jack didn't know all this. He didn't know Lord Hardy had sold yesterday's wyvern to Elric, nor he knew that the sword was eating dust from a long time ago. He was just bluffing and made Elric vulnerable so that he would lower the price of the sword.

"Sigh, alright, I wouldn't let our hero go empty-handed now, would I? I will obviously make a big compromise for our hero," Elric wasn't a top merchant just for show. He skillfully handled the situation despite the adversaries and also made it seem like the hero owes him a favor now.