Chapter 9 - Sellling the Herbs

The middle-aged men looked at the plants with curiosity. The shop had a very diverse catalog of items, so they were quite interested when they heard about the mysterious plants.

"Are these the items?" One of the middle-aged men approached the counter and grabbed the Sun Bathing Weed. "Are you sure that this plant isn't in the catalog?"

"Yes, I'm not sure if the second one is truly a spiritual plant, but I didn't find records of either of them," the attendant seemed very nervous in the presence of the two older men. "I searched in all three records of the store."

"Hmm... Of course, you wouldn't find them in the store records." The second middle-aged man walked to the corner and gazed at the Sun Bathing Weed. "Reynald, this is a very special type of Spiritual Plant called Sun Bathing Weed; Even I have only seen it a few times in my life."

"Sun Bathing Weed?" The middle-aged man holding the Sun Bathing Weed, Reynald, widened his eyes in surprise. "Steffon, is this the famous tonic for fire-type monsters?"

"The very same," Steffon, the second middle-aged man, had a silly smile plastered on his face. For someone like him who loved to study plants, the chance to get such a rare one was a heaven-sent gift. "To think that such a good plant would end up in my shop..."

"Is this the owner of the Sun Bathing Weed? Welcome to our shop," Reynald's eyes shone as he looked at Edward. "Cornelio, prepare a room for us; we can't keep this guest waiting here."

The young attendant had a terrible expression on his face, but he soon sighed in relief because he had not mistreated the client.

Sure, here is an edited version of the web novel chapter with a focus on grammar, punctuation, and correcting verb forms while keeping the dialogues and tone:

Edward was surprised to learn that the stalks he collected were so valuable. After all, the Sun Bathing Weed was abundant in his farm's fields. "Uh... What about those other plants?" Edward's eyes fell on the Moonlight Dancing Grass. The two plants had the same classification on the system index, so he hoped that it would be worth close to the same as the Sun Bathing Weed.

"This second plant... I have no idea what its name is." Steffon grabbed the Moonlight Dancing Grass and studied it carefully. "I can sense spiritual energy in this plant, but it appears to be dormant."

"Even you never heard about it? It must be a real treasure then!" Reynald felt hesitant about how to proceed with the second batch of plants. After all, there was always the chance of overpaying for some random plants that had no use. "So? Are we buying it?"

"We can't be hasty. This plant seems to have Darkness and Light energy, quite a rare combination. But I'm not sure if we will have any use for it." Steffon sighed as he put the stalks of Moonlight Dancing Grass down. "Let's go to the back room. It's best if we talk in private."

Edward felt nervous as he followed the two men to the back room. Not only was he pretty weak, but he also had practically zero experience in this world. He worried that the two of them could easily steal his items.

Edward entered the room, sat on a couch, and observed them whispering to themselves. After a few minutes, they returned their attention to Edward. "We apologize for the delay; we needed to finalize some details," Steffon said. He straightened his back and fixed his gaze on Edward. "The Sun Bathing Weed would normally sell for around five gold pieces per stalk, but we are willing to pay seven. However, we would like to know where you found the plants."

"The location? Like the exact location?" Edward looked at the man suspiciously. Even if Edward refused to give the location, the men could still follow him, or worse, kidnap and torture him.

"No, those plants are far too rare to be grown in such large quantities." Steffon saw suspicion in Edward's eyes and tried to calm him down. "I still don't know your name. I'm called Steffon, and this is my business partner Reynald."

"I'm Edward," he said, accepting the handshake gesture but maintaining his guard. "If all you want is the overall location of the plants, I can give it to you, but I'm not sure that you will find any more of them."

"Oh? Why are you so sure?" Reynald examined the boy closely, intrigued that such a weak tamer could go collect those items. After all, spiritual plants of this level could only be found in dangerous areas.

"Well, I found them with the help of my rabbit, who has a very sharp nose and can detect them from a long distance," Edward said, having already thought about a good backstory and finally deciding to use it. "But after searching for quite some time, he couldn't seem to find any more of them."

Steffon and Reynald were perplexed by the rabbit in Edward's arms. It appeared to be a regular Black Fur Rabbit, but they had never heard of such a rabbit being good at finding spiritual plants.

"Oh, so that was it…" Reynald felt that something was wrong with Edward's rabbit. It looked almost identical to a Black Fur Rabbit, yet he felt that something was off about the small rabbit. "He must be quite talented then."

"Out of the entire herd, Whitey is the most talented," Edward said, smiling as he patted Whitey's head. "So, are we okay to finish the deal?"

"Uhmm... Of course, of course." Steffon's hands were suddenly filled with a small bag and a map. "One hundred and thirty-five gold coins for the nine stalks, all that's left is for you to mark the location on the map."

Edward grabbed the map and studied it. It took a few seconds to finally recognize the location of his farm on the map. He chose to mark the location a bit far away from his house. After all, he didn't want them to search the outskirts of his house. "It was around here."

"Sigh… I was expecting it to be here…" Reynald's face contorted in anxiety. "We can't poke our noses in here. There's too much danger and unknowns."

"To think you actually went to the cursed forest, it's a miracle you survived," Steffon said, feeling baffled that someone so weak was able to go gather herbs in such a place.

Edward's eyes flashed as he heard the man. He wasn't sure what he was talking about exactly, but he had his suspicions. "Are you referring to the strange mist or the mysterious creature with blood-red eyes?"

Steffon and Reynald exchanged gazes. The two of them didn't really believe that Edward had explored the cursed forest at first, but this information confirmed that he had indeed ventured into the deeper parts of the forest. The mist was more well-known, and many people were aware of its existence, but the strange pair of red eyes that regularly appeared in the area was a top-level city secret.

"So it seems that you weren't trying to deceive us," Reynald said, looking down and almost feeling sad that the boy was telling the truth. After all, this meant that they had to put themselves in danger if they ever wanted any more of the Sun Bathing Weed. "Well, you're pretty brave or very ignorant. Most people don't even have the courage to put one foot in that forest."

Edward gave an awkward smile, wondering how the two middle-aged men would react if they found out he lived there. "I'm new around here, so I didn't have any idea of the danger of that place." He looked at the money, and then at the Moonlight Dancing Grass. "So, do you want to buy the other plants too?"

"I'd like to invite someone over; maybe he can recognize this plant." Steffon was very interested in the stalks of mysterious plants but was afraid of making a bad deal. "I just don't know when he will be able to come."

"Will it take long? I wanted to take a look around the city." Now that he had a good amount of money, Edward wasn't that anxious to sell the rest of the plants.

"Oh! That's fine! I can send Cornelio to show you around, and when my friend arrives, I will send a message." Steffon's eyes flashed; he expected the unknown plant to be as valuable as the Sun Bathing Weed. "Is that fine?"

Edward didn't refuse the offer. After all, the city was big, and having someone who knew how to get around would be useful. "That's fine with me. Thank you for the offer." He looked over at Cornelio, who had an anxious expression on his face.