The Apprentice Market was a place within Lodris specifically for trading between various academies. Not only were there apprentices, but also merchants, mercenaries, and others who had come upon hearing the news.
Furan arrived at a shop and said to the person behind the counter:
"I want fifty portions each of grey tree root and soul-entwining vine, as well as three portions each of blood food flower, animal meat, and Weathered Crystal."
The shop assistant working behind the counter today couldn't remember all of that. After asking Furan to repeat herself, his expression soured.
He momentarily suspected Furan was there to cause trouble. The latter materials were fine; they were standard ingredients for a strength potion, so he had no objections.
But the first two items were a bit strange. grey tree root and soul-entwining vine were auxiliary materials for other potions, and usually, only small quantities were needed.
The reason their price was low was that harvesting them was extremely simple. For example, as long as you found a grey tree, digging up its entire root system would yield enough material for dozens of portions.
She wanted fifty portions of each. According to his employment terms, every customer's purchase had to be individually wrapped. He would have to wrap fifty portions—more than he usually did—and for a very cheap price. She was here to torture him, wasn't she?
However, he looked at the robes Furan was wearing; she was an apprentice of Cuilan Academy. He could only suppress his confusion. In Lodris, one did not cross these apprentices.
The reason Lodris was called Apprentice City was that it handled the apprentice education for nearly ten million people across an entire province who were found to have talent in Spiritual Power.
Both commoners and nobles studied magic in the academies of this city. If the apprentice across from him turned out to be someone powerful, he couldn't afford to offend them.
"Should those fifty portions be wrapped together by material type?" Normally, it was expected that every single portion of every material be wrapped individually, but he asked anyway, hoping for a different answer.
"Wrap them." Hearing this, he finally resigned himself, quickly brought everything out from the warehouse, and calculated the price.
Furan walked out carrying a large basket. It had to be said, there were quite a lot of items; her physique was barely enough to carry them.
But Furan wasn't in a hurry to go back, because she wanted to see what else was being sold nearby. If something interested her, she would buy it.
A voice caught her attention.
"Breathing Technique for sale, twenty silver coins."
This voice attracted the attention of many people. Everyone who heard it stopped to look.
"Did you hear that? That's a Breathing Technique. It's something that can lead directly to the official rank..."
"Don't think too much. Something like that couldn't possibly be sold at a stall, especially for just twenty silver coins. The price is too low..."
"No need to look. I just saw that kid try to sell it to the owner of the Emerald Heart Bar. The owner didn't buy it because the Breathing Technique was incomplete and kicked him out..."
Upon hearing this key piece of information, the crowd, which already felt the price was suspiciously low, quickly dispersed.
An incomplete Breathing Technique might be worth less than a Spell. Its greatest value lay in its ability to reach the official rank.
"Why is he selling this Breathing Technique? Can it even be sold at this price?"
"You don't understand. Actually, every year there are some destitute descendants of territorial nobles who want to learn more Spells or lack precious materials, so they come here to sell their family heritage..."
Furan was quite interested in this. A Breathing Technique was a method that could improve physical fitness, and a relatively high-level one at that. It was usually used in conjunction with Body Tempering Methods or methods involving the consumption of magical creatures to strengthen the body.
This kind of Breathing Technique was the key to reaching the official rank. Without a Breathing Technique, no matter how good your body was, you couldn't reach the official rank. Conversely, as long as you had a Breathing Technique and a decent physique, you could promote to the official rank.
However, an incomplete Breathing Technique might be less effective at improving physical fitness than some lower-tier Body Tempering Methods. It was no wonder the surrounding people left immediately after hearing it was incomplete.
Of course, this price was still a bit high. If it were lower, she would buy it. So, she immediately stepped forward and began to talk with the seller.
"Five silver coins. I'll buy it for that price."
The man was extremely dissatisfied upon hearing this offer. It was too low.
"That's impossible. It's too low. I will only accept fifteen silver coins."
As his family's secret technique, it was at least somewhat useful and better than having nothing. He couldn't accept that price.
Of course, he also knew that since so many people had passed by without buying, there was a problem with his price. Now that someone had finally come to ask, he couldn't stubbornly insist on a high price and fail to sell it. It simply wouldn't sell.
"Five silver coins."
Seeing that the other party wouldn't budge an inch, he was very disappointed. But after repeatedly hitting dead ends, he made one last struggle.
"I'll only accept a minimum of twelve silver coins. Any lower and I won't sell."
As he spoke, he looked at Furan with expectant eyes, but Furan's words disappointed him again.
"Five silver coins."
"Then please leave. I cannot accept that."
Furan then lightly dropped a sentence that made him waver.
"Five silver coins, and we don't sign a Knowledge Trade Agreement."
Generally, if you sold a Spell or something similar, you could naturally sell it to others again. However, knowledge was extremely important in Lodris, and many people could not accept knowledge being sold so easily.
Thus, the Knowledge Trade Agreement came into being. It stipulated that when selling knowledge-based items, an agreement would be signed prohibiting the seller from continuing to sell it for a period of time, while the buyer could not sell it for less than the purchase price.
If he didn't sign this agreement, it meant he could sell it to the next buyer for another five silver coins or more. Of course, the next person might require him to sign an agreement. People in Lodris highly respected this agreement; those like Furan who didn't sign were a tiny minority.
It wasn't that he hadn't considered that Furan could sell it at a lower price after buying it, but again, not signing an agreement was rare in Lodris. At most, he'd sell one more copy.
He really needed the money, and this deal was very tempting. After thinking for a few seconds, he spoke up:
"Deal. Let's do it."
Furan then inspected the goods. After confirming that the Breathing Technique was about 70% complete, she threw down five silver coins and left.
Meanwhile, in a small alley, two tall men were talking.
"Big brother, why didn't we hit that fat sheep? She looks like she has at least twenty silver coins on her."
The man he called big brother put a hand to his forehead and said:
"Stupid. Setting aside the strange magic of those apprentices—we might not even be able to beat her if we both attacked—do you dare attack an apprentice in Apprentice City? Do you want to die?"
"What's wrong with attacking an apprentice? Emerald Heart has taken in a few former apprentices who could only do some harmless little tricks..."
"Fine, listen. Not only can we not do anything, but if we see someone else doing something, we have to stop them."
"Why?"
"Lodris is ultimately here to train apprentices. The reason the Apprentice Market exists is to provide apprentices with convenient trading; only after that is it a place for people like us to survive. If the people above find out that the Apprentice Market is bad for apprentices—especially if a talented apprentice meets with disaster—they wouldn't mind replacing all of us. Do you understand?"
"Okay, big brother..."