Chapter 8

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“Whoa!” Zairen’s eyes widened.

He and Alivia were standing in front a very large two story building with a double door entrance. In the front of the building was a big wooden sign carved with words that stated the name of the store: “Bindan Village Pawn Shop.” Numerous villagers were entering and exiting from the store at all times.

Alivia laughed at Zairen’s reaction. “I never said it was a small store! Come on, let’s head inside.”

Just as the two entered the shop, they were greeted by a friendly-looking receptionist sitting at a desk. “Welcome to the Bindan village pawn shop! Is there anything you’re looking for today?”

“We’re just here to look around, thank you,” Alivia replied.

“Oh, it’s you, Alivia,” the receptionist laughed. Clearly, Alivia was a regular at the pawn shop. “As always, come to me or any of the other staff if you need help.”

“Will do!” Alivia smiled.

She turned toward Zairen. “Isn't this awesome?”

“Yeah, it is.” Zairen looked around. Everywhere around him were shelves full of miscellaneous knick-knacks, much of which had little value besides being toys. But, the sheer amount surprised him - there were many more items in the store than he had expected.

Without further ado, the two roamed the the store together, observing at all the various available items on display. Toys, pieces of cloth, random tools, you name it - could be seen everywhere, seemingly in no sequence.

Zairen scanned his eyes by shelf after shelf examining the available products, finding nothing special. He wasn't disappointed - how could he expect something good in the pawn shop of a remote village like this? However, the idea that he could possibly find something valuable was still a bit exciting.

He and Alivia spent over half an hour in this manner, chatting along the way.

Just as they were just about finished with the first floor, something suddenly caught Zairen’s eye.

It was a small grey ring, seemingly average in every way. Hidden in the middle of a pile of other miscellaneous objects, it had almost evaded Zairen.

However, Zairen’s fine-tuned eyes, trained to notice the smallest of abnormalities, couldn’t help but be drawn to it.

Zairen walked over and observed it closer. Picking it up and feeling it around, he found that ring was perfectly smooth and round, yet was colored a dull grey that did not stand out. It seemed almost… too inconspicuous.

As his fingers traced across the smooth surface, his eyes suddenly widened.

‘Spirit energy!’

He felt a trace of spirit energy! It was faint, but he was certain that it was there. Only someone who cultivated in spirit energy could possibly detect it, and as a genius Spirit Doctor, Zairen specialized in detecting small and intricate auras of spirit energy.

He suspected that with this particular object, if he hadn’t been a highly skilled doctor who specialized in observing minute details, he wouldn’t be able to detect the aura either! The aura was that unnoticeable.

‘Something with the aura of spirit energy… whatever it is, it must be valuable!’ Zairen’s eyes glistened. ‘I should acquire this ring and examine it in detail later.’

“Found something you like?” Alivia asked. She looked at what Zairen was holding and raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Zairen replied, and held up the grey ring. “Can I purchase this?”

“That?” Alivia looked at the ring with blinking eyes. “What good about this ring? It’s dull grey too.”

“I just feel that it’s kind of neat,” Zairen explained. “It feels really smooth.”

“Really?” Alivia reached over and felt the grey ring, and she instantly exclaimed: “You’re right, lil’ bro! It is really smooth.”

She patted herself in the chest. “Don’t worry, big sis will take care of it and buy it for you!” She took the appearance of a doting elder sister.

“Thank you big sis!” Zairen smiled gratefully once again, although he felt a bit guilty about having Alivia pay for everything.

“Of course, little bro!” Alivia seemed happy to spend money for her new younger brother.

Before buying the ring, they decided to look through the rest of the pawn shop first. For the next ten minutes, they swept through the rest of the building’s items. However, they found nothing of note.

A little while later, Alivia and Zairen finally arrived at the store’s counter to buy the only item they had picked out: the grey ring. After haggling with the receptionist for a short period of time, Alivia finally managed to obtain the ring for merely three copper coins.

That small amount of money actually wasn’t even enough to buy a snack, yet they were able to acquire a possibly rare item for only that much? Zairen thought that it was pretty funny, and he felt giddy. Of course, no one else knew that it was anything special; they just thought it was a cheap trinket kids could play with.

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