Year 2, Spring, Third Month, First Week.

“Boss… Their accommodation and food don’t match at all… I never ate so much meat before, but this bed…”

The man looked at the straw bundle under him with a sad and disappointed expression. Chief Omero arranged the best materials they had for Keller’s accommodation, even so, the straw bedding was too poor. Even the cheap Inns would provide something better.

“Stop complaining or I’ll let you sleep on the ground… Their food is surprisingly rich... Only lower nobles would be able to afford it… I wonder if they are giving us special treatment or if it’s their regular meal…”

Keller’s picky employee continued to enjoy his meal. He placed the last piece of wind attuned meat and savored the freshness, it tasted like fragrant flowers, fresh fruit and some slightly bitter herbs, all at the same time but with a distinct flavor.

Then, he raised the clay pot and swallowed down the rest of the soup. The soup looked sparse but combined with the meat perfectly. It was made with wind broth, a combination of taro and burdock leaves, and flavored with some wilds herbs. He made a pleased sound and rested against the bamboo walls.

Keller couldn’t help but swing his head in disbelief, after complaining about the accommodation, how could his employee enjoy their food without any restrain?

........

“On behalf of the village, I would like to thank you for coming all the way here… I’m sure we can achieve happy cooperation and a fair deal… I’m sure you understand our basic needs for resources and our current limitation… At this time we can’t have our magic tools being sold in an open market, so we can only craft magic tools for your usage, at least for now…”

Keller took notice of the words chosen by Omero, he knew that they were carefully picked. He said that they can achieve and stressed the fair deal, clarifying that they may not close the deal, with him.

Also, he hinted that they would be open to the market later. It was clear that Keller could benefit a lot by being their exclusive or preferential dealer in future deals, but it was also a threat to look for other Merchants if they didn’t get fair treatment.

At this time, their initial aggressive approach didn’t change things much, because Keller had already decided to invest in them and take a risk hoping for future benefits. He thought that it was better to show sincerity now that they were weak and needed help.

“I wish for nothing else… Before we start talking about the deal, I would like to give you somethings… Just some small gifts to show my sincerity…”

The Council members were pleased about it. Although they knew it was a tactic to soften the deal, they weren’t used to receiving anything. After they agreed, Keller left the Council pavilion and came back five minutes later holding a bag, behind him, his employees were carrying many bolts of fabric.

“I know it’s not enough for everyone, but please accept my gift…”

The employees placed around 500 meters of low quality rough fabric at the side and left. Keller placed the bag over the fabric and explained that it was thread and needles to work on the fabric.

The Council members became very excited and started talking about making clothes and whatnot. When Keller pointed to a special bolt with some fabric of higher quality they became even more pleased.

“Thank you, Keller. The fabric will help us a lot, the elders are barely protected by the straw covers… Now, you already observed our magic tools, what do you think about it? And, what would you like to exchange?”

“It’s… Fantastic! I never saw this kind of magic before… Even the artifacts used by the Spellcasters are different and less dynamic… Everything is great, but you talked about limitations, how many can you provide me? I would be more interested in enhancing swords, armor, arrows… Also, I’m pretty interested in the lightness enhancement, Sania told me that it’s difficult to craft it so I would like to lighten only my delivery carts, if possible… Oh, and she also talked about the duration of the enhancements…”

“Yes… Karl, before we talk about values, can you explain the specifics?”

“Sure… I trust that you brought enough MT beast’s blood, right?... In metal weapons, the enhancements will last around a year if used outside the Forest, a little more if it’s inside the cities or the Path. But, if you power it with a crystal it can last less depending on how many times you use it, if it’s powered constantly, it wouldn’t last a month. A couple of times a day, it should last one month less…”

“Powered by a crystal? Is it much better?”

Keller asked while trying to decide if it’s worth it. Omero, asked Diana for her sword and allowed him to see the differences with and without the crystal. Keller was surprised to see further improvements in the effects. To give him a better idea, Omero also urged him to test outside the village barrier.

When he was done, they continued:

“The effects… I would use with the crystals, sparingly of course, inside the city, probably ten or so times a month, at most one time a day and use without it outside the barriers, saved some special cases…”

“That wouldn’t diminish the duration too much… It would last up to a year, but the effects might start to lessen after using them for three seasons… Some precautions could help it last more, even double the time… If you use a scabbard or case for the weapons, with magic insulating material for example, but if you just keep it in a normal case the time can be extended by one or two seasons …”

“The Lightness effect is much more difficult to craft… For a cart, it would be twenty times more difficult than the weapon’s enhancements and I would advise you to use a MQ crystal or several LQs, which would make it last two seasons only… It would work without the crystals but the effects wouldn’t be strong…”

“If you can provide the weapons and enough blood, we would take two days for a cart and one day for eight weapons.”

Fortunately, Karl’s disciples could already help him drawing the Extraction Array and the Execution Array, freeing him for the more difficult drawings.

“Hmm… I planned to leave in ten days at most… How about two carts and as many weapons and armor as you can? I brought many weapons, but I can leave the extra ones to be picked up in the next exchange… I brought 200 swords, 20 daggers, 500 arrows, 50 bows, 50 shields and ten sets of armor… Ten of the swords are of better quality and I would like to keep them, but I can pay more for their enhancements. How many weapons do you want? How much time would you need to enhance the rest?”

Karl looked at the Chief, who signaled for Katlyn to speak.

“We would take 50 swords, bows and shields. And half of the arrows and daggers.”

Katlyn stepped back and let Karl finish his assessment.

“Hmm… In ten days we can finish the two carts and 50 weapons, the rest would take up to a month to finish…”

“No need to rush it… I can come back next season… How about tools? Sania asked me to bring some tools, so I arranged 100 knives and ten hoes, axes, hammers, shovels, sickles, a lot of cups and pots.”

“We’ll take all.”

Chief Omero had instructed Sania to ask for daily utensils. It wasn’t their priority but he wanted to give the villagers a taste of a better life.

Now, it came the most difficult part of the deal, agreeing on prices. For the weapons, they had already agreed to exchange one enhancement for two weapons. So, they would have to enhance 75 swords (in exchange for the 50 swords, bows and shields), ten daggers and 250 arrows, without extra cost.

They would have to decide on prices for the remaining 125 swords, ten daggers, ten armors and the two carts. Keller suggested going by market prices. Since Old Bill declared that he knew about the average prices they agreed.

Their previous agreement charged 40 silvers for one normal enhancement and eight gold coins for a cart enhancement. Karl felt like the enhancements should cost more, but for now, they had to agree due to their short duration.

Keller would have to pay 74 gold coins for the rest, but the villagers didn’t have a use for gold and they would have to convert it into other resources. First, they needed to subtract the other tools’ cost.

He told them the market prices of the utensils and tools, they agreed and decided on eight gold for the rest of the tools. Since he had brought around two thousand utensils and 150 tools, the price wasn’t unfair at all.

Finally, they would have to negotiate the magic materials gathered by Keller. Before coming, he tried to buy a variety of materials, but in the end, he still decided to take out some of his own precious materials.

Keller brought out a bag full of crystals and placed them on the table, the dozens of different color crystals made everyone gasp for air. Karl couldn’t hide his greed, without getting permission he stepped forward and started analyzing the crystals.

Aside from Karl, only his mother understood the practical meaning of the crystals. After learning how each magic tool worked and understanding the importance of every resource, Reiner had also developed greed for magic crystals.

He quickly separated the crystals that he already knew, he didn’t even need Master AI’s help to judge the quality of the crystals. Keller saw Karl’s actions and confirmed his suspicions that he was the one responsible for the enhancements.

For the unknown crystals, Karl had to resort to Master AI.

“Ten MQ Energy crystals, two MQ crystals of each basic element, two LQ crystals of each basic hybrid element, three LQ plant crystals, one LQ light crystal and ten LQ life crystals… The crystals are in good conditions and have more and less one year of degradation, except from two life crystals and one plant crystal, they will be unusable before the end of this year.”

Keller was shocked by Karl’s evaluation, only high level Mages would be capable of Appraising the materials to such an extent. To determine the quality of magic materials, the Merchants could only count on the external appearance and in the material’s history, thus the importance of having reliable suppliers.

In Keller's eyes, Karl was a walking gold mine, his temptation of kidnapping the boy grew to a higher level. Fortunately, Karl explained that Keller couldn’t easily know about the crystals’ quality and prevented him from losing their trust.

Omero was confused about how the other LQ crystals could last more than a year, but Karl explained that hybrid and life crystals would last more than other crystals. These LQ crystals could last up to five years and since they only had one year of degradation, the villagers could still use them for another four years.

Again, Keller presented the market prices of the crystals and announced that he would give them the three weak crystals. After discussing the prices, the Council agreed with the prices.

The final price for the crystals was set to 107 gold and 20 silver coins. The 33 extra gold coins would be left as an enhancement credit for their next deal.

COUNCIL REPORT

Keller's deal

Material

Quality

Price

Quantity

Total

Energy crystal

MQ

1 g

10

10 g

Water crystal

MQ

10 g

2

20 g

Earth crystal

MQ

10 g

2

20 g

Wind crystal

MQ

10 g

2

20 g

Fire crystal

MQ

12 g

2

24 g

Plant crystal

LQ

10 s

2

20 s

Wood crystal

LQ

20 s

2

40 s

Bubble crystal

LQ

40 s

2

80 s

Magma crystal

LQ

50 s

2

1 g

Lightning crystal

LQ

1 g

2

2 g

Light crystal

LQ

1 g

1

1 g

Life crystal

LQ

1 g

8

8 g

Total

107g, 20 s

Magic Inventory

All

Unused

Magic tools

Material

Qty

Qty

Tool

Qty

Material

Qty

LQ Energy Crystal

75

0

WET

3

LQ Energy Crystal

1

MQ Energy Crystal

11

10

LQ Water Crystal

1

LQ Water Crystal

18

13

LC

3

LQ Energy Crystal

4

LQ Earth Crystal

15

0

1

MQ Energy Crystal

1

LQ Wind Crystal

33

0

MAC

1

LQ Energy Crystal

1

LQ Plant Crystal

1

0

LQ Wind Crystal

1

MQ Water crystal

2

2

Green Vitality

1

LQ Energy Crystal

1

MQ Earth crystal

2

2

LQ Plant Crystal

1

MQ Wind crystal

2

2

Grain Separator

0

LQ Energy Crystal

1

MQ Fire crystal

3

2

Heating Circle

0

MQ Energy Crystal

1

LQ Plant crystal

3

3

MQ Fire Crystal

1

LQ Wood crystal

2

2

Wind Weapon

32

LQ Energy Crystal

1

LQ Bubble crystal

2

2

LQ Wind Crystal

1

LQ Magma crystal

2

2

Earth Weapon

15

LQ Energy Crystal

1

LQ Lightning crystal

2

2

LQ Earth Crystal

1

LQ Light crystal

1

1

Fire Weapon

1

LQ Energy Crystal

1

LQ Life crystal

10

10

MQ Fire Crystal

1

Reinforced Weapons

10

LQ Energy Crystal

1