I was a bit hyperactive as I made my way to the caravan, Tom and Kate decided to join me, Kate to meet any of my brother's friends that will surely be there and Tom, in his own words, to see me get ripped off. I couldn’t understand how that was going to happen since I knew the worth of my goods and even had a haggling skill. I pulled up my screen looking to see if the exercise from last night had worked as I wanted .

Name : Ajax

Level :10

Experience : 4200/10000

Traits: Child, Divine Witness

Health: 70/70

Mana: 210/210

Stamina :180/180

Vitality : 7.52

Strength :15.36

Endurance : 18.9

Dexterity :16.7

Intellect : 33.84

Wisdom :25.02

Mind : 21.73

Perception : 14.14

Stat Points : 198

Skills :

Common :[Mathematics Lvl 20] [Stealth Lvl 13][Drawing Lvl 30][Athleticism Lvl 14] [Running Lvl 20][Reading Lvl 20][Writing Lvl 20][Cooking Lvl 14][Sewing Lvl 10] [Cleaning Lvl 10][Haggling Lvl 2][Gardening Lvl 19][Axes Lvl 14][Hammers Lvl 10] [Deception Lvl 1] Uncommon :[Meditation Lvl 32][Sense Mana Lvl 31][Expel Mana Lvl 31][Sprinting Lvl 10][Mining Lvl 5][Lumberjack Lvl 5][Smelting Lvl 3][Blacksmithing Lvl 3] [Mana Farming Lvl 2] Rare : [Manipulate Mana Lvl 6][Water Aspect Mana Lvl 5][Fire Aspect Mana Lvl 4][Air Aspect Mana Lvl 6][Earth Aspect Mana Lvl 4][Inject Mana Lvl 3]

I managed to segregate my skill, this also meant that if anyone got a look at my stats they could make a killing selling the information.

“What has you so worried?” Kate asked me. “It’s not going to be as bad as they said.” She tried cheering me up.

“thanks .” I mumbled “maybe you can help take my mind off it. How did you heal me yesterday?”

“Oh that, I just used the healing spell Alzinoth” she brushed off my question.

“So anyone with mana can become a healer?” i try a different angle at getting the information out of her

“Pretty much, but how effective or efficient your spell is is dependent on your knowledge and experience” she finally gives me something to go on.

“So that's how magic works!” I exclaim like I made a breakthrough.

“Oh no silly, there are three different ways to cast magic, and mages tend to specialise in one of them. It’s not that they can’t do more but they are counterintuitive to one another.” she went into teacher mode, “ you see casting is done with what we call divine language, no records show we came to know it but casting only works in that language as such getting spells is hard and why apprenticeships are so restrictive, other than some very basic widely known spells everyone does all they can to keep theirs to themselves.”

“So Alzinoth is the healing one?”

“No Alzinoth is for small regeneration and a beginner spell, I can’t go around disclosing my other ones as the rules of my contract state, playing around with the divine language is also too dangerous for anyone to attempt outside of wartime desperation, after all one wrong syllable and instead of cleaning the wound you could clean the body of blood.”

“Ok, so messing with casting magic is not something to be done” I reinforce that in myself that I will not be playing Russian roulette trying to learn that language.

“Yeah, Zapspec and Luxim make up the other 3 widely known spells, healing, cleaning and light, then there is the runic magic. Unlike casted magic this is much more rigid as you need certain conductive materials in patters to get a specific effect, you mana control doesn’t influence anything expect the magnitude of the spell depending on how much mana you put in, they are rigid but it's much safer to experiment with modifying runes” Though her displeasure at runic magic came through a bit in her tone.

“Lastly we have control magic, this uses no chant or other items, it is high level mana release and manipulation, while its power output is well below the other two it makes up for it in speed and flexibility, but with the control and deep understanding of the actions you are taking required nobody really uses it.” She pauses as if thinking of what else to say.

“Oh, come on stop boring him with all this magic nonsense he’s here to make money” my brother oh so helpfully butts in. It takes my full concentration not to swing for his jaw. How am I supposed to ask about magic now without revealing that I have mana.

Luckily enough for him we arrive at the market and he darts away to speak to Jonny and Derk, as they arrive along with us, he takes the initiative to introduce Kate.

Not wanting to just hang around as they all catch up I head up to the herb vendor to see what I can get for my hard work.

“Hey kid, what can I help you with?” he asks me with that salesman smile.

“I am looking to sell these. I say as I lay on the table he is using the bag of herbs.”

He rifles through the bag and I see his eyes expand to the size of saucers for a brief moment before returning to their disinterested look.

“And how much would you like for all this?” he asks.

Now I know about being lowballed so I also will try to highball him

“I was thinking around 40 silvers” I wanted 25 and would take 20 so that seemed like a good starting point.

“40 for these, no kid, how about 10” he instantly goes on the offensive.

I open my mouth to reject that but I find I can’t speak a word. The only thing that I wants to come out of my mouth is to accept the bad offer that was just given to me, it takes me slapping myself across the face to regain my composure and answer.

“30” I managed to get out, clearly to the surprise of the vendor, apparently customers slapping themselves is not a common occurrence but hey if it gets me more money I’ll do it.

He regains his composure and answers back with a simple “15” the way he looked at me having changed.

Try as I might I couldn’t manage to do anything other than accept his offer and ended up letting it go for 15 silvers, I took my payment while numbly all they while reflecting back on the interaction, so this is how skills affected non physical confrontations, i could feel having gained some skills just from that interaction alone, that was the only thing that helped me write off my loss on the sale and got me to move further in the market looking to try my hand at now lowering the price others set on their wares.

“Where’d you go little brother?” Tom caught up to me, joined by Kate Derk and Jonny.

“Managed to sell my plants.” I tell him.

“Really how much did you manage to get for them?”

“15 silver coins” I answered dejectedly.

“ 15!!! Mom only comes back with around 25 and she usually sells double what you bright” he exclaims

“Yeah but she said what I had was worth around 20, maybe 25 when she looked at them 2 days ago” . In my focus at getting to the bottom of merchant skills I let that crucial bit of information just slip out.

“And where did you get plants like that?” Derk asked, while Jonny looked at me with greed in his eyes.

“I transplanted them from the forest and have been taking care of them for a year now” I quickly lied that I grew them from scratch and am hoping my deception skill will swing things in my favour.

They seem to have bought it but as of late more and more of these slip ups are happening. I need to start being more careful of who is around me when I run my mouth.

Well what’s done is done, all that's left is for me to go spend my newly earned cash. When a cart filled with seeds catches my eye.

“Hey sir, what kind of seeds are these?” I asked the merchant.

“I have different kinds of seeds, food medicinal, even some poisonous ones” he answers before he turns around and sees who he’s dealing with.”Oh, what can I help you with kid?”

“I was looking to buy some medicinal plants that would sell well and try planting them” I think honesty might be my best bet here and closing down a deal while he is flustered about selling poison to a child would work in my favor.

“Sure these ones here are quite rare and they sell well but they are very hard to grow, I would rather recommend these other ones” he shows me his wares

“How much would it be for a bag of the first ones?”

“I could let it go for 5 silver coins” he says as I feel the same pressure settle on me once again, though much weaker than before, is it because of my own skill improvement or maybe his skills aren’t as high, most likely both.

“I’ll give you 3” he answered back, his expression becoming more rigid. Clearly he feels my own skills taking effect.

“4” is all I hear back and the pressure mounts considerably, it takes every ounce of willpower I have to squeak out a “3 and half”.

His composure breaks out into a smile and through his laughter I hear “Ha ha ha, I like you kid, alright 3 and a half it is.”

The rest of my trip though the merchandise I do nothing but question the price and try to work out my skills on things I can’t afford as such getting my skills a workout and not being able to buy things from lack of funds.