Ranolf led her to another table that was at standing height. It was less cluttered than most of the other surfaces in the workshop, but it still had a plethora of different tools and devices that looked exotic to Elania. Oh, there were some ordinary things she might have expected: pliers, small hammers, fasteners, and wrenches. They did not stand out though, not against the multitude of items that seemed to be encrusted with mana shards.

It drove home to Elania just how pervasive those mana shards were in the Artificer’s work if just about everything utilized them. Suddenly the heavy guard on the street made a lot more sense to her. Hadn’t Tanyan told her that the mana shards were unbelievably valuable? She scanned the shop again, half expecting to see more guards hidden somewhere.

Ranolf held out a hand, and Elania gave up the Monster Core. His eyebrow raised slightly when he saw it.

“Where did you get this? It’s already been purified.”

“I was travelling with several conclave monks when we killed an [Alpha Ralfot] en route to the city. One of them purified it for me.”

“I see. Normally we purchase these from the conclave directly.”

“I heard that. Since you won’t have to be paying them for purification, I’m sure you can give me a better price that is a win for both of us, right?”

“This one looks clean but let us grade it before the gold starts filling up in your eyes, demon. There is a shortage of mana shards as well, so I hope you came with realistic expectations.”

Elania wasn’t sure what a shortage of mana shards had to do with a lower price, and from her observations, the mana shards weren’t in short supply in the shop.

Ranolf carefully set the core on a simple circular metal stand with three legs. The orb set snugly inside the metal ring, and the setup resembled something Elania might have expected at a fortune teller’s table.

Except Ranolf picked up a piece of wood with a crystal embedded in the tip and tapped the top of the core, creating a sudden flare of light in both.

“The resonance is ideal.”

Then he took another tool; this one had a wide piece of cloth that sat to one side of the crystal on the end of it. He carefully set it against the orb and began to rub it in a circular motion.

Elania had been expecting some type of sudden reaction like the first, but this one was much subtler. Ever so slowly, the blue-hued swirls inside the orb began to gain red speckles that resembled the color of the orb before Tanyan had purified it. Elania frowned as she watched, eyeing the [Master Artificer] as he ignored her, his gaze locked onto the work.

After a few more minutes without any more change, he suddenly stopped.

“The emotional resonance is minimal, so the purification was well done, or the core wasn’t very passionate to begin with.”

The comment brought back her memories of the fight with the [Alpha Ralfot] and then the orb’s effect on Taniel and the subsequent thrashing that she had received.

“It was definitely very passionate.”

“You should thank the monk who purified it for you then, it takes exceptional skill or energy to do this type of work.”

“It didn’t seem like such a big deal, and only took a few seconds.”

Ranolf didn’t respond to that though, instead picking up a magnifying glass and peering closer at the core's swirling colors. He spent another minute staring and focusing on it. What he was looking for, Elania had no idea, but he finally nodded and pronounced a verdict.

“I’d grade it as a B-class core.”

When Elania didn’t show any reaction, he continued, “B-class is a high grade, but outclassed by A-class. S-class would be the highest but is rare and then further broken up into tiers.”

“Alright, so it is good, but not the best.”

Ranolf nodded, “If it was possessed by a Ralfot, it makes sense, it is a mid-tier creature.”

Elania wasn’t sure how Ranolf went about tiering creatures, but that wasn’t important to her just then.

“What can you give me for it?”

The man paused for a moment, leaving her on edge, waiting for what felt like much too long before answering.

“Two small golds, and that is being generous. Like I said, the mana shard shortage hasn’t shown any sign of abating and that means the core just isn’t in as much demand to warrant more.”

Elania frowned; that was a lot lower than she had been expecting.

“I was offered that much at the waystation before reaching the city. I was told it would be at least twice that, four small golds, and that was if it was just a ‘common’ grade.”

Ranolf shrugged, “A month ago, you would have been right. As it is, the number of mana shards available at auction has been devastatingly low, and as you’d imagine the competition for them between has been intense.”

The man sighed and decided to explain further after seeing Elania’s fallen expression, “The reason that is relevant is that Cores are generally used in larger works to regulate the mana shards’ energy. Things like the hanging lights above the city, the defensive generators, the purification system components, and all the other objects that require multiple crystals to power need them. With the shortage, the price of those items has been so high that there just hasn’t been any demand by anyone, even the Magisters. When you couple that with all the new dungeon hunters that have been plying the ruins as of late, there are simply more Monster Cores than needed in circulation.”

Elania bit her lip. She would have avoided the entire mess of running across the city looking for an artificer if she had just accepted Marcus’ offered bag of silver. Then again, that would have meant accepting something from him. So maybe it had been worth all the struggle.

Ranolf picked the core back up and proffered it back to her at her further hesitation, “You can check at the other shops, of course. You won’t find a better price for it though.”

“I’ll check them. Of course.”

He nodded, and Elania was relieved that he didn’t seem to take any offense at her going to shop around.

“Could I ask a few questions about Mana Shards before I go?”

“I suppose. What did you want to know?”

“Where do they come from? Who is running these auctions? Can you repair a broken one?”

Ranolf held up a hand, causing her to pause, “Slow down, girl. I can only answer one thing at a time. First, most of the shards come from the same place cores do --- dungeons. The dwerven dungeon is the main source of them, but there are others. There are a few cities that are awash with them as their celestial engine produce them as a byproduct of… whatever their process is, but here it is the dungeon.”

He paused and glanced over to the two other artificers as if to make sure they were still at work, then around the shop to confirm there weren’t any other customers.

“As for the auctions, generally the Syndicate oversees them. They own access to the dungeon and regulate what comes out. Not that those delving it don’t get paid for their efforts, but the Syndicate pays them a flat rate and then auctions them off for their own profit.”

“What about repairing a broken one?”

Ranolf looked at her and stroked his beard for a second before answering.

“It depends on what you mean by ‘broken’ I suppose. If you’ve a specific example in mind, what exactly happened to it? Hit it with a hammer and cracked it? Detonated it into particles?”

“Uhh, probably closer to the later. It crumbled into dust… after excessive use?”

“It crumbled into dust after excessive use.” The way Ranolf repeated her statement in a monotone made Elania wince, but she nodded.

“It would not be restorable at that point, but the dust would have some value depending on the shard’s size. Several large silver to a small gold at least.”

“Oh. Would you be interested in buying my backpack?”

“Pardon?”

“The crystal was in my pack when it vaporized. I never managed to clean up the dust and just left it in the bottom of my pack.”

Elania couldn’t help but grin.