Once I figure out which store has the most stock I head inside to take a look. The store has shelves just like a normal store with various materials and other things on them. I take a look at all the materials and choose the ones that I think are the most useful.

Clerk says "Welcome, honored sir. How may I help you?"

"That wood, those two ores, and that cloth. I need to know the price and how much you have in stock."

Clerk says "The singing wood is five gold per pound. The red iron is twenty-five gold per pound. The saint silver is a hundred gold per pound. The spider silk is three gold per yard."

"And how much do you have in stock? I want to buy all of it!"

Clerk says "Um, just a minute, sir. I will need to go fetch the manager for that large of a purchase!"

"That's fine. Just make it quick."

The clerk bobs a quick bow and goes running into the back of the store. He is probably worried he will be blamed if this big sale falls through, but I don't plan to leave. The manager is exactly the person I want to try and get information out of.

Manager says "Greetings, esteemed customer! My subordinate tells me you wish to make a bulk purchase?"

"Yes. The singing wood, red iron, saint silver, and spider silk. I want all you have of these four materials!"

Manager says "Right away! Just give me a minute to check our stock and calculate the total price!"

"Alright."

Manager says "Thank you for waiting! The total for all our stock of those four materials is one hundred and five thousand, two hundred gold! Since it is such a large purchase I will discount it to an even one hundred thousand gold. How does that sound?"

Instead of answering, I walk over to the counter, take my pouch, and start pouring out gold coins. The manager's eyes light up and he orders several clerks to start counting and stacking the coins. He also orders his other employees to head to the warehouse and start packing the materials.

Manager says "Revered customer, it will take around a half hour to prepare the materials. May I offer you some tea while you wait?"

"Sure. While we wait there is something else you might be able to help me with."

Manager says "Please, speak your request. If it is within my abilities I will certainly help!"

"I'm sure you are aware I am not from this city. In my wanderings I spotted a strange estate. What caught my eye was this estate had highly trained beasts patrolling the grounds. It made me interested if those beasts might be available for sale. I checked the slave market but didn't see any similar beasts."

Manager says "Ah, you must mean the Xiu estate. Unfortunately, they train the beasts themselves."

"Oh, do you think they might sell some?"

Manager says "Unfortunately, I doubt it. The Xiu family don't interact with others. They see all non-mages as commoners and want nothing to do with us."

"So they are mages? Then shouldn't they move to the Magic Kingdom? After all, it is just across the border!"

Manager says "This isn't something I should speak of, but they can't. You see, the Xiu family was banished from the Magic Kingdom and can never return."

"Ah, that's interesting!"

Manager says "Isn't it? They moved here just ten years ago. I can't tell you why they were banished because there are too many rumored reasons and I don't know which is the truth."

"That's fine. Still, an entire family of mages must be quite the boon for the city!"

Manager says "You would think so! But the truth is they have done nothing for the city! Other than buying common goods they never leave their estate!"

"That's a shame! It sounds like there is no chance I could even ask to buy some beasts!"

Manager says "Not from the Xui family at least. However, there is possibly another option."

"Oh? What might that be?"

Manager says "It would require you to travel, but in five days time there will be an auction in the magic kingdom's capital. It is the kingdom's yearly auction and they would definitely have magically trained beasts. However, they would definitely be very expensive!"

"An auction? That sounds really interesting! Can I just go there?"

Manager says "No, it requires an invitation. While my merchant group does have a few, our internal rules state we can only give them to customers who spend more than a million gold with our group."

"Well, I do have enough gold for that. The question is, do you have enough inventory for that?"

Manager smiles and says "Esteemed customer, would you care to accompany me to the second floor?"

"What? This building doesn't look like it has a second floor?!"

Manager says "For security reasons the second floor is below ground."

"Let's go!"

The smiling manager gets up and leads me to some stairs down to the next floor. We pass through three heavy steel doors that he opens with a key and enter a small room. What surprises me is the room's walls are made of something that blocks my mana, which is why I couldn't sense the room before.

Inside the room are ten pedestals, each with a heavily enchanted glass case on top of them. Eight of the cases have items inside, while the last two contain rare ores. To my surprise one of them is Armatite, about five pounds from the look of it.

However, the other ore is the one that attracts me the most, it is the floating metal. It is about five times the amount that I already have and is more important to me than the Armatite. On the other hand, the eight magical items in the other cases don't interest me at all.

"I see that there are no price tags, so how does this work?"

Manager says "These items will be sent to the auction and as such are not for direct sale. However, we will trade for items of equivalent value. As long as the trade is equivalent to the remaining nine hundred thousand, then the invitation is yours."

"In that case, I want these two ores!"

Manager says "Alright, what do you have to trade?"

That is a really good question and it stumps me for a minute until I remember the stuff I got from the smugglers. There were some plants that are useless to me so I pull out five of the better looking ones. The manager looks excited and he carefully examines the five plants for a few minutes.