Sword God in a World of Magic

"You want to sell your Ice Wood to earn enough money to enter the Warrior's Academy, correct?" the officer asked.

Shang nodded. "That's my intention."

"You don't want to wait for the yearly exams, right?"

"That's right."

"You do know that you need five gold for the exam?"

"I know. From what I've heard, the Ice Wood I have should be enough."

The officer nodded. "It should be enough, but there is one issue."

"Which is?" Shang asked evenly.

"How good are you at bartering and negotiation?" she asked.

This took Shang by surprise.

He hadn't even thought about that.

"I've never bartered in my life," Shang said.

Why would he need to barter? All the prices in the normal stores on Earth were standardized. Bartering only existed on TV and in pawnshops.

The officer nodded. "That's the issue," she said. "You're planning on selling your Ice Wood in Warrior's Paradise. However, no normal person will buy that much Ice Wood. Additionally, very few normal citizens are even interested in raw resources."

"This means that you have to sell it to a merchant wholesale, and merchants are very shrewd. If I already suspected that you're not good at bartering, the merchants will realize that with one glance."

"Even more, the merchants are not stupid. They will realize that you definitely are not a merchant but an aspiring warrior that wants to earn money. The merchants will quickly realize that the only reason why someone like you would travel so far with such a heavy load was to earn enough money to enter the Warrior's Academy."

"They know that you only need five gold. So, they will act like your load is worth six gold and will magnanimously tell you that they are willing to give you seven."

Shang listened to the officer's words, and he realized something.

He would have accepted that trade.

After all, he would have gotten even more gold than he needed. Additionally, he couldn't be bothered to research everything and negotiate with several merchants.

merchant. As far as he knew, this would be the only time

my Ice Wood is worth more than seven gold in terms

The officer nodded. "Yes."

"How much?" Shang asked.

sure, but from what I've seen, seven gold should be too little for so much Ice Wood,"

Shang said as he scratched his

I want to offer you,"

looked with interest at

not realize it, but the Mana Austerum burns

Mages in the Mana Austerum need even more Ice Wood, and they're buying it from the surrounding towns. However, the prices

can

a new piece of paper,

way she had written when she

and took out a candle, which

molten wax from the candle at the bottom right of the

she pushed the

said. "Go to the Mana Austerum and show this

read through the

it also said that he was

from Coldew Village here directly since we can't be sure about the origins of other goods. However, since your background has been investigated, our reason for not accepting

still isn't really official that you can sell it to the Mages

paper for a bit and

did you investigate my background this quickly?" he

to contact the Central Wild, who then sent over an investigator

but that was while pulling the heavy sled wagon. A warrior could probably

nodded and asked his next question. "The Mages won't try to scam

of that, gold has nearly no importance to them. They only want to finish these unimportant and

This means a

You helped me, and I helped you. Also, I see no problem with helping one of my

she

later years. At the moment, I'm out

a couple of times. "Aren't you

want to just be an officer in some random town. No, I want to join the Duke's official

of Duke Whirlwind shot through Shang's

sounds

a couple of minutes, now

conversation ended pretty quickly after she noticed that Shang wasn't

he was disinterested in the conversation and went back