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.

wasn't interested in being a merchant. As far as he knew, this would be the only time he would ever do something like this. The quicker he got

more than seven gold in terms

The officer nodded. "Yes."

"How much?" Shang asked.

seven gold should be too little for so much Ice Wood,"

as he scratched his chin

come to what I want to

with interest at the

source. You might not realize it, but the Mana Austerum burns through Ice Wood at terrifying

more Ice Wood, and they're buying it from the surrounding towns. However, the prices in

Mana Austerum can never have

a new piece of paper, which had some fancy designs on the edges

way she had written when she had taken note

about a minute, she finished writing and took out a

molten wax from the candle at

the

Wood," the officer said. "Go to the Mana Austerum and show

through

said that he was not one of the normal traders coming

of other goods. However, since your background has been investigated, our reason

it still isn't really official that you can sell it to the Mages directly. So, there's

a bit and

how did you investigate my background

explained. "We spent some Mana to contact the Central Wild, who then sent over an investigator to Coldew Village. They sent

taken him a couple of hours, but that was while pulling the heavy sled wagon. A warrior could probably run that distance in

"The Mages won't try to scam me?"

snorted at the word scam. "They're genuine Mages. They can't be bothered to waste their time arguing. On top of that, gold has nearly no importance to them.

means a lot to me," he

helped you. Also, I see no problem with

Shang asked, but he quickly realized what she meant. "Are you

currently in the later years. At the moment, I'm out gaining practical experience for my future as an

couple of times. "Aren't you

in some random town. No, I want to join the Duke's

of Duke Whirlwind shot

sounds nice," Shang

for a couple of minutes, now

she noticed that Shang

in the conversation and went back to