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.

be the only time he would ever do something like this. The quicker he got this thing over with, the

is worth more than seven gold in terms of wholesale?"

The officer nodded. "Yes."

"How much?" Shang asked.

gold should be too little for so much Ice

as he

let's come to what I want to offer you," the

with interest

You might not realize it, but the Mana Austerum burns through Ice Wood at terrifying speeds. That's also the reason why we

need even more Ice Wood, and they're buying it from the surrounding towns. However, the prices in these towns are much higher than the shipments

the Mana Austerum can never have

paper, which had some fancy designs on the edges of

deliberate strokes. The way she had written when she had taken note of the things Shang had said previously and

a minute, she finished writing and took out a candle, which

from the candle at the bottom right of the paper and stamped

she pushed the paper to

to the Mana Austerum and show this to the guards.

read through the

said that he was not one

sure about the origins of other goods. However, since your background

sell it to the Mages directly.

paper for a bit and then looked back at the

investigate my background this quickly?" he

Communication Crystal to be officially recognized as a town," the officer explained. "We spent some Mana to contact the Central Wild, who then sent over an investigator to Coldew Village. They sent us the information, and

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

"The Mages won't try to scam

genuine Mages. They can't be bothered to waste their time arguing. On top of that, gold has nearly no importance to them. They only want to

nodded. "Thank you. This means a lot to me," he

officer nodded with a smile. "No problem. You helped me, and I helped you. Also,

quickly realized what she meant. "Are you part of

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

times. "Aren't you already

some random town. No, I want to join

Whirlwind shot through Shang's

sounds nice,"

them talked for a couple of

ended pretty quickly after she noticed that Shang wasn't talking very

that he was disinterested in the conversation and went back to