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.

in being a merchant. As far as he knew, this would be the only time he would ever do something like this. The

worth more than seven gold in

The officer nodded. "Yes."

"How much?" Shang asked.

should be too little

said as he scratched his

come to what I want to offer you," the officer

interest at

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

the surrounding towns. However, the prices

Austerum can never have

paper, which had some fancy designs on the edges of the

she had written when she had taken note of the things Shang had said previously and

writing and took out a candle, which she

from the candle at the bottom right of

she pushed the paper to

for the origin of your Ice Wood," the officer said. "Go to the Mana

read through

Shang had gotten the Ice Wood, but it also said that he was not one of the normal

Village here directly since we can't be sure about the origins of other goods. However, since your background has

it still isn't really official that you can sell

for a bit and then looked back at

of, how did you investigate my background

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

that was while pulling the

next question. "The Mages won't try

arguing. On top of that, gold has nearly no importance to them. They only want to finish these unimportant and bothersome things as quickly and

nodded. "Thank you. This means

I helped you. Also, I

but he quickly realized what she meant. "Are you

At the moment, I'm out gaining practical experience

"Aren't you

don't want to just be an officer in some random town.

Whirlwind shot through

that sounds nice," Shang

two of them talked for a couple of minutes, now that

after she noticed that Shang wasn't talking very

he was disinterested in