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.

time he would ever do something like this. The quicker he got this

more than seven gold

The officer nodded. "Yes."

"How much?" Shang asked.

not sure, but from what I've seen, seven gold should be too little for so much Ice Wood," she

said as he

want to

looked with interest

Wood comes from an ethical source. You might not realize it, but the Mana Austerum burns

in the Mana Austerum 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 we get

short, the Mana Austerum can never have enough

point, the officer took out a new piece of paper, which had some fancy designs on

strokes. The way she had written when she had taken note

writing and

the molten wax from the candle at the bottom right of

pushed the

to the Mana Austerum and show this to the

through the

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

we only accept the official shipments 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 Ice Wood directly

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

for a bit and then looked back at

investigate my background

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.

him a couple of hours, but that was while pulling the heavy sled wagon. A warrior

and asked his next question. "The

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 finish these unimportant

"Thank you. This means a

helped me, and I helped

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

in the later years. At the moment,

blinked a couple of times. "Aren't you already

she said. "I don't want to just be an officer in some random town.

Whirlwind shot through

that sounds nice,"

two of them talked for a couple of minutes, now

she noticed that Shang wasn't talking

was disinterested in the conversation