Looking at the basin filled with Shadow Serpent Digestive Acid, Intervar was horrified.
Despite being a magical world, with magic facilitating most of the day-to-day processes, extracting this acid from inside the snakes’ intestines was a very delicate task that magic could not help with.
If a mistake were made, the acid would leak into the snakes’ bodies, corroding their internal organs and mixing with their blood, rendering the acid useless.
But this difficulty did not apply to Lohan.
With [Digestive Filter], he chose exactly what he wanted to digest and left only the purest acid stored inside himself.
And since his body was gelatinous, he could penetrate the dead snake’s body and suck all the acid out from inside, and if any impurities came along, he would just digest them and keep the valuable part.
Because of this, a snake that should yield a maximum of 100 ml of usable acid yielded an average of 500 ml per snake for Lohan!
He had killed almost 20 normal snakes, in addition to the giant snake he fought at the end, which brought the total amount of acid inside him to about 10 liters.
While Intervar was horrified by this amount of acid, he was also very excited about the profit it would bring him when sold.
Making mental calculations, he quickly spoke to the slime.
"Normally we buy a maximum of 1 liter of acid, but since you brought 10 liters, the total price will have to be reduced a little, because we probably won’t have enough demand to sell it all for a long time... is that a problem for you?" he asked.
Before Lohan could answer, Lisa spoke up. "Oh, then there’s no problem, we can sell you just 1 liter and sell the rest to your competitors, how about that?"
Hearing the female voice, Intervar looked at the fox in surprise. "No, no, how could I? As friends of Lia’s, I think I can raise the price and pay the standard price for your entire stock."
He replied, trying to remain calm.
Lisa was unmoved. "Oh, instead of talking about illusory numbers, why don’t we use real values for this negotiation? Tell me, how much do you intend to pay per liter of Acid?"
Intervar realized he had found a formidable opponent. "No problem, the standard price we buy Acid at is 50 copper coins per liter. Keep in mind that this is not yet a finished product, so we must filter out all impurities before selling it to the end consumer."
Lohan vibrated his gelatin, interrupting Intervar’s technical speech with a small blue hand forming at the top of his body, and pointed directly at the dark, viscous glow of the liquid in the basin.
"You won’t have to filter anything, Intervar." Lohan’s voice resonated in the mental link, laden with calm. "I guarantee the absolute purity of this acid. There are no traces of blood, no organic remains, and certainly no rock sediments or impurities. This is possibly the cleanest product that has ever entered this store."
Lohan did not explain that his [Digestive Filter] had isolated every unwanted component at the molecular level as he drained the dead snakes.
"And because of this superior quality..." Lohan continued firmly. "The price of 50 coppers per liter is unacceptable.
You’ll save the labor time to filter it, you’ll save your equipment, materials, and any other costs that would come with it. The price should be increased accordingly." Intervar wiped the sweat from his forehead, his eyes alternating between the basin and Slime.
"Kid, understand... even if the quality is impeccable, 50 coppers is the standard that the market pays for raw materials..."
"We are not ordinary suppliers, and this is not a raw product," Lisa interrupted, her voice coming out like a cold crack of a whip. "We want 1 silver coin per liter."
"One silver?! That’s double!" Intervar exclaimed, almost losing his composure and dropping the quill he used to jot down some calculations. "I’d have to sell this at a minimal profit margin to the mage towers! It’s an absurd risk for the store’s capital considering how long this amount of material would sit on the shelves!"
Lisa tilted her fox head, her eyes shining with a coldness she had been trained to use in Vance Group meetings in the real world. "Then it seems we’re wasting our time here. Halon, put the acid back. Yrneha mentioned that there are several other alchemy shops in Thalendor desperate to restock."
"I’m sure your competitors on the back street will be fascinated by a product that’s ready to use... Maybe when other customers go there to buy the Acid that only their store has, they’ll take the opportunity to buy other ingredients or equipment."
Upon hearing the name of Lia’s master and the direct mention of competitors, Intervar clenched his teeth so hard that the sound echoed through the room. He envisioned the profit he would lose and the prestige his rivals would gain by being the only ones to offer such pure acid to the capital’s mages.
"Fine!
Damn them... 1 silver coin per liter!" Intervar growled, picking up the transaction papers with hands trembling with frustration. "10 silver coins for the entire stock. But don’t you dare spread this price around Thalendor, or I’ll be lynched by the other merchants!"
Lohan felt a wave of relief wash over him.
Ten silver coins were equivalent to 1,000 copper coins, or approximately $1,000 in the real world! After splitting that amount in half, in a single sale, he had just secured the money to pay half of the $912 monthly interest to the bank and still have a little left over for his survival in the Lower Zone.
Remembering how empty his refrigerator had been that morning, he knew he would need to spend some of it to restock, but finally, with a stable source of income, a weight that had constantly pressed on his chest was gone.
In a good mood, Lohan offered a truce with Intervar. "Don’t worry, what was discussed in this store will stay in this store, and if you’re interested, if there are other ingredients you’re interested in getting, we can help you, as long as the price paid is fair."
Although he couldn’t control his own body in the other world, Lohan could still speak normally, so playing D&D on the internet was not a problem.
This helped him actively think about how to develop new quests with NPCs. Even though the people here weren’t truly NPCs, he still believed it would be useful.
And as he imagined, upon hearing this, Intervar’s eyes lit up.
Elves didn’t bother going out to hunt weaker creatures for a few silver coins, while hunters of other races were too rough for the delicate care that some ingredients, such as the Digestive Acid of Shadow Serpents, required.
And since these two little monsters had already shown their power, Intervar was tempted to make a request.
"Actually..."
-xXx-
Leaving the store with the coins jingling in the small cloth bag around Lisa’s neck, the two little monsters were satisfied.
Only Aeliana looked at them in horror, unable to imagine that a purchase and sale could be made like this.
"Isn’t it normal to just pay or receive the normal amount? How did they manage to increase the amount Intervar paid them so much?!" She wondered, confused.