After a short moment, the markings on the ground darkened again, and the stones had vanished.
A new marking appeared on the ground, and Shang realized that it was the writing of this world. Just like before, Shang had no issues in reading it.
'1,853.547kg,' Shang read with surprise. 'It's a scale?'
Shang looked with surprise at the markings on the ground. 'This elaborate thing is nothing but an industrial-sized scale?'
'Just use counterweights or something. You don't need a huge Magic Array just to weigh something!' Shang thought.
However, he didn't speak his mind.
Maybe they had a good reason for doing it this way.
Shang had already expected that this world wasn't as technologically advanced as Earth, but he refused to believe that this world didn't even know how to make a basic scale. Even the ancient Greeks had scales!
This meant that they had to have a different reason to use a Magic Array.
"That's quite a lot of Ice Wood," the woman said as she wrote down the number on a piece of paper.
"By the way," Shang interjected. "How do you know so much about Space Rings? What you told me didn't sound like common knowledge."
She was a bit surprised when Shang asked this question. "I want to learn how to create an elemental shell inside a Sparren. I have a Wind Affinity, and Space Rings with a wind shell are rarely needed. After all, you can basically only store wind-related stuff in a Space Ring with a wind shell based on the wind's lack of stability."
"However, because these kinds of Space Rings are so rarely needed, they go for a lot of money. There are also not many Wind Mages that bother to learn about that skill due to the lack of demand."
"But that just means that the few that know how to do it are in high demand due to their rarity. It's risky to invest so much money into learning this skill, but if it pays off, I don't have to worry about the resources I would need to become a High Mage," she explained.
Shang nodded. "That makes sense," he said.
She nodded again and took out a white crystal from her Space Ring. "Hello sir, this is Cindy," she spoke politely to the crystal. "We have just received a delivery of Ice Wood. Could you spare some time to evaluate its purity?"
Shang had already guessed that this white crystal was a Communication Crystal. The officer in the barracks had told him how they had contacted the Central Wild.
Shang heard an annoyed groan come from the crystal. "Fine. I'll come," a male voice came out of the crystal.
"Thank you very much," Cindy said.
Then, she put the Communication Crystal away again.
After that, the two of them simply waited for a couple of seconds.
Creak!
One of the doors on the side opened, and a man in his thirties walked through them with lazy steps. He had icy blue hair and a pair of glasses.
When Shang saw the glasses, one of his eyebrows rose in skepticism.
He doubted that Mages had issues with their vision.
So, why was he wearing glasses?
The man didn't even look at Cindy or Shang and directly focused on the sled wagon. He moved one of his fingers to his glasses, but he stopped suddenly.
Then, he looked with a confused look at the sled wagon for a second.
"Who makes carriages out of Ice Wood?" he muttered to himself.
"Sir, it's a sled wagon," Cindy said politely.
"Yes, yes, a sled wagon," the man said without any enthusiasm. Obviously, he didn't care.
The man moved one of his fingers to his glasses again.
A moment later, Shang felt Ice Mana appear on the Mage's fingers, but the Ice Mana was quickly absorbed by the glasses.
"Nearly grade eight, but still grade seven. Just give them 50% more of what we would pay for grade seven," the man said.
"Thank you, sir," Cindy said politely.
The man nodded at Cindy and left again.
The entire time, the Mage hadn't even thrown a glance at Shang. He also hadn't asked about the Ice Wood's source or anything similar.
He only came, graded the Ice Wood, and left.
When Shang had heard the evaluation of the Mage, he realized something.
Shang's mind went back to the time he had slid down the long slope with his sled wagon. Back then, Shang had absorbed some of the Ice Mana in the Ice Wood to survive his crash.
Had that maneuver dropped the purity of the Ice Wood?
If he hadn't done that, would he have had grade eight Ice Wood?
"How much more is grade eight Ice Wood worth in comparison to grade seven?" Shang asked.
"Double," Cindy answered immediately.
When Shang heard that, he had to release a helpless sigh.
Shang had obviously received grade eight Ice Wood, but his maneuver had dropped it to the peak of grade seven.
Sure, Shang would get 50% more than for normal grade seven Ice Wood, but that was only 75% of what it should be.
That stupid idea had cost Shang 25% of his earnings.
'I shouldn't have done that,' Shang thought.
"You heard him," Cindy said. "Please follow me. You can leave your sled wagon there. Someone else will deal with it later."
Shang released another sigh of helplessness and followed Cindy.
The two of them walked back to the entrance hall, and Cindy went behind a desk. Then, she opened a drawer and riffled through some papers.
"At the moment, 100kg of grade seven Ice Wood are equal to 0.97 gold. 1853kg of Ice Wood are about equal to 19,1 gold. Half of that more is 28,65 gold. Let's just make it 29 gold. Are you okay with the price?" Cindy asked as she looked at Shang.
At the moment, Shang was dumbstruck.
29 gold?
That was way more than he had thought!
Shang had expected that he would get ten gold, at most!
As said previously, Shang would have even accepted a trade for seven or eight gold.
And now, he would get 29 gold?!
He only needed five!
Shang's mind immediately went back to the three people that had been responsible for him receiving such a huge sum of money.
The first person was the guard in Duke Whirlwind's garden. He had told Shang how to earn some money. Without him, Shang wouldn't have even asked for Ice Wood in Coldew Village.
The second person had been the Elder in Coldew Village. He had given Shang the Ice Wood, and he was probably also responsible for Shang getting so much of it. On top of that, he had given Shang Ice Wood of relatively high purity.
The last person was the officer in the northwest of Blizzard's Edge. Without her, Shang would have sold his Ice Wood in Warrior's Paradise, and he would have only made around seven gold.
All of them had contributed to Shang getting such a huge sum of money.
"Do you accept the price?" Cindy repeated.
That took Shang out of his thoughts, and he quickly nodded. "Yes, of course," he said faster than normal.
Cindy nodded and took out a sizable sack of gold. She poured a lot of gold on the table and counted in front of Shang. After counting out the 29 pieces, she shoved the remaining pieces back into the bag and put it into her Space Ring.
Then, she summoned another tiny bag, but this one was empty. After pouring the gold into the small bag, she pulled it shut and pushed it towards Shang.
"Thank you for doing business with us," she said with a polite smile.
Shang only nodded, also smiling. "No, thank you!" he said.
"Alright, I have to get back to work. Do come back again," Cindy said as she stood up.
Shang also stood up.
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Then, the two of them exchanged some goodbyes, and Shang left.
After he left the Mana Austerum, he thanked the two guards again, who only responded that it was their job.
Shang left the vicinity of the Mana Austerum, and he paused.
Then, he looked at the heavy bag of gold in his hand.
This bag of gold represented Shang's future.
With this bag of gold, he could join the Warrior Academy.
Shang's grip around the bag tightened, and a newfound conviction shone in his eyes.
Next stop, Warrior's Paradise!