Simon washed his mask and changed his robes to a clean one. Fortunately for him, he had purchased lots of new first year robes a while back.
He then left the cultivation tower and went to the exchange center to exchange some merits for some hell stones.
His other goal for the day is to also look for a rune master that could make some changes to his mask.
(At The Exchange Center)
The Exchange Center was basically a place where merits could be exchanged for not only hell stones, but also for other currencies.
Just like Earth, the exchange rate between the merits of the Shadowgrave Clan and other currencies was always changing because of one thing or the other.
However, there was one exchange rate that was always constant.
A single merit is always equal to a low grade hell stone.
This was fixed and it never changed.
The exchange rate was not the only place where one could exchange between currencies and hell stones.
One could also do this at the market square.
Just like Earth which had a black market/parallel market exchange rate, the market square also had their own exchange rate, and it was usually higher than the official exchange rate of the exchange center.
However, if one believed that exchanging at the market square was better since they could make more money, then they could be right and they could also be wrong at the same time.
While the exchange center would never cheat or exploit a member of the clan, those at the market square could exploit, lie, cheat, and manipulate however they wished.
And the law would never punish them for it.
When Simon entered the exchange center, it instantly reminded him of banks on earth.
This was the interior structure of the exchange center, and Simon was taken aback for a moment before he finally went to one of the counters.
He met with a female demon who was wearing a red mask that had designs of roses on it.
Demons like her who worked at the exchange center are called exchange clerks.
She looked at him, her black eyes reflecting his image, but the moment she saw his eyes, she could not help but give him a strange look.
’So cool.’
She was instantly captivated by his eyes because it was extremely unique.
The broken black ring around his sky-blue vertical pupils made it seem like it was a cluster of asteroids surrounding a straight line.
Simon noticed this, but this was not actually the first time this was happening, so he didn’t care.
"I’d like to exchange some of my merits for some hell stones."
The female exchange clerk was suddenly brought back to reality by his voice, and she blinked.
She cleared her throat.
"Do you know the current exchange rates?"
Simon tilted his head slightly, and a tinge of confusion and amusement flashed in his eyes.
He turned and looked to his left.
His eyes reflected the image of a large screen showing the current exchange rates in demonic scripts.
Sometimes there would be a change, sometimes it would remain the same.
However, these were the current exchange rates of different currencies.
He shifted his gaze back to the female exchange clerk, and he could see the slight embarrassment on her face.
She had truly made a blunder and she just realized it. Instead of showing him the screen, she asked if he knew the current exchange rates.
Internally, she blamed Simon’s eyes.
But to Simon, this was just a simple mistake. He decided to leave a good impression on the female exchange clerk since it might be nice to have a ’friend’ in the exchange center.
"Can you tell me what the current exchange rates are? I can’t seem to see very well from this place. My eyesight is bad." He said with smiling eyes.
The female exchange clerk blinked, then she gave Simon a strange look.
However, she responded while thanking Simon for the save since she could hear the snickers of her colleagues.
"Well, as you know or maybe you don’t, a single merit is equal to a single low grade hell stone."
"One intermediate grade hell stone is currently equal to a thousand and seventy (1,070) merits."
"One high grade hell stone is currently equal to eighteen thousand, three hundred and sixty (18,360) merits."
"One peak grade hell stone is currently equal to three hundred thousand, six hundred and fifty (300,650) merits."
Despite already knowing this, Simon’s gaze could not help but flicker at the exchange rates.
The difference between each grade was staggering.
So staggering to the point that it made Simon to wonder why it was so high.
Well...he could come up with a few reasons why it was so high.
’I can’t purchase a high grade hell stone. I guess I’ll go for intermediate and low. I’ll mix it up.’
"I’d like to exchange two thousand, one hundred and forty (2,140) merits for two intermediate hell stones, and a thousand merits for a thousand low grade hell stones."
This was a huge expenditure for him, but he made up his mind to have some hell stones with him in case of emergencies and for future purposes.
Besides, he could still exchange them back to merits if he needed to. So, they were not useless or wastes after all.
The female exchange clerk nodded, then she gestured at the hand imprint on her desk.
"Please place your hand there so that the transaction would take place."
Simon nodded, then he placed his hand and demonic scripts appeared in thin air in front of the female exchange clerk.
She looked through it, but a frown suddenly appeared behind her mask.
She double checked what she just saw, then she triple checked.
When she saw that there was no problem, her eyes flashed with a cunning light but she then recalled what Simon did for her and she shook her head and decided to tell him.
"Since you’re a slave, you’re going to be paying twelve thousand, four hundred and twenty (12,420) merits to exchange for two intermediate grade hell stones and a thousand low grade hell stones."
The moment Simon heard this, his heart skipped a beat.
He had actually forgotten about his slave status.