Chapter 51 - The White haired old man

Chapter 51

The White haired old man

Wilbert san, the nobleman manager of H&H magic tool shop introduced himself and extended a handshake and I too did the same.

He then told me to follow him to a room on first floor of the shop.

I was taken to a reception room, which had a sofa and a glass table. Seeing the glass being used like this meant that this room was surely for wealthy customers.

Seems like I was being treated very respectfully for some reason. Is it because I had already bought 2 magic tools from them in just 6 days. Maybe.

After I was made to sit on the sofa, the clerk served me a cup of tea and I thanked him. Once me and Wilbert san was alone, he decided to speak.

“Ray sama, thank you very much for your continued patronage and buying magic tools and wands from our H&H company”

Ray sama! Seriously even though I am a commoner and he is a noble. Isn’t the way of calling reverse here.

“Oh no, its nothing to thank me about. Both your shops are best in the city so its natural to come here to get what you need….

And please call me Ray only as I am only a commoner.”

“We are flattered. It makes me very happy since my grandfather was one of the founding partner of the H&H company and I personally too am deeply involved in the management of the stores here in this city….

So it makes me happy that my hard work is being praised. And please donot mind me calling like that….

We are basically businessman family and our noble status just for show. It is only natural for a merchant to properly address their customer with respect. It’s our proud merchant way.”

“Well, okay I understand. Also, I haven’t seen any other shop which even remotely has such a large selection of goods as offered here.”

“Of course that is natural because we do our best to satisfy every need of our customers….

Now, if I may ask Ray sama, the clerk here tells me that you have some goods that you would like to sell us directly.”

I decided to truthfully tell him about the ruins.

“Yes actually, I stumbled upon an ancient ruin in Ghalia forest and there I found some magic stones along with the remains of some adventurer….

Of course I have already reported to the guild about that and even submitted the ID’s of the deceased….

But the thing is for some reason I need money urgently and every penny counts. So I came here to sell the stones since I could save on some commission of the guild.”

“That’s a surprising story. I didn’t expect that someone would dare to venture in Ghalia forest and even discover a ruin….

But please rest assured I can tell that you are not lying and I believe it to be true.”

“You can tell?”

“Yes, sorry for testing you but we here have a special magic tool place in the room, that can tell if a person is telling the truth or not….

It’s not always correct but I can make up for the error with my experience to judge a person.”

Thank god I did not lie to him. Seems like the lie detector tool really exist.

What a fearsome fellow this bearded bastard is. So this gaudy room is a façade to uncover lies that wealthy people often tell.

“It’s all right, I am not offended. In fact, it’s more convenient for me like that….

So now that you know that I have not acquired them through illegal method, would you buy them?”

“Yes, although we do not generally buy magic stones from people directly, other than our designated suppliers, I will make an exception for you.”

“Really? Is there a reason, if I may ask?”

“Of course because you were introduced by Robert sama of the third platoon and have continued to buy our products…

I heard you even bought a magic wand from our wand store.”

Oh. Seems like this old man has eyes and ears everywhere. What a dangerous fellow.

He even knows, who bought me here first time and what I have bought from their other store.

“That’s how it is huh. Well here are the magic stones I want to sell.”

Saying that I laid all the 23 magic stones on the table taking them out from my bag pack.

After seeing the magic stones, old man Wilbert then told me to wait and came back with a microscope like tool.

I scanned the tool and it said that it was mana measuring device for magic stones. But it did not tell the type of mana.

Maybe the color of the stones told the monster that they came from and the composition for a particular type of stone was similar with only a little difference.

But the main thing was the total amount of mana it had and that was where the microscope came in.

Since it was easy to tell from the color that what monster the stone belong to, I did not need to say anything I guess.

After Wilbert san appraised all the stones, he wrote down all the information on a paper and then stamped it with a stamp and his signature.

“This is the official appraisal stamp, given to only those shops who are authorized by the merchant guild in conjugation to the government….

It costs 1 silver per appraisal but since this is our first deal and since Ray sama has been a regular customer to our shop, this is on the shop.”

Saying that he handed me the paper. It had details of each mana stone like the monster it came from, color, amount of mana in it, weight and its size. Though it was not as detailed as my scan.

My scan even gives the precise composition of the type of mana in percentage. But he did write something else that was not in my scan.

That is the price he was offering for each of them.

And of course that was not something that could be decided by my scan since it depends on the shop and inflation.

I was being offered 5 silver for each purple goblin stones, 2 silver for blue slime ones, 10 silver for each yellow killer bee stone, 50 silver for green orc stone and 2 gold for red giant lizard stone.

But I kept that orc stone for my earth magic wand. I will have 2 spare stones now, that means 70 more shots of rock bullet.

Anyways, he was offering total 3 gold coins approximately. I don’t know about market price but I do know that I got 30 copper for killing one goblin in the guild so it was definitely better than that.

But that is because, in that case there is no material to be of used and it’s just the fact that I killed the goblin, that was being paid.

But in case of magic stone, you have to enter a dangerous labyrinth and bring the stones back and it is the amount of mana in the stone that determine the price of the stone and not the monster.

But the type of mana in it is dependent upon the monster so that too plays the role here.

I don’t care about any of that now and I believe that the price offered would not be bad since it would tarnish their name if they cheat me.

So I gladly accept the money. I now have about 29 gold coins and maybe its enough to buy a mid-tier light magic wand.

I told Wilbert san that I was Ok with those prices and he paid me the said amount.

We shook hands marking the completion of our trade. Wilbert san told me that he would buy magic stones from me again if I found more of them.

For some reason my preferential treatment continues. Maybe my being introduced through army personal and telling the truth about the ruins made good impression on him.

“Then Wilbert san, it was very good doing business with you.”

“Yes please visit again. Also if you don’t mind I would like to give you a suggestion Ray sama”

“A suggestion? Sure I would be happy to receive your guidance.”

“It’s just my hunch but are you going to buy some attack magic tool with this?...

And if it’s true may I ask which attribute you are interested in? I would be able to give you some advice in that?”

How does he know that? This old man can see through me so easily.

But I don’t think he knows that I am going after vampires. But if I told him about the attribute and since he is a noble in this town he would be able to connect the dots.

I am sure a noble would already know about the vampire attack.

“Please don’t be on guard, I simply wanted to help a promising young man. But perhaps I might have been a little hasty and come out as rude”

“Oh no! Please don’t be sorry. It’s nothing secret of any sort, I was just thinking about it myself as to what should I buy”

Oh crap isn’t this place here fitted with lie detector. He got me good.

By making me feel guilty he will make me confess my future plan. I don’t know for what purpose he is so interested in my future plan but now I have to tell him.

“Oh! Is that so. Then let me tell you, since Ray sama already bought rock type magic wand, the next you should buy something for crowd control….

Some good ones would be fire tornedo or some terra forming one, like the pit formation magic wand or multi spike formation one.”

“Really! I did not think of that. But what about other attributes like water, air or light magic.?”

“Hmm…..Water magic does the least damage. And in air attribute, the vacuum creation wand is very useful for crowd control but it’s pretty expensive….

As for light, there are some crowd control magic like holy light or sanctuary creation but those are only effective on ghosts, wraiths and undead.”

“Right. I thought so too hahahaha….”

“…”

Shit what was that weird laugh me. Don’t get nervous, the cat is not out of the bag yet.

I don’t know why my above 400 intelligence can’t do shit against his 250.

Seems like stats are not all that matters. It’s the experience of his white hair.

“Then I am sure to keep your advice in mind Wilbert san. I’ll be going then. Thank you for everything.”

“Yes. Welcome. Hope you visit soon again. Thank you for your patronage.”

I left the shop and rode Ashwood straight to magic wand shop in the business district.

Riding a horse is allowed in the town but you have to keep the pace slow. Riding Ashwood is really fun.

But right now I don’t have time to enjoy that.