Chapter 27: Insta-Killing a Fifth-Rank Mage 2

Kweilin and Kent strolled through the stone-paved streets of Alliance City. Delis and Alice had recovered some color in their faces. Around the Mage Guild, almost every shop was a magical materials store, stocked with all sorts of exotic goods. The streets were bustling—warriors, knights, archers with bows slung over their shoulders, and even a few beastmen moving among the crowd.

Kent caught sight of a beastman who stood a full three meters tall, clad in leather armor and gripping a massive axe that looked like it weighed the better part of a ton, though the craftsmanship seemed rather rough. He turned to Kweilin and asked, "Brother, how come there are beastmen here? Aren’t we hostile to them?"

Kweilin glanced at the beastman, then explained, "They’re with the Mercenary Guild. These beastmen make their living in human lands. As long as they don’t break the law, the Alliance Empire allows them entry. Actually, quite a few beastmen join the empire every year."

"That’s what I mean," Kent said as they walked. "The beastmen are short on food and coin, right? So why not take all that money we spend fighting them and use it to hire them for labor—mines, hunting magical beasts, building roads. We can hand them all the jobs humans don’t want. War costs lives, eats up most of the gold, then you have to pay compensations to the families of the fallen, and if you win, you have to reward the soldiers. Meanwhile, I hear the empire’s grain is rotting away in storage. Why not use it to trade for the furs and ores of the Beastman Highlands?"

Kweilin’s jaw dropped, his face a mask of disbelief. It took him a long moment to ask, "Sell grain to the beastmen? If they’ve got full bellies, won’t they just have more strength to attack us?"

"Let me ask you something," Kent countered. "Why do the beastmen attack us in the first place?"

"They don’t have food..." Kweilin answered instinctively.

"Exactly," Kent said with a smirk. "If we let them eat their fill, would they be stupid enough to come throw their lives away?"

"But..." Kweilin’s mind couldn’t quite make the leap.

Seeing his confusion, Kent elaborated, "Since they can’t get enough to eat, we trade them grain for highland furs and ores. And we can go one step further. Say a tribe has a bad harvest this year—everything they can trade for grain still won’t last them through winter. We let them take the grain anyway, but they sign an IOU and repay us come spring. There are two benefits there. First, it cuts military spending. Second, we take grain that would otherwise rot and turn it into ores, furs, magic cores—all of it pure profit. Add those together and the gains are enormous. And what about beastman specialties? Take this fruit—it’s native to the Beastman Empire. We can trade grain for it, or even buy it outright with gold." He pointed at a fruit priced at one gold coin each.

"Pay them gold too?!" Kweilin blurted out, incredulous.

"Long hair, short vision," Kent snorted. "What’s the matter with gold? Can beastmen fill their stomachs with gold coins? Or live on fruit alone? Ah, forget it—let’s not argue." Spotting a large shop ahead with a sign advertising the sale and exchange of magical beasts, he quickly pulled the two women inside, leaving a pensive Kweilin standing in the street. Only after a long while did Kweilin snap out of it, slap his thigh in sudden realization, and hurry in after them.

Kent stepped into the magical beast shop and was immediately greeted by rows upon rows of merchandise—magical beast eggs, young cubs, and domesticated magical pets. There were easily over a thousand low-rank beast eggs alone, displayed across several long counters, while dozens of attendants bustled around serving customers.

Alice and Delis were soon completely absorbed by the magical pets. Most of them had been bred or selected for their adorable appearances, and many possessed surprisingly high intelligence.

Delis, in particular, found herself captivated by a first-rank Earth Demon Rat with an enormous nose.

The little creature was clearly a mutant. That was also precisely why no one had bought it. Mages considered its rank too low to be worth bothering with, while noble ladies thought the asking price far too high for a mere first-rank pet. Unlike ordinary Earth Demon Rats, which had long tails and short noses, this one had almost no tail at all and an absurdly long nose. Its body was covered in soft, earthy-yellow fur, its nose was bright red, and its eyes were narrow little slits.

The poor thing also looked rather thin, suggesting it hadn’t exactly been eating well in the shop.

Its price tag read 1,000 gold coins.

"Idiot, buy that rat! It’s worth far more than a million gold coins!"

Kent had only glanced at it before preparing to move on when Niu Niu’s voice suddenly sounded beside his ear, startling him badly. He turned and found her sitting casually on his shoulder.

Kent was speechless.

But the moment he heard that the strange little rat was worth more than a million gold coins, his eyes practically lit up. Of course, knowing its true value didn’t mean he was going to stop bargaining.

He walked over to Delis and asked gently, "Do you like the little fellow? If you do, we’ll buy him."

The higher a magical beast’s rank, the greater its intelligence tended to be. Yet even this first-rank creature clearly understood Kent’s words. The moment he spoke, the Earth Demon Rat rose onto its hind legs, clasped its front paws together, and began pleading pitifully with Delis, obviously desperate to leave with her.

"Forget it. It’s too expensive." Delis glanced reluctantly at the thousand-gold price tag. That was an enormous sum of money to her. Though she could barely tear her eyes away from the creature, she finally forced herself to turn and leave.

"Boss!" Kent called loudly. "Eight hundred gold for this Earth Demon Rat. Take it or leave it. If you won’t sell, I’m walking."

The surrounding customers stared at him as though he were an idiot.

Truthfully, even if Niu Niu hadn’t said anything, Kent probably would have bought the creature anyway. As long as Delis liked it, that was enough. What were a few gold coins compared to making his woman happy?

That said, saving money where possible was still saving money.

"Fine. Eight hundred gold," the shopkeeper agreed almost immediately.

He had his own troubles. The mutated Earth Demon Rat had already been sitting in his shop for more than a year. Mutation or not, it was still only a first-rank magical beast.

"Have them sign an equal contract," Niu Niu advised again.

By now, several people nearby had noticed the tiny Niu Niu perched on Kent’s shoulder. Seeing him buy such a strange low-rank Earth Demon Rat as well, they exchanged knowing looks. Clearly, they thought, this young fellow was some inexperienced magical novice who didn’t understand magical beasts at all.

Soon Delis had completed the contract with her new companion, whom she affectionately named Big Nose. Watching her happily playing with the little creature, Kent paid a total of nine hundred gold coins and continued wandering through the store.

"My lord," the shopkeeper said politely after noticing Kent repeatedly shaking his head at the merchandise, "if you’re looking for higher-rank magical beasts, we have more on the second floor."

The shopkeeper himself was only a magic apprentice.

But Kent had no interest in going upstairs.

He had just made a far more important discovery.

Whenever he moved within a certain distance of a magical beast egg, he could faintly sense its elemental attribute.

That was an extraordinary ability. Most magical beast eggs had no obvious way of identifying what kind of beast they contained. Only eggs from fourth-rank beasts and above emitted noticeable magical fluctuations. Anything below fourth rank was essentially a gamble—you bought the egg and hoped for the best.

Kent, however, could sense even the faint traces of elemental energy within these low-rank eggs.

Now he needed to confirm whether his perception was accurate.

The ordinary eggs here weren’t particularly expensive. Even the most valuable cost no more than two hundred gold coins, while the cheapest were only a few dozen.

Kent’s gaze slowly swept across the rows of eggs before settling on the smallest, most inconspicuous one in the entire display.

It was priced at just ten gold coins, clearly regarded as one of the lowest-grade magical beast eggs in the shop.

"Boss," Kent said, pointing at it, "bring me that one."

The shopkeeper gave Kent a rather strange look as he handed over the magical beast egg priced at a mere ten gold coins. Kent casually passed him the money and took the egg in his hands.

There was something unusual about it.

Kent could clearly sense a faint trace of wood-attribute energy coming from within. The aura was extremely weak, so he concentrated and checked it twice more. There was no mistake—it really was wood-aligned.

Wood was an exceptionally rare magical attribute. Magical beasts of this element were usually plant-type creatures, and exactly how such creatures reproduced had always remained something of a mystery. What was well known, however, was that the bodies of plant-type magical beasts were often superb alchemical materials. That alone made the egg worth buying in Kent’s eyes.

The egg itself looked nothing like the others around it. Instead of having a smooth, glossy shell, it was dull gray and extremely rough to the touch, almost like a lump of weathered stone.

The counter before Kent was piled high with magical beast eggs, most of them from first-rank creatures. Some were practically worthless—for instance, eggs from Grass Sprites could be bought two for ten gold coins. Because of that, hardly anyone paid much attention to this section. Most customers crowded around the displays containing second- and third-rank magical beast eggs instead.

Kent was almost the only person lingering among the cheap first-rank eggs, examining them one by one.

Kweilin, meanwhile, had been following behind him the entire time, looking strangely distracted and completely lost in thought.