Raymond moved closer towards the counter. Sat behind the sturdy yet old wooden counter was a middle aged man. He had brown hair with his eyes sharing the shade.
His name was Barren.
Lazily…as Raymond moved closer towards him, his eyes scanned him with the sharpness of someone used to this quite often.
'Rough and worn out clothes, around novice ranked aura…looking around like someone seeing a potion shop for the first time…hah first customer of the day and it's a total newbie.' Barren judged silently in his mind.
"Hello, I would like to buy some potions." Raymond spoke in an unhurried voice, he noticed the judging gaze of the man but chose to ignore it as he didn't care about it much.
"A newbie hm…the stuff on those racks should be enough for you," the shop owner said casually.
Not even bothering to properly look up from his ledger as he pointed toward a corner shelf filled with basic potions and cheap equipment.
Most of the items there were low-grade healing potions, beginner monster repellents, crude daggers, and emergency supplies usually bought by fresh adventurers before their first hunt.
Raymond glanced at the shelf dismissively, his eyes moving away almost immediately from the cheap stuff.
"…No thanks," he replied calmly.
Hearing his reply, the shop owner finally looked up at him. His gaze was questioning.
Raymond walked closer to the counter, his black robe swaying lightly with his steps. Without saying anything, he casually placed a monster core onto the wooden surface.
Thud.
The core glowed faintly with dense mana. For the first time, the shop owner's lazy expression froze for a slight moment. His eyes widened slightly as he stared at the core.
"…Advanced-ranked?" he muttered under his breath. Of course, an Advanced ranked core wasn't a big deal, it was just that he didn't expect the boy to have such a thing.
Now he looked at Raymond again. This time though a bit more carefully.
His slightly swaying robe, his calm and steady posture. His complete lack of nervousness or over excitement. The boy looked in control.
The shop owner slowly closed his old ledger and stood up from the creaking chair.
"…Seems I judged you too quickly," he admitted, leaning forward slightly now.
"What exactly are you looking for?"
Raymond adjusted his Mystic Glasses faintly before speaking.
"Quite a lot of stuff actually, however how about you tell me the price of this stuff first?" He spoke pointing towards the glowing orb.
"Okay… then let me check its purity first. After that, we'll talk," Barren said as he picked up the monster core carefully from the counter.
The lazy attitude from before had completely disappeared. His eyes glinted with sharpness as they carried the unmatched focus of an experienced merchant.
He reached beneath the counter and pulled out a small metallic device etched with faint mana runes. Placing the monster core onto it, Barren activated the device with a light tap.
A soft hum filled the air.
Thin lines of light spread across the surface of the tool, scanning the core slowly while the mana inside it reacted faintly.
Barren's brows gradually rose just a tad bit higher the longer he looked.
"…Well damn," he muttered quietly. The glow around the device intensified briefly before stabilizing.
"It is of high purity. With almost no mana leakage… and the energy inside is still stable." He looked back at Raymond with clear surprise now. "Did you really hunt the monster yourself?"
Raymond simply shrugged.
"Something like that."
Barren stared at him for another moment before letting out a short laugh.
"Tch, and here I thought you were some fresh rookie who got lost in the guild." He carefully placed the core back onto the counter. "This thing alone is worth a decent amount."
"It will be around…fifty gold coins." He said placing the device back into the place after grabbing the core.
'Good, the prices are the same as I thought,' Raymond noted silently, giving a small nod to himself.
There was a reason he had come to the guild market first instead of wasting time elsewhere.
The Adventurer's Guild market was one of the few places where prices remained relatively stable no matter the region except for some drastic cases.
Since the guild dealt directly with monster hunting and dungeon exploration, they valued practicality over redundant politics or noble greed. Which meant fewer chances of getting scammed.
Especially for items like potions, monster materials, ores, and maps. Of course, there were still merchants who tried to overcharge inexperienced adventurers, but Raymond already knew the approximate value of most things from the game.
In other words…trying to fool him was nearly impossible.
"Now then, what do you want, young man?" Barren asked, breaking Raymond out of his thoughts.
Raymond's gaze shifted toward the merchant calmly.
"I want the highest quality healing and mana recovery potions you have," he said without hesitation. "Alongside that, give me ten explosion scrolls and ten smoke screen bombs.
Barren's brows rose in intrigue as he heard about the items the boy demanded.
"…That's quite the shopping list."
Most beginners wouldn't even know how to properly use magic scrolls, let alone buy them in bulk. Explosion scrolls alone were expensive enough to make ordinary adventurers hesitate.
Yet Raymond listed them casually, as if he were buying groceries.
Still, Barren didn't question it much further, after all he was getting good business first thing in the morning.
Turning around, he walked toward the shelves deeper inside the shop. Locked cabinets lined the back walls, each reinforced with small mana seals. Opening one of them carefully, he began taking out several potion cases and cylindrical scroll containers.
"These are all high-grade healing potions."
Barren explained while placing green-colored vials onto the counter. "Good regeneration works even on some internal injuries unless the damage is fatal."
Then he placed several blue potions beside them.
"Mana recovery. Expensive stuff. Most people only carry one or two at most."
After that came the scrolls.
The explosion scrolls were wrapped in dark red parchment with fire-attributed runes etched across them.
Barren lined everything neatly across the counter before glancing at Raymond again.
"…Anything else?" he asked.
Raymond remained silent for a moment before speaking again.
"Do you have maps of nearby dungeons and monster territories?"
Barren smirked slightly.
"Now you're speaking like a real adventurer."