95. Obsidian Credits
After walking the main road of the city for a while, Noah began to see the various stands.
There were tens of merchants with flashy banners on top of their stalls and even more people around them looking at their items.
Noah looked around for a bit and noticed something strange: the customers used two different types of currencies.
He turned to face Grant and pointed at the gems that some of the customers were using.
"What are those?"
Grant looked where he was pointing and showed a confused expression.
"You mean the Obsidian Credits?"
Noah shrugged his shoulders and replied.
"If that's what they are called. What value do they have?"
Grant's eyes widened as he continued to stare at Noah.
"What?"
It took a while for Grant to really believe that Noah didn't know anything about it.
"Aren't you a cultivator?"
Noah replied with a bit of annoyance in his voice.
"Stop asking questions and explain."
Grant cleared his voice and began to speak.
"The Obsidian Credits, or commonly called Credits, are the currency mainly used by cultivators. It's a peculiar crystal that is filled with "Breath" so it has more value in the cultivator's minds. Anything regarding cultivation can only be bought with Credits, no one will ever accept gold for it."
Noah focused again on the gems, they resembled the one that Virginia used to power up the inheritance ground, only less shining.
'To think that I wasn't aware of such things…'
"Do they come only in that form?"
Grant nodded and explained more.
"Form? Yes. Value? No. Based on their brilliance, which is the quantity of "Breath" stored inside, they have more value. The ones that you see here are worth one Credit but there are crystals valued ten, fifty, and even one hundred Credits!"
Noah turned to Grant and could not help but ask:
"Why do you want to be paid in gold then?"
Grant smiled awkwardly.
"Well, I am a simple rank 1 cultivator with a rank 2 body, I don't even have a martial art. I just want to feed my family and the ones of my brothers."
'So, selling the weapons can only give me money to buy food and a place to rest. I have the Surging river spell which should be worth some Credits but I don't know if it's better to sell it now or to keep it for a better use in the academy.'
He didn't know enough to decide the best course of action so he just chose to inspect the market
"Bring me to someone that can buy the weapons that I showed you."
Grant took the lead position and they moved slowly around the city.
Noah soon noted that calling it "city" was a bit of a stretch.
The city itself consisted of a few buildings with two taverns and ten hostels, all the other structures were simply subsidiary shops that opened while Ebonrest city was busy with the preparations for the test.
In the end, they arrived at a small wooden house with the picture of a sword and a shield as a banner.
Grant entered and loudly greeted the bald man behind the cash desk.
"Kirk! I brought you a customer!"
Kirk snorted and replied with a rough voice.
"You only bring them when you gain something out of it."
Grant laughed awkwardly and scratched the side of his head.
Noah couldn't be bothered to watch them argue and stepped toward the desk laying a blade on it.
"I'm here to sell, how much for this?"
Kirk was surprisingly quite professional as he picked the weapon and carefully examined it.
He even slid his palm along the blade twice to check if there was any dent on it.
When the process was over, he nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad, not bad. I can give you six pieces of gold for this one."
Noah nodded and continued.
"What if I have more than thirty of the same manufacture?"
The two men's eyes widened when they heard the number of weapons in his possession.
Kirk coughed a bit and then cleared his voice.
"I would need to inspect each one of them."
Noah made a gesture with his hand and the thirty or so weapons appeared on the ground.
In his space-ring, the weapons that remained were his two pairs of sabers, the descendants' inscribed weapons, and the lance that Trevor obtained from the second stage.
Kirk stared at him for a few instants before he started examining the items.
'It's not his first time seeing a space-ring.'
Noah thought and then began to think of how to dispose of his remaining goods.
'I should wait with the spell, maybe the academy can give me something more valuable than money for it. The noble's weapons have to remain hidden so they are better in the space-ring than wielded by someone. Lena's potions are useful so I should just keep them. The Earth pill and the reagent are necessary for my cultivation so it's not even worth mentioning them. My old sabers can be a clue for my identity so it's best to keep them. I'd rather not sell techniques that I currently use, so Dark vortex and Body-inscription are excluded. That leaves me with the lance and Echo's previous body.'
He faced Grant and asked with a plain voice.
"Is it possible to sell magical beast's bodies here?"
Grant nodded and smiled.
"I can bring you to a friend of mine that will buy it for a good price. If it is adequately intact, he might even pay you with Credits."
'He will pay me in gold then.'
Noah was sure that the body of the rank 3 beast was far from the standards of Grant's friend.
Kirk had, by then, finished his inspection and had put and hand under his chin, he was immersed in his thoughts.
Then he spoke without changing his posture.
"Thirty-three weapons of high quality. Sadly, more than twenty of them had been used previously so their price will lower. What do you think of one hundred and sixty gold for all the goods?"
Noah didn't hesitate.
"Deal."
Kirk hurriedly opened a secret compartment and took out three bags from it.
He handed them to Noah who simply inspected them with his mental energy before storing them.
Kirk was all smiles after the transaction was over and had his hands clasped together when he spoke with Noah.
"Tell me if I can be useful with anything else."
Noah thought briefly and then replied.
"Do you know of a place that might buy an inscribed weapon?"