Aileen was indeed very excited now for she had an innate sensitivity to all transactions; after asking Monte a few questions, she began to take action.
However, this meant that Rocky and his companions had nothing to do, and even Monte was in the same situation. Although he was familiar with the place, he was far inferior to Aileen, the business expert, and was of no help at all.
In this situation, Rocky made a suggestion:
“Monte, could you show us around? Besides purchasing demons, the merchants here should also sell them, right?”
“My lord, yes,” Monte nodded, then said, “This exchange almost gathers all buyers and sellers pertaining to demons. If my lord needs anything, you will definitely find it here.”
During their conversation, he led Rocky and Liliya deeper into the hall and then up the stairs to the second floor of the exchange.
The Hunting Exchange was five stories tall; the first-floor hall mainly handled information dissemination and account settlements, while from the second floor onward, there were independent storefronts of various merchants. Just as Monte said, there were both buyers and sellers within this exchange. Besides Demon Hunters who came here to sell demons, many also came here to buy demons.
Of course, those who came to buy demons would not purchase a whole demon but certain parts, such as the Demon’s Horn, demon skin, or the Demon Core, and so on.
In this state of affairs, when Rocky entered the second floor under Monte’s guidance, he quickly saw the separate storefronts, which instantly gave him the feeling of browsing through a shopping mall, and it felt like a luxury shopping mall at that.
“What is this?”
Rocky entered a shop casually and immediately noticed a long horn displayed inside the counter. The horn was grey-white in color, nearly one and a half meters in length, but straight as a ruler, which was quite unusual.
So after looking at it for a while at the counter, Rocky couldn’t help but ask.
“My lord, this is a horn from a Wild Poison Demon, extremely hard. With just simple polishing, it can be directly made into a weapon, or even inlaid with Magic Stones to become a Mana Weapon,” Monte explained.
“The hunter is correct,” said a man who walked out of the shop. Judging by his dress, he appeared to be the owner. Approaching Rocky, the man continued, “My lord, this indeed is the Horn of the Wild Poison. The most valuable part of the Wild Poison Demon is this very horn. It is a top choice for making Magic Energy Weapons.”
As a merchant, the owner naturally had an eye for judging people, so he recognized at first glance that Rocky was no ordinary individual; therefore, he was very enthusiastic.
However, that was normal; although Rocky’s attire wasn’t particularly lavish, he was after all the City Lord, and he did have several high-end noble garments. Additionally, being the lord of a city, his natural demeanor set him apart from common folk, so it was not surprising for his extraordinary status to be noticed.
“Why is this horn particularly suitable for making Mana Weapons?”
Rocky, evidently intrigued by the owner’s pitch, couldn’t help but inquire further.
Hearing his question, the owner became even more certain of Rocky’s uncommon status, for the more noble one’s identity, the less they knew about demons.
Subsequently, the owner said, “My lord, the Horn of the Wild Poison has the strongest adaptability to Mana among low-level demons, with excellent conductivity. Thus, Mana Weapons made from this horn are at least ten percent more powerful than ordinary Mana Weapons.”
“It has such an effect? How much is this horn?” Rocky nodded, asking casually about the price of the Horn of the Wild Poison.
“Fifteen thousand Gold Coins.”
Seeing that Rocky had inquired about the price, the shop owner cheerfully put forth a figure.
However, that number nearly gave Rocky a scare!
Just one horn, and it costs fifteen thousand Gold Coins!?
Such a high price was far beyond Rocky’s expectations and even left him at a loss for words.
Luckily, at that moment, there was a heavy sigh from behind, followed by Monte’s voice, “My lord, perhaps we should look in other shops.”
“Alright.”
Upon hearing Monte’s suggestion, Rocky promptly agreed and then walked away without looking back, his decisiveness catching the shop owner off guard…
Actually, he genuinely took an interest in the Horn of the Wild Poison. Since the horn provided a boost to the Mana from Magic Stones, he wondered if it would also enhance Mana Runes. So he wanted to purchase the horn for experimentation, but he never expected it to be so expensive.
He had assumed that the horn would cost around a thousand Gold Coins, which, even though not cheap for him, was still affordable if he tightened his belt. To his surprise, the price of the Horn of the Wild Poison exceeded his estimate by more than tenfold!
Splurging thousands of Gold Coins on such a demon horn was simply beyond what Rocky could afford, so he left using Monte’s interjection as an opportunity.
“Monte, was that Horn of the Wild Poison really worth fifteen thousand Gold Coins?” Rocky asked, still somewhat reluctant to let it go; he really wanted to get his hands on it.
After leaving the aforementioned shop, a slightly discontented Rocky questioned Monte – he was indeed very interested in purchasing the Horn of the Wild Poison.
“My lord, the Horn of the Wild Poison is indeed a fine material for crafting mana weapons, but it’s not worth that much,” the shopkeeper said. “The store owner must have sensed your noble status and purposely quoted a high price. In fact, if you really want it, you could find it for no more than eight thousand Gold Coins.”
Eight thousand Gold Coins…
This number crushed Rocky’s hopes entirely.
Although eight thousand Gold Coins was nearly half the price of fifteen thousand Gold Coins, it was still well beyond Rocky’s budget. Of course, he could produce eight thousand Gold Coins, but he would never spend so much for a single Demon’s Horn.
So, with no other option, Rocky had to completely give up on the Horn of the Wild Poison and then walked into another store.
Afterward, he, Liliya, and Monte started browsing through the Hunting Exchange, stopping at different stores along the way. They may not have bought much, but the experience gave Rocky a general idea of the market prices for demon trades and exposed him to a wide range of goods.
It must be said, all trades related to demons were incredibly lucrative. Items like the Horn of the Wild Poison were commonplace here, each commanding prices upwards of ten thousand Gold Coins, and even the more common ones cost several thousand Gold Coins.
For Rocky, who wished to purchase something here, such steep prices were both a good and a bad thing.
He did not have tens of thousands of Gold Coins to spend on these items. Rocky had set a maximum spending limit for himself of just one thousand Gold Coins—that was the limit he could afford.
Actually, one thousand Gold Coins was not a small sum; it could even buy a piece of top-quality magic energy equipment, but sadly, it was nowhere nearly enough here.
However, since items related to demons could be sold at such exorbitant prices, Rocky was filled with anticipation about how much he could sell his Greyrock Stone for.
Previously, Aileen had conservatively estimated that the Greyrock Stone could be sold for more than ten thousand Gold Coins, but this was just a forecast based on what she heard from other merchants. The actual price would depend on the market at the Hunting Exchange.
This filled Rocky with anticipation, so even though he couldn’t afford anything here, he remained cheerful and, before he knew it, he had unconsciously wandered up to the third floor of the Exchange.
According to Monte, the items sold in the Exchange became progressively more expensive and high-end with each floor. By the time one reached the fifth floor, it was all about high-level demon items, where any random item could fetch a price of over a hundred thousand Gold Coins!
However, even though that was the case, the moment Rocky stepped into the first store on the third floor, he was immediately attracted to an item.
“Is this a demon tooth?”
With a casual glance, Rocky noticed a tooth displayed in the showcase. The tooth was about a foot long, and its grey appearance was quite unremarkable compared to the other items in the showcase, but it caught Rocky’s attention immediately.
“This… I’m not quite sure.”
Monte approached the showcase for a closer look but still couldn’t identify which demon the tooth belonged to after a long while.
“Shopkeeper, what kind of demon tooth is this?”
Seeing that even Monte couldn’t recognize it, Rocky grew even more curious and decided to ask the store owner directly.
“My lord, to be honest, we also don’t know which demon this tooth comes from.”
When asked by Rocky, a hint of embarrassment appeared on the owner’s face: “This tooth has been in our inventory for several years now, and the initial records are long gone, so I’m not entirely sure which demon it belonged to.”
“But rest assured, there is absolutely no problem with the quality of this tooth, and its size is perfect for crafting into a dagger. Even if used to make a mana weapon, it would be much superior to ordinary materials.”
“How much for this tooth?”
After the owner finished speaking, Rocky immediately inquired.
“One thousand two hundred Gold Coins.”
It was clear the shopkeeper wanted to sell this unidentified demon tooth, so the quoted price wasn’t too high.
Rocky’s eyes lit up upon hearing the price—it was acceptable to him. Although the tooth’s origin was unknown, Rocky intended to buy it for experimentation, so he didn’t need it to be of the highest grade.
With that thought, he turned to look at Liliya: “Go and call Aileen.”
Although the tooth wasn’t very expensive, Rocky felt there might be room to negotiate the price, so he decided to have Aileen come over, as no one among them was better at bargaining than her.
Soon after, Liliya returned with Aileen in tow.
“My lord! Why are you spending money recklessly again?”
As soon as Liliya found her, Aileen confronted Rocky with a pout and an unhappy face. She didn’t even give Rocky a chance to speak before she blurted out, “Why bother buying such things, my lord? I’ve already made arrangements with the Continental Commerce Chamber. After this trade is completed, they will gift us ten Man-Eating Demon teeth.”
“My lord, please go back. Don’t cause me any more trouble here.”
Pouting, Aileen complained to Rocky, and as soon as she finished speaking, everyone present was taken aback.