Life Giver

While Elena continued perusing the clothing stalls, Casmir walked through the market towards its outskirts.

As he walked, the large busy stalls gradually became smaller until eventually Casmir entered an open area without many stalls, but still filled with vendors selling their wares on rough cloths they had thrown on the ground.

These vendors were often called the Odd Traders, it was where people came to sell their items if they didn't want to do so through a professional trader. There were old men selling off the treasures they had hoarded in their lives, young traders looking to build up their own fortune and of course opportunists, trying to peddle trash as treasures.

It was by far the most chaotic trading area, you could find many items of varying quality for a good price, albeit at the risk of being ripped off if your eyesight wasn't keen enough.

One of the things Casmir enjoyed about this area were the hunters, these were people who had left the city to hunt for various rare animals and natural treasures. They would always have unique items to sell that were rare to be found elsewhere, although Casmir would rarely buy anything any of them he they drew his curiosity nonetheless.

As Casmir walked through the market he stopped at to one such hunter, this hunter had a large carcass in front of him that he was butchering on the spot, it was held in the air by a metal rack skewer by two sharp spikes. Local residents would sometimes walk by, haggle with the hunter over the price for a cut of meat before agreeing or moving on their way.

However on a small cloth to the side the hunter had laid out a few odd items, these were what Casmir was interested in.

Various rocks and gems, old bones and animal parts, even some delicate plants were bundled together.

Each object had their own use but only experienced eyes would recognise most of them, some of the objects were in fact worthless but there was no way to separate them just based on looks.

As Casmir was observing these objects, an ordinary man with a large belly, yet keen and observant eyes passed by the hunter.

He suddenly stopped, casually asking for a cut of meat without caring about the price. Observers would see this man as a sloppy but rich good for nothing, one could see them walking around the markets throwing around there money all the time.

Suddenly the large bellied man glanced at a bouquet of flowers on the hunters cloth.

"Oh those are quite pretty? I'll give you 8 silver for those flowers along with the meat." He said seemingly without a thought.

Unfortunately for the large bellied man, the hunter simply glanced at him and said coldly.

"5 gold."

The large bellied man looked shocked at the price but he didn't raise his voice, speaking quite calmly so as not to draw attention.

"What are you saying? 9 silver, that's 4 silver just for the flowers!" He said with a rough smile as if he knew the hunter wouldn't turn him down.

The hunter frowned but he nodded, picking up the bundle of flowers.

However just before he handed the flowers over, he plucked an unassuming grass-like plant out of the bundle as if he was removing a weed from the flowers.

"Here you are, you wouldn't want that random plant ruining your bundle of flowers. 9 silver please?" The hunter said with a mischievous smile.

The large bellied man's face warped as he saw this, then he sighed and finally gave up his act,

He raised his hand up to his chin rubbing it as he thought quite deeply. He eyed the grass-like plant the hunter had removed from the bouquet of flowers with delicate appreciation.

"Fine, fine.. 2 gold 90 silver for the Polythean Grass.." The large bellied man finally said.

The hunter quickly nodded, he placed the 'Polythean Grass' back into the bundle before exchanging it with the large bellied man happily.

Casmir watched the whole exchange with interest, he didn't know what Polythean Grass was but clearly the hunter and this large bellied man did, the small herbs value was as much as the entire carcass of the animal the hunter was butchering.

This was a perfect example of how cunning and scheming the people here could be.

The bouquet of flowers was worth no more than a few copper without the Polythean grass, if the large bellied man had truly bought it for 4 silver he was a fool. However if the hunter had simply sold the whole bouquet for such a low price, he would have been the fool.

Fortunately both parties were knowledgeable and didn't waste their efforts, agreeing on a reasonable price for the both of them.

As Casmir walked around the market, he spotted one vendor selling various pieces of jewellery, Casmir immediately remembered that he needed to find a ring for Rose so he decided to have a look.

The vendor had a variety of precious metal rings like gold and silver, but Casmir wanted to find something special. Eventually he turned his attention to a few crystal rings that the vendor had, they had much more varied and beautiful appearances which gave Casmir a good impression of them.

Casmir asked the vendor about the crystal rings and he was told they were carved out of depleted Qi crystals.

Casmir was aware that when a Qi crystal is depleted of Qi energy a few different things can happen to the remaining structure depending on the material it was made up from. It might simply crumble into stone or dust, it could remain as a crystal simply losing its Qi energy or sometimes it might reform into valuable materials.

As Casmir spoke to the vendor he formed an idea.

He could carve Rose a ring personally from a depleted Qi crystal, forming it into a shape that suited Rose perfectly.

The vendor also had various raw Qi crystals that were depleted, Casmir picked a few blue and purple coloured crystals and bought them for this purpose.

Casmir was quite pleased with his idea but for now he didn't have the ability to carve a ring, he wondered if Master Bluefire might teach it too him. After all, depleted Qi crystals can be used in Refining as a material, it's possible such a skill might be something he needs to learn as a refiner.

As he wondered about what to do about Rose's ring Casmir continued to look around the market.

He eventually found a few cultivators selling some basic cultivation materials they no longer had any need for.

Casmir bought a few miscellaneous items from them including an assortment of pills for cultivation. However these pills didn't contain any Qi energy, it was more appropriate to call them medicines than pills.

This was because traditionally, pills referred to items refined by cultivators from special Classes such as Alchemists or Herbalists. These pills should contain forms of Qi energy with various uses such as healing and replenishing Qi energy among other things.

The medicines that Casmir bought were made using everyday herbs and various normal substances, but they had noticeably effects on people such as increasing concentration, replacing meals, increasing natural healing etc.

One could think of these medicines as proto-pills, similar to tradition pills but of a lesser form.

Eventually as Casmir continued around the market he found an old man selling a few assorted items including various books.

The only reason Casmir noticed them was because he recognised one of the books as one Gloria had given him previously.

Casmir picked up a couple of the books and realised they were fairly old but most of them were about cultivation. There were some relating to various Classes cultivators could study in and others seemed to be copies of diaries written by famous cultivators.

The old man noticed Casmir interest in the books, with just a glance he knew that Casmir was a young cultivator.

"If you're interested in these books, they're quite cheap. Only 2 silver each." He explained.

Casmir nodded back, he was a bit interested in these books especially in the diaries of famous cultivators.

"I'll take these 6." Casmir said as he picked an assortment of books and reached into his pocket to find some money.

The old man didn't immediately take his money, he picked up one rather neglected book offering it to Casmir.

"What about this book? It's a bit roughed up so it's only 1 silver! It's a biography of Helios Jing-Sheng, one of a kind!" The old man explained, clearly trying to peddle his wares.

Casmir was going to turn him down, but then he recalled who Helios Jing-Sheng was.

A famous cultivator and hero of the most recent large scale war against the Ariel Kingdom, creators of the Lifeless Plague.

Casmir decided to get it out of curiosity.

He paid the old man before he decided it was time to find Elena and plan where to take her for dinner.

The old man who sold the book was almost laughing as he watched Casmir walk away.

"Haha.. what an idiot.. I picked up that book from a corpse in the forest. It's just some fools rambling about Helios Jing-Sheng, completely worthless!" The old man mumbled to himself with a rotten grin on his face.

It would remain to be scene whether the old man's eyes were keen enough to realise this books true value however....

=======

Casmir and Elena had taken their time in the market, they arrived in the late morning and left in the late afternoon.

On their way home Casmir suggested they eat at a nice restaurant with a large outside eating space. He picked a quite casual restaurant that happened to have few people dining at this time.

Casmir would have chosen another restaurant if it wasn't for the items he was carrying, after putting his and Elena's shopping together they could build a tower as tall as Elena.

Casmir could carry the weight fairly easily, but he looked ridiculous holding so many items and Elena barely helped by carrying some of her clothing.

Elena even made fun of his appearance as he carried this shopping.

Fortunately Casmir was an understanding person and wouldn't steep so low as to hold a grudge against Elena that he would unleash on her later.. when she was vulnerable..

But regardless of that, at the moment Casmir and Elena had finished their meal and were talking about what they saw at the market today.

"Oh that reminds me! Someone brought it a whole family of tamed Snow Fox's to the market. You know those cute fluffy white ones? But before anyone could even ask the price, some rich lady bought the whole lot with a Grade 2 Qi Crystal!" Elena explained with a shake of her head but slight envy in her eyes.

Casmir simply smiled, he understood why Elena liked those animals, they were indeed exceptionally cute.

"Haha.. I'm afraid you'll never get to buy one of them Elena.. but by the way, how much is a Qi Crystal worth? In gold I mean?" Casmir asked.

Elena thought about it for a moment before she answered.

"Well it's a bit confusing.. you know that Qi Crystals are often used as a currency for cultivators? Well a Grade 2 Qi Crystal is worth about 10,000 gold or so." Rose explained.

Casmir shook his head when he heard this, it was clear that this price was a sharp limit for reducing the amount of independent cultivators.

"Wait, what about Grade 1 Qi Crystals?" Casmir asked.

"Well they don't actually use Grade 1 Qi Crystals because their Crystal form is so unstable and such low Grade Qi energy is so abundant in the air naturally that it's value is tiny. Grade 1 Qi Crystals are actually rarer than Grade 2 Qi Crystals because of their instability and only low level cultivators might need them so they're mostly left untouched." Elena explained.

"Oh and one more thing, Qi Crystals are defined by the traditional purity grades, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 etc.. but only perfect Qi Crystals are used as currency. So Qi crystals at Grade 2.5, 3.5,4.5 etc."

"What.. Why?" Casmir asked in confusion.

"Again it's all because of their instability, Qi crystals at imperfect Grades often start to slowly decay after they are mined. Crystals at grades 2.5, 3.5 etc don't decay, or at least it's very rare." Elena said.

Casmir nodded in understanding.

"And the value of Grade 3 Qi Crystal compared to Grade 2?"

"100 to 1, so 1 Grade 3 Qi crystal is worth about a million gold.." Elena replied.

"That's ridiculous.." Casmir exclaimed in disbelief as he thought about the value of cultivation resources.

Elena looked at Casmir, he was engrossed in his thoughts for a few minutes before Elena couldn't take it any longer.

"Hey, hey.. you're supposed to be showing me a nice time?" Elena called out to him.

Casmir put on an awkward smile as he was awoken from his thoughts.

"Sorry, my bad. How about we head home? I can 'pamper' you better there?" Casmir said, hinting towards a certain meaning.

Hearing Casmir's suggestion, Elena got up from her chair and walked around the table. She leaned down to Casmir's face giving him a shy kiss.

"I can't wait.."

Elena then jogged away from Casmir as if fearing he would try to catch her. Casmir was just about to chase after her when Elena turned back to face him, gracefully pointing at the nearby pile of shopping.

The expression on Casmir's face changed drastically as Elena ran away, she only left behind a soft and playful chuckle.