Several hours later - Bauhinia Thorn Street.
After disguising himself and taking a long detour, Lynn finally arrived at his destination with the spell plates he had crafted. After a few failed attempts to find a proper place to sell them, he finally discovered a suitable spot.
"The Black Alley Market."
This was a relatively large open market, named after the black stone alley in which it was located.
Among the various markets that catered to wizards and the wealthy of Verdantpine City, this one was considered mid-tier in quality. Most of its goods offered good value for money, and as a result, the place was always bustling with people.
Most importantly, the market allowed temporary stalls, making it an ideal place to sell crystal spell plates.
Lynn winced as he reluctantly paid the 30 silver wolves' fee for a stall, then headed to a corner and sat down.
Unfolding a gray cloth he had brought with him, he laid out his four finished crystal spell plates.
Price tag: 1 gold dragon and 50 silver wolves per plate.
The market price for a Mind Shock plate wasn't fixed; it usually hovered around 1.6 gold dragons, sometimes more, sometimes less.
His kind of street-produced spell plate typically went for 1.5 gold dragons, give or take.
"I wonder if I'll be able to sell them today…" Lynn thought nervously as he watched the crowds flow past.
He had initially planned to approach shops directly to sell the plates. But after being turned away several times, he realized that most of those shops already had stable suppliers and wouldn't even consider buying from an independent seller like him.
Even the few that were willing to purchase offered prices as low as 80 or 90 silver wolves per plate…
At that rate, he might as well try his luck with a stall.
Time ticked by. People passed by his stall now and then, but none stopped.
"No rush. It's still morning… plenty of time."
Lynn let out a breath and pulled out a newly purchased crystal to begin carving a new spell plate.
Given his debt situation, he needed to carve spell plates every day to balance his monthly income and expenses.
So even while manning the stall, every moment counted.
With a crystal in his left hand and the carving knife in his right, Lynn started occasionally glancing up to greet passersby. But before long, he was fully immersed in his work, no longer paying attention to the flow of people.
Ironically, his focused, serious demeanor ended up attracting attention.
"Did you make all these crystal plates yourself?"
A young man in a black robe had stopped in front of the stall, watching Lynn's work with interest.
"Yes, sir." Lynn immediately put down the crystal, clapped the dust from his hands, and stood up. He pointed to the price displayed in front of the plates:
"1.5 gold dragons each."
There were no strict laws about it, but in the world of Guern, it was commonly accepted that only wizards or exceptional individuals like pre-apprentices were permitted to wear wizard robes. Ordinary people wearing them would be seen as committing a kind of affront.
The young man before him was wearing a standard wizard's robe.
And when a wizard was standing in front of you, a non-wizard like Lynn couldn't stay seated.
"May I take a look?" the man, Garan, asked casually, used to this kind of status dynamic.
"Of course." Lynn bent down, picked up one of the plates, and handed it over.
Garan took the plate and channeled a bit of magic into it through his fingertips.
After a quick inspection, he nodded. "Good quality."
He went on to examine the remaining three plates. All of them passed without issue.
Looking satisfied, Garan nodded again. "Not bad. I'll take all four. That's six gold dragons total, right?"
"Yes, sir," Lynn replied, still a bit dazed. Even as he accepted the gold coins from Garan, it all felt a little unreal.
Was it that easy? Just like that, they were sold?
Six gold dragons… Even after subtracting the stall fee, he had made a profit of 2.7 gold dragons!
Gripping the weighty gold dragons in his hand, Lynn finally felt at ease. The heavy burden that had hung over his heart dropped with a satisfying thud.
He watched the young mage disappear into the distance and let out a soft chuckle, then bent down to pack up his stall.
"With this skill in crafting crystal plates, I'll never have to worry about the academy's debt again!"
After tidying up, Lynn didn't head home right away. With his bag on his back, he wandered deeper into the Black Alley Market.
The 30 silver wolves he'd paid for the stall included a 10 silver wolf entrance fee, and he wasn't about to let that go to waste.
A short while later, he stopped in front of a stall selling miscellaneous items.
"Boss, how much for this white crystal?"
"That one you're pointing at? Two gold dragons."
Lynn examined it carefully and confirmed its quality. He nodded.
"Alright, I'll take it."
The crystal was large enough to make five spell plates, and the price was half a gold dragon cheaper than the ones he usually bought elsewhere.
"Looks like I should shop for materials in the same market where I sell my plates from now on."
Thinking this, Lynn counted out two gold dragons and handed them over.
Just then, a broken sword lying to the left of the stall caught his eye.
Only two-thirds of the blade remained. It was silver-white from tip to hilt, with a simple brown wooden handle.
At first glance, it seemed utterly unremarkable except for the tiny, dense, strange characters carved along both the blade and the grip.
Those characters weren't from any language Lynn knew, not the common tongue of mages, nor the Gurnish or Elven languages.
But strangely enough, he began to understand them.
"...Is this another passive effect of my Insight trait?"
"Besides gauging the difficulty of knowledge, does it also let me comprehend unknown written languages?"
"Or maybe this is its true passive ability all along!"
Before he could think any further, a few faint specks of shimmering white light began to rise from the broken sword.
They slowly gathered, forming two lines of glowing text:
[White Crow Swordsmanship (Fragment)]
[Consume mixed source energy to comprehend.]
Lynn froze.
White light… this might be a transcendent sword art!
Though not as brilliant as the blue glow associated with meditation techniques, it was stronger than the gray glow of spell plate crafting.
His heart skipped a beat.
Lynn kept his expression calm and casually pointed to the broken sword, pretending to ask out of idle curiosity:
"Boss, I've never seen writing like this before. What language is it?"
The stall owner gave him a look, then glanced around theatrically before lowering his voice with an air of mystery:
"That sword's no ordinary piece."
"A hunter found it deep in the Emeraldshadow Forest. It's a mage's relic, and it's said to have come from another world!"
"The writing on it might be their otherworldly script! Rumor has it that it contains priceless supernatural knowledge!"
"Oh? Sounds like this sword is pretty valuable, then." Lynn's heart sank.
He had thought he'd stumbled on a rare find, a hidden treasure no one else had noticed.
But now it seemed the stall owner already knew there was some kind of extraordinary knowledge embedded in the blade.
Sighing inwardly, Lynn was just about to walk away when the man leaned in and lowered his voice again:
"Exactly! If you buy it, you're making a profit right there. Tell you what, since you just bought that crystal, I'll give you a deal. Just 9 gold dragons for the sword, how about it?"
Nine gold dragons?
A transcendent sword art for only 9 gold dragons?
Impossible!
Lynn's heart skipped again. He narrowed his eyes and gave the greasy, overly enthusiastic stall owner a closer look; something didn't add up.
Then it hit him.
He smiled faintly, nodded politely, and silently turned away without another word.
One step… two steps… three…
Behind him, the stall owner lost his composure and called out:
"Wait! Eight gold dragons! I'll knock off another one for you. What do you say?"
Lynn paused slightly.
That clinched it; his suspicion was correct.
This stall owner either had no idea what the sword truly was and had just made up a story, or he knew a little but was bluffing the rest.
Either way, one thing was clear:
The man didn't understand the true value of that broken sword.
Which meant
Lynn had a chance to strike gold.