William noticed these gazes falling on him but didn't care about them at all. He kept walking towards the market without batting an eye towards anyone around.
What if others wondered about what went wrong with him? They didn't even spare an eye for him before. Why would he bother with those who never bothered themselves to help or care for him before?
Just as he arrived at the market entrance, his appearance attracted the attention of more eyes. It was still early in the morning, but the market was open with many sellers waiting for disciples and masters to come and buy from them.
"Excuse me my friend, are you here to sell those items?" Just as he walked past a few stalls there, one of the merchants got over his surprise and moved to warmly welcome him.
He was a fat and short guy, in mid fortieth, and looked like a man who lived long and saw a lot. His movement was fast, much faster than what such a big body would allow. The look of respect he gave to William made him feel like he was the best guy in the entire world.
This was a standard trick of merchants, making anyone feel like he was the best out there. But to William this didn't matter. All he cared about was to get the best deal for his things and claim more crystals out of this deal.
"Yes, what will you offer for all these?" William wasn't feeling tired at all. His excitement dulled his sense of fatigue, making him only crave to get his wealth and purchase monster cores.
William opened his bag slightly while exposing what was inside. He stepped aside and let the merchant examine his things.
"Well, for a single fur it's worth twelve crystals," the seller was excited to get such a good deal in the early morning. But he wasn't planning to make it easy for the young William.
Strength wasn't the only thing of value in this world, age and appearance were also important. In the eyes of such an experienced merchant, he measured William to be one of those disciples who got admitted into the academy from weak clans and poor families.
He came alone, dragging everything on his own. He had no entourage, no porters to help him carry all this loot. He was also young, only eight years old, looking fragile, and wearing the useless white uniform of porters. Which meant he was na?ve and inexperienced to even miscalculate about uniforms and pick the wrong one up.
It never crossed the merchant's mind that William didn't make a mistake to select his clothes and he was a real porter in the academy.
After all, porters weren't allowed to keep anything from helping their masters. And for such a disciple to come with this loot meant he had strength beyond what porters should have.
"As for the monkey needles, each will be sold for two crystals," the merchant added after putting a fake struggling expression on his face.
"No deal," yet the swift and firm decline from William came to crush all this merchant's dreams. "The fur worth at least twenty crystals, and the needles worth five," he made his offer before adding a threat, "if you aren't going to buy, then clear the way for me. I don't want to waste my time on shitty deals."
He didn't even show any respect with his words, and he started to move to close his bag, intending to keep looking for another merchant. He knew the value of the furs and needles might not amount to much. But their real prices were much more than what this stingy merchant offered him.
"Wait, please wait young master," the merchant instantly panicked. He felt like his luck was turning to worse, "what about sixteen crystals for each fur and four for each needle?" The merchant didn't want to lose such a valuable trade but didn't want to suffer a loss either.
William knew this was the basic price of the market. But this was in case he was selling only a few. His old experience showed up as he said in a firm resolve:
"Not a single crystal short of the offer I gave you. If you aren't willing, I believe many are."
Showing empathy for merchants was a grave mistake. He knew merchants would never strike a losing deal.
"Ok, I'll get them all," the merchant inwardly cursed. Who said age mattered? This eight years old kid was acting like an adult! Even a hard one to deal with.
"They are all yours then," as he got what he wanted, William was in a better mood, "get someone to count them and prepare the crystals for me."
"Sure, sure," the merchant didn't show any of his inner thoughts over his face or attitude, "come and have a seat. May I know what's the name of the young master?"
"William," William didn't mention his family name. After all he knew his family wasn't a big thing to use in front of such a sly merchant.
The merchant wanted to know William's family name so he would strike a deal with him later. Something told the merchant that this young kid's visit to the market wasn't the end, but simply the beginning.
Knowing more about the background of his customers was the standard move he and other merchants loved to take. By knowing more, they'd know the true value of the ones they were dealing with. And that would help a lot in evading any future trouble in disrespecting the descendants of big families or showing more respect to the ones who hailed from weaker and nameless ones.
But William simply refused to introduce his family to him, leaving this merchant with nothing else but to deal with cautious towards him.
"Alright, here are the crystals we agreed upon," after sitting inside the wide stall and drinking a fragrant cup of tea that was worth a dozen of crystals, the merchant returned with a bag filled with the agreed price.
"Thanks," William didn't even open it and simply shook the bag to know how much was within. William used his own experience to the number of crystals inside with the weight of the bag. And this simple and natural move of his attracted the attention of the merchant's keen eyes.
One had to know there was a large number of crystals inside. Using only weight coupled with the sound of crystals clashing against each other was a sign of how experienced William was in dealing with wealth.
"Do you have monster cores to sell?" As he finally got his small wealth, William was impatient to try his own theory and test it out.
"We have all kinds of cores, what grade do you seek?" having the means to get back a few of what he paid, the merchant's smile became genuinely wider.
"I'm looking for white cores, five at least, any monster will do," William slowly started his own conditions and the merchant kept nodding before he vanished inside the stall and returned with a smaller bag.
"Here, each will cost a hundred crystals each," the merchant said with a bigger smile and better mood. Just in a span of breaths, he managed to get back five hundred crystals.
William finished the deal and hurried back to his cabinet. From this day onward, he would solely focus on one thing: getting stronger.
As a porter he had to go and work for many hours each morning. But he decided not to stick to such a schedule.
Just by his current thirty-five spirit power, he could simply enrol in the academy as an official disciple. So why would he bother about something like working as a porter again? Serving others and wasting his time instead of training and getting stronger?
Not to mention he aimed to climb higher than this. He decided to start with these five cores as a test. If his ability worked, then his daily life would change.
He was just worried his ability might not work on all monsters, and that might be a problem if he failed to absorb these five crystals.
But if this worked out, he'd rather spend his night hunting monsters in the forest, and during the day he would train after selling and buying monster cores.
But there was one simple problem he had to solve. The academy wouldn't allow him to stay inside its doors without serving a purpose. So he had to show up his strength soon and got himself enrolled in the academy as an official disciple.
For a porter, a weak and useless porter for consecutive two years like him, turning into a formal disciple of the academy would create an uproar. This was simply unheard of.
William knew that would happen. Instead of worrying about that, he decided to work harder to give everyone not a shock but a scare. He wouldn't try to enrol in the academy right now but would wait for a week before going to assess his spirit power.
His target was to enter the second year class of the academy, the class accepting kids with spirit powers above one hundred; the bronze spirit master class. He aimed to cause an earthquake in the academy.
As his master always said: If you are going to do something, make sure to do it with style!