Unlike what William expected, Thomas gave him such a weird answer.
But he wasn't ready yet to give up.
"How so?"
"You'll ask me to see through the past of anything, its relationship with anyone or anything. You'll ask me to carry stuff, serve you and deliver things and orders around, even fighting by your side," Thomas said as if this was his normal life since he was born, "it's all the same to me, and I'm ready to do any of that."
"Sure, I'm going to ask you to do things for me, fight for me," William nodded, "but first we'll have a long talk between the two of us."
"As the master wishes."
"Not even curious to know about what?" William tried to push this youth to show any sign of curiosity or interest, any sign at all except for his cold and statue-like expression on his face.
But Thomas shrugged, not even caring about speaking a single word.
"Quite troublesome dude you are," William shifted his eyes towards the direction of the Refos merchant group, "sooner or later I'll change you to be a better dude, one who smiles more often than frowns."
Thomas didn't place any importance on William's words, and just kept walking by his new master's side. The two made a very funny scene, with a thin and wasted looking short kid walking by the side of a muscular and tall person, one that looked like a real man, a real spirit master.
It felt like a father was walking by the side of his son, or a big brother taking care of his younger one. No one would ever imagine the two were master and servant, with the wasted kid being the former.
"Sir, our turn is about to come after these five dudes finish their business," and when William walked to the front of the line, he found that dude from before, the one who asked to stand in his place, Trevor, standing like an obedient kid in the forefront of the long line.
"Good job," William took out the promised remaining price, eight hundred spirit crystals, "take these and leave."
"Anything else?" That dude's eyes shone brightly, "I can do anything for you, carrying stuff, arranging the house, buying materials, anything for the master."
"Hmm…" William paused as he already needed someone to do such troublesome things for him. He lived as a porter before, and he didn't want to experience such life again.
"How much will that cost me?" William knew he needed such a helping hand, but he wasn't ready to get extorted for lots of spirit crystals.
"Well… The standard price… One hundred thousand spirit crystals per month…"
"Bullshit!" William wasn't the one to speak, but Thomas, "that's a daylight steal!"
"Ouch! Sorry I got things mixed and messed up in my mind," Trevor coughed before hurriedly adding, "it's f… No, ten thousand spirit crystals per month."
William didn't answer the dude right away but turned to look at Thomas. He didn't belong here, and so he didn't know what was known to be the right price and what was a scam.
"It's a fair price," Thomas just said these little words and returned to his silence.
"Cool," William lightly accepted the offer of this youth, accepting a new member to his team, "from now on, you'll follow me wherever I go and do everything I say."
"Thanks, master, for your kindness," Trevor was excited, "I will always follow your orders and won't let you be disappointed…"
"Next!"
Just before this dude would continue his long speech about his loyalty and useful actions, a loud shout came from the front as it was already their turn.
"Please state your purpose of coming to our place," William stepped up with the other two standing by his side. He saw a middle-aged man, wearing a bright uniform that was made out of gold and silver threads.
On his chest, a mark of three coins floating in the middle of many black and yellow specks were there. It was a unique pattern, one that William had never seen before.
"I'm here to sell something in the next auction."
"You do know that we take twenty percent of the total price?"
"Twenty?!" William was shocked by this. It seemed this group of merchants was a greedy one.
"And we don't accept just any goods," the man slowly added, "if you still want to do this, please go there, head right and then left, follow the corridor until you'll meet the one responsible for appraising your goods and finalising the deal."
"O… Ok…" William was still baffled by this twenty percent thing, even turning to his two followers as he muttered in low voice, "twenty percent? That's a steal!"
"No master, this is the norm here," Trevor said, "any auction arranged by the Refos group will attract many eyes, wealthy and rich folks will flood here. Anything that's sold outside will be sold at least five times its initial price here. And that's why they are asking for such fees for their services."
"It's true," William turned to the statue walking by that servant, and Thomas simply said these little words to confirm what Trevor said.
"What can I do for you?" William could only believe what these two said. If he'd get five times the original price, even if he got just three times the initial price of these cores, then he'd get a fortune. Taking such a large cut wasn't going to be bad in the end.
And as William followed the instructions of the one he met behind, he found himself standing in front of a big plaza, one that was empty of any living soul but one.
The path he followed was all built by brown bricks and common ores. And weirdly enough, the places he walked through were all void of anyone. But here, things started to change.
Things of high value were placed inside opened chests, all over the entire plaza! William could even feel lots of power coming from different items there.
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