SPIRIT SOUL

Upon reaching the small pharmacy that had a lingering aromatic herbal scent, Kyle and Selene saw a woman at the counter. She had gray hair and some wrinkles around her dark brown eyes and was tending to a few plants.

When the pharmacist noticed them, she just smiled at them and waved her hands, asking both of them to come closer as she asked,

"I've never seen you two before, are you new here? On a short stop to our village, I guess?"

Kyle simply nodded his head, and the pharmacist turned her attention back to her herbs, apparently done with her small talk.

"That's correct. We found something on our way, and would like to sell it, if possible!"

Despite being uninterested in the two youngsters, she perked up her ears on hearing Kyle's words.

She squinted her eyes and looked at Kyle, who was carefully taking out a bunch of thick, dark blue grass from his backpack and placing it on the counter.

The dark blue blades of grass had paper-thin veins spreading through them that had a soft glow. The leaves looked nothing short of magical as the light green-colored veins shone against the dark blue leaf.

A faint cooling sensation radiated from it and the previously uninterested pharmacist shot up from her chair, accidentally kicking it in her haste to rush across the small room.

Once she reached Kyle, she immediately took a leaf to inspect without bothering to ask for his permission.

A few seconds passed, in which the pharmacist carefully observed the grass by holding it against the sunlight as well as testing a few things.

After she was done with her assessment, she stared straight into Kyle's distinct emerald-colored eyes that had faint traces of azure around his irises.

"Is that...meligna grass? How can it be so fresh as if it was harvested only a few hours ago? It should be withered because their season is over...Just how?"

Amused at her reaction, Kyle only glanced at Selene to give her a knowing look but instead of answering the old lady, he remained silent.

A slow smile appeared on his lips, revealing his white teeth.

He merely shrugged his shoulders after a few seconds, acting clueless and waited for a response as the pharmacist took another step towards him.

"Can you provide more of it? What currency do you want in exchange? We have small Pryr and Maest crystals of low quality. By the way, the ratio is one Pryr crystal for two Maest crystals! State your price!"

The pharmacist's attitude changed in a matter of seconds as greed consumed her.

Now, she was enthusiastic and eager to purchase the meligna grass Selene had found some time ago.

In the end, it was an ordinary type of grass without much use.

The only use Kyle knew of the grass was to make certain types of pastes to disinfect wounds, preventing simple injuries from festering into deeper ones.

Even the slightest injury could turn fatal if it wasn't tended to at the right time. Kyle was aware of this owing to his past life experience where most of the beasts were hosts to a large variety of highly infectious bacteria found in their saliva, teeth, and claws.

As such, even a scratch or a light graze of the beasts' claws or teeth were likely to cause infection!

There were also lots of different diseases that one could contract, and Kyle knew a lot of them.

With the freshly cut meligna grass, the pharmacists could produce the finest quality paste instead of using dried meligna grass.

Usually, it was neatly stored in air-tight containers to preserve their effect to the maximum to last for the next few months until it was in season and ready to be freshly harvested again.

It was no big secret that the potency of fresh ingredients was a lot higher than dried ones.

Thus, the old woman's eyes twinkled in excitement as she thought of the profits she could make by selling the paste.

A small village like theirs was unlikely to have someone with a healing affinity after all!

Kyle was aware of this as well, and despite being a commonly found grass, he could sell it for a decent price.

The demand for it was high because fresh meligna grass was several times more efficient than the dried one the pharmacy was currently using.

As such, the demand for the grass was even more in villages that required every single combatant to be fit and without any injuries.

Nevertheless, he was not sure how many Pryr, or Maest crystals he could receive in exchange for the bunch of meligna grass. He began to wonder if he could receive enough to lodge a small room which he and Selene could use to stay for a few days.

"Tell me, how much are you willing to pay?" He asked the pharmacist upfront and ignored her previous questions, while Selene gulped nervously as her eyes flicked from her master to the old lady.

She felt that neither Kyle nor the pharmacist was going to back down, but on the outside, both of them were simply smiling at each other knowingly, causing her to have goosebumps.

"5 Pryr or 10 Maest crystals! This is already a generous offer and enough to let you rent a small room for an entire week if you're not traveling. We need the anti-inflammation paste for which I need the fresh grass. Otherwise, I would have offered you a lower price!"

The price sounded reasonable to Kyle at first.

However, on second thought, he could tell that she was trying to make him feel bad if he were to start negotiating by stating a higher price. Unfortunately, Kyle was too smart to fall for her trap so easily and had seen right through her!

'Trying to guilt-trip me without a reason? Let's see how much I can squeeze out of you!'

Kyle's smile vanished and the pharmacist noticed that something was off when she heard his offer,

"7 Pryr crystals or 14 Maest crystals!"

The pharmacist frowned, but she remained calm as she hurriedly countered,

"I can't do that, it's way too expensive! 6 Pryr or 12 Maest crystals...I have to make a living too!"

Unbothered by her words, he negotiated stringently,

"You shouldn't have tried to exploit me. 8 Pryr or 16 Maest crystals!"

Her cheeks turned red in rage, but she knew that her first price was way below average as such, she had to find a compromise.

"Argh!! 7 Pryr or 14 Maest crystals are...fine!"

However, Kyle just shook his head as he sighed.

"So you acknowledge lying to me but you don't even want to apologize or prove how sincere you are? A stable supply is also not what you want for the next few weeks...I see. That's unfortunate...!"

At that moment, Selene almost exclaimed 'for the next few weeks', repeating after Kyle in astonishment, but fortunately, she stayed silent.

Kyle didn't plan to stay in the Alsa village for a long time, but it was not necessarily the same with others.

As such, he wanted to reap the most benefits with his first negotiation to demonstrate that he was not a pushover.

'I hope she will complain about me to the other villagers!' He thought, seeing how red the pharmacist's cheeks had turned.

Nevertheless, she forced herself to calm down after she heard 'stable supply' and 'for the next few weeks.

? This was an opportunity for her too! If she were to produce the same, high-quality paste as always, while advertising that it was much harder to find fresh ingredients required to make the paste, she could increase the selling price for the inflammation paste too!

'Let's calm down a little!'

The pharmacist smiled brightly which caused even Selene to frown despite being scared of other Aldras such as Kyle.

"Dear Customer, please don't be offended. It's all business, right? Let's go with 8 Pryr or 16 Maest crystals as you asked! That's way above the price I would usually offer, and my way to apologize to you! However, for the next few batches of fresh meligna grass, we should negotiate a different, and fair price for both of us, alright?"

He nodded his head ignoring her intrusive attitude,

"Alright, please give me 3 Pryr and 10 Maest crystals."

Now that their small face-off was over, he reverted to being polite and courteous to her after making his point.

It was for the sake of business after all, and nobody had been insulted.

As long as both sides were able to differentiate business from one's personal life, many problems could be avoided.

The pharmacist seemed to have a similar perspective of business as Kyle which was great. There were just a few petty tricks the pharmacist had tried before running straight into his trap.

Now that it was over, he handed over the rest of the meligna grass before he received a small cloth pouch with 3 Pryr and 10 Maest crystals that were marble-sized.

After that, Kyle thanked the pharmacist before he turned around to see Selene rooted to the spot.

"What's wrong with you? Come on, we have lots of things to do!"