Chapter 1517: Price Gouging
Regardless of the circumstances, encountering danger on my first transaction made me abandon the idea of looking for other good items to buy. The Undead here were extremely ferocious and not to be trifled with.
Although this bar theoretically had a command prohibiting guests from making a move, the scope of this prohibition was clearly very broad. It wasn’t just the female ghost who attacked me earlier; I had already seen several instances where people resorted to violence during transactions.
However, these were all minor scuffles, a brush of Death Qi here, a bump against someone there. They were constantly probing each other without crossing the line into an actual attack, provoking the other party to make the first move.
The bar clearly understood the nature of its patrons. Minor friction was unavoidable. If there were any larger conflicts, the bar’s servers would merely intervene, with no serious punishments meted out. It was no wonder that female ghost dared to be so bold and directly plot against me.
“Sister Parul, you should be careful too. You gave a diamond to that Dead Infant and took the Cemetery Black Rose from the female ghost. Be careful that they don’t track you down through the residual aura of the items,” Via reminded her.
“There’s no other way. I must have this Cemetery Black Rose. At worst, I’ll give it to Older Brother Jayad when we get back. Let’s see if she dares to come,” Parul replied.
I believe that even two Evil Spirits wouldn’t dare to do anything to Older Brother Jayad. Moreover, I wasn’t truly afraid of her in a real fight. I was just caught off guard earlier, not expecting her to actually make a move and losing the initiative.
For now, I also didn’t want to leave and go shopping. I was afraid of encountering more unfriendly sellers, and I hadn’t found anything I needed yet.
So, we set up a small stall at our table, stating that we needed medicinal herbs for treating Ghosts or restoring Spirit in exchange. With three of us present, no one would dare to cause trouble.
The items we displayed on the table included several bottles of Monster Blood, some potions effective against the Undead, a few Monster bones, and finally, placed separately in a small bottle, a drop of Via’s blood and a scale from Sherris.
These were both essence parts taken from them. According to them, they were very useful materials for other Undead, capable of surpassing their original rank.
As expected, a Tomb Evil Spirit soon approached us and asked about the price of the scale. However, upon seeing our requirements, it became quite distressed.
It was a type of Undead that fed on carrion, just like Sherris, so Sherris’s scale would be useful to it. But as an Undead with a physical body, it didn’t place much importance on Ghost-healing potions and hadn’t collected many.
It rummaged through its bag and offered some items in exchange, but I shook my head. I wasn’t interested in these underworld items; I didn’t want my home to be filled with a ghostly aura.
The Tomb Evil Spirit left in disappointment. Then, a Penal Executed Banshee, covered in long, disheveled hair and charred all over, approached. It picked up a Monster skull and looked at it with interest.
I frowned. This was a Penal Executed Banshee, an Undead formed from a witch or sorceress burned at the stake, retaining some memories from her life.
Generally, a proper execution using the Holy Fire by the Church to purify defilement and resentment would not result in the creation of an Undead.
However, if the execution was irregular, for instance, if villagers or minor lords in the countryside captured a witch and sentenced her to burning at the stake without the guidance of clergy, and her internal Magic Power was not dissipated, her corpse could very well reanimate.
In other words, the one before me was likely my colleague in life. I didn’t expect to meet a second living witch, but I had encountered a dead one.
“This skull is good,” the Banshee said, her voice pleasant. However, I noticed it was a magically simulated voice; her real vocal cords were likely burned away during the execution.
She took out three jet-black fruits from her sleeve and placed them on my table. The knowledge in my brain told me that these fruits, called Yin Dates, grew in places where blood had been shed. They matured in three years and had the effect of healing the Soul body for the Undead, but they would make Living People sick. ‘
“Three Yin Dates are not enough. This skull is worth at least five,” Via said. This was a medium-level Monster skull, and its bounty level in the Adventurer’s Guild should be A-rank. Three Yin Dates were indeed a bit cheap.
“I only have three. Would you like to exchange for other items?” the Banshee said. Compared to her terrifying appearance, she was surprisingly easy to talk to. Perhaps because she retained memories from her life, she was more rational and humane.
“No need, we’ll exchange it,” I said, taking the Yin Dates. I needed these medicinal herbs now, even if I took a slight loss in price, I didn’t care.
“Thank you.” The Penal Executed Banshee didn’t stand on ceremony, picked up the Monster skull, and left. This was our first successful transaction, a good start. I hoped we would continue to smoothly exchange for the medicinal herbs we needed.
Subsequently, more and more Undead came to our table, inquiring about the prices of our goods. However, most of them could only shake their heads after hearing our requirements. For those few who could trade, they offered only medicinal herbs with weaker effects.
Of course, some Undead proposed to trade other treasures, and I declined most of them. The only exception was a flying zombie that produced a Soul Nourishing Jade and proposed to exchange it for both Via’s blood and Sherris’s scale.
That jade could protect the Soul body from dissipating and enhance the strength of its solidified form. It was a very precious treasure for Soul-type Undead, but it was useless to Zombies because they had no Soul, which was why it was offered for trade.
I could use the Soul Nourishing Jade for Lorna later. If she wore it continuously, her Soul body would gradually strengthen. I no longer refused and agreed to the exchange. In addition to Via’s blood and Sherris’s scale, I also added a jar of blood and a few bones to make up the price difference.
When we waited for a while with no one else coming, and it seemed that everyone who had looked had nothing we wanted, I suddenly noticed that the dance floor had a new batch of goods.
The dance floor was where the organizers displayed their items, and their goods were generally of good quality. The bar wouldn’t occupy space with overly common items.
I noticed a server place a crystal box on the ground. Inside the box was a plant that looked very much like a pitcher plant, with sharp white fangs growing at its opening, like the mouth of a beast.
However, the truly important thing wasn’t this plant. Soon, a soft-bodied animal resembling a slug crawled out of the plant’s opening, but it was a semi-transparent Spirit Body.
This Spirit Snail was crawling forward with a plant on its head. It did indeed look very much like a snail, except that it didn’t have a shell on its back. This was one of the best medicinal herbs we had pre-selected on our list, the Pitcher Plant Spirit Snail. As long as we bought it, we would have basically achieved our goal.
I immediately stood up and walked towards the dance floor, prepared to acquire it at any cost. Via sighed behind me, “The blood from buying the Spirit Snail would be enough for me to drink for several days.”
