"How much should I ask for?" Shang asked.

"No less than 2,000 gold," the teacher said.

Shang's eyes widened.

,000 gold?!

He had 27!

The overpriced ore in the academy was worth only around 200 gold!

"How much would it be worth under normal circumstances?" Shang asked in shock.

"Around 500 gold," the teacher said, "and that's considering its rough condition. A well-preserved corpse can go for 800."

"And the young ones?" Shang asked.

"Around 50 gold," she said. "You can't compare Soldier Stage beasts with General Stage beasts. Why do you think there are so many hunters here? General Stage beasts are worth a lot of money."

Normal Vanishing Snakes were already at the Late Soldier Stage, while the adult variant was at the Initial General Stage. Yet, that already increased the price by more than a matter of ten!

Shang remembered the reason why the academy wanted collateral of five gold for every special exam.

Sure enough, powerful warriors could earn money easily.

"Go to the Curio Trinket in Warrior's Paradise. It's a shop at the edge of the market. They should be interested in that corpse," the teacher said. "Tell them teacher Niria sent you."

That surprised Shang. "Why are you helping me to this degree? This doesn't sound like the normal kind of help."

"I can respect potential and power," teacher Niria said neutrally. "Additionally, you might not know it, but we are connected."

"Connected?" Shang asked.

"When you realize what I mean, and if you are willing to trust me, you can ask me after class, but I won't elaborate on that matter," she said. "You have your way, and I have my way."

This threw Shang for a loop.

He had no idea what she was talking about.

Obviously, she wasn't romantically interested in him. Shang saw absolutely no signs of attraction in teacher Niria's demeanor. On top of that, they had just met.

Either she was crazy, or she knew something that Shang didn't.

'Is the dean not the only other person from Earth?' Shang thought.

"I will go back to the academy," teacher Niria said.

Shang had questions, but he saw in Niria's demeanor that she wasn't interested in talking anymore.

"Thank you again, teacher," he said.

Teacher Niria nodded once and left.

Now, Shang was alone again, and he looked at the corpse of the snake in confusion.

He still had no idea what she was talking about.

In the end, Shang gave up trying to find the reason for her words.

He grabbed a second beast sack and shoved the corpse into it. Since he would now sell the corpse to someone else, he decided to separate the corpse from the ears and feelers.

After that, Shang went back to the street, and he saw a great number of wagons and people walking on the street. He had spent quite a bit of time in the forest with teacher Niria, and rush hour had arrived.

Shang could only sigh and entered the busy street.

He had to walk slower due to all the traffic, but the traffic still wasn't as bad as Shang had thought.

Shang looked to the side at the ridiculous width of the street. Who even made a road that's an entire kilometer wide?

But now, Shang saw that over half of the road's width was used up.

'How is Warrior's Paradise not overflowing with stuff with so many wares arriving every single morning?' Shang thought.

A while later, Shang arrived in front of the widely opened gates. Several big crystals were around the gate. They looked like they were supposed to give off light, but they didn't right now.

Shang quickly realized what these crystals were there for when he noticed that the guards didn't even inspect any of the wares entering the city.

'I guess these crystals are kind of like a metal detector, but for illegal goods, maybe?' he thought.

When Shang had arrived during the night, someone had gone through his stuff manually. Operating the crystals probably cost a lot of Mana, and it probably wasn't worth it to keep them running throughout the night.

In the end, just like everyone else, Shang entered the city without being stopped.

The streets became far more crowded, and Shang had to slow down a lot until he eventually stopped.

Now, this was a real traffic jam.

However, Shang quickly noticed that he was the only actual person stuck in the traffic jam. The other people in the traffic jam all rode carriages and other kinds of vehicles.

Shang looked around and found some people walking along the side of the road.

'Wait. They actually have sidewalks? How did I never notice that?'

Shang looked around and then awkwardly moved towards the sidewalk.

Freed from the traffic jam, Shang jogged toward the marketplace.

Just like always, the marketplace was filled to the brim with wares, stalls, and merchants.

Shang walked along the edges of the marketplace since teacher Niria had said that the Curio Trinket was near the edge.

And, sure enough, Shang eventually found the shop.

In comparison to nearly all the shops, the Curio Trinket was inside an actual building and not some stall or shed.

Shang didn't see any people in front of the shop, which surprised him a bit.

Nevertheless, Shang still entered.

Inside the Curio Trinket, Shang saw many rings, amulets, crystals, and other kinds of, well, trinkets. The name sure was fitting.

Shang saw no other customers.

"You're in the wrong shop," someone shouted from the back of the shop. "We don't trade in beasts."

Obviously, the person in the back of the shop had noticed the beast sack on Shang's back.

"Teacher Niria sent me," Shang answered.

"Huh?" the person in the back of the shop uttered, and the head of a young man peeked over the corner. "Teacher Niria? She doesn't normally send proxies."

"Well, she told me to contact you," Shang said.

The man furrowed his brows and stood up. After that, he came out of the backroom.

He had red hair and wore red robes. On top of that, Shang felt a lot of Fire Mana coming from the person.

'That should be a Fire Adept,' Shang thought. 'There aren't that many Fire Mages in Warrior's Paradise.'

'That also explains why no one is here. If this shop has a Fire Adept as their clerk, they probably don't sell cheap stuff.'

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Someone like a Fire Adept could earn a ton of money just by going into the Wasteland and killing any random General Stage beast. So, since this Fire Adept wasn't doing that, it probably meant that he earned more by being a clerk in this shop.

"Did she get another interesting beast?" the Fire Adept asked with a bit of interest.

"I thought you said you don't trade in beasts," Shang said.

"I say that to everyone since it takes too long to explain to them what we are interested in when it comes to beasts," the Fire Adept explained. "Now, show me what she's killed this time."

The Fire Adept walked to a large table at the side of the room and knocked on it to show Shang where to put the corpse.

Shang walked over and put the corpse on the table.

As soon as Shang let go of the beast sack, it opened on its own, revealing its contents.

When the Fire Adept saw the General Stage Vanishing Snake, he furrowed his brows. Then, he looked at Shang. "Why should I care about a Vanishing Snake?" he asked with annoyance.

Shang only gestured to the three gashes.

The Fire Adept looked at the three gashes with furrowed brows.

Then, a glint of recognition appeared in his eyes.

"Oh, now we're talking," he said with a smirk.

After saying that, the Fire Adept closely examined the corpse with many different instruments.

A couple of minutes later, when he was done, he put the instruments away with a smirk.

"Sure enough, Niria killed this one. Her handiwork is unmistakable," he commented.

Shang blinked a couple of times in confusion.

He was pretty sure that he was the one that killed the snake.

"How do you know?" Shang asked.

"Client confidentiality," the Fire Adept answered with a smirk. "You might have been sent by her, but I won't give up the secrets of our clients."

"How do 1,800 gold sound?" he asked.

"Teacher Niria also told me what I should ask for," Shang added.

The smirk on the Fire Adept's face vanished.

"Fine," he said with a sigh.

SHING!

Four sacks appeared near the table, two big ones, and two small ones.

"Take your 2,200 gold," he said.

Shang nodded and took the gold.

"Happy doing business with you," the Fire Adept said with less enthusiasm while taking care of the corpse.

Shang nodded. "Thank you."

And he left the store with his new wealth.

Once again, he was rich.

The dangerous fight sure had been worth it.