Ning walked through the city, looking around to see what he could do there. With only a single set of clothes and a sword to his name, he wasn't sure how he was going to pay off anything without just making money with his system.
'Wait, I can't even do that,' he thought. The Essence coins were made with Essence, so it was impossible to create them with his system.
"I guess, I'm going to have to work for it," he thought.
The city of Frailheart didn't seem to be the biggest city around. Based on what he could see, not a single person seemed to have enough Essence Order to justify this being a big city.
In Ning's eyes, it was barely better than a town at all.
There were some fun things to look at but he wasn't sure how they were made. The shops all had massive boards in front of them that seemed to be made up of nothing but light. They were bright and glowed even in daylight.
Ning wondered how they were made at all. As he was looking at them, he noticed a shop that apparently sold weapons.
He stopped for a moment and looked at the shop, and then his sword. 'Hmm? Should I sell my sword?' he wondered. He had already refined the sword so he wasn't sure if he could sell it or not, but if he could, he would be happy to get the few coins from the shop.
Since he was more of a spear user than a sword user, he wasn't particularly attached to the sword he had.
He walked into the shop and saw quite a few people there, browsing the catalog. He looked around, trying to find someone to talk to.
"Greetings," a clerk walked up to him. "Are you looking for a weapon? We've had the best Essence weapons delivered to us just a couple of days ago."
"Oh, no I'm not here for Essence weapons," Ning said.
"Oh," the clerk said. "Then we have Essence armors too. Or are you searching for regular weapons and armor by any chance?"
"No, no," Ning said. "I'm not here to buy at all. I was wondering if I could in fact sell my weapon."
"Sell?" the clerk looked at Ning and then at the sword wrapped around his waist. "Hmm, that will depend on the quality of your weapon. Please wait for a moment, I will find someone to appraise it."
Ning nodded and waited around. He looked around and something caught his eye immediately. There were weapons to the side that seemed to be made up of different Essences.
There was a sword that seemed to be burning with fire, even though it didn't give off any heat or burn the wooden stand it was on.
There was another sword that was made with water. The blade swayed and rippled, but not a single drop of water came down from the sword itself.
There was a sword that had a blade that was made entirely of air, and another one that was made entirely of dirt. Another one was made up of light, and there seemed to even be one made up of clouds.
"I see," he thought. "So these are the Essence weapons. I wonder how they are made."
Ning looked around and saw a spear as well. The shaft of the spear was up of wood, but the blade itself seemed to be made up of fire.
Ning tried to find other spears, but there weren't any. It was the only one. There were axes, bows, arrows, and other various weapons, but Ning didn't care about those.
"Sir, please come with me," the clerk arrived next to Ning and spoke.
Ning turned around and nodded before following the clerk through a door to the back. He arrived in the back room that seemed to be full of wooden crates, some of which glowed a dull red or blue color.
These boxes seemed to be full of similar Essence weapons as well.
An older gentleman sat on a chair on the other side of the table. He looked at Ning walk in, but his eyes immediately went toward the sword on his waist.
"Come on, hurry up," the man said, gesturing for Ning to bring out the weapon.
Ning didn't react to his bad attitude and placed the sword on the table in front of him. He slowly unwrapped the baggy wrappings and showed the rusty-looking sword to the man.
The man frowned for a moment. "Is that a sword made from Rust Essence?" he asked for a second before looking closer. "Oh no, it's just red dirt."
He started appraising the sword after that.
"The design is not bad," he said. "It's an old design, but you can't go wrong with that. On design alone, I would put a price of 100 air coins for it.
'100 air coins?' Ning thought. He thought back to what the two fishermen had told him in terms of what they could get and what they could buy with Air Essence coins.
'Didn't they say they got about 50 for what they sold, and that would be enough grain to last them for a month?' he thought. That meant that his sword was going to be sold for at least 2 months' worth of food for an entire village.
'That's not bad,' he thought.
"Let me test the sharpness," he said and brought out a few things. There were leaves, papers, leather, and a small piece of metal.
"Let's see if it is sharp or not," the man said, starting with the leaf. He grabbed the sword and tried to use it, but he couldn't find the strength in him to pick the sword up at all.
"Dammit, did you claim it already?" the man asked him.
"Claim… I think I did," Ning said. "Is that a problem?"
"Damn," the old man said. "It makes it hard to appraise. Alright, use the sword and cut these things. I want to test them."
Ning nodded and picked the sword up as if it was light as a feather. Then, he started with the test.
