"Yes." Max smiled and handed the pet storage bag to her.
Right now, he only wanted to gather as many Mana stones as possible to buy the medicine to heal Flavia's scar. Apart from that, Anna and others also needed quite a lot of them to improve their strength; this was especially true for Anna since she wasn't like Belen and others who could benefit from Max.
Moreover, as his strength improved, the enemies he encountered also became stronger. When fighting them, his Mana consumption also increased drastically. Therefore, he needed Mana stones to replenish his Mana since mana replenishing pills took a lot of time to do so.
Furthermore, keeping this bag would be useless since he didn't have a pet beast yet, and even if he had, the space inside wasn't enough for a larger beast. So, it was best to sell it and gain much-needed Mana stones.
"As you wish." The attendant hurriedly took the pet storage bag and started to inspect it.
However, after inspecting it, her slightly excited expression was replaced by disappointment as she sighed, "It's a low-tier storage bag, and the space inside isn't big enough for most of the beasts. Still, I can give you two thousand Mana stones for it."
"What about the beast inside it?" Max asked with a faint smile on his face.
"Is there a beast inside?" The attendant was puzzled and carefully scanned through the small dimension and noticed a fist-sized bee lying amidst the bushes.
"It's a tracking bee!" She exclaimed, and her expression recovered a bit. She then took it out to inspect it.
Buzz!
The bee immediately tried to fly away. Beast only obeyed their masters because they were enslaved by imprinting a slave seal in their bodies which also worked as a spiritual connection between them and their masters.
After Max killed its master, it obviously felt the slave seal disappear, but because it was in the pet bag, it couldn't come out on its own. Therefore, when it was taken out, it instinctively tried to flee in case it was enslaved again.
"Get back here!" The attendant unleashed her aura and suppressed the bee instantly.
Max felt her aura and realized that she was a three-star mage which caused him to be a bit surprised. However, on further thought, it wasn't surprising since how can a normal person become a merchant in a place like this if they didn't have enough strength to protect themselves?
She inspected the bee and said, "I can give a thousand Mana stones for it as it is only a one-star beast."
"Okay." Max nodded. Although he didn't know what should be its maximum price, one thousand Mana stones should be more than enough for a one-star beast that didn't have any other ability apart from tracking.
After that, the attendant paid him a total of three thousand and seven hundred low-grade Mana stones and asked whether he wanted to buy anything.
However, Max didn't need anything, so he departed from the shop and headed toward the city lord's mansion to report and gather information about the one-eyed bandit group.
…
The two guards, one man and one woman in their thirties, stood in front of the city lord's mansion's gate. Noticing Max walking toward them, they were about to stop him but noticed his uniform and the inner disciples' emblem on his chest.
They smiled and greeted, "Hello, fellow disciple. Are you here for a mission?"
"Hello, seniors. Yes. I'm here for the mission." Max nodded as he returned the greeting. These guards used to be inner disciples of the Cloud academy that's they addressed him as a 'fellow disciple.'
Until disciples weren't thirty years old, they would be a disciple and could stay in the academy. After one became thirty years old, they needed to leave.
However, those who didn't want to leave and reached the three-star realm were allowed to apply to become Elders of the academy or protectors of the academy. As for those who were below the three-star realm, they had to become 'workers' for the academy.
This way, they would still be considered a member of the academy and get resources according to their strength and the work they were assigned to. These two guards were in the latter category.
They glanced at the badge and allowed him to enter. After Max had disappeared into the depths of the mansion, one of the guards sighed with pity, "He must be a new disciple. Sigh! Such a young life will be lost."
Most of the disciples who came to the sun feather city were either new disciples who wanted to prove themselves or seasoned three-star disciples. However, unlike three-star disciples, the new disciples weren't able to go back alive in most cases, and from his looks, Max was obviously a new disciple.
…
"Hello, fellow disciple. How may I help you?" A petite woman in skin-tight beige-colored clothes came forward and greeted Max when he entered the front hall; her eyes fixated on his face.
Max looked at her and remembered Mina, his stepmother. Except for the fact that her breasts weren't as large as hers, and she seemed to be an outgoing type, she resembled her quite a lot.
"I'm here to report for the mission and ask for its details," Max said and smiled at her, causing her to blush slightly. It was obvious she was attracted to him.
"You aren't here for the mission to kill bandits, right?" The woman's expression changed, and she asked.
"Yes. I am." Max nodded and felt a headache brewing. He knew what she was going to say.
"Where is the rest of your group? Don't tell me you are alone?" She asked again.
"You are right. I'm alone. Can you please tell me where to report?" Max said impatiently. He didn't want her to preach to him now.
"You…!" She became speechless by his reply and stomped her foot in anger, and walked away. "Follow me."
Max shook his head and was amused seeing a grown woman behave like a little girl and followed after her. She led him to a room in the inner area of the mansion and knocked.
"Elder, may I come in?"
"Come." An exhausted voice sounded from inside the room.
The petite woman pushed open the door and entered inside. Max followed.
When he stepped into the room, he saw a middle-aged woman in Elder's robes sitting behind a big wooden table full of papers; under her eyes were black circles, and she looked as if she would fall asleep anytime now.
Since this city was under the control of Cloud academy, the academy had to send people to manage it. This Elder was sent here to take care of transactions and the daily business of the city and some other stuff.
"Elder, this disciple here is to ask for his mission details." The petite woman said.
"Mm?" The Elder glanced at Max and shook her head. "What are the people in charge of assigning the mission doing? How can they send someone so young?"
Max's eyebrows furrowed. "Elder, is age a deciding factor if someone is strong or not?" He asked. He didn't like being looked down upon like this by everyone.
The petite woman looked at him and then the Elder. She was afraid that the Elder would be angry with his retort. She knew that the Elder was always in a bad mood due to the various things she had to take care of all day.
However, the Elder didn't get angry and laughed instead, "No, but it tells whether you are experienced or not, which is equally important."
Max didn't say anything since what she said was logical.
The Elder then laughed. "Hehe, little boy, you must be unhappy because you think I'm looking down on you, right? However, let me tell you that I'm not."
"I can see that your talent is among the best, considering that you have already reached the peak two-star realm at such a young age. However, you won't be able to complete your mission."
Hearing this, Max frowned. He hadn't even stated what his mission was, but this Elder seemed so sure that he wouldn't be able to do it.
As if she knew what he was thinking, she said with a smug look, "I'm the one who requests the academy to put the missions related to sun feather city. So, the academy keep me informed about which mission has been assigned or which not.
This month there were only three mission that I've sent out. Of which only two have been accepted and the disciples who had accepted the other mission has already reported. So, I know exactly which mission you are assigned to."
She then calmed down and said "Although, based on the one-eyed bandits description given in the mission, you, as a peak two-star mage, should be able to handle them or at least return alive, I've been informed that the bandit leader has recently acquired a grade three elemental weapon. Therefore, even if you have strength to fight their group, you won't survive against that grade three weapon. I've already asked academy to change the mission's rank. If you were to give up on this mission, academy won't punish you."
