After walking out of the 'sweet district', Max and the group headed toward the artifact market. He first wanted to buy the communication crystals.
He didn't like the feeling of not being able to contact his loved once if they were far away. Because it had been more than a week since they came out to search for Rima and he knew Anna should have returned from her monthly mission by now and she must be worried about him.
He very much wanted to contact her and tell her he was alright but there was no way he could do it since he was so far from the academy.
He could send a letter, of course, but it would take many days and by the time it reached the academy, he would already be there, so sending it now was useless.
Therefore, he thought of buying the communication crystals since he had more than enough Mana stones and was also in one of the largest trade markets in the Green Leaf kingdom.
"Max, let's go to that shop." Belen pointed toward a shop. It was double the size of normal shops and many customers were constantly going in and coming out.
"Okay, let's go." Max nodded and walked toward the shop.
As soon as they entered, a middle-aged elvin man came to greet them, "Hello customers, what would you like to buy?"
"We need communication crystals." Max replied.
"Certainly." The middle-aged man nodded and then continued to ask, "Which kind of communication crystal would you like to purchase, dear customer?"
Max knew there were many types of communication crystal in the market. There were that could be only one time or several times, those that could be used for short distances or long distances.
The single use crystals for the short distances were the cheapest, one crystal would only cost around 15-20 low grade Mana stones.
The multi-use ones for the short distances were more costly, but their price depended on the times it could be used. The ones that could be used for long distances were the most expensive.
"I want the multi-use ones for both the short and long distances. Get me the best ones available." He responded after thinking for a bit.
Hearing what Max said, the middle-aged man raised his brows slightly and looked at Max with a gaze that said, 'Can you afford the best ones?'
He thought like that because he could see although Max had a good bearing, the clothes he wore weren't anything special. They were made from the ordinary material and only common people would wear them.
That is to say, if he could afford the high-quality communication crystals that cost thousands of Mana stones, shouldn't he have better garments?
'Is he trying to waste my time?' The man thought and just as he was about to ask him out, his gaze landed on the little Arya standing amidst them and immediately shut his mouth.
"Greetings saint girl." He respectfully bowed toward her.
"Hello, uncle." Little Arya smiled good-naturedly and then said, "Uncle, can you hurry? We need to go somewhere else, too."
"Yes, of course. Please have a seat. I'll immediately bring the goods." The middle-aged man offered them a seat and carefully asked, "H-Honoured customer, how many crystals should I bring you?"
Seeing him act so respectfully now, Max chuckled and thought, 'It's great to have her accompany us.' At the same time, he also decided to buy better clothes to avoid such situations in the future.
"How many times can the best ones be used?" He asked.
"A hundred times, dear customer." The middle-aged man replied without delay.
"A hundred times, huh?" Max thought for a while and said, "Bring me 20 of each type."
"T-Twenty?" The man's eyes widened upon hearing this. However, he didn't dare say anything now that he knew they were with the saint girl.
"Please wait a moment, honoured customer." He hurriedly walked inside the shop and, just a while later, he brought out 40 fist sized wooden boxes.
Max asked Belen to check them and after she said they were in perfect condition, he asked, "How much is it?"
The middle-aged man surreptitiously glanced at little Arya and hesitated for a moment before finally saying, "The short-distance crystals cost 5000 low-grade Mana stones each, while the long-distance one's cost 50,000 each. So, the total is 1.1 million Mana stones, but the honoured customer only needs to pay 1 million."
Although he got a discount thanks to little Arya, the price still shocked him, and he instinctively turned to Belen, who nodded her head with a wry smile on her face and said in a low voice, "It was because they are this expensive that very few can afford them. Moreover, we can only send messages within the confines of an average sized kingdom with this type of crystals. So, the normal people tend to use the cheap letter services instead."
Max nodded in understanding. Most people don't earn many Mana stones and however many they earn, they usually use them to cultivate, so it was obvious that they can't afford such luxury.
Max stored one million stones in a spatial bag and gave it to the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man quickly glanced at the contents, and a smile bloomed on his face. He put away the spatial bag and respectfully asked, "Honoured guest, would you like to buy anything else?"
Max stored the boxes in his inventory and nodded. "Yeah, please bring three spatial rings for the ladies here."
Hearing this, the middle-aged man smiled awkwardly, "I apologize, honoured guest. We are currently running out of stock of the spatial rings."
"It's alright then." Max casually waved his hand, stood up, and walked out of the shop. Leticia and others followed.
After that, they went to another artifact shop and bought three grade three spatial rings for Belen and others and a beast storage ring for the flying beast they were going to buy.
*****
Bonus chapter (12/15)
