Chapter 41 - Beyond Expectations
As Benton led the siblings in following the guard’s directions, he passed literally hundreds of people. It wasn’t possible to scan everyone that quickly, but a sampling indicated about what he expected, mostly Es and Fs. There was one D, but the man was middle aged and dressed nicely enough that he probably wouldn’t be interested in uprooting his life at the chance of becoming a cultivator.
If the man were younger or more talented, Benton probably would have pursued it anyway. Really, though, he needed to get a read on the overall situation in the city before he started actually recruiting.
Soon, they reached a sign that read, “Mahogany Dreaming Palace.” Perfect. Finding it hadn’t been as hard as he’d feared.
The shop was nice but not too nice. As expected, mahogany featured prominently in the decor, but there was enough of a jumbled together look to not make Benton feel uncomfortable at his attire upon entering.
A nicely dressed salesgirl stood behind a counter. To her credit, she didn’t so much as blink at the way he and the siblings looked. Instead, she cupped her hands and bowed. “Greetings Esteemed Customer, how may this lowly one be of assistance today?”
Benton smiled. So far, the guard had steered him right. “I need some walking around money, so I would like to sell a dozen rank two spirit beast cores.”
The salesgirl matched Benton’s expression. “Absolutely, Esteemed Customer. This lowly one can easily accommodate such a request.”
The five primary elements for cultivation were Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire, and most of Benton’s cores corresponded to one of those. There were some outliers, of course, such as Ice, which was a subset of Water, Lightning, Nature, and a few others.
With the siblings trailing him, he walked to the counter and withdrew a dozen cores assorted between the primary elements. He laid them carefully before the salesgirl.
Again to her credit, she didn’t react much to his use of a spatial ring. Clearly, she was used to dealing with cultivators. She simply pulled a weird box from below the counter and set it on top. “Permission for this lowly one to examine the cores, Esteemed Cultivator?”
Even Su hadn’t seen anything like that device, so Benton was very interested to see what would happen next. “Proceed.”
The girl opened the box, placed one of the cores inside it, closed the lid, and looked at a sort of viewfinder that stuck up above the device. Once finished, she removed the core and repeated the process with each of the other eleven.