Chapter 19: Golden one
Mitch’s coin pouch still jingled with 405 gold coins, their weight a reassuring presence at his side.
The sum represented a small fortune for most adventurers, though he was beginning to understand that in this world full of magical items, wealth could disappear as quickly as morning mist.
The core shop sprawled before them like a treasure vault divided into two distinct realms.
To the left, gleaming display cases housed the rare and valuable cores, each one a crystallized fragment of magical essence that pulsed with inner light.
These precious artifacts served as crucial components in countless crafting recipes, their surfaces etched with intricate patterns that seemed to shift and dance when observed directly.
The air around them hummed with barely contained power, and Mitch could feel the mana radiating from behind the reinforced glass.
The right side of the shop presented a stark contrast. Here, rows upon rows of sturdy wooden boxes lined the walls, each one carefully labeled with tier classifications and mana capacity ratings.
The cores within appeared mundane, dull, gray stones that looked more like common pebbles than repositories of magical energy.
These utilitarian cores served a single, vital purpose: advancing an awakener’s level through gradual absorption and integration of their stored mana.
The pricing disparity between the two sections was staggering. The rare cores commanded prices that ranged from a handful of gold coins for the most common varieties to over a thousand gold pieces for legendary specimens.
Meanwhile, the leveling cores offered a more accessible path to power, tier one cores cost less than a single gold coin, while tier two cores varied dramatically based on their mana content, ranging from fifty silver pieces to two gold coins for the most potent examples.
"We should sell our cores," Mitch suggested, his mind already calculating how many additional cores he could purchase with their existing stock. "They might be more valuable than we realize."