The Divine Elements

“How many enhancing tiles will you be selling today?”

“Do we get a discount if we purchase in bulk?”

A tandem of questions were shouted by the waiting customers outside, as Calron slowly stepped out of the shop. Immediately after that, Roran followed behind him and stood at guard next to the door.

Ignoring all the of voices around him, Calron picked up the massive black wooden board from the floor and he swiftly leapt on top of the shop’s roof. Taking out a few thick metallic nails and a medium-sized hammer from his spacial bracelet, he began hammering the large board to the front of the shop.

“Master forgot about the flowers… ”

Ellie muttered with distraught as she gazed up at Calron’s figure.

Almost as if he had heard Ellie’s mumbling, Calron hastily hammered the remaining nail and jumped back to the ground. Meanwhile, the group gathered outside his shop patiently waited for him to finish and admired the elegant board stating ‘The Azure Pavilion’ once it was latched on.

It looked like there were a few nobles mixed in with the crowd, easily identified by their flamboyant and expensive clothes. Several of them had displeased expressions on their faces at being forced to wait outside, but Calron paid no heed to them.

“We will be opening the Azure Pavilion now! However, since we have limited stock, each person will only be able to purchase five enhancing tiles. We also have two new other God Tiles added to our store – Vision Tile and Immune Tile!”

Calron conveyed through his amplified voice, so even the people at the back of the crowd could hear.

There were only around twenty people gathered outside his shop, but since it was only the morning, more customers were likely to visit the Azure Pavilion later in the day.

“What? Only five enhancing tiles? That is too little, please increase it to thirty or thirty-five at least!”

A merchant right in front of Calron requested in a distressed tone, while the others concurred with the sentiment.

“I agree! Also, what do the other new tiles do?”

“Sorry, we will increase the quantity in future, but right now, we don’t have many tiles. Until the Azure Pavilion sends us more, we will not be able to remove the restriction. As for the other two tiles, you will find out once you enter the shop.”

Calron answered calmly, putting a helpless expression on his face.

In truth, he was the only one capable of creating the God Tiles and he didn’t have much time last night to prepare a lot of enhancing tiles. Most of the time was spent in experimenting with the two new tiles, so Calron was only able to produce eighty-three enhancing tiles, twenty vision tiles and twelve immune tiles.

Having the number of tiles being sold restricted had an added bonus, where Calron did not have to worry about it being mainly supplied to one group. A scarcity of the tiles would increase its value in the market, and it would allow Calron to increase its price even more in future. His biggest worry with the God Tiles was that a single clan or sect would monopolize them and use it to arm their own troops.

If he didn’t have such an immediate need for money, Calron would have never decided to mass sell the God Tiles.

“I welcome you all to the Azure Pavilion!”

After that, Calron stepped inside the shop while Roran remained on guard outside. Calron had given him the task of making sure that there were no troubles occurring outside, along with secretly keeping an eye on who was spying on them.

“Woah!”

Ellie gasped with fright once the crowd all rushed inside. She was currently standing next to Calron behind the front counter desk, where all the enhancing tiles were stored. The shelves behind them had all three types of tiles on display for the customers to view.

There were still many empty shelves outside the counter desk, but Calron did not plan on using them until he hired more staff and security for the store.

“I want you gentlemen to pay close attention to this unique tile… ”

Just as the customers reached the front of the desk, Calron started his demonstration with the immune tile. A slight smile crept on his face as the customers’ eyes gradually widened in shock the more he revealed about the immune tile.

“I will pay you ten gold for one of the immune tiles!”

A young man quickly shouted the moment that Calron finished his demonstration. He knew that akin to the enhancing tiles, there would be a restriction on the immune tiles, so he wanted to secure one of these new tiles for his sect Elder to look at.

“I have only twelve of these ti- “

A collective groan echoed in the shop, as the customers inwardly cried out tears of frustration at the measly quantity of the items for sale.

Most of the gathered people in the shop were merchants, and they had been planning on re-selling the God Tiles to the high nobles of the court in the inner city. But with such a paltry amount, it would be impossible to satisfy the nobles.

“Since there are so few of these tiles, I will be holding an auction for the immune tiles and the starting bid is… fifteen gold!”

Calron chuckled with amusement, but to the rest of the people, it simply sounded like the devil’s laughter.

“What!?”

The young man who had initially asked to buy the immune tile for ten gold, burst out with indignation, but a voice at the back soon quieted him down.

“Seventeen gold!”

“Seventeen gold and one copper!”

A fat merchant yelled proudly, his beady eyes daring anyone to go higher.

“Nineteen gold!”

An elderly voice sounded out from the back, silencing the others.

“Nineteen gold and one copper!”

The fat merchant shouted, while the others gave him a disgusted glare. The merchant simply shrugged his shoulders, not at all bothered by his shameful bidding.

“Hahaha, any other bids?”

Calron laughed at the scene unfolding before him. He felt slightly guilty for brazenly ripping off the merchants, but he was not forcing them to buy the tiles, so he reveled in this strange new feeling of being wealthy.

“Master is acting strange… ”

Ellie crossed her arms on the desk in front of her and placed her chin between them while she glanced up at the laughing Calron.

“Sigh… this is not a good look on big brother.”

Roran lamented at the sight of Calron acting like a five-year-old kid who had just received a basket full of sugary treats.

It was seldom rare to see his brother be so carefree and childish, something which Roran had not even seen during their school years, that he weirdly felt a bit of happiness watching the laughing Calron enjoy ripping people off.

…………………………

“Phew, that was a lot of work!”

Calron slumped down on the chair, as Roran closed the shop’s door and walked towards him.

“Master, look, I can count to a hundred now!”

Ellie exclaimed cheerfully, as a neatly stacked pile of gold, silver and a few copper squares were balanced on the desk.

He had sold all eighty-three of the enhancing tiles, seven of the vision tiles and all of the immune tiles. The vision tiles were sold for five gold each, while the immune tiles were each sold for around twenty gold.

If a warrior took both the enhancing tile and the immune tile at the same time, then he would become a dauntless force in the battlefield. On the other hand, the vision tile was something that was not focused towards combat, but more towards scouting.

Overall, Calron estimated that they made more than five hundred gold just from today’s sales!

“Oi Roran.”

Calron closed his eyes with exhaustion as he started to doze off in the chair.

“Yes, big brother?”

Roran smiled at the hard-working Ellie on the counter before turning to face Calron.

“We will go tomorrow to hire more staff for the Azure Pavilion.”

Calron mumbled just as he drowsed into sleep.

………………………..

In a far away mountain outside the boundaries of Selior city, a cloaked figure stood at the peak, as she gazed at the distant silhouette of the palace and six towers.

Her hood fell back under the onslaught of the wind, revealing her bright crimson hair fluttering in the open sky.

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