Dungeon of Niflheim

Frost instinctively frowned, finding Ryan’s personality a bit much. With his lips twitching slightly he took in the massive frame of this merchant and his overbearing smile, being subtly reminded of the jewellery dwarf in Furano.

He thought that Ryan would have a similar personality to Sebastian or Calder given his position, but it seems he was wrong.

“Nice to meet you Ryan, mother Callie sent me your way since I have a decent amount of monster materials stored in my spatial ring.” Frost cut straight to the chase. The look in Ryan’s eyes was unnerving as though he was being eyed as a piece of meat and not for the usual reasons. For someone who only recently became flush with cash this was not a look he received often. If he wasn’t alert, he could end up being tricked, walking out of this office with several expensive items that served no real purpose. He could tell that Ryan likely had a silver tongue and didn’t wish to test his restraint.

At the mention of Callie, Ryan’s left eye twitched almost unnoticeable. He knew that that old woman likely said he’d give a discount and by being sent by her it meant that she was looking out for him. If he abused his silver tongue to take advantage of the young Frost, she would likely reprimand him.

Ryan was afraid of very little, but Callie was not included in that list, that woman was like a terrifying mother bear that would lash out if someone messed with her cubs. Ryan was not one to ruin his relationship with someone so well connected just to get a little more cash from Frost.

“I see I see, she pointed you in my direction to see if I or anyone under me is in need of such materials and would be willing to engage with you in trade.” This meant that he and his subordinates would be the ones giving money with very little chance of Frost making purchases, it was obvious why he’d be unhappy. But Ryan was an experienced merchant and wouldn’t let his true feelings show, he retained his friendly smile and nodded along as he spoke and listened.

“Yes pretty much, I’ve already noticed a few requests on the camp’s notice board and would like to turn them in but if you’ve got any other requests I’d be willing to trade.” Frost gained quite a few items along his journey. Though the yetis proved to have very little in terms of useable materials they did give D-rank magic crystals, which was one of the requests he came to complete. The other was for the poison sac of an ice snake of at least E-rank, both of which would get him some silver.

Other materials included the bones and pelts of the frost wolves, two artic fox pelts, the wingtips of an ice hawk x3, the horn of a giant horned artic rabbit and several other materials that he could trade for. At the moment he only had a single dwarven smith and they lacked much in terms of skills in relation to using materials that weren’t metallic or pykrete. He also retrieved a few herbal plants that grew in the valley, but none that could be used in creating alcohol like the frost vines.

.....

Ryan tilted his to the side slightly and cupped his chin in thought before replying. ” Since mother Callie recommended you I’m sure you’re trust worthy and have some decent materials. Let me see the wares for the posted quests and if they are of sufficient quality we can discuss the rest.” Callie was right to send Frost straight to Ryan, he was the major lynchpin of the merchants, if he didn’t like you or didn’t find you worthy to deal with, the other merchants would likely follow suit. He could also act as a middleman for all the other merchants’ material requests, saving time. And given the current state of the external regions, there was a high demand for materials as well as stock. With the monster stampede looming the monsters in the area grew more abundant and frenzied. This created more stock but also increased the danger, for strong adventurers such as Frost this was actually a very profitable time, that’s why the Beta camp was quite populated and raucous. The merchants not only received large amounts of raw materials for decent prices they also sold large amounts of equipment.

“Thank you Ryan,” Frost thanked Ryan for his trust and removed the specimens from his spatial ring, instantly lighting up Ryan’s eyes. Spatial rings weren’t exactly uncommon but still it wouldn’t be on poor people. But since he had a spatial ring Ryan didn’t know what items Frost may lack, making it hard to push certain products, leaving the power in Frost’s hands but that wasn’t important right now, he need to examine the materials offered.

“Hmmm” Ryan gave a quick look at the materials not expecting too much but the moment he saw them he gawked. His eyes opened wide, and he licked his lips out of habit. A second later he put his face right up close to the materials.

Frost withdrew two magic crystals he got from a couple of yetis and the poison sac from the ice snake. Both items were in perfect condition without a single nick or scratch. Ryan immediately went into serious profession mode; he withdrew a special set of gloves from his own spatial ring along with something akin to a jewellers monocle.

“May I?” He looked up at Frost with a serious expression and asked permission to perform a more in depth analysis.

“Go ahead,” Frost nodded his head, giving the go ahead, his opinion on Ryan instantly being elevated.

‘So, this is his true expression.’ Ryan’s current appearance was very professional and felt much more aligned with his standing as merchant manager.

Carefully Ryan picked up the poison sac of the ice snake, he gently rubbed and squeezed different areas, checking for damage and quality. He then lightly smelled the sac before activating a merchant skill called [analyse]. This skill allowed him to gleam a small amount of information on the target object. This way he could figure out the strength of the poison without using chemicals or hiring a poison master.

“The sac is in pristine quality, is completely full and it was removed and stored with delicate precision.” Ryan lifted his head and looked at Frost with a great deal more respect.

‘The ice snake must have been killed the moment before it prepared to bite him, thus resulting in it being so full.’ Ryan had seen many poison sacs in his years as a merchant but very few had been filled to the brim, Frost’s timing for his kill was uncanny. Regardless of whether it was luck or skill he needed to treat this young adventurer with more respect. ‘Even the way the sac was removed from the snake’s corpse must have been done by an extremely sharp blade and with such delicacy as though Frost was an expert.’ These were all great signs for a merchant and adventurer, such high quality specimens could be sold for far more than their regular counterparts sometimes more than triple.

“Perfect grade and the poison is of D-rank, one rank higher than the requested level.” Ryan then gently placed the poison sac back down onto the table as he gave his results. “The one who requested a poison sac of an ice snake is Asahi. Being D-rank would suit his needs even better and we’ll give an improved price based on the grade and rank...” Ryan quickly calculated with his fingers, taking into account the purpose of the poison sac as well as profit margins. “we can offer you 25 silvers for this item; do you perhaps have the snake’s skin?”

Frost’s eyes widened in surprise, not expecting such a price for a single item that took him very little effort to gain. What Frost didn’t realise was that poison monsters were always classed quite high in terms of materials given the danger level they usually had. But the surprise lasted but a moment, he was currently in a discussion.

“Yes I retrieved the skin as well as the magic crystal.” Frost then removed the snake skin parts as well as the magic crystal from his spatial ring. To be honest he was still a little unsure on whether or not to trade the poison sac or keep as a gift for Wilsander but....

‘The price is too tempting to resist, sorry little brother, next time perhaps.’

Ryan quickly looked over the magic crystal and the snake skin finding once again that they were of very high quality. Of course, the skin was cut so as to kill the ice snake, but it was only one, which was clean and near the head, preserving the majority of the skin.

He nodded his head; Asahi could do with all the parts and Ryan had the power to make such a sale on his behalf.

“With the skin, the crystal and of course the poison sac I can offer you 35 silvers.” The skin was not as pricey and neither was the crystal given that similar skin could be retrieved from non-poisonous snakes without much variation, the crystal was treated the same as a regular E-rank monster crystal, no more than a silver.