Spirit Game

"That would be 10 mL of Soul Elixirs," old man Taku said to Rain, his voice firm as his face.

Rain was taken aback. "Egh? That much? But I only want common weapons."

"You did," Taku replied, nodding. "You want three short swords, but you also requested a longbow, a shortbow, and twenty arrows."

Rain pressed his lips together, a frown deepening on his face. He had to admit that when he enumerated it that way, he had indeed ordered quite a lot. "How about I replace the bows with a javelin?"

Taku shook his head. "Javelins are expensive. The cheapest one costs 5 mL of Soul Elixirs."

"Augh . . ." Rain lamented, realizing just how costly everything was. He still had the extraction cost to worry about on top of the price of the weapons.

Fortunately, extracting such common weapons into the Spirit Realm didn't cost much. Probably, because they originally belong to that place.

And thanks to the sudden abundance of beast meat, he no longer had to bring food from Earth to the Spirit Realm, unlike before.

It was only his conjecture, but Rain noticed that extracting items and food from Earth cost much more compared to extracting things that the Spirit Realm originally possessed, like this sword, for example.

Rain knew the sword originally came from the Spirit Realm. It was the exact same common sword that the ball of light had handed to him when he first appeared in that world.

If only there was a nearby shop in his territory, things would have been less expensive. Rain lamented.

Rain had checked before, and the nearest one so far was a sea away. His territory was completely isolated. Well, not completely . . . There were parts of the map that were blank, so maybe there were some civilizations there that he hadn't found yet.

"Hey, kid. Are you going to buy these or what?" Old man Taku asked, jolting Rain from his thoughts.

"You're holding up the line," the others complained from behind him.

"Ah, sorry, sorry," Rain said, scratching his head as he quickly paid for his purchase.

After buying the swords and bows and selling the Rakling hides, bones, teeth, and the Quillwolf pelts and fangs, Rain was left with 4 mL of Soul Elixirs.

He calculated that it would just be enough to extract everything back to the Spirit Realm . . . he hoped.

Who was he kidding? Of course, it wasn't enough!

"Uhm . . ." Rain hesitated before taking a sidestep and making a beeline to Old man Taku again.

"What? What is it this time?" Old man Taku sighed in annoyance.

The line behind Rain grumbled begrudgingly, their impatience palpable.

Rain swallowed his embarrassment. This was a matter of life and death. Pride and embarrassment had no place here.

"Do you trade EP for Soul Elixirs?" Rain asked hopefully.

"Haa?" Old man Taku's white, bushy brows met at the center of his winkled forehead. "Do you think that I trade EP? Do I look like I am a Lord and have troops to you?"

Rain felt the heat rise in his cheeks. "Augh . . . well . .

."

Old man Taku waved his hand dismissively, shooing Rain away. "I don't deal with EP, so go away if you don't have anything more to do here."

Downhearted, Rain's shoulders slumped. He was about to turn away when Taku spoke again. "You've got the wrong person to ask that, kid. Go ask some players if they're willing to trade them for you."

Rain's face brightened, and he beamed. "Thank you!"

With renewed hope, Rain glanced around the bustling marketplace. He needed to find someone who was willing to trade EP for Soul Elixirs.

The task seemed daunting, but he knew it was his best shot at getting the resources he needed.

Rain hadn't gotten far when a player who overheard his and old man Taku's conversation approached him.

"Hey, are you trading your EP for Soul Elixirs? How much do you want for them?" he asked Rain.

Rain was caught off guard by the sudden question. Frankly, he didn't know the exact exchange rate between EP and Soul Elixirs.

"Uhm . . ."

"How much EP are you willing to sell? I have 10 mL of Soul Elixirs here for 1000 EP," another player chimed in.

Rain's face brightened. Oh! Was that the market rate?

The other players didn't want to lose out.

"Hey kid, I can give you 11 mL of Soul Elixirs for 1000 EP."

"Then I will give you 12!"

Rain was getting dizzy from the sudden influx of offers. Were the others really that short on EP that they were willing to pay so much in Soul Elixirs?

"Uhm . . . you really want EP that much?" Rain couldn't help but voice his thoughts. Immediately, he wanted to hit himself. He should just be glad they wanted EP.

He should just avoid unnecessary questions.

"Are you kidding? They're important to evolve troops! Of course everyone wants EP."

"Soul Elixirs are important and all, but you can get those anytime by defeating beasts. EP, on the other hand, is so minuscule right now. I need at least 10,000 EP to evolve my troops to the next level, and we're only talking about one troop here."

"I have more than twenty troop, and my territory is only producing 100 EP a day, and that's with all my troops performing tasks in a good day!"

Whoa . . . Rain never knew that EP was so important to players. He guessed that in order to defend their territory, they needed stronger troops, and EP was required for that.

But 100 EP a day seemed too low. The other players weren't surprised, though, like they were experiencing low EP yields as well.

Rain had read that the more you develop your territory, the less EP you get. That was because your troops were repeating the same old tasks every day. He was already experiencing this low yields in just his short time in the Spirit Realm.

So even if you develop your territory, you still have these kinds of problems. Rain thought.

"Give way!"

Suddenly, a thunderous voice snapped everyone from their clamoring over Rain, and the group parted to reveal a man in his forties, dressed in branded clothes from head to toe.

"T-that's . . . !"

"Magnus of the Iron Kingdom!"