Okenly

Hogan City, city square.

Hogan City's annual trade fair was held in the middle of Awakening Month, in the city square.

The specific dates were the fourteenth through sixteenth of Awakening Month, lasting three days in total.

Today was the first day of the trade fair.

After leaving Pierre's Odds and Ends, Gao De immediately came here with his entire fortune.

The city square covered a vast area, a broad expanse paved with blue bricks, and it was now packed with people.

Some were commoners, some small-time merchants, some impoverished scions of fallen families, while others were servants under noble lords.

Now, people of all these different statuses had set up small stalls around the edges of the city square like peddlers.

The goods they sold were even more strange and varied—there was everything imaginable. Gao De even saw someone selling several oddly shaped stones picked up from the riverbank.

Every so often, one or two people would approach these assorted stalls for a look or to ask a few questions, but deals made on the spot were few and far between.

Seeing this, Gao De could not help drawing a deep breath.

He had come here for only one purpose: to pick up overlooked treasures!

To improve his strength, besides strengthening himself, he could also rely on external objects.

But Gao De's current savings did not support buying anything through legitimate channels that could enhance his strength. He could only indulge in the wishful hope of finding a bargain.

Of course, in a small place like Hogan City, without sufficient connections and influence, one would most likely be unable to buy any magical alchemical creations even with money.

Unlike in large cities, magical alchemical creations were absolute rarities in Hogan City!

With this in mind, Gao De did not slow his pace and had already arrived at the open center of the square.

The sky had grown somewhat dim, but Magic Crystal Lamps had been set up throughout the square, and they had already been lit, illuminating the area brightly.

Moreover, as the Magic Crystal Lamps came on, more people began arriving in the square. Even the number of stall owners increased somewhat; they were likely city "employees" who had just gotten off work.

Like everyone else, Gao De slowly walked along the square, inspecting one stall after another, hoping to find some good treasure.

Among the many people in the square, he definitely was not the first to have such an idea, nor was he the only one.

Obviously, finding overlooked treasures did happen. There was certainly no shortage of stories about some nobody acquiring an extraordinary item from a street stall and making a fortune overnight.

But that required sufficient luck and discernment. Under normal circumstances, most people came away empty-handed.

And Gao De did not have that kind of luck either.

He wandered past many stalls without seeing a single "suspicious" item. Most of them sold everyday goods such as clay jars and iron swords.

Until one stall, surrounded by more than a dozen people, caught his attention.

After wandering around for so long, this was the first lively stall Gao De had seen.

What good thing are they selling?

Gao De could not help edging closer as well.

The stall owner was a young man. He wore a somewhat shabby long robe, though its fine material was still apparent. However, the originally intricate and beautiful patterns on it had been worn so badly that they were now blurred beyond recognition.

He was most likely a scion of a small family that had fallen on hard times.

Gao De made that judgment at once, then swept his gaze over the wares displayed before the young man.

There were several finely crafted ornaments, a few old books, and some battered little objects marked by the passage of time.

The reason they had drawn such a crowd was that someone had taken a liking to one rusted, strange bronze object resembling an ivory tusk.

"Ten gold coins, and not one coin less!" the young stall owner declared loudly.

He picked up the ivory-like bronze object and pointed at the mark in its upper-right corner. "See this mark? This is the mark of the Okenly Merchant Guild!"

Gao De had never heard of this so-called Okenly Merchant Guild, but his gaze still instinctively fell upon the mark.

It was a six-pointed star, with a mysterious pictograph in its center.

But like the patterns on the young stall owner's robe, it had been blurred by the wear of time, making its exact appearance impossible to discern.

"Do you know the Okenly Merchant Guild? It's the most famous merchant guild for magical alchemical creations on the entire continent. Their magical alchemical products sell across the continent and are in such demand that supply cannot keep up. Without the right connections, you can't buy them even if you have money!"

The young stall owner continued boasting. "Since this treasure of mine bears this mark, it is enough to prove that it is a magical alchemical creation of the Okenly Merchant Guild."

The young stall owner's confident words, "magical alchemical creation," drew even more attention.

Mages were synonymous with power. Anything connected to magic was undoubtedly an absolute treasure—mysterious and powerful. How could it not draw attention?

The person who had taken an interest in the bronze object was a fat middle-aged man.

He had not been bluffed by the young stall owner's words at all. Slowly, he interrupted the young man's self-praise. "First of all, this mark is already too blurred. In its present state, it cannot prove that this is definitely the mark of the Okenly Merchant Guild."

"Second, even if it is the Okenly Merchant Guild's mark, that proves nothing."

"There are plenty of black-hearted merchants across the continent who forge their marks. In a place like Hogan City, the odds of a product from the Okenly Merchant Guild appearing are not high. At any rate, I don't believe it."

"Lastly," the fat middle-aged man curled his lip, "this thing can hardly be called a magical alchemical creation. It clearly has no magical fluctuations whatsoever. Either it was damaged and its magical power leaked away, or it was never a Magic Item to begin with."

The young stall owner was not embarrassed in the slightest despite having his bragging exposed by the fat middle-aged man. He remained just as forceful. "Its magical power merely leaked away, but it was originally an extraordinary Magic Item."

"As long as you take it to a large city and find a repair craftsman to restore it, you can sell it on for sixty or seventy Sien Gold Coins without any problem."

"If it weren't for an emergency, I would never have taken it out to sell!"

The middle-aged man was clearly someone who knew his trade. Pointing at the mark on the bronze object, he said, "Kid, don't take me for an ignorant fool. Looking at these wear marks, it must have been damaged for ten or twenty years already. Whether it can even be repaired is hard to say."

"Even if it can be repaired, restoration fees for wear at this level certainly won't be low. And after it is fixed, how much power it can recover remains unknown."

"I'd have to buy it at a high price, travel thousands of miles to a large city in search of a highly skilled repair craftsman, and gamble on a perfect restoration. Do you think I'm some easy mark?"

"If such a cheap good deal truly existed, why don't you go do it yourself?" the fat man said with a smiling face, his tone half-mocking, half-not.

The people gathered nearby joined in with cheerful laughter.

The young stall owner flushed red. "Then how much are you willing to offer?"

"Two Sien Gold Coins." The fat man held up two fingers.

"How is that possible? The material alone is worth two Sien Gold Coins!" The young stall owner was clearly unconvinced.

"That was when it had just been made. Now it's worn down like this, so naturally the material isn't worth much either." The fat man was telling the truth.

"Not selling, not selling! Go somewhere else if you want to take advantage of someone. You're not welcome here!"

The young stall owner had first been squeezed by the fat man's remarks, and now his price had been viciously slashed. Unwilling to accept it, his temper flared, and he directly began driving the customer away.

"Young people are just full of fire," the fat man said without hurry, narrowing his eyes with a smile. "It's fine, I'll leave. Just see whether there's an easy mark willing to pay that price. I'll come again on the last day. If you still haven't sold it by then and have come to your senses, my offer will still stand."

"Even if it rots in my hands, I won't sell it to you!" the young stall owner said angrily.

The fat man shook his head and left with a chuckle.

Once the spectacle was gone, the people who had gathered around gradually dispersed as well.

To be honest, the things on the young stall owner's stall were not particularly appealing.

With no spectacle left to watch, naturally no one had any interest in lingering.