Inside the butcher shop, Aige was still negotiating with the owner!
"The meat, the hide, and the canine teeth too. Fifty copper coins for the lot!"
Young Master Aige waved the fat owner down as he approached, ready to launch into a lengthy attempt to haggle. "Don't bother bargaining! I've got twelve identical wild dogs here. I'll sell you the lot for six hundred copper coins. Give me five silver coins and a hundred copper coins in exchange; I need them right away. This is a big deal, and I'm only doing it to save myself the trouble. Otherwise, I could shop around this market and definitely get a good price. You're not the only shop here that buys game!"
The owner thought it over. This customer didn't look like the sort to waste time. He had met countless people in this line of work, and if he kept quibbling with a customer like this, the man would probably turn around and leave...
If he sold the meat from one dog in smaller cuts, thirty copper coins would be no problem. Once tanned, the hide would fetch at least eighteen. As for the canine teeth, given his connections, the old blacksmith would have no trouble paying three copper coins apiece, for a total of twelve. Even without counting the offal, he could get at least sixty copper coins.
According to the young man, there were twelve dogs. This one deal would earn him more than a silver coin, several days' income! He could use all that offal to feed his family, young and old. If he was worried about it going bad, he could even give some away as a favor. A few restaurants could also take some off his hands, bringing in extra income...
It was worth doing! Besides, anyone with spatial equipment that could hold twelve wild dogs was no ordinary person. He ought to befriend him, not push a god of wealth like this toward Butcher Zheng across the way...
"Deal! It's a large order, so I'll grit my teeth and take it. Payment and goods exchanged on the spot! Young man, where are the twelve wild dogs? I want to see them before I pay!"
Aige had no objections. The man had met his demands, and from the prices he remembered, it was about right, unless he was willing to take his time hawking them along the street... For a level-two mage like him, that would have been sacrilege!
Twelve wild dogs were immediately piled up in front of the owner...
"What happened to this one? The two best hind legs are missing!" The butcher had a sharp eye and spotted the flaw at once!
"I got hungry and ate them! Deduct ten copper coins from what you owe me."
The young master didn't deny it and admitted it frankly. That concession left the owner with a very good impression of him. Honest! The wild dogs were also genuine game, not the domesticated kind. They were the real thing, so his earlier estimate could go up a little.
Deal! Aige had acquired the greatest fortune he had ever been able to lay his hands on in this life: five silver and ninety copper coins... How pitiful!
Under the fat butcher's respectful gaze, he left the shop and headed straight for the neighboring clothing store.
It sold all kinds of commoners' clothing, most of it made from linen. There were silk garments too, though most were rather low-grade, as well as some leather clothes. None were made from valuable hides like fox fur, but from common animal hides such as pigskin and cowhide... Clearly, this was a low- to mid-range clothing store, and it suited Aige's present needs very well.
Ignoring the shop assistant's scornful gaze (because his current outfit really was far too skimpy and looked rather miserable; clothing-store assistants generally had sharp eyes and were mostly quite snobbish), he went straight to a gray linen shirt and trousers. He also picked out a pair of ordinary cowhide shoes and deliberately bought a wide-brimmed felt hat, which might come in handy at times. Of course, there was a full set of underwear too...
The whole outfit came to two silver coins. He bought it all and changed into it! The assistant's attitude improved then, and she even took him to the back room to change. The young master tossed the dead man's clothes he had taken off straight into the fireplace...
Let everything in the past vanish with the wind. Aige had stood back up today, and he would also take up his revenge. All his enemies could wait and tremble!
Knowing full well how hard it was to survive in the wild, he went to a general store and bought a small skinning knife, mainly for dealing with beasts and cutting their meat and hides. He also bought several large jars of lamp oil, not for reading by lamplight at night, but to make campfires easier to start. If, for example, dry firewood gathered outside on a rainy day was too damp and hard to light, lamp oil could help it catch. He also tossed a few bundles of cheap dry firewood into his space, not to be used lightly but kept for unexpected needs.
Naturally, he couldn't do without a tent, bedding, rope, a bucket, clean water, and the like. He also spent some silver coins on seasonings, rice, white flour, and dry rations. His Hero Space was different from the ordinary spatial pouches on the continent. It was practically limitless and could hold anything that wasn't alive, so of course he had to find some necessities to start filling it up...
He bought every miscellaneous item he could think of and tossed it in. This lavish shopping spree cost him several more silver coins, leaving him with only one silver and fifty copper coins. Fortunately, he had bought everything he needed. Even if he were thrown onto an uninhabited island now, he believed he could survive for several months!
There was still one thing missing!
That was... a weapon!
As a dignified mage, he naturally needed a magic staff suited to his status. There was a magic item shop up ahead. He would go in and have a look!
Inside the magic shop, an old mage with failing eyesight was studying magic. Flashes of magical light appeared from time to time; he was probably using magic to appraise items. A pretty young girl handled customers, but one look at Young Master Aige's linen outfit killed her interest in making a sale. Surely he had only come in out of curiosity. In any case, he couldn't afford anything!
Still, the girl had no reason to be angry. She wasn't particularly enthusiastic, but neither was she cold. She simply let the customer look around as he pleased. Every item had a price marked beside it, and with the old mage on guard, theft was practically unthinkable...
Young Master Aige was in for a great shock here!
An ordinary gray magic staff cost ten silver coins, or a thousand copper coins. The best staff in the shop, a green excellent-grade one, had the astonishing asking price of a hundred gold coins...
There were magic gloves, magic robes, magic necklaces, and rings, but their prices were far beyond what little Aige, with only one silver and fifty copper coins left in his pocket, could afford. He also saw magic learning scrolls, scrolls with a spell inscribed on them that apprentices could use to learn and master that spell. Lesser Fireball cost one gold coin, Frostbolt cost five, and he didn't dare look at the rest...
Under the girl's unsurprised gaze, Young Master Aige slunk out of the magic item shop and swore outside that he would never set foot in this rip-off of a place again...
Of course, he was bound to break that promise later. How could words spoken in anger at a time like this be taken seriously?
Without a weapon, was he supposed to go out and kill monsters to level up barehanded? It wasn't impossible. He was a mage, after all, and even without a magic staff's bonus, his spells still did considerable damage. It was just that having both hands empty felt very strange to him... He had to carry something, didn't he?
How about finding a longsword to bolster my courage?
Thinking that he had to carry something, at least, he hurried excitedly to the blacksmith's shop. It bought and sold all kinds of weapons: ordinary gray ones, excellent green ones, and even a blue treasure of the shop. It was a blue fine-grade two-handed axe with a terrifying price of a thousand gold coins... Half price for someone fated to have it!
Someone fated, my ass! If you have money, of course you're fated. If you don't, you can't even begin to be fated, can you?
Standard infantry one-handed sword: ordinary gray, equippable at tier one, slightly increased physical attack power. Price: five silver coins. This was the cheapest sword in the shop... He covered his face and fled...
What could he do? Everywhere he went, it was heaven for the rich and hell for the poor! The young master, who had just thought himself rather wealthy with a full one silver and fifty copper coins, had seen his worldview collapse!
Fine! If he couldn't take revenge for the time being, he would go home first. At the very least, he had to settle this body's family. If they had one silver coin, plus the help he would give them in the future, he believed their lives would gradually improve. There would also be a chance to find a doctor to heal his eldest brother's leg. Aige himself could even try using Lesser Heal. A two-star heal should be enough to cure an ordinary person without much trouble, shouldn't it?
Perhaps influenced by the other soul's longing, even the young master felt a little apprehensive as he drew close to home. He was actually thinking of using his limited money to buy some gifts for the family. Food was the main thing. For a family that struggled year-round on the edge of hunger and cold, no clothes or gifts were as important as food to fill their stomachs.
Aige had already set aside the best hind leg from a wild dog for the family. That was precisely why the owner had discovered two legs missing. One hind leg weighed several jin, and it was all the tastiest lean meat, the best part of a wild dog (though some would say the tenderloin was best; that was a matter of opinion, so no more on that!). One leg was enough for the other three members of the family to enjoy.
He also spent some copper coins at the market on steamed buns, plain buns, pastries, and other things that were tasty and filling, yet not very expensive-the sort ordinary families could afford. A large bundle cost only thirty copper coins... Though that reduced his net worth to one silver and twenty copper coins, he felt it was well worth it!
Once the money was gone, he could simply earn more. He was now a respected mage (on the Azeroth Continent, the ratio of Warriors to mages was an astonishing hundred to one, truly one in a hundred. At the same tier, a mage could take on two or even three Warriors and had an advantage in attack methods, so mages were highly valued by all races. But because so few emerged and talent was such a limiting factor, they were still quite rare in armies), and with the system's help, he believed life would only get better!
With those pleasant thoughts and hopes, Aige set off for home!