The little crow hopped and hopped around me happily, like a bird jumping for joy in excitement: though she was a bird. This child is not yet very smart, but he also knows that the treasure he discovered has been recognized, so he is very happy.
I looked over and over at the silver-white metal plate in my hand. This was found by the little crow from the "garbage dump" in the corner of the yard, where the other party was an unknown item found by Sagina and Sona from the ancient ruins. , because they can't find a use for the time being and no one can recognize their value, but they are not willing to throw them away, so they are piled up in the corner. This piece of silver-white metal is only the size of a palm, and it is as light as nothing in the hand. It has low density and high strength that are completely inconsistent with its material: I tried it just now, and if you don’t use force beyond the specification, you can’t do it by hand alone. Let this sheet of metal, which is only a few millimeters thick, undergo any deformation. Its outer edge is irregular, but there are no traces of tearing. It seems that it was originally processed like this. One side is smooth, but the other side has many neat and regular dents. Crystals of unknown use are embedded in the dents. The metal plate There is a neat row of small letters on the lower edge, which looks like some kind of serial number.
With such a shape, it is hard not to associate it with high-tech mechanical equipment. Although I can’t see its purpose, I guess it is some kind of part: a device that is beyond the technological level of this world.
In fact, even if it is not a part, it is definitely not what should appear in this world. The processing skills of this piece of metal are quite high, and its composition is strange. It is such a strong but light thing. It is not that easy to process.
"Where did you get this?" I asked Sagina, holding up the metal plate.
"Uh, let me think about it." Sagina frowned. There are quite a lot of things piled up in the yard, and they will go to a certain ruin every now and then to explore. If you want to recall this humble metal plate from It's not easy to come here. Sure enough, after thinking about it for a long time. Sagina could only shake her head apologetically, "It seems that the time is not short, I have forgotten where I found it."
Seeing the disappointed look on my face, Sona immediately added: "But I have a little impression: At that time, we seemed to take this to the market and wanted to sell it, because it seemed lighter and stronger than any metal, The alchemist may be interested, but the alchemist who bought it came to return it within a few days. He said that this piece of metal can't be processed at all, it doesn't guide magic, it can't be melted, and it doesn't react with any alchemy materials. It is useless except that it is very hard, and it cannot be imitated. I think it should be useless, but if you are interested, you can take it away, and it is useless to leave it here."
Sandora took the metal plate, looked at it over and over for a while, and shook her head: "We are not interested in this piece of metal. We are interested in its source. This thing... shouldn't appear in this world."
"Sorry, I can't help you." Sakina smiled awkwardly, then clapped her hands. "By the way, one person may know!"
Sandora immediately narrowed her eyes: "Who? Can I find it now?"
"I'm afraid not now, he should have gone to the market." Sona shook her head, "This time is when explorers go to the market to sell things. We should also go there. If you are not in a hurry, you can follow us there." Once, that person is also an adventurer, and has a lot of qualifications, the area he usually explores is similar to the place we two explored, maybe he has seen something similar."
Sagina nodded again and again: "That's right, Sona, let's go to the market and have a look, it's still early today, maybe we can still buy something, the booth we rented is not too far from that old man's booth , just in time for everyone to go there together."
She told us the second half of the sentence, with a look of hope on her face. Of course, we have no reason to refuse, so we nodded and agreed immediately.
Sagina and Sona went back to the house to pack their things first, and then came out carrying two huge backpacks. It seemed that the "goods" they were going to sell at the market were these two big bags. Sagina smiled proudly at me: "Although we dare not say anything else, we are still very confident in our strength. Let's go, there are only so many things to deal with today, and they were all obtained from the last expedition. The harvest from the expedition has not been sorted yet."
You said that two girls' families are carrying such a big two bags in front of me, can I feel sorry for it? Of course not, so I decisively patted Lin on the shoulder: "Go and help." I don't know why, when I handed over this kind of work to Lin recently, I didn't feel guilty at all.
"Ah, don't bother, this is very heavy..." When Lin went to pick up the backpack, Sagina suddenly exclaimed, but she didn't move in the next second: Lin was as easy as pinching two feathers "Squeeze" the two huge backpacks, and then bounced to the front of the team. Sagina stared at the back dumbfounded, and suddenly shed a sad face: "The only strength I am proud of..."
Bingtis patted her on the shoulder: "It's okay, the only thing that silly girl is proud of is strength, you are not bad."
The explorer's trading market gives me the feeling that it is very similar to the vegetable market with open-air operating rental stalls. It does not have very good facilities and does not have too many rules. A large area is divided and then planned by the Sentu authorities. There are neat booths, and each booth is separated by iron piles and wooden boards, with simple wooden countertops for placing goods. These booths are leased to explorers at a very low price. According to Sakina, Almost as free. It can be seen that this market is more inclined to public facilities or welfare facilities. As one of the largest transfer stations for the lost world, Sentu not only gathered a large number of explorers, but also attracted a large number of scholars and magic professionals. Therefore, the secret society here is also quite large. For the Sentu authorities, The arcane and other high-end academic facilities are the mainstay of the economy, so they don't charge much in this market for explorers.
However, this does not mean that explorers can gain much practical benefits in this system. As a vulnerable group in society, it is still a loose class without the slightest organization. Explorers always have to suffer—their business target is the dominant intellectual class, no matter in terms of knowledge, status, or power, explorers are in a position that has to be slaughtered, and they have to face These are the things that make life hard for explorers the most, against biased market managers and other miscellaneous departments.
"If there is a conflict with scholars and masters, no matter what the reason is, we will all suffer, and the city guards will take most of the responsibility on us when they come." Sakina said this with a very angry face. "After all, many people I think so, the explorers are a bunch of ignorant vagrants, and all of them have violent tendencies, if there is trouble, it is definitely us who are to blame, as for the scholars. That is the educated class. Who will Doubt them. Sona and I have been arrested several times by the city guards, each time because of arguing with someone... "
"It's not that you are too stubborn." Sona gave Sagina a dissatisfied look, "and you are very impulsive."
I immediately felt the same way. Sagina is indeed a person who is not very good at suppressing emotions. She writes all her thoughts on her face, and it is normal for her to easily conflict with others.
We've arrived at our destination while we're talking. Sona found the booth she rented, and I found that the only difference between this place and the vegetable market is that each booth is very big: it can be used as a store if it is built on the wall. But after looking around, I understood why there is such a large space reserved here - there is a team of explorers selling animal bones tens of meters away, the ancestor elephant.
"There are some older explorers who will form a large team. They are much better than the two of us." Sakina noticed my gaze and said casually, "In addition to exploring the ruins, they sometimes even go to The wilderness of the Lost World hunts ferocious beasts. Those beasts are full of treasures, but they cannot adapt to the environment of the mother continent. Therefore, they are still a specialty of the Lost World and are often fired at very high prices. Of course, the two of us would not want to Well, the two of us are quite inconspicuous here."
In addition to the explorers who were dressed in different races in various stalls in the market, the rest were "customers" in high-end clothes wandering between the stalls. They came down to purchase alchemy materials or research materials. Sagina might I have realized that we know nothing about the profession of explorers, and I took the initiative to explain it at this time. Only then did I know that except for a small number of people who came down to purchase things, the rest were basically their apprentices. As assistants, scholars don't run errands by themselves, and they don't like the messy environment.
"Many alchemy materials produced in the lost world are fixed. After telling the apprentices what they need to buy, the students don't need to run errands by themselves." Sagina said while putting her things on the table. I will come here in person when I am looking for novel materials. After all, there are still many lost worlds that have not been fully explored. Explorers often have new gadgets that no one has seen before, oh, such as the piece of metal you found No one knows what this kind of rare thing is for. Scholars and masters will be interested in this kind of thing. They call this kind of activity of going to the market to find novel materials as "Taobao" (I want to insert a sentence: if the customer is satisfied Will you give me a good review? But I held back after holding it in for a long time), under normal circumstances, this is the biggest opportunity for explorers to make a fortune, but it also depends on luck, sometimes you think it is very valuable. In the eyes of the master, it is worthless, and the price has been suppressed very low, there is no way to do it."
The corners of Lin Xue's eyes twitched slightly, and she pursed her lips and said, "Actually, I was cheated. Although you found the thing, except for those technical geeks, who knows how much that thing is worth, it must have been cheated. "
Sagina smiled, obviously she knew this situation herself, but what could be done? Explorers basically don't have much knowledge. If they had more skills besides courage and strength, they wouldn't do such dangerous jobs, especially races like half-dragons: they were born unable to learn magic, In this era when the magical intelligentsia ruled the world, never being able to learn magic is equivalent to being doomed to be illiterate forever. All high-value things in the world are incomprehensible to them. Is there anything worse than this
"Actually, we are quite lucky." Sona smiled wryly and spread her hands. "I was once used as a test product by the mage master, and it was a blessing in disguise. Although I couldn't learn magic, Sagina and I also learned a lot about pharmacy and materials." The knowledge I learned was all secretly memorized at the beginning. Although it is incomparable with real scholars, it is often useful to judge ordinary and weird materials. When I first started 'work', this knowledge also helped a lot. We are not so easily deceived."
"Hey, where is the old explorer you mentioned?" Qianqian went for a walk outside, then came back again.
"Oh, wait a minute. Sagina, look after the things, and I will lead the way." Sona hurriedly arranged the things on hand, and led a group of us to a place more than a hundred meters away while talking. Walking to a stall: the stall is in the corner, and only an old man who looks sleepy is watching, and the things on the surface are just a few things, which are very inconspicuous. My heart suddenly moved: According to the general routine, like this kind of wandering in the bustling market. Obviously should attract guests but sleep on the sidelines. There are a wide variety of products everywhere, but only a few shabby old men on their own booths. They are definitely hidden hidden masters. Their sleepy eyes hide the wisdom of a lifetime. There are rare treasures hidden in the rags, and usually they will prepare one or two girls for you to marry at home—could it be said that I have been following the non-mainstream route for so many years, and finally there will be a mainstream plot
When I was thinking about it, a strong, shirtless man pushing a flatbed truck suddenly appeared from a diagonal stab. The big man rushed to the old man's booth and resisted the large packages from the flatbed cart. He began to pour things out in a sloppy manner, and the drowsy old man suddenly regained his energy when he heard the sound. Teng jumped over to help pack things, and muttered a lot in his mouth: "I said why did you come here! Our family has only been here for half a bag of cigarettes, and you have been gone for almost an hour! How much time wasted, you... Wake up early When I came out, I told you to push the car up, but you didn’t listen. Well, a big master just came and bought all the things, and made me stay in an empty stall and watch others sell the goods. Are you an unprofessional bastard! "
The big man lowered his head and hurried to work, while accompanying him: "Dad, don't be angry, it's still early today, and there are still sales in the afternoon..."
Me: "...hehe, the old man is quite energetic...hehe..."
There is a large group of us standing next to the booth and it is impossible not to attract attention. The old man saw us all of a sudden just after packing up a few things. Come on, here comes the business—you guys are either scholars or aristocrats, you must have come to Taobao, right? We just picked up some treasures from the bottom of the box at home, and two of them were bought by the boys a few days ago I found it in a cave in the Gray Forest, I swear there is no such thing on the market... "
The old man is probably more motivated to do business than he is at the end of being an explorer. In the blink of an eye, he started to introduce his collection incessantly. I can tell that this should be a semi-retired explorer, and now he is his son. He and a few teammates inherited the mantle, but we didn't come here to listen to his sales. However, Lin Xue couldn't interrupt the old man after opening her mouth several times. In the end, Sona couldn't help it, and said loudly: "Wei Uncle En! Please listen to others first!"
The old man was taken aback, as if he just saw Sona: "Oh, it's Sona, when did you come?"
"I've been standing here since just now!" Sona looked unhappy. Anyone who was ignored like this would definitely not be happy. "Uncle, have you completely become a businessman now? You seem to know how to do business."
"Nonsense, I have a dead-headed son, I don't want to find a way to support my family, what can I do!" the old man yelled angrily, his white beard trembled, and the "brainless son" didn't dare to get angry. Standing next to Chuji, this contrast is really eye-catching. On the one side is a burly man who can win more than a dozen bodybuilder awards by just standing on the stage with a little oil on his muscles. He looks shy with his head down. On one side is the old man with white hair and stooped back, his voice is like a torrential bell.
Sandora didn't talk nonsense directly, and took out the metal plate directly: "Sakina said that you might know the origin of this thing, can you see if you know this?"
The old man muttered: "I stopped working last year, but since Sakina said so, it may have happened before that..." While talking, he took the metal plate, looked over it over and over again, He said firmly, "Two hundred cords."
I was taken aback: "What?"
"Two hundred cords." The old man raised his eyes, "No one else has seen such an unremarkable thing. The information fee of two hundred cords is already very cheap. Do the gentlemen still care about such a small amount of money? "
Sona glanced at us in embarrassment, and said anxiously to the old man: "They are friends of Sina and I!"
This time it was the old man's turn to be dumbfounded. He looked at the huge "noble parade" in our circle and suddenly pulled Sona's arm: "Did you eat the wrong thing? You are just...you understand."
"It's true, they are scholars who are traveling, and they met us in the ancient city." Of course, Sona knew what the other party was surprised, and simply explained a few words, "Anyway, don't mention money?"
The old man looked at this side in disbelief, gritted his teeth and stomped his feet at the end, as if he had come up with a good idea: "If not, why don't you just pretend that I don't know about this and give me the money first?"
Me: "..." Lingmeng, I may have found your long-lost father!
Seeing that Sona's steady temper couldn't take it anymore and she was about to go berserk, the old man was finally discouraged and waved to us: "Go to the Sky Tower and have a look, I remember there is a pile of strange metals on the first floor there." , I don’t know anything else—then what, you really don’t want to buy anything? Even if you don’t need alchemy materials, it’s not bad to find a few beautiful stones and go back to make some jewelry... "
In the end, we were finally broke. Fortunately, Lilina brought the currency of this world with her. We bought a lot of strange stones and went back. Well, we should buy a bunch of snacks for Sandora.
Just as we turned around and returned, we suddenly heard a noise from not far away, mixed with Sagina's sharp voice. (To be continued.