Chapter 44 Dragon Bar
According to the Fool's instructions, the ritual magic experiment must be carried out no later than Wednesday. Although the materials required for the ritual he teaches are not expensive, they are of many types. Angel sorted out the inventory in the basement of the study and found that he had to go to the underground market again to purchase materials to meet the demand.
The largest underground trading market in Tingen is the "Dragon Bar" located in the dock area.
Before joining the Nighthawks, Angel thought that this trading market was just a secret place passed down by word of mouth among mysticism enthusiasts and some wild extraordinary people. However, after "learning" about this place from Old Neil, Leonard, Xijia and others, she discovered that the Dragon Bar had long been exposed to the sight of official extraordinary people.
Rather, places like the Dragon Bar were opened with the tacit approval of the church's Extraordinary Armed Forces, making it easier to control the trade of most dangerous items and extraordinary materials rather than allowing them to develop wildly.
After learning this, Angel no longer felt any psychological burden about visiting the underground market. After all, senior Nighthawks like Old Neil often went to the Dragon Bar to purchase materials, so what was wrong with him preparing to practice ritual magic?
After nightfall, she hired a carriage and went straight to the dock area.
Considering that the purchase would take a long time, Angel did not let the carriage stay and wait, but directly paid the bill and let the coachman drive away.
She herself walked along the long secret passage, bypassing the guards at the gate, the seemingly endless boxing matches, and the billiard players who seemed to be playing billiards but were actually protecting the secret door, and entered the underground trading market.
The first time Angel visited the Dragon Bar, she was busy crafting special bullets to deal with Mrs. Sharon. This time, her mindset and purpose were different. She was able to leisurely explore the underground market like she was browsing a supermarket, carefully selecting the materials needed for ritual magic while also broadening her horizons.
The house where the underground market is located is actually another building behind the Dragon Bar. It looks like a converted warehouse, with a floor height of more than 4 meters and an area of about 500 square meters. It is divided into rows of fixed stalls by the manager, and there is an aisle in the middle for people to walk. This makes the crowd of traders crowded but not messy.
After browsing the stalls one by one, Angel quickly found the items that interested him.
A young boy with disheveled hair sat on a small round stool, his head drooping as if he was sleepy. There were many small and exquisite glass bottles on the stall in front of him, and a pile of cloth bags of different sizes were placed beside him. Several of the bags were overturned, revealing their contents. Angel recognized that the moonflower she needed was among them.
"Are you selling essential oils made from various herbs?" She came forward, bent down and picked up a thumb-sized glass bottle, sealed with a metal stopper, and filled with light yellow oil.
The boy raised his head and looked at Angel. He was stunned for a moment before answering: "That's right, you didn't mistake it for perfume. I have sent away several customers who mistook it for perfume."
"Isn't perfume also made of plant essential oil? It's just more fragrant than the ones you make." Angel pulled out the metal plug, and a pungent smell came out. Hmm, it was mint.
"Of course they're different! Perfume is just a cosmetic, but essential oils can be used as medicine, and they can also..." The boy blushed instantly and argued eagerly, then stopped mid-sentence, looked around, and continued, "...Forget it, you wouldn't understand even if I told you. These essential oils are 5 soli per bottle, and if you buy three or more, you can get a 10% discount."
“So expensive?”
Angel raised an eyebrow. Considering the production process of essential oils, the price of raw materials, and the extraction equipment required, she didn't really think it was expensive, but just subconsciously lowered the price.
"My teacher set the price. He said we can't lower it if we can't sell it." The boy put on a stern face, pretending he'd rather die than bargain, but then added in a low voice, "...If you buy three or more bottles, I'll give you an extra 5% discount?"
Figuring that no amount of talking would get him any better deals, Angel nodded in agreement.
"Okay, at this price, I need golden mint, moonflower..." She listed the types of essential oils she needed in one breath. In order to avoid revealing the detailed requirements of the ritual magic, she deliberately picked two other types of essential oils.
Surprisingly, the boy’s stall had a very complete variety of essential oils, and the two additional essential oils she added were all skillfully selected one by one by the boy and put into an exquisite cloth bag.
"That's 1 pound 9 soli plus... 9 pence." The boy quickly calculated the discounted price, handed over the bag with one hand, and took the banknotes from Angel with the other. After getting the 3-pence coin in change, he immediately turned around and said to the stall owner behind him, "Hey, old man, I have enough money. I want all your herbs."
The stall owner, whom he called "old man", happily took the money and handed a large bag of unknown medicinal herbs to the boy.
Is this what they call "making a profit from the price difference"?
Seeing that the money he used to buy a few bottles of essential oils was transformed into herbs that could be used to extract at least several times the amount of essential oils after being transferred from the boy's hands, Angel had witnessed the huge profits of underground transactions.
Of course, she didn't have professional extraction equipment. Even if she bought herbs, she could only soak them in alcohol and extract them slowly, which was time-consuming, inefficient, and easily mixed with impurities. It was not suitable as essential oil for ritual use, and the boy could only make a profit from the price difference.
Lifting the cloth bag in his hand, Angel didn't dwell on it too much. If he only had to spend a few pounds to complete the task assigned by the Fool, the price wouldn't be too expensive.
She recalled the items needed for ritual magic. The ritual dagger could be replaced with an ordinary carving knife, as long as it could be used to make the spiritual wall. It was best to purchase various meals on the same day to ensure that they would not spoil. Then the only thing left was the sandalwood candle for the ceremony.
Continuing past several stalls selling raw materials and finished products, Angel came upon a middle-aged man who was selling various amulets to other customers.
For the extraordinary people who can make their own spells and amulets, there is no point in spending money to buy these amulets made by ordinary people based on the flawed knowledge of occult science. What she cares about is the sandalwood candles placed in the corner by the stall owner. These candles are brighter and thinner than those made from ordinary animal fats, and they can be distinguished from other candles at a glance.
"How much are those candles?" Angel asked after the middle-aged man failed in his sales pitch and sat back on the stool.
"Um, what?"
The man looked at Angel suspiciously, then followed her gaze towards the candle.
"You want to buy candles? No, no, I don't sell them. I need them to make amulets. Why don't you take a look at these amulets..."
He picked up the silver amulet with a hollow design and feather-shaped decoration that he had not sold earlier and handed it to Angel.
"5 soli." Angel didn't even look at the amulet in his hand, but quoted the price directly.
"This one costs 6 soli, and you can only buy that side for 5 soli..." The man did not understand what she meant and continued to fiddle with the silver amulet.
"I meant the candles."
The middle-aged man was stunned, and it took him a while to react. He looked at the amulet in his hand, then at the bundle of candles in the corner, and hesitated for a moment.
"Well, they're yours..."
The man sighed and agreed to the deal.
Ordinary candles usually cost 1/2 penny, and even if sandalwood candles are several times more expensive, a bundle of 10 candles like this would cost less than 2 soli. Angel's forced purchase of the candles at a premium of more than double really broke the man's psychological bottom line. He threw down the silver amulet in frustration, took the bundle of candles and handed it to Angel.
"I didn't expect that my first business today would be reselling candles." He took the 5-sol note and said self-deprecatingly, "It seems that selling candles might be a more profitable business than making amulets."
Unexpectedly, his eagerness to buy the candles had upset the stall owner. Angel smiled wryly and consoled him, "I'm sorry, I just need these candles urgently. It's not that the amulets you made are not worth the money. These, um..."
She pressed the tip of her tongue against her back teeth, opened her spiritual vision, and looked at these dull amulets. She was struggling to figure out how to praise them against her will, but suddenly she felt a spiritual disturbance coming from behind, as if her own inspiration was pulling her, telling her to be alert in that direction.
No longer paying attention to the depressed middle-aged man, she turned and looked behind her. Sitting against the wall between two rows of stalls was a thin young man. He was wearing a linen shirt and blue-gray trousers commonly worn by dock workers. His wrinkled clothes seemed to have not been changed for a long time. His lifeless eyes were looking at the sky, and his mouth was moving as he muttered something.
The pedestrians passing by him seemed to have become accustomed to the young man's presence and turned a blind eye to his strange behavior. They just walked around him a little to avoid contact with him.
"Who is that?" Angel pointed at him and asked the middle-aged man who was wiping the amulet.
"An orphan, whose name is unknown. He's crazy, talks nonsense every day, yells at strangers, and is often beaten by those with bad tempers." The man glanced at Angel's direction and replied casually, "If it weren't for the kindness of Mr. Swain, the manager here, he would have been thrown into the Tussock River long ago."
Turning on his clairvoyance again, Angel carefully observed the crazy young man, but found nothing extra.
Perhaps only a "psychic" or "fortune teller" who is good at clairvoyance can see anything... She licked her teeth, turned off the clairvoyance, and no longer paid attention to the young man.
After purchasing the candles, Angel's main task was completed, but since it was a rare trip to the underground trading market, she did not plan to go back immediately. Instead, she continued to visit different stalls, watching others bargaining and arguing, and occasionally buying a few materials at the right price.
She even encountered a round-faced, shy man who had sat opposite her on a public carriage during the day. The man was bargaining for a ceremonial knife with an intricate design and a gorgeous appearance. From the stall owner's resistance to obedience, and then to his repeated nods, it seemed that the initiative of the transaction was in the hands of this man who looked to have just reached adulthood.
Noticing Angel's gaze, the round-faced man turned his head and looked over, as if he recognized Angel. He smiled and said a few words to the stall owner, then walked over with a knife.
"Beautiful lady, we meet again."
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