The Rise of the Black Plain

By the next day, Minos' entire party had learned the four different languages from the language crystals they had purchased upon their arrival in Littlemere.

With their new knowledge in mind, the group left the place where they had spent the "night" and went back to roaming the local streets in search of shops that could trade the resources they wanted to buy or sell.

With four new languages, they would find it easier to negotiate with any vendor, and their chances of being cheated would be greatly reduced.

...

"Four bodies of Eabil, three trunks of Muthaiampal, eyes of two Mixansians, and legs and arms of Utocon..." A strange, pale green, gelatinous creature standing in front of Minos' group in a shop they had just entered said as he counted the remains in front of him that had caught his eye.

"I will buy the corpses and body parts I mentioned. You can keep the rest. I'm not interested in them." The creature commented to Minos while using its large, slimy body to swallow what he had just mentioned.

The people in Minos' group watched the creature's actions and looked at him strangely. But no one said anything to displease this level 98 creature while their bosses sold the remains they had with them.

"How much are you ready to pay for them?" Maximillian asked.

Their group wasn't entirely in the dark about the value of these body parts and corpses, but they were far from knowing their true worth.

However, this slime didn't know anything about that and said the price he thought was fair for this deal so as not to disrespect the other side or take away from his potential profit from reselling these things in the products he would make from them. "How about 1,800 Qilnats for all of them? Eabil's four bodies are quite valuable because they're whole, but the others are in small pieces, so their value isn't high. I won't be able to do much with them."

Maximillian and Minos looked at each other and felt this value was good for them. With this first sale of the day, they would recoup the 860 Qilnats from the purchase of the language crystals and still have 940 Qilnats left over for their later purchases.

"Alright, let's make a deal for 1,800 Qilnats." Minos said to the slime, who quickly spit out a bag of Qilnats.

"Hehe, do you want anything else, dear customers? I'm not just a shopper. I have a variety of options in my shop." The slime said.

Maximillian asked. "Do you have Extinguisher Apple, Ruby Bloom, or Cave Tarragon?"

Hearing the names of these herbs and plants, Slime understood exactly what they were after, but unfortunately, he didn't have any of them.

The slime summoned a vial from inside his body and said. "I have a potion called Mountain Vial. It has the same effect as Extinguisher Apple pills. But unfortunately, I don't have anything similar to Ruby Bloom or Cave Tarragon. You'll have to go to the Green Thumbs shop 12 blocks away. You might be able to find those two herbs there." The alchemist in the group, currently at level 97, looked at this and felt a strong medicinal power coming from the potion.

In the Spiritual World, alchemists didn't make potions. Normally, they formed whatever they wanted into pills.

But in Zocarro, there were two types of cultivation resources that were handled by cultivators similar to alchemists.

Minos and Maximillian waited for the man's answer, and then one of them said. "Let's do some more research. Maybe we'll come back later to buy the potion."

"Hmm, good luck with your shopping." The slime stored his potion in his body before watching the group leave his shop.

As they left, the alchemist said to Minos and Maximilian. "I don't think it's good for us to buy resources prepared by others in Zocarro. We don't know what kind of things might be in those resources.

It would be effortless for a powerful local alchemist to put poison in pills or potions. Until I learn more about the local resources and how to decipher artificial products to the point where I can detect such things, I think it would be risky to bet on these items."

Minos and Maximillian agreed. For now, they still had to learn more about this world, the local professions, and things far beyond their current level.

Even in the Spiritual World, one had to be careful about the origin of the pills they bought. So, in a strange place where they still had a lot to learn, it made no sense to rely so easily on resources that others had manipulated.

Kilburn hadn't taught them much about such things, as it wasn't an amiable place for space explorers. As for Littlemere, they didn't plan to stay there for long. Besides, it wasn't the best place for them to learn.

The group intended to stay on Examire for a while to learn more about the world and to take advantage of the local opportunities for space explorers like themselves. Only then would they plan their journey to the far north of the continent, to the island from which they could travel to the station on the artificial moon that would give them access to the galaxy.

Once more group members reach level 100, and the spiritual experts learn more of their specialties from the knowledge of beings from this and other worlds, they can make better use of Zocarro's opportunities.

Until then, they would have to be careful, or their group might suddenly shrink, just as it had in the group's first hours on this planet!

So Minos' people spent the next few hours visiting various shops in Littlemere, making various deals with the resources and enemy parts they had accumulated over the months. After collecting about 6,000 Qilnats, the group would visit the shops indicated by some of the beings they had done business with that day.

In some places, they found the herbs, plants, and minerals they were looking for, while in others, they were told to look in other places or even given areas between Examire and Littlemere where they could find such resources for free.

All the resources they were looking for were more or less well-classified, as they were above the Zocarro average. Even so, some of them could be easily found by traveling through the continent's forests.

Some merchants who didn't deal in such resources wouldn't mind telling these foreigners after doing business with them, so the group would also gather good information in Littlemere.

After a full day of coming and going, the group would end up with a positive balance of 3,000 Qilnats when they returned to where they would stay for a few more days before leaving.

Cultivating in towns like this was safer than in the woods, so the group would stay there for a few days to focus on their training and meditation but also to produce and buy everything they would need for the next few months of travel.

After Littlemere, they didn't plan to stop in any towns until they reached Examire!