"For what Affinity? There are different prices depending on the Affinity," the guy asked.

"All nine of the pure ones," Shang said.

"All nine?" the man asked with furrowed brows. "There are only eight. One for no Affinity and seven Pure Affinities. Of course, there are also a couple for Mixed Affinities, but that still wouldn't come to the number nine."

"Darkness and Light," Shang said, his heartbeat speeding up.

He knew that it was risky to ask for Light and Darkness Affinities, but he had to get the information from somewhere.

The man furrowed his brows.

"Seems like you are privy to some sensitive information," the man said with a deep voice.

Shang didn't answer.

The two remained silent for a while.

Then, the man sighed.

"Fine."

"Initial Rank Two ores have the following prices."

"No Affinity: 2,000 Contribution Points."

"Fire, Earth, Wind, Water Affinity: 2,500 Contribution Points."

"Ice, Lightning, Metal Affinity: 3,000 Contribution Points."

"Light Affinity: 1,000 Contribution Points."

"I don't sell Darkness Affinity ore."

Two things immediately jumped out to Shang.

"Why is the Light Affinity one so cheap?" Shang asked.

"Low demand," the man said. "Rank One Light Affinity ore is mostly used as an efficient light source. Rank Two Light Affinity ore is used as a supporting agent that expedites the healing of injuries, but most people aren't interested in the Initial Rank Two Light Affinity Ore. They want the better stuff."

"And the Darkness ore? Why do you not sell that?" Shang asked.

"Depends on what you mean with you. You singular or plural?" the man asked.

Shang's brows furrowed. "Singular," he said.

"I don't have access to it."

"And plural?" Shang asked.

"I don't know. Above my paygrade," the man answered.

Shang really didn't like that.

He needed Darkness ore, but the Exchange Hall didn't sell it.

On top of that, Shang wouldn't dare to walk to the merchants and ask them. He had been willing to talk about the Darkness and Light Affinities in the Exchange Hall since they were directly employed by the academy.

The merchants weren't.

Selling out information about students was probably highly illegal for the employees, but the merchants weren't under this restriction.

This was a big problem for Shang.

"What about Early Rank Two?" Shang asked.

"Times 1.5 except for the Light Affinity one. That one's times two," he said.

"And Middle Rank Two?" Shang asked.

"Same thing."

Shang did some math in his head while thinking.

'I think I should go for Middle Rank Two,' Shang thought. 'Astor already has a Late Rank Two weapon, and he is clearly someone very dedicated to his weapon. Nearly everyone else will probably only have an Early or Middle Rank Two weapon. If I want to train my techniques, I need a weapon on the same level as everyone else.'

'So, I need a Middle Rank Two weapon.'

'I need seven units of ore for my weapon, but I want it to have a proper balance. Because of that, I need to actually buy eight units, two for each of my Affinities.'

'That comes to 32,500 Contribution Points, and I'm still missing the Darkness ore.'

'Luckily, I still have a lot of gold, which means I don't have to only buy from the Exchange Hall.'

'But I still need to keep my Affinity a secret. The best way to accomplish that is to buy two of everything.'

'But that's not feasible with my current wealth. The longer I don't have a usable weapon, the more time I waste by not being able to properly train my techniques.'

The man had already started doing something else. He was used to students taking several minutes to make their decisions sometimes.

Shang was going through several possible ways to reduce his cost.

'I need to make one Affinity public. The only reason why I have to keep my Affinity secret is because of the added Darkness and Light Affinities. There are probably a couple of people that have a Temperature Affinity, but it should still be very rare. If I go public with a Temperature Affinity, I will probably be under scrutiny by a lot of outsiders.'

'I should go public with my Ice Affinity.'

'However, before doing that, I have to get the Fire, Darkness, and Light Affinity ore in secret. Then, I will go public with my Ice Affinity and buy the ore. With that, I would have all the ore I need. After getting the Ice Affinity ore, I can upgrade my weapon, and everyone will believe that I used the Ice Affinity ore I've just bought.'

"Is there a way to use Light Affinity ore to speed up training?" Shang asked.

The man stopped what he was doing and looked at Shang. "Well, when talking about these stones, we don't generally refer to them as Light Affinity ore," he said.

Shang lifted an eyebrow.

"They are known as Healing Stones, and they have grades. Grade One Healing Stones refer to Initial Rank Two Light Affinity ore. Grade Two refers to Early Rank Two and so on."

"They are usually put into a room in which you are training. The healing aura of the Healing Stones makes your body heal faster, which allows you to train with more risk and quicker. That's also why they are being sold," the man explained.

"No one will bat an eye if someone buys Healing Stones," the man added.

Shang showed no reaction.

"However, buying Darkness ore would pull up a lot of questions," the man said.

pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ "Especially since that's officially contraband."

"Contraband?" Shang asked.

"Illegal goods. Darkness ore can be used in a variety of ways to kill someone. A stone at the bottom of medicine can pull out all the life force of said medicine. If someone relies on that medicine to save their life and it doesn't work, chances are high they would die."

"Using a stone in a liquid with compatible ingredients could even poison someone."

"That's also the reason why I don't sell them," the man said. "You've seen the big crystals above the city gates? No normal person can smuggle that stuff in. You would have to be someone with a lot of prestige, like a True Mage or a Commander Stage warrior, to smuggle that stuff in successfully."

"Of course, most of them wouldn't take the risk. The risk is far too high for this little bit of reward. They would rather kill a Commander Stage beast. That's a many, many times higher payoff for less risk."

"You would need someone that's on that level who is willing to take that risk for you," the man said.

Shang furrowed his brows.

"I would like to buy two Grade Three Healing Stones," Shang said.

"Sure," the man said with a smirk.

He walked to the back of the Exchange Hall and came back with a brown bag.

When Shang saw the brown bag, his eyes shone.

He had seen several people get their wares, and they had always received them without any hiding.

This guy was obviously helping Shang.

"Students, as well as teachers, get most of their stuff from us," the man said. "However, they are all customers, and customers don't have access to the information of other customers. This policy exists under the order of the dean, and only the dean can overwrite it."

When Shang heard that, his eyes shone again.

Several pieces of scattered information just clicked together.

"Thank you," Shang said after paying.

"Only doing my job," the man said with a smile.

Shang said his goodbyes and left the building.

'I should repay him in the future.'

'He dropped enough hints for me to realize where I can get Darkness Affinity ore.'

'Only an idiot wouldn't be able to combine the clues.'