The stone cracked open, revealing a small ball of light.
Under the curious gaze of the store keeper, the light expanded in size, only stopping when it reached the size of her palm.
The light vanished, and a human looking spirit was revealed. Hair like flowing light and two red lights for eyes, she was quite eye-catching.
"Oh!!!" the store keeper exclaimed, "Medium grade light spirit, and she's so adorable! Hello little one, what is your name?"
"I have no name." A gentle voice was heard by everyone in the room.
"Nameless... A dungeon spirit." She looked at Magnus, "Name your price."
"Look, I'll be blunt. I have no clue how much she's worth so... I'm guessing 10 gold coins since low rank ones go for 2 or 3?"
"Pffft-HAHA!" the store keeper laughed, before quickly covering her mouth with her hand.
"Apol- ha, apologies dear customer, I'm not used to people being this honest. First, let me introduce myself." she bowed slightly towards Magnus, "I am the daughter of this humble merchant family, Lucretia. Now-"
She gestured at the low ranking spirits on display. "All of them are low rank, worth 2 or 3 gold coins." and then gestured at one of the few human looking spirits,"If they are human looking, that increases their worth by a fold or two due to having good potential."
Each of the next words struck Magnus like thunder.
"A low rank noble or wizard might buy themselves a good low rank spirit for a few dozen gold coins."
"Then-" his heart shook as the price climbed higher.
"A nameless one can go for up to 30."
His breathing quickened.
"A middle rank nameless spirit with good potential... Anywhere around 500 gold coins. And since she's adorable I could probably sell her to some dukes daughter or even a princess for thrice that."
After a moment, he regained his composure.
"Why are nameless so expensive?" he asked while thinking to himself 'And how do I get them other than dungeons, this is a money tree for me!'
"It is said that if you pick a good name for the spirit, they can grow more powerful." she patiently explained, "Some say even a spirit king might be born. There are plenty of people who buy nameless spirits just to give them different names."
"I... See." his head still somewhat blanking at the windfall, he asked bluntly "How much are you buying her for?"
"100 gold coins. And-" she wanted to continue.
"Deal." Yet Magnus cut her off.
'I'm really short on time, and 100 gold is 100 gold! Enough for good stuff from the dungeon!'
"Ah... You're not gona bargain?" she asked, dumbstruck.
"Gotta hurry, and you were honest about the price, when you could've scammed me with 10 coins." he paused, looking at her suspiciously, "Probably honest."
"I... Yeah, I was honest. That's the basics of doing business." she waved her hand, and 10 stacks of coins appeared on the table, "Here. I look for-"
Swiping the coins into his pouch, he waved goodbye, "My commander is going to kill me, so pleasure doing business, I look forward to working with you in the future!"
He bowed.
Then turned around and ran out of the tent.
"What an oddball." Lucretia sat back down, smiling as she looked at the spirit.
---
'I'm rich! I can buy proper gear now! Or maybe even-' he glanced at his missing arm.
After a moment, he made up his mind. 'NO, this is a lesson, I must burn it into my brain so I don't repeat making mistakes, otherwise it may be my life next!'
Clenching his fist, he made his way back to the gathering point, and saw everyone had gathered already.
Everyone except Leo.
"Where have you been, Magnus?" one of them asked.
Although each of them smelled of sweat, they all had happy and relaxed expressions.
"Gambling."
"Ho- you, gambling? Where's the stuck up Magnus we kno-"
"Attention!" Leo's voice came from the distance, carrying a faint urgent tone.
All of them assumed proper postures, their aura changing from carefree to trained soldiers, ready to shed blood.
"Father has assigned us to hunt down a band of sand pirates, they've been targeting the local merchants and harmed trade. As per policy when dealing with pirates-no prisoners." Leo said, making a throat slitting gesture.
Soon thereafter, the knights were once more mounted up, charging into the depths of the desert.
"Do you think you can smell them, Lord?" one of the knights asked.
"Not yet. It won't take long though, they will need to rest during the day, otherwise they will risk heatstroke. As for us-"
He glanced back at the knights in heavy armor. Though each one them should be suffering from the heat, the armors magical properties helped with that.
"It's not like any of us or our mounts would care about a little heat." he said, which prompted laughter from the rest of the knights.
Except Magnus.
"First," he changed direction towards the north, the others following suit. "We will investigate the northern trade route. If we don't pick them up along the way to Pontica, we will head back and move westward."
Occasionally, he glanced back at the towering spire of Razmaru, and encountering an occasional caravan along the way.
'They're desperate if they're traveling by the day.' Magnus thought, eyeing a caravan.
'Their horses can barely continue, the humans are ready to fall over, and the vultures circling overhead don't make it any less ominous.'
It was then-
Some of the knights heard a sound in the distance.
Leo once more changed their direction, and they made their way towards the top of a dune.
"Spread out!" he shouted, and they formed one long line with Leo at the center. Only Magnus was slightly behind Leo, drawing his sword.
"What do you think is it?" Magnus asked.
"I don't know but we're about to find out!" he said as he slowed down the charge, the rest following suit.
Getting to the top of the dune, the knights looked towards the source of the sound.
A sand cloud rose in the distance, faint rumbling audible. Faintly, they could make out something moving behind the dunes.
"Think that's them?" a knight asked.
"Maybe. Could also be one of the desert dwellers. Let's observe a bit longer." Leo replied, straining his eyes.
'It probably is the pirates since they're all moving at the same speed.' Magnus looked at his map, noticing more than a hundred red markers enter the edge of the map.
He glanced at Leo, before looking back at the pirates in the distance.
'Hopefully, they're not stupid enough to bcharge her-'
He choked on his words, noticing the sand cloud changing direction.
First the sails emerged, then the masts, before the hull came into view-
A sand ship flew out from behind the dune, beelining towards them.
The rest of the knights drew their swords, smiling as they waited to welcome their prey.
'They spotted us, sigh...', he thought as he tightened the grip on his sword.