Supreme Devil Lord: I Can Refine All Energy-Chapter 48: In the Market

After Eric left, Elena, Riya, and Vivian talked for half an hour. Elena tried asking Vivian where Eric had gone, but Vivian didn’t answer, knowing if she told him he went to the market, she would ask her more questions which she didn’t want to answer.

"Just wait for him. He will be back in 2-3 hours maximum. He will tell you." She said before leaving to take care of some other household work.

Elena and Riya had nothing to do, so they walked out to the courtyard.

Elena noticed Riya seemed to have something on her mind and asked, "What is it, little Ri? Worried about what will happen?"

Riya shook her head. "No. I’m not worried about that. Since big brother Eric said he will take care of everything, I’m sure we will be fine."

"What’s troubling you then?"

"I’m thinking about something that Hannah said a while ago." Riya said, her brows furrowed.

"What did she say?" Elena asked, curious.

Riya hesitated for a few moments before she took a deep breath and said, "She asked why I and Eric don’t look similar if we are siblings."

Elena’s heart dropped when she heard this.

All these years, many had asked her this because they indeed had no similarity, but she always shrugged it off. Even Riya had asked her this question when she was young, but she just said that it wasn’t necessary for siblings to share similarities and that she didn’t need to think too much about it.

Riya had hoped Elena would say the same now, but when she saw the change in her expression, she felt her heart clench. ’It can’t be...’

...

Most of the market was occupied by small stalls and shops run by small merchants and cultivator families. They mostly sold daily-use products, cheap clothes, and other things one might need.

But since they were cheap, their quality wasn’t great, and if someone was willing to spend more credits for better quality items, he could go to the stores opened by the big merchants, who were backed by the noble families in the core city and the noble families themselves. Even the Kroft family had a store there, and since the Kroft family was the overlord of the city, it occupied the center of the market and was the biggest.

From afar, Eric glanced at the three-story-tall tower, which had a sign hung at the entrance—Kroft Trading Store.

If you had enough money and didn’t want to go around the market buying things only to be told some were not available, the Kroft Trading Store was the place you needed to go to.

Since Eric didn’t have enough credits, nor did he dare to enter it lest he risked people of the Kroft family recognizing him, he looked at it from afar before walking in the direction where merchants’ stores were.

After thinking for a moment, he entered a medium-sized store. There were several customers already in there, either listing out what they needed to the store employee or paying.

When he entered, a girl, who seemed to be just a few years older than him, dressed in a tight-fitting yellow shirt and black pencil skirt that hugged her modest figure, approached him. Eric noticed all the employees were dressed in similar clothes, meaning it was the uniform of the store.

"Hello. Good morning, sir. May I know what you would like to buy from our store today?" She greeted him with a polite smile on her face and asked after quickly scanning him from head to toe.

Noticing her judgmental look when she assessed him, Eric sighed in relief, ’It’s good I’m wearing decent clothes; otherwise, she probably would have showed me the way out already instead of greeting me.’

"Good morning to you too, pretty lady." Eric returned the smile and said, "I would like to buy some spirit stone powder."

"Certainly, sir. Please follow me." The attendant smiled and led him deeper into the store. When she saw an employee who had just finished dealing with a customer, she approached him and quickly told him, "This young sir wants to buy some spirit stone powder. Please take care of it."

Saying this, she nodded lightly at Eric before walking back out and greeting another customer who just entered the store.

The employee behind the counter, a man who seemed to be in his early thirties and dressed in a yellow shirt and black pants, asked, "If you buy less than 100 grams, the price will be 5 credits per gram, but if you buy more than 100 grams, it’ll be 4.5 credits per gram. How much do you want?"

Hearing this, Eric sighed in relief, realizing his worries were unfounded.

Though he had heard one could buy a handful of spirit stone powder for around 100 credits, he wasn’t sure if he could buy enough for his needs in just 5000 credits since the size of everyone’s hands was different, and it also depended on how much the person wanted to grab. So, he was worried if the shopkeepers were dishonest, he might not be able to buy enough for his needs in just 5000 credits.

Fortunately, though, it was being sold in grams, making it difficult for such blatant cheating.

He didn’t know this beforehand because, even though he had entered the middle city two times before, he had never entered the stores that sold the spirit stone powder, nor did he try to find out how it was sold from other people since the information was useless to him.

’Let’s see. Last night, I used half a kilogram and got 39.5 units of refined energy after the system deducted the energy it took to refine that. This means I need at least 700 grams of it to increase the refined energy reserve to 100 units and activate the shop function.’ He thought before asking,

"What if I buy more than 200 grams?"

The shop employee could see what he was trying to do and directly said, "You can get a little more discount if you buy at least one kilogram." For anything less than that, you have to pay 4.5 credits per gram."

"How little are we talking about here?" Eric asked, which made the man raise his brows in surprise because he had thought Eric would only buy a few hundred grams maximum.

"It’ll cost you 4 credits per gram." He answered.

"I’ll buy one kilogram. How about, sir, you give me a little more discount?" Eric haggled. Since he needed to pay to extend their stay in the middle city until they could get the permanent permit, he planned to save 1000 credits. And if he could save some more credits by haggling, it would be even better.

Though the man didn’t make any sound, Eric noticed he had clicked his tongue in annoyance before saying, "You can pay 50 credits less."

Eric didn’t try to haggle more because he knew this was the most discount this man would give him because the spirit stone powder was something in demand, and therefore, didn’t have a lack of customers. So, even if he didn’t buy it, someone else would and the shop would suffer no loss.

So, he nodded and took out the crystal card Vivian gave him. "Here, pack one kilogram for me then."

...

A while later, he left the store carrying a small bag in his hand and a satisfied look on his face. Just when he was about to leave the market, however, a group of three, one man and two women, passed by him, and he stopped in his tracks, his expression becoming dark.

Immediately, the scene of Andrew’s goons beating him on the demon mountain range flashed in his eyes. He clearly remembered each of their faces, and this man was one of them.

He turned around and watched him walk away while talking and laughing with his companions, killing intent flickering in his eyes.

When the group had walked less than ten meters away from him, however, he noticed the man suddenly stop in his tracks.

...

Shua!

The man suddenly stopped and turned around before sweeping his gaze across all the people walking in his direction and going away from him. However, when he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, he frowned.

"What is it, brother-in-law?" One of the women asked him.

The man shook his head. "Nothing. I just felt someone was watching me."

"Oh?" The women started glancing around too. Seeing this, the man chuckled, "Haha, it probably wasn’t anything. Don’t worry. Let’s go."

...

’What sharp senses!’ Eric exclaimed in his heart as he walked away from the place while looking as calm as he could. Fortunately, there were several other people going in and out of the market; if not, he feared he would have been caught.

’I should be more careful and not reveal my emotions.’ He warned himself, remembering warriors, especially those who had enough battle experience, could sense if someone was looking at them with ill intentions.

An hour later, he returned to Vivian’s house, and right when he entered, he noticed Elena and Riya were sitting in the living room and had sad and gloomy looks on their faces, especially Riya, who seemed to have been crying.