12 The sHowling Paragons (1/2)
Jonathan passed by all the stalls and various shops until he ended up at a rather large shop called the 'Howling Paragon'. This shop is a world famous chain of shops all dealing with Magical Beasts; from the selling of parts to the acquiring of knowledge, from the buying of Magical Beasts themselves to the buying of items for Magical Beast's. The inside of the shop was quite wide and there were quite a few people looking at the various wares. At the bottom floor of the shop were Magical Beast Items for the most part while on the second floor was an Information desk area where Magician's can acquire knowledge on the whereabouts of certain Magical Beasts or what there abilities are, among other information. And behind the shop was an open area with several cages that are all magically enforced to keep Magical Beasts at bay. The little kitten didn't see past the first floor however as Jonathan walked straight up to the front desk on the first floor.
Behind the front desk was an older gentleman with a bald head. He put off a somewhat proud and elite attitude which was common in a grand business like the 'Howling Paragon'. As soon as Jonathan reached the front desk, the older gentleman put on a fawning smile; it was clear to him that the customer in front of him was from a good family from his noble clothing.
”Welcome sir. How can I help you this fine evening?” The bald man said with his brightest smile.
”I'm here to sell my wares first and foremost. My party has acquired quite a lot and some of great worth, so it'd be better for you to bring an appraiser!”
”Follow me to the back area, our Beast Tamer is our best appraiser in this humble store. He'll be able to give you fair prices for your wares!”
”Good, good. Show me the way.”
”Come, just follow me.”
The bald man willingly left the front desk and lead Jonathan to the open area at the back of the establishment. Jonathan told the soldiers that they can stay behind and inspect the shop for themselves. Soldiers would preside for themselves for the most part as only they knew what items would benefit themselves personally in their magic. While the 'Howling Paragon' held items for Magical Beast's, there were some items which were usable by humans as well.
In the back area of the 'Howling Paragon', the little kitten looked with a conflicted gaze at the several Magical Beasts captured in cages. There were around 10 of them in total, most at the Minor Magical Beast Rank and two at the Major Beast Rank. They all had lifeless eyes and were merely waiting for the time to past, they had long given up on causing trouble; most probably due to the whip the little kitten could see by a certain person's side.
This person was the only other person in this area at the moment and his mere presence would cool the room. He had sharp dagger like eyes and jagged black hair. He sat cross-legged on the ground in the center of the cages, the whip placed by his side, close enough to be grabbed at any given moment. The whip seemed to be magical as it contained several runes on its ebony handle.
”Fair customer, this is our Beast Tamer, Rhomas!” The bald man gestured to the man with dagger like eyes and that man only nodded slightly for his greeting.
”Rhomas will appraise your wares if you may be so kind?”
”Certainly.” Jonathan brightly replied and with vigor, Jonathan proceeded to pull out one beast corpse after the other out of his personal Bag of Holding until a rather big pile was made to the astonishment of the two employees. Even Rhomas' icy demeanor seemed to crack as his jaw hanged low in astonishment; though only for a few seconds before recovering. However this was just the beginning, the two were even more shocked when Jonathan pulled out a second bag, Uncle Kil's Bag of Holding and began to release even more corpses.
In the end, around 50 corpses were laid bare, taking up quite a big amount of space in this back area of the 'Howling Paragon'. By this point, even the little kitten was shocked at the accumulation of beasts that were on show.
'Only when you pile them up like this can you see how terrifyingly powerful these two numskulls really are... Sigh... Will I ever be able to catch up to them? I can't even make a breakthrough to the Late stage of Minor Rank...' The little kitten sighed.
”Cough, cough... Well, this'll take me a few minutes to sort through all this.” Rhomas said with a wry smile.
Several minutes later, the Beast Tamer Rhomas had sorted through all the beasts, checking the damage done to them and what important parts remained. Apparently, Jonathan and Uncle Kil were good at dealing lethal blows at just the right places, where little important parts were to be found; this meant that their gains were definitely going to be big.
”Okay then, I think all together we can pay... 4300 gold pieces for all the corpses.” Rhomas spoke after some thought.
Jonathan's eyes lit up and a confident grin surfaced on his handsome countenance. ”Nuh, huh. Those two transcended beasts are worth at least 2500 gold pieces on there own! The remaining beasts are all in the Minor and Major ranks, but there are quite a number of them. If I were to appraise them personally, I'd say they're worth at least 3000. Together, that's at least 5500 gold!”
”You have to think about this from our perspective, sir. Our business needs to make a profit, we canpay 4750 gold pieces at most.” The older gentleman chipped in this time with confidence. The little kitten turned to look at Jonathan's response and could swear she had never seen his eyes look more excited.
”How about this, I'll put in this!” With that, Jonathan pulled out a herb. It looked quite miraculous, with three leaves all of a violet trim and a crimson center. It even seemed to let out a dull glow. The two 'Howling Paragon' employees' eyes shun brightly upon seeing this herb.