In the days that followed, Cyril acted as though he was Ramie's teacher, and as his guide.
He took ramie in tours throughout the underground city's streets, showing him every place he could think of; while elaborating on how things works on the surface, and in the dark, and even including his personal experience on every single place he had ever been to.
In this underground city, the profession of mage wasn't something that everyone could get into just because they want to.
In essence, as long as one can get his hands on several hundred of red gold stones, and buys some specific types of magical potions, one could, in theory, while using these potions, starts absorbing the energy within the red gold stones to force his body to store this energy, thus taking the first step into becoming a magician…
However, some might be able to take this step by absorbing only few red gold stones, some by few tenths, and some by few hundreds; while talent-less others might need even more to do so. And this is only the initiation process, for one to discover his innate talent. What comes after was continuous massive consumption. In other words, becoming mage was heavy resources consuming process.
Hence, and since resources were scarce, the already formed organization of magicians decided to control the resources, and divide it among themselves. They didn't want be there more magicians to compete with them. What followed after was as one can expect, the organization tightened their grip over everything magic related, even knowledge.
Now days, if one wanted to become a mage, there was no way other than to find a magician that is recognized by these forces, and become his apprentice. If one tried to go about magic otherwise, then he'd have to pave his road all by himself, and fall for all the pits and holes that 'acceptable' mages learn to avoid. In other words, it was an impossible process, as one would have to start from scratch, and not pick up where others left off.
Cyril was admitted into the path by becoming a servant for a washed up mage. The time of his life that he spent with that mage was downright humiliating, filled with physical and verbal abuse, and hellish at best. He slaved out years for that mage, to pay up for the cost of admitting him. And all of that was only for initiating him at the path of magic and teaching one spell! Afterward, he left out and struggled all on his own. After decades, he only managed to learn another spell that was suitable for him, and that was after scheming, backstabbing, and driving to death a lot of people.
This is how hard it was for someone to learn magic!
The already established organization held immense amount of power and resources. And they used that to choke the path of magic, only allowing their own to tread it. If one wanted to become a mage… he had to join these organizations.
Luckily, and to maintain their powers, these organization constantly admitted new talents into their ranks. Of course, their standards were not all the same. Some organizations were familial-based; they admitted others, but didn't give them much of resources, while others were not as rigid, they prioritized only talents. Of course, this wasn't absolute.
Anyway, if one wanted to have a fair chance at becoming a mage, joining these forces was the path! This was an established fact.
However, and with limited resources, how could these organizations accept just anyone?
This was the reason why Cyril was left to struggle for the leftovers. His talent was not enough to attract important attention.
Hence, he had no choice but to spend great efforts and thrash about for the tiniest benefits and resources. Probably, that was the reason why he becomes so unscrupulous and opportunistic in the first place!
However, on the other hand, that was also the reason why he became so resourceful!
Guiding him through the underground city and explaining things so thoroughly had left ramie a bit shocked inwardly!
This man, Cyril, had some great insights. His observations were very keen.
This made Ramie question why he made the mistake of attacking him in the forest in the first place. However, and knowing the specifics of why Cyril did so, Ramie shook his head at the massive struck of bad luck that prompted the miscalculation.
In the end, Ramie was happy that Cyril attacked him, as he now have a free capable guide here in this almost lawless place.
Anyway, after learning the specifics of Cyril's plan to sell the tier-2 magical core and bring the information, Ramie approved of it.
Turns out, Cyril's plan was to sell the core to a loner, a mage that Cyril was sure to have the equivalence wealth for the core, or at least close to.
Most likely, the one that Cyril was going to sell the core to would escape the moment the transition is done.
Of course, there was the choice to go to a large shop owned by a powerful backing, which would yield them a larger profit. However, this way had a much higher risk factor. As if they choose to sell privately, the other party might just kill them and rob the core. On the other hand, if they choose to sell publicly, they'd end up announcing to everyone else their possession of a precious core, which would attract all kinds of attentions, both the bad and the worst. And even if they complete the transition this way, others would still be attracted to their fortune.
Taking this into consideration, Ramie had to admit that Cyril's solution was really the best one. Even if he'd incur some loses, but he wouldn't arose any suspension, which is pretty much his ultimate objective.
Anyway, the reason why magical beasts' cores were so expensive and so sought after… was because they were needed by scholar magicians to forge magical formations, magical equipment's, and other pricey things.
After understanding the situation, Ramie allowed Cyril to handle the matter. He went with him to make sure that the other party's information wasn't 'false.' More ever, Ramie wanted to make use of his innate spell to determine the man's intention.
Anyway, the one Cyril was going to make the exchange with was an acquaintance of his, and Cyril seemed very sure that the man would not be able to refuse the transition, and will accept it, which made sense, giving that that man's entire wealth shouldn't be enough to cover the full value of the core, meaning that the profit factor was ensured. More ever, according to Cyril, the other man shouldn't be much stronger than himself. Also, and although Cyril and that man weren't exactly close, but had more like a business relationship, however, Cyril knew the man well, well enough to suggest him in the first place.
In the end, things proceeded just as expected.
The transition was concluded, and the other fellow scurried away like a ghost afterward, fearing that someone might reach out and steal the object that was the break in his lifetime.
As expected, the man, who was a retired mage, working as merchant, offered all of his most prized possessions in the exchange. Actually, Cyril suggested him only because he knew that this man had some good stuff that can match the core's value, or come close to.
As the man scurried away, Cyril opened his mouth: "Master…"
However, before he could finish, Ramie interrupted:"Let him be."
Although Ramie didn't think of himself as a righteous person, however, going back on a word that he had given and backstabbing someone for his wealth wasn't his style.
With eyes that were burning with greed, Cyril gazed at the direction the man disappeared to, his lower jaw quivering like a predator that had seen fat prey, and was eager to devour it. Knowing the other man, he was sure that the man was going to disappear from now on, meaning that his chance of robbing him was now gone for good.
The entire deal was done in no time in the cover of the dark, and no one else knew anything about it.
No one in the entire city had any idea that a rare treasure worth a battle breaking out for was exchanged in such insignificant place, and with such ease. This suited Ramie greatly.
In exchange for the core, Cyril got several pricey items. The leaked artifact information was part of it. Toward the end of the deal, the man was so frantic that he offered everything he could think of to conclude the deal. He could never have thought that this secret was the target of the two men all along.
Next, Ramie and Cyril made their way back to the house.
Along the way back, an uncontrollable grin made its way to Ramie.
As he willed the three commands, three messages popped up in his mind.
< The conceal function has been activated! >
< The store function has been activated! >
< The inventory function has been activated! >
Apparently, the rumor was true.
Now, he longer has to hide himself.
…