"Okay... for how much?"
Connor touches his thumb to his index finger on one hand and the other shows the number. So Sohan responds,
"3000 daltons? (universal currency in this story) Sure I can do that."
However, this is when Connor realizes,
"He's a rich kid!" In his mind and remembers that he bullied his other form for being poor. Though Connor was earning a steady income of around 50 Daltons per week at the bar and another 30 or so worth from the few cons he'd pull all over. It doesn't seem to compare to the original 300 he was going to ask for, since that is what he valued the information; however, it seems it's worth a lot more to Sohan cause either his sense of money is skewed or he really wants to pass despite all the sleeping he's been doing. Coming to his conclusion Connor ends up saying,
"No not 3000, 3300."
Connor is about to think he hit big but Sohan smirks unexpectedly,
"Don't get tricky with me Connor I come from a long line of merchants and know I'm already paying way over what it's worth. Besides in each batch only around less than 35% end up leaving from what I've gathered from your aunt, and others and I have confidence in my ability to pass, this is just to tip me over the edge and a minor... investment don't oversell yourself."
Connor is bewildered by the outcome of this conversation but puts on a benign smile and something starts working from behind his green eyes but doesn't show it. But before he's about to say anything as he's receiving the daltons from Sohan, Faye budges in and asked Connor,
"Hey, you'll share some with your dear ol' aunt won't you?" Her eyes twinkle
"No"
"..."
That was the end of that conversation, so Connor turned back around to Sohan and whispers something in Sohan's ears and his eyes widen, and nods but before that says,
"You sure you don't want to be the one to take the lead on this?"
"Yes, I'm certain it wouldn't be like me otherwise."
"...well okay."
Sohan walks and hops over to the reception desk and Connor whispers something in Faye's ear she nods and follows Sohan a bit behind him. Faye starts to channel some mana into her hands before a loud sound wave comes from a clap of hers, which she immediately rushes back afterward. She high-fives Connor and a trrinng! sound is heard and a hundred daltons are transferred to her.
The loud sound waves grabbed everyone's attention and so everyone was facing in Sohan's direction, while a few are looking at Faye that Connor notices but chooses to ignore.
In Connor's vision, a smiling mask appears on the face of the gold-eyed teen and his eyes are focused behind it. A hundred or so people stare at him on the desk.
"*cough* Hello everyone! My name is Sohan, guessing that we're going to be the last batch, I've decided to talk a hint that was found about the upcoming test."
Surprise fills most people's gazes, as they didn't expect this sort of information to up at this time. They wait for him to continue talking.
"I do plan to share this info but not for free, you see I come from a line of merchants in my family so it's sort of second nature to me my apologies."
They're originally displeased but hearing the last half and his good manners let them cool off to think about it. They all end up doing quiet yesses and nods.
"Alright, then I'd like to hold this in the form of an auction of sorts. You're free to do what you will with the information. Then after that, I'd like to discuss the possibilities for how to paper is taking place. You can auction off anything of value from information, money, and artifacts 'though I don't believe it should be worth that much, he thinks."
They make sure to take it slow and people offer a steady amount of money starting from the hundreds, in the beginning, reaching around 2500 daltons which truly shows that Sohan overpaid for it. Eventually, the most someone is willing to offer is around 2400 daltons along with some information about mana techniques depending on what elements would choose if he entered the academy. They decide to auction it 2 more each time end up being sold for 2600 and 2700 with nothing extra.
Connors deal was that he'd receive half of what it was auctioned for, though he actually planned to receive it later at less than half because Sohan paid a lot extra and also so he could negotiate for him the magic technique info from one of the bidders, for one of his chosen elements.
Sohan gathers the three bidders while Connor once again pays Faye to listen in to their conversation and tell him what they say. From what Connor can gather they don't seem to be part of any big families they're just desperate so they were willing to spend a lot more than they wanted to. However, they wanted to pass this exam badly.
Sohan whispers the hints while using a super basic mana pact that can have at most 3 clauses. So they set it up simply as
-The hint that Sohan Lee provides should be legitimate
-Payments from all bidders must be done directly
-If required negotiation must take place in the next month
The effects of the basic mana pact are merely the blockage of using mana for 3 months which just causes inconvenience to most people in their daily lives but now if they pass it could affect their tests. The first 2 clauses are self-explanatory and the third is for the bidder who offered information to uphold.
Proceeding to tell them the hint their eyes twinkle, once they hear it through their eyes dim. Their brains start working with what they've seen over the last 5 hours and come up with a few theories.
This is what they end up coming up with, 1. The paper itself has a hypnotism enchantment, if you don't figure out questions fast enough it gets you at half an hour to leave. 2. The supervisor hypnotizes everyone beforehand to leave at half an hour and they can only resist if they have strong enough willpower.
They plan to say more but at that point, the 5th batches half-hour had passed and they walked at a steady pace through the rippling halls. The discussion continues with Sohan and the others, while across the hall Connor just steadily approaches the line of people planning to wave his hand in front of someone's face; though he ends up being stopped by an invisible barrier he walks into it headfirst and screeches, "Ouch!"