Ram was about to experiment with making the lentil from scratch when he was visited again by the Rank 3 merchant.
"Let's go; the leader can meet you now." "He is done with the meeting."
Ram nodded and was about to follow him when he stopped and said,
"Mr. Rank 3 What about the products? "Should I get them along?"
"If you want to, you can, but I have already sent the product scan information to the leader, so he would not need to directly look at the product."
"He, after listening, felt like he also needed this tablet thing."
Still out of habit from earth, he didn't feel safe leaving the goods in the open unattended; he kept the goods with him in his storage ring before going with the merchant.
"Oh, you also have a storage ring."
The merchant said this while looking at Ram's fingers.
"It's just a family heirloom."
Ram dared to show his storage ring because he had noticed many villagers had the ring, so he figured the storage ring might not be a big deal.
After some time.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Please enter."
Ram, along with a rank-three merchant, entered the village chief's administrative office. He observed that other than a figure in a merchant's robe, which he guessed to be the rank 4 leader, only the village chief was here.
The village chief smiled while looking at Ram and said to the rank 4 leader:
"This is Ram; he is new to the village."
"Hello, Mr. Rank 4!"
"Hello Ram, "I saw your products and I like them, so what are you looking to barter in their place?"
"I am looking for some cultivation resources, like pills or some unique technique."
"Okay, have a look."
The Rank 4 merchant picked up a tablet from the table and, after doing something on it, handed the tablet to him.
Ram took the tablet and saw a list of cultivation resources available.
Strength pills: increase the strength of a cultivator at Level 3 or below by one level for 10 minutes.
Anti-poison pills: any poison level 3 or below will be ineffective for the user for 1 year.
Elemental pills: A pill of any basic element will increase the effect of the particular elemental prana in the cultivator, but it is only effective on levels 3 and below. (The effects here are permanent and mostly used by an elemental cultivator during breakthroughs.)
Body Pills: Increase the cultivation of the body by a small margin (the effects are permanent).
Ram saw many different types of pills, but he kept on scrolling. Then he went ahead and saw many cultivation techniques, as well as techniques that were used by one particular element. He also saw some weapons with levels up to 3. Then he handed the tablet back to the merchant leader.
"These are all trash."
"What"
Before the merchant leader could say anything, rank 3 merchants felt offended by Ram's statement and said
"Do you know what you are saying? Do you think we merchants sell trash?"
The village chief and rank 4 leader watched him with curiosity while he let the rank 3 merchant continue scolding him.
After sometime.
"Are you done?"
The rank-three merchant just stopped what he was going to say, as he just realised that anything he said was hitting a wall.
"Can you explain why you said these items are trash?"
The rank-four leader spoke while still maintaining his calm temperament.
"It's very simple: one man's treasure is another man's trash; what you are showing me is under the rank 3 category, but the product I am trading is not under the jurisdiction of a rank 3 merchant and needs rank 4 to interfere."
Ram then went silent and hoped with fingers crossed that the Rank 4 leader would not take offence, as he still had to trade the items.
The silence in the room was becoming too heavy.
"Ha ha ha... hahaha... you are really something."
The village chief started laughing loudly while the rank 4 leader still remained quiet.
"Merchant Leader, do you take the villagers here to be some simple-minded people? What he is trading is law items without any law-lock; I am sure even Rank 4 is not justifiable, but you were showing him the products of Rank 3 and below." "How do you sleep at night knowing the fraud you do?"
Ram looked at the village chief and felt glad someone was on his side. When he heard the village chief insulting the merchant leader, he started sweating and started hoping that the boss of the mysterious leader wouldn't take any action.
"Maybe the village chief observed Ram's expression," he said.
"Ram, you don't need to worry about anything; what you said is very true, though the words you used could be like scissors, but the message got passed."
"Merchant leader, do we not have the right even to bargain?" If you take offence to even this, you should quit being a merchant."
The village chief was constantly driving Ram's emotions up and down; first he was supporting him and then immediately insulting the merchant. He now felt like he should just get away from the village chief as soon as possible.
"Merchant leader, if you want to trade, show the proper products, or you can tell your main boss to come and directly meet me."
This statement was like a bomb for not only Ram but even the rank 3 and rank 4 merchants; only one question came to all three people's minds.
"What did the village chief drink today?"
"He was even confident enough to meet the main boss of the mysterious merchant."
ahemm..
Ram cleared his throat and spoke politely.
"Seniors, let's not go in that direction." "Rank 4 leader, please show appropriate products for the trade."
The Rank 4 merchant then took the tablet and started to fiddle with it, and after some time he handed the tablet back to Ram and said
"These are rank 4 goods; I do not have authority to trade above rank 4; if these products also don't satisfy you, I can't do anything but refer your products to rank above me; they will contact you, and when that happens, I can't say."
The law products were nothing important to Ram, and he could make them at any time. There was also an instant mission that he had to complete, so waiting for senior-rank merchants was not the right decision. So he took the tablet and started to read the product lists.