บท 19: The Deal

"So can you tell me? " The man said to Dan who was deep in thought.

Dan was brewing a plan. These people had an herbal store, so they had a vast supply of those Tej herbs. And if he could strike a deal with them then maybe he could earn some good money.

"Well, I can tell you. I didn't get them from anywhere. I gambled on them and in five bundles of Tej herbs, I found these. " Dan revealed. It wasn't that big of a secret. Dan could just say that he had good vision and knew about the herbs more deeply which allowed him to differentiate between Tej and strength herbs easily.

"So, you mean, you are the one who identified these strength herbs from the Tej herbs? " The man said with an astonished face. And Dan would have understood the astonishment if he knew the difficulty of differentiating between those herbs. Only experienced herbalists could differentiate between them and even they needed some time to look at the herbs carefully. The maximum amount that a herbalist could pick from five bundles was not more than five. Even he, an experienced herbalist could only find six or seven on a bundle of five Tej herbs.

So, a kid that looked no more than fifteen saying that he found 8 strength from just five bundles was very hard to believe. Especially now when the strength herbs were getting rarer. "Either this kid is lying or he has a great affinity with herbs. "

Dan nodded at the man's question, again confused by his over-the-top reaction. Yeah, it was hard to find strength herbs amid all those Tej herbs but it shouldn't be that hard for people too. Or did he underestimate the difficulty?

"That is quite incredible. " The man said as he watched Dan squirm uncomfortably on his seat. If what this kid had said was true then, he was a true treasure. A treasure that would make a lot of money for him.

The middle-aged man was named Mark, the owner of the herbal shop. A herbal shop in the mall should be making millions or that was what Mark had thought while buying this shop. But only after running the shop for a couple of months did he find out about the situation.

The herbs in the wild near Zyron city had almost been plucked clean as the number of metahumans kept increasing. That not only affected the herb pickers but also the shops that bought processed and sold those herbs to others.

And that was what happened to Mark's shops. The supply had dwindled to almost nothing so they couldn't meet the demand which had resulted them in losing the customers. His investment in the shop had now zero returns.

So he had been searching for ways to fill the empty shelves of his shop and now such an opportunity presented itself to him in the form of this kid.

"What is your name? " Mark asked.

Dan hesitated just a second before replying, "Ian. "

"Ok. Ian. I am giving you an opportunity to earn a lot of money. Would like to hear about it? " Mark said as he smiled at Dan.

"Hmm. Is this man thinking what I am thinking? " Dan thought but nodded nonetheless.

Mark cleared his throat and started explaining.

And half an hour later, Dan and Mark stood up from their seats and shook hands with wide smiles on their faces. Mark was happy that there were going to be some strength herbs on their shelves at least while Dan was happy that he might not have to risk his life to buy the mana core if he just worked for a couple of months.

Dan had been out of touch with the world and had forgotten one fact about this world even after seeing Lang do something that these people were now hiring him for. That, in this world, he was possibly the only person with an AI inside his head that could do things that normal people could only dream of.

In Dan's previous world, everyone had an AI. So he had taken it for granted and hadn't thought about the advantages that it provided to him compared to the other people.

Dan exited the herbs shop, the smile still lingering in the corner of his lips. A deal had been struck between him and Mark.

And it was very simple, Mark would provide Dan with bundles of Tej herbs and Dan would filter through them, searching for strength herbs. Those herbs would then be sold on the shop after which Dan and Mark would split the profit in half.

This deal would earn Dan hundreds of thousands of Zenos if he did it seriously and he might just be able to gather enough money to buy a mana core without risking his life going out in the wild. And why the fuck did he even think of it in the first place?