Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Alchemical Apprentice
"So much?" Mr. and Mrs. Jura were stunned. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ļ½ļ½ļ½Uļ½Eć ļ½ļ½ļ½ļ½
One silver coin is equal to one hundred copper coins, and Gray's monthly salary is only about two silver coins. As for Jura, the salary is slightly higher, but it is only about three silver coins, unless the occasional visit to the rich or the lord, they will get some additional commission, ten silver coins are basically equivalent to two months' salary.
"What do you want so much money for?" Gray frowned.
"The mission needs it, and when the mission is over, I will return it to you." Dudian said seriously.
Jura and Gray looked at each other and said helplessly, "Okay, I should give you the celebration money, but you have to promise me that you won't use it for bad things." ā
Du Dian breathed a sigh of relief, he also knew that this money was indeed quite a lot, and the Jura couple could give it to him entirely for the sake of his status as a guard, otherwise how could ordinary children ask their parents for two months' salary, and not to mention the reason.
Next.
With ten silver coins in his arms, Dudian went out early in the morning to the adventurer's market in the South District.
Whether it is a slum, a residential area, or a commercial area, it is divided into four areas, east, west, north and south, each of which is extremely vast, and Linkang Street, where Du Dian lives, is located in the southeast of the residential area. The so-called Adventurer's Bazaar is a market for civilians to trade freely outside of the chamber of commerce with a formal business license, and the goods here are all found by civilians from the outer edge of the living area, near the giant wall.
At the Outer Rim, the air is so dense with nuclear radiation that only a few adventurers are willing to go there. However, the career of adventurers often does not last long, and they generally retire after a few jobs, use the money they earn to support their eroded bodies, and slowly retire.
However, Du Dian didn't have to worry about the nuclear radiation there, he checked the information, and the set of black soft armor he received was made of lead, which is an extremely dense metal that can effectively resist radiation, and can enter and exit the outer edge of the giant wall at will, after all, compared to the outside of the giant wall, the radiation in the outer edge area is not worth mentioning at all.
However, although it was protected by uniforms, it was too far away from the living quarters to hire a horse-drawn carriage for a lot of money, and there were also radiation-eroded animals lurking there, which was very dangerous, and Dudian didn't bother to delay the time to go there himself.
With five copper coins spent on the carriage money, Dudian arrived at the Adventurer's Bazaar, where there were so many wagons and bustling with excitement that you could hear the noise of selling in the distance, and the carpets on the floor were filled with all kinds of things, some were homemade clothes and rag doll toys, some were stones of strange colors, and some were dried bacon of rare animals.
Dudian walked down the aisle.
Half an hour later, Dudian finally found a few pieces of coarse sulphur ore in front of a stall, as well as saltpeter like white ice crystals, and as for the charcoal powder, he could make it himself, without wasting money on it.
The boss was a middle-aged man with a dark complexion and a dry body, with stray hair, deep-set eye sockets, and some red spots on his hands, as if he had contracted some kind of disease, although he was covered by long sleeves, he still inadvertently showed his hands when he raised them.
As soon as Du Dian saw it, he knew that the radiation level in this person's body was extremely high, and most of them would not live well for a few years, unless they were treated by the Holy See of Light.
After some haggling, Dudian finally bought all the saltpeter and sulphur ore from his stall for one silver coin and twenty copper coins, of which saltpeter was more valuable, and cost one silver coin.
"This sulfur ore has to be refined by itself, and after the refined sulfur is ground into powder, it should only be enough for a package of explosives, and when you go out to pick up waste, in addition to food and basic weapons, it is forbidden to carry other things, and there is not much black powder that can be brought in, so let's buy this for the time being." Dudy thought about it with peace of mind.
"Little guy, these things are quite heavy, did you call a carriage, or did your adults come and help you carry them, and asked me to carry them for you?" After receiving the money, the black thin middle-aged man said with a smile.
"No, you don't." Du Dian casually lifted the flax bag, which contained a heavy weight of about twenty catties, which was as light as nothing in his hand, and turned around and left directly, continuing to look for grinding tools.
The dark and thin middle-aged man opened his mouth slightly and blinked his eyes.
It didn't take long for Dudian to buy some basic tools for alchemy at other stalls. In the eyes of ordinary people, the role of these tools naturally has nothing to do with alchemy, but the tools of ordinary work, such as the stone wheel used by Du Dian to grind sulfur, which is generally used by doctors to grind hard medicines.
After the things were almost purchased, Dudian walked around the bazaar, and by the way, he learned about what supplies were here, and if he needed it in the future, he could come here directly to buy them, and at noon, Dudian turned around and left, ready to go back to eat.
"Boss, this broken stone, you can sell it to me for a copper coin, please!" Suddenly, the voice of an immature boy sounded.
Dudian turned his head to look and saw a stout boy half a head shorter than himself standing in front of a booth next to him, carrying a small flax bag in his hand, and now clutching a rough black stone the size of a fist in his hand.
"No, no, no!" The stall owner, a short and thin young man, shook his head again and again, and said, "This is iron ore, although the amount is quite small, but it sells for at least two copper coins." ā
"Boss, even if this is iron ore, it's just an ore, not iron, and there isn't much to refine from such a small piece, and you can make a lot of money with a copper coin." The stout boy changed his strategy and lobbied: "Moreover, such a small piece, there is no need in the smelter at all, and no one will come to buy it, you can still make money by selling it, and if no one buys it, you can only lose it." ā
The short and thin young man was moved by him, hesitated a little, and finally said, "Okay." ā
The stout boy grinned, paid the money cheerfully, and then put the black stone into a flax bag, and turned away with the bag on his back.
Dudian withdrew his gaze, and was about to turn away, but in vain, he turned sharply and looked at the wrist of the stout boy carrying the flax bag, where there was a very small black hook pattern.
"Alchemy apprentice?" Dudian was a little stunned, he didn't expect to meet an alchemist here, in Rosyard's notes, he learned about the alchemist's lifestyle and some habits, one of the most impressive points is that each alchemist will have an exclusive tattoo pattern, which is the sign of an alchemist, and it is also one of the basic ways to enter this road!
The ancient method of tattooing here is to mix black water with plants or medicinal powders, inject them into the skin through a needle, and sketch any pattern, even if it is a small dot or a crooked line without shape, it is considered a sign.
Although in addition to alchemists, there are also nobles and the Holy See of Light who have mastered the method of tattooing, but their tattoos are different from those of alchemists in that they will never use black as a pigment.
Once the black tattoo is tattooed, whether it is a nobleman or a member of the Church of Light, it will be disposed of as an alchemist, so to speak, this is an absolute proof!
Similarly, if you don't have a black tattoo on your body, even if you are a true alchemist, you will not be recognized by other peers.
Dudian glanced in the direction of the stout boy's departure, his eyes flickered slightly, and finally he quietly chased after him with the linen bag.