Fractured Moonlight

Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

"Is there a way for me to make money?" Kai asked Jaelen after they had been through many of the stores in the Capital.

Although there were many species in the capital, a boy with two different colored eyes was not something even these citizens normally saw. While it didn't bother Kai, both Faylor and Jaelen had noticed that many of the people they passed watched Kai with curious eyes. They treated him as if he was a new sideshow attraction. This made both of the older men uncomfortable so they had taken Kai through one of the quieter shopping districts near the edge of the city.

One of the shops they had found was a smaller one that sold many different styles of clothing. Kai looked down at his black clothes and realized how shabby they must look to all of the rich people in the Capital. They were also worn out from the long journey and no longer seemed to fit Kai, as if he had grown taller through the journey. Thinking that he needed new clothes, but not wanting to burden Vahna village with his necessities any longer, Kai had asked such a question.

They were currently in another shop in the same district as that clothing store that made Kai want his own money. This shop had many different types of Cores from the Dire Beasts. While Kai had never seen a core before, when he neared them, he could somehow immediately tell what Element the beast had in its life.

Dire Beast cores came in all different colors and sizes, although many thought that the bigger the core, the better, this was not correct. Every core was different, and they had to be appraised before they had a set price determined for them.

Jaelen sighed as he realized what Kai was thinking. "Don't worry about money right now, as soon as you enter the Academy, you will get a monthly allowance of 20 gold a month. This is eight times more than even Vahna Village's yearly income."

"Oh, I didn't know that. I will definitely pay you and Clan Lord Hidel back for everything you have given me." Kai bowed slightly towards the older man indicating his sincerity. He gave a soft sigh as he looked at one of the beast cores in front of him. "But I would still like to earn my own money."

The young store clerk overheard this conversation and scoffed. Did this country bumpkin not realize how hard it was to get into the famous Bright Moon Academy? If six thousand applied, barely two hundred of those applicants would even make it to the final testing round. This young store clerk had tried over five years ago and had failed miserably. THe only reason he was still in the Capital was because his parents were friends with one of the store's managers.

As both these men were thinking to themselves, the door entering the store gave a soft creaking sound as it opened. A worn out man entered the store, he looked exhausted, covered in dirt as he turned to the young store clerk.

"Can you appraise this for me?" The traveller showed a very small black Dire Beast core to the young store clerk. The core was the size of a human eyeball and black as night. It could almost pass as an ordinary rock if one couldn't feel the pulses of Elements originating from it.

The young store clerk barely glanced at the stone before saying, "That's a low grade fire beast core, we can't accept that here. It's level is too low."

Kai's eyes had landed on the core as soon as the other man had taken it out. Looking at the core in the travellers hands, Kai's eyebrows furrowed in thought.

Low grade? But the Elements...

The traveller became enraged, his face turning purple in his anger. "I got this from a high rank Dire Beast, there's no way it is a low grade!"

But the young store clerk scoffed. He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest from where he sat from behind the counter. "If you think I am wrong, go somewhere else and sell it!"