Barnes stared blankly at Amos.

Amos paced back and forth, continuing to speak to himself: "This student is outstanding. In his eyes, I see a deep hunger for magic. To be honest, I already made up my mind to take him in even before the practical test. But surprisingly, he managed to amaze me again during the test. He's extremely clever and unconventional, coming up with such a method to counter me. He must have tried every casting technique imaginable. That's a bit odd though—normally, if a mentor is nearby, a student wouldn't divert so much energy to those areas. Hmm... well, to be honest, even I can't quite figure it out. But that's not the point. The point is, I know the moment he enrolls, there will be plenty of people fighting over the chance to mentor him, so I need to secure him first. Hahaha, who wouldn't want an exceptional student? For a Magic Master at a Magic Academy, an outstanding student comes second only to successful magical research in importance. They'd even challenge each other to duels for this."

"Haven't you already secured him?"

"No, I still need to keep a low profile. It's not the first time someone has forcefully changed a student's mentor to snatch them away. There are even cases of students betraying their mentors and voluntarily joining another Magic Master. Like a certain disgraceful person we'd rather not mention."

A certain disgraceful person we'd rather not mention?

Who else could it be? Naturally, it was Andrew.

...

In the distance, Andrew sneezed heavily.

...

Thinking of Andrew, Barnes couldn't help but widen her eyes, as if she had suddenly realized something.

"What's wrong with you?" Amos took a sip of the now-cold tea sitting on the desk and looked at Barnes, whose face was filled with astonishment.

"N-nothing!" Barnes quickly said. "I'll help you keep things discreet, although I'm not entirely sure how to go about it."

"Just say as little as possible, and pretend that I reluctantly accepted him. Don't get overly excited or attract too much attention. Although his actions today will surely catch plenty of eyes, we should try to keep him as unnoticed as possible."

"Understood, I got it."

"Thank you for bringing me such an exceptional student."

"It's my duty." Barnes gave a slight bow and nodded. "If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave."

"Alright then, carry on." With that, Amos waved her off.

Barnes turned and left.

As she walked out the door, she hesitated and glanced back over her shoulder, murmuring to herself, "Could he be Andrew's son? No, that's impossible. Andrew has no children. Could he be an illegitimate child? Wait, his last name is the same as Andrew's—'An.' I need to investigate this thoroughly."

...

Meanwhile, on the other side, Jones's negotiation had already begun.

In the first round of talks, he faced one of the "Queen's Regents"—Cornelia.

To be honest, the Blood Elves seemed like their society was dominated by women. The powerful ones were all female, while the guards were mostly male. This was not common in the Human World.

Seated across from Jones was Cornelia, a sharp-eyed Blood Elf with short black hair, a single earring, and casual battle armor. She exuded a sense of efficiency.

Standing behind her was Dariana, the one who had escorted Jones here.

The location? It was beneath the "Waterdrop."

Yes, beneath it—surrounded by the marketplace. The people in the market could all see them; there was no barrier, no privacy, and it was actually a little noisy.

Jones was stunned.

A table and some chairs set up in the middle of a marketplace for an important meeting... this was something Jones had never anticipated.

But after thinking about it, he felt somewhat resigned. What might be of critical importance to him might mean little to them.

"Who will start?" After approximately five minutes of silence, Cornelia smiled and said, "Someone has to speak first, right?"

"Ahem..." Jones coughed awkwardly before saying, "Wouldn't it be better to talk somewhere else? At the very least, shouldn't we use some sort of soundproof magic?"

"We're not discussing anything scandalous; there's no need." Cornelia continued to smile.

With no choice, Jones reluctantly pressed forward: "Alright, then I'll start."

"Please proceed, Sir Hydra Knight."

"Well... here's the situation: I need ore."

"I understand—Mordo Ore."

"Yes. While you haven't banned its export, the production quantity is far too small. We need more."

"How much more, exactly?"

"Ideally, about ten thousand units per month."

"That's entirely achievable, though a bit challenging." Cornelia took a deep breath, glanced to the side, then continued, "That ore is generated from the Sacred Tree, so you won't find it anywhere else. There's only one Sacred Tree in the entire world."

"Is that so? But aren't they ores?"

"Yes, but they're produced near the Sacred Tree. They appear around the roots of the tree."

Upon hearing this, Jones instinctively looked down at the ground beneath him.

"There's some beneath your feet too," Cornelia said with a smile. "But not much, because the concentration is quite low. In fact, it's a byproduct of some of our other activities. You might have noticed that after you started purchasing it, its price has quintupled, and it's only going to keep rising. I'm not saying this to imply we want to raise the price—please don't misunderstand. I'm simply stating an objective fact."

"So..." Jones paused, signaling Cornelia to continue.

Pressing her lips together for a moment, Cornelia went on: "Before you began buying it, Mordo Ore had limited use, primarily in magical research, where the demand was low. As I mentioned earlier, it's a byproduct. Whether we wanted it or not, it was produced. When there was an excess, naturally, its price was very low. That's just normal market behavior. We even used to worry about how to dispose of it. You might not believe this, but in another city-state of Luo Ge Xian Ni, there are large buildings whose foundations are made from this ore."

"Used as foundations?" Jones was thoroughly stunned.

"Indeed. We had no other choice. Although the production quantity of Mordo Ore isn't high, the demand was even lower. Over time, the surplus accumulated to an overwhelming degree. Ultimately, we treated it as a relatively attractive filler material—mixing it with cement to coat walls, build foundations, and pave roads."

Jones became visibly excited, abruptly standing up: "Then… could you dig those up and sell them to me? Maybe they'd still be useful."

"And how do you intend to pay for them?" Cornelia asked, smiling as she looked at Jones.

"With money, of course," Jones replied without hesitation.

Cornelia casually pulled out a silver-white shell: "This is our currency, 'silver coins.' Do you have any of these?"

"None." Jones could only shake his head.

"We do accept gold coins, though not many." Cornelia put the silver coin shell away and continued, "To us, the primary use of gold coins is for trade—purchasing goods from the Human World or the Blood Clan. We only need enough to cover that, nothing beyond that. In fact, the amount of gold you've spent on Mordo Ore during this period is already sufficient for us to sustain three to five years of trade without exporting anything else. The Blood Elves' external trade volume is quite small. Additional gold would just require us to build extra vaults to store it, which would be a burden. We have even begun considering halting exports to you altogether."

"So, as long as I find a payment method you're willing to accept, you'll sell it to me? For instance, if I could obtain more silver coins?" Jones asked.

"Not necessarily." Cornelia smiled and replied, "Negotiation is a process of exchanging interests. We understand the uses of Mordo Ore; you intend to use it to manufacture magical equipment for the Human World. But we do not like humans. A militarized Human World is not in the interests of us Blood Elves. You need to prepare a complete proposal—one that shows us which interests we should be willing to forego—before we'll provide you with easier access to sourcing the ore. Only then can we discuss costs and payment methods."

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