Chapter 172 - Exchange

"It's impossible," the officer said, shaking her head so fast that her long, brown hair flurried around her face. "This location is too small for the transmitter version of the formation. We only have the receiver one," she explained.

'Reciever? Transmitter?' Mia repeated the words in her mind, stopping her eyes from rolling around. 'Abra Kadabra sabra nadabra,' she thought of some random words that came to her mind. 'How about you speak in a plain language I could actually understand?'

Still, everything that the official was sharing was just her kindness. To a degree, it could be an attempt to do a favor to someone connected to Arthur. Given how she called him an upcoming and important customer of her company, that was likely the case. 

"Could you please explain to me in a way that allows me to understand?" Mia requested. 

She wasn't interested in how one of the systems within this place worked. Even if she could use this information for her own purposes now or in the future, it wasn't something that she would normally waste her time on trying to learn for no apparent reason. 

But right now, Mia couldn't give up on the idea. Because if she somehow clutched a way to figure out where Arthur's messages came from... 

Wouldn't that mean that she would learn where he was? And figuring his location out was the first and most important step at reuniting with him!

"We can receive stuff, but we cannot send anything," the officer smiled as she spread her arms out. "Because of that, we cannot track where the message was sent from as it would require dual connection," she explained.

"I see..." Mia muttered. 

Her disappointment was unmeasurable, and her day was ruined. 

But Mia wasn't yet ready to give up. 

"Is there any way to..." she attempted to ask, only to feel the officer's hand land on her shoulder. 

"I understand your worry," the woman smiled gently. "But it will be for the best if you just sit tight and wait," the woman stated. "Since the formation can connect, it should take longer than a week or two before your ring arrives, even if it was carried by hand instead of through the sect's formation," she added. 

'A week or two?' Mia thought, instantly saving this information into her memory. 'That should limit the number of places that Arthur can be at!' 

"Thank you for all the information," Mia said elegantly as she lightly bowed her head. 

Even if the woman didn't realize it, she helped Mia a whole lot. And even if they were a customer and an attendant right now, Mia wasn't as heartless and self-centered to miss expressing her gratitude. 

'I didn't expect to learn so much out of nowhere,' Mia thought as she turned around, ready to leave the place. 'Still, there is one thing that I cannot undervalue,' she thought, taking the first step. 

'I can't just focus on getting stronger. There will be no point in being strong if I won't know where Arthur is for me to help him,' she thought, heading for the exit. 

"Excuse me!" the attendant shouted after the girl, chasing after Mia as she was about to leave. 

"Yes?" Mia turned around, slightly shocked when the voice forced her out of her thoughts. 

"Weren't you going to sell us some things?" the officer asked, putting a wide grin on her relatively young face. "I understand that you are shaken by the message and its meaning, but didn't you come here to do business?" she asked. 

"Oh," Mia muttered, shocked by her own oversight. "I actually did," she added with a slightly troubled smile. 

"Pay it no mind," the officer reciprocated the smile. "It's not the first time I see someone receiving the news they didn't expect. Anyway," she muttered, pointing her hand towards the stand where Mia found the receptionist earlier. "What would you like to sell?" she asked. 

"I have two relaxation beads for sale," Mia revealed her intentions, bringing out the tablets to the open again. 

This time, her actions didn't get past the attention of the other customers. Soon, a whole group of people watched her every move with their eyes clearly centered around the two pinky-sized tablets on her palm.

"Those are always in demand," the officer claimed, leaning above the pills as she analyzed their color, texture, and shape. 

Despite how deep the officer's analysis was, it took her only a short moment to complete it. 

"Normally, we would buy them for seventy imperial coins each," the woman muttered as she squinted her eyes. 

For a moment, she remained silent, calculating something in her mind. Then, she opened her eyes and looked at Mia with a grief-stricken look on her face. "But I can offer eighty-eight coins for each of them!" she announced. 

"Woah," Mia stumbled on her feet. 

Even though she didn't really manage any sort of wealth in her life, she was more than aware of the general worth of the gold coins. 

While not much on their own, eighty-eight coins for a single tablet that she had no use for?

"Would it be possible to get some cultivation resources instead of money?" Mia asked quickly, unwilling to let go of this opportunity. 

Mia felt no need to keep the money at hand. She would be hard-pressed to find anything practical to spend it on. 

And right now, improving the cultivation of her teammates was the one thing she was willing to splurge everything she had on!

"For cultivation resources, huh?" the woman squinted her eyes once again. 

This time, however, the process of calculating the prices took the woman a considerably more period of time. 

"The most I can do for you is six spiritual cores and twenty spirit stones," she finally revealed, her face turning blank as she did. 

"Are you giving me some kind of discount?" Mia asked, somehow capable of telling what made the officer make the expression she did./ 

"I'm automatically waiving all the transaction fees," the woman nodded her head. "You are someone close to one of the prized customers of the auction hall, after all," she pointed out at something that should be obvious from the get-go. "If you are still wary against me, feel free to consider it me buying a small favor with you," she added. 

"Is it a favor with me... or with Arthur?" Mia asked, raising one of her eyebrows up. 

'I don't mind owning this woman one.... But I'm not going to let her gain an advantage over Arthur!' she thought.