That is undoubtedly part of the reason, but it is also due to astral-e's volatile state, Viraa corrected. Only Crest Houses and a few other buildings across the planet have the necessary equipment to harness pure astral-e properly. A typical home or building would explode if it tried, so blue glemit was the best option presented long ago.
Next, the merchant led us to a section designated "Vake".
"Here we are, you can't have glemit without pairing it with some silver vakinine," he continued as he picked up a silver metallic ingot. "Imported from planet Vake, this mineral absorbs radiation. Since glemit emits large quantities of it, you'll need these to protect yourself. The only people here who don't need to buy this mineral are the cindarians. Unfortunately, we can't all be lucky enough to be born as one of them, am I right?" The guy chuckled, making a light joke.
"Anyhow, be sure to grab some if you want any glemit," the merchant said as he'd already moved on to another isle designated "Calci". Regrettably, I followed despite there still being other stuff in the Vake department that looked interesting.
He picked up a small object encased in a protective field of some kind. Inside was an oblong object that resembled cooled lava, but beneath its cracks, it glowed with intense heat.
"This neat little necessity is calcite from planet–"
"Let me guess, planet Calci," Za'Fia remarked as she picked up one to examine as well.
"Correct you are, beautiful!" the merchant beamed. "You can read, that's good. You'd be surprised how many folks come here not knowing how to read even common," he whispered, "But calcite! This mineral generates its own heat. Though simple, its uses are quite diverse. They're used for cooking, bathing, warming water in general, and can even be lined into clothing in zip-wear for some extra warmth in case you decide to visit the frigid Dragon District in the south. Then, of course, over here..."
He was moving along again. This time to a section under "Sona".
"You have blue sonium from planet Sona," he said, holding a protective case with a blue stone inside that gave off a cold mist. "A direct opposite of calcite, this mineral generates its own cold and is used similarly, but for the opposite effects. If you plan to stay here for a while or visit the especially scorching Hellhound District, be sure to grab some of these or at least pick up clothing already lined with them. Anyway, there are plenty of other things to browse through from various worlds, so be sure to look through each aisle! I'll be up front when you're done!"
"Hold on." Avarice stared down at the man. "A moment ago, you insinuated that we aren't cindarian. What makes you so sure?"
The merchant's friendly smile changed to one of incredulity as he looked at us.
"Well, it's not difficult to sense the presence of a pneumarian. For us common folk, it's like standing before a god, so you're definitely not pneumarian, and I've never seen a klevonian with skin like yours," the merchant laughed before continuing. "Plus, most civilian establishments have sensors at their door that recognize each Crest's mark. If it doesn't acknowledge you, then you're either not a klevonian or you are one, but you're not part of a Crest. If you'd turned out to be one, you'd get special treatment, so I'd have everyone leave, and you'd have to pay using the Crest Pricing System."
"The what?" Za'Fia asked.
"The Crest Pricing System," the merchant repeated. "If you don't know that, you definitely aren't part of a Crest. The Ryfi Theos, the benevolent goddess she is, knows Crest members can be a pain for us civilians, so we're made to use the Crest Pricing System, where the prices for everything are quadrupled. If they go to a Crest-owned establishment, they pay normal prices. It's meant to deter most Crest members from going to civilian establishments, but if they do, the civilian at least gets something extra out of the experience."
"And with the fourth Golden Law, you're expected to treat Crest members like royalty, no?" Avarice grinned.
"Yes, we all must out of respect for the district's god," the merchant side-eyed Avarice curiously.
"Of course, Crest members consider themselves gods...," Za'Fia muttered.
The merchant looked at her sharply as if she'd just insulted him personally.
"Not the crest members. The Crest Head. Each Crest Head is revered as the god of their specific region, prioritizing their people's safety and well-being, while the Ryfi Theos is the God of the Nation. We all owe them that much respect for granting us the peace we have today and a world better than our native worlds that many of our ancestors left behind."
"Well, it just so happens that we fall under that category." Avarice placed a hand on the man's head and forced him to look up at his sly smile.
"Excuse me?" the merchant struggled to pull away.
"You see, we've just arrived here, relatively speaking, but I'm sure you've heard about the new members of the Chimera Crest; among others, there was a red fire dragon..."
Za'Fia partially transformed her hand.
"A golden goblin...," Avarice did the same.
"And of course, the Crest Head being a phenomenon with no bestial aspects," he motions to me, and I smiled politely at the guy, who then started to sweat profusely.
"As you can see, we are Crest members, so what should you be doing?" Avarice looked down at him with a sadistic enjoyment as the guy became frantic and kneeled before us.
"Forgive my insolence, Goddess," he begged me.
The other customers in the store overheard him and stood still, afraid to move.
"No, no, you're all fine. Continue your shopping," I told them, feeling bad for disrupting their casual afternoon.
"Quit bullying the merchant," I told Avarice, stepping between him and the poor guy who continued to apologize for his incompetence.
"It's fine, you weren't incompetent. How could you have known?" I said in an attempt to put him at ease. I pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from my spatial bag and jotted down a list of things I'd seen that I wanted the merchant to procure for me.
When he looked at the list, he perked up and hurried off to gather everything. When he returned with it all, the normal price tallied up to 20,000 spendil, but due to the Crest Pricing System, I had to pay four times as much.
By the time we were walking out of the store, the merchant was crying with gratitude, thanking me as I placed everything into my spatial bag.
I decided it was best to head straight for the Crest House after that, wanting to avoid causing stress to any more unsuspecting civilians.
It wasn't difficult figuring out where the most well-known spot in the city was. On the way there, we happened to pass by a restaurant owned by a klevonian from the Marine Crest. Supposedly, it was some of the best food in the city, but after everything, and with loads more to do already, I knew it wasn't the right time to take a lunch break.
Not long after that, we found ourselves in a different, suburban part of Plucis, where instead of industrial buildings, there were purplish, oddly-shaped homes with a mansion that stood out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood's center.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ZpWuwLei6
and then Add to home screen.