“I’m only Rank 3 though…”

“Oliver, Baby, Word Changes can happen at any time, for any reason. Hmmm~! I just don’t know what change would cause a Miner to be able to move statues with their mind? Either way, I’m not paying you anything extra for haunted statues. If you want to sell them for a higher price, then you can go rent a carriage and travel to Kale Town yourself! Hmph~!”

“So you just don’t wanna pay more after all!”

“Who would ‘want’ to pay more money for anything?”

“Mama, don’t bully Ollie~!”

“Hyahahaha~! You two are so cute~!”

“Come on, Ollie! Ignore her! I’ll show you some of the stuff we bought this time!”

The Verde Trading House was essentially just a convenience store. However, since they were basically the only place to buy and sell things to/from the outside world in Verde Village, they basically had a little bit of everything. The produce section included all sorts of ‘exotic’ fruits and vegetables. There were various types of dried meat. Metal cans and jars filled with soups, sauces and jams. Even cat and dog food. For that matter, there were giant bags of dried rice and corn, flour, salt, sugar, all the essentials.

There were even some board games like chess, checkers, go, and backgammon. Decks of cards. Trading cards. There weren’t that many generic toys for little kids, because the children in the village would rather pan for gold, swim in the river, fish or hunt. The target audience of ‘games’ was ironically the ‘elderly’, who were in their 30’s to 50’s and either retired or too sick to work anymore.

Of course, there were also all sorts of books and magazines. Even newspapers. But Oliver’s main interests were Mining and food. So he just blew a bunch of gold on expensive fruits, veggies, jerky, pastas and rice. There were also some chocolate bars and tiny cakes.

*Cough-cough~!* A loud coughing along with the strong smell of smoke came from the back room, “Oliver… I heard from Verda that you-*Cough~!* Sorry, Verda said you got some more statues you’d like to sell us?”

“Yeah, basically. I’ll bring them over later and you can rip me off again.”

“Hah-hah-hah~!” The nearly 2 meter tall and extremely skinny brown-skinned man was wearing a green turban on his bald head. His bright blue eyes had deep bags under them and his cheeks were sunken. There were a few obvious goiters and lumps on his abnormally long neck. His body was covered by a green and golden robe and he had a bunch of colorful rings on his long, bony fingers. Mostly gold with large glowing green crystals set on them.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m-*Cough~!* I’m fine!” Verna’s Dad took a sip of a brown cigar with a green ring around the end, “My Doctor in Kale Town recommended this new brand. Wanna try one? Only five gold!”

“Five gold for a cigar?! That’s insane!” Oliver looked at the fancy cigars in a box that was pushed across the counter, “I don’t smoke. I can’t stand the smell… Are you really sure that you should be smoking with that cough?”

“I’m feeling a lot better now than before, so*Cough~!* Ehm, so I think my Doctor is right. Smoking cigars is a lot better than cigarettes!”

“Are you sure you went to a Doctor and not a Cigar Merchant?”

“Hah-hah-hah~! Koson has been my Doctor since I was a baby! He might be an alcoholic bastard, but he’s not a Greenstone shill! *Cough-cough-cough~!* But I am, hah-hah-hah~!”

“Hyahahah~!” Verna and Verda started laughing as well.

“Uh, so anyway, I’ll bring over the gold for this food later with the statues. Bye~!”

Oliver conjured up some heavy-duty bags and a backpack to carry everything, then quickly escaped from the smoky store before he was tricked into buying anything else. Before he could put his groceries down and open the door, a delicate brown hand reached out to turn the bronze knob instead.

“Ah, thanks Verna.”

“Come on! Show me your haunted sculptures! Can they really move on their own?”

“I thought you were afraid of ghosts like everyone else?” Oliver raised an eyebrow and followed the excited ‘little’ girl into the living room.

“Wow! There’s so many! Holy Words! Look at this! Is this Long made of jadeite?! It’s so big! It must be worth, um, well, I’ll give you fifty gold!”

“Fifty gold?! It’s gotta be worth at least a thousand! I’ll give it to you for uh, five hundred?”

“No way! Do you have any idea what the shipping costs, taxes and service fees will be like for us to sell this dragon at the auction?! A hundred gold!”

“Verna, whatever, a hundred gold is fine.” He was about to counter the offer, but imagined waking up with a couple hundred kilo serpentine dragon crushing his body in the middle of the night…

“Anyway, what about this raccoon? It’s made of limestone with yellow glow stones for eyes.”

“Five gold.”

“Five gold?! That’s the same as one of your Dad’s nasty cigars!”

“Those are top-quality cigars! Fine, seven gold!”

“Seven gold… Ugh, fine, whatever.”

Just like that a couple dozen small and large masterpieces were sold for less than five hundred gold. In the end, there were only a bunch of statues of that ‘Marble Mother’ who seemed to be the most haunted.

“Wow, another jade statue! This one seems even more exquisite… But it’s a lot smaller, so only fifty gold.”

“Fine. A hundred gold and you can take all of them. I just want this nightmare to end.”

“Oh don’t be a baby~! Haggling is fun, isn’t it? Hyahahahaha~!”

“I’m a Miner. I like dealing with rocks. Not people.”

“Yes~! You’re a Miner! You’ll be the greatest Miner ever and make me the richest Merchant in the world, hyahahahaha~!”

“Whatever makes you happy.” Oliver sighed dramatically and noticed that the locked door in the basement was wide open again…

“Hey, last time you said you’d buy that Angry Woman statue for twenty gold-”

“No way! That was the price last time, when she was unique. Now she’s only worth five gold!”

“Fine, five gold! She’s yours now! Just make sure she doesn’t break into my house in the middle of the night…”

“How would a statue break into your house? You don’t really believe she’s haunted, right?”