Dustfall changed faster than anyone expected. Adventurers lined up every sunrise waiting for Alan to update the board. Merchants arrived earlier and earlier bringing wagons full of beast cores. Young villagers who once dreamed of becoming hunters now dreamed of becoming clerks who recorded prices. Dustfall was no longer a forgotten frontier. It was becoming a hub where information moved as quickly as rumors.

But with growth came confusion. Alan found himself answering the same questions over and over. What will prices look like tomorrow. Why do A class cores rise this week and fall next week. Should we save our cores or sell them now. Adventurers asked. Merchants asked. Even the elders asked. Alan understood that the village needed something bigger than a board. It needed a place where people could make decisions together. A structured market.

One evening he sat by his notebook and wrote two words. Spot Exchange. A place where the daily price of mana could be set by open trade not by a single merchant or rumor. A place where adventurers and merchants could see transparent information. A place where deals were made in the open so no one could cheat. He imagined a room full of tables with adventurers bargaining based on the day’s supply. He imagined clerks tracking entries and exits. He imagined a system that could survive even if he was not present.

He walked across the village and found an old storage building with cracked walls and a leaking roof. Dust and broken tools filled the floor. The place had no value yet Alan saw potential in its emptiness. He asked the elders if he could use it. They agreed. People trusted him enough to risk an old building.

Villagers gathered to clean the space. Ressa’s team moved crates. Children swept the floors. Merchants donated old tables. By the second day Dustfall had a new building with its doors wide open and its windows letting in bright morning light.

Alan gathered everyone for the first announcement. Today we open the Mana Spot Exchange. The first marketplace for real time mana trading. The crowd murmured. No one had heard such words before. Alan explained step by step. Sellers would bring their cores and declare their class. Buyers would offer prices out loud. Clerks would record each transaction as the official spot price. At the end of each hour a new board would display the current average.

This meant prices could change many times in a day. Some adventurers were confused. Others looked excited. Merchants looked wary because the power to change prices now rested with open trade not hidden bargaining.

The doors opened and the room filled instantly. Ressa stood beside Alan as a guard in case trouble arrived. The first seller stepped forward with a bag of B class cores. Three merchants shouted offers. The clerks recorded the price. For the first time the village saw trade happen in front of everyone. No secrets. No manipulation.

The atmosphere changed. Adventurers realized they could wait for better offers. Merchants realized they needed to be honest or they would lose deals. Alan watched the early activity and felt a surge of pride. People were learning the principles of a fair market without a single spell.

But the exchange was not without issues. Some adventurers tried to push fake high demand by shouting false bids. Others tried to form secret alliances to buy low and sell high. Alan caught them quickly. He created a simple rule. Anyone who created false bids was banned for three days. Anyone who tried to manipulate prices for others was banned for seven. The bans worked. People preferred being part of the exchange to being excluded from it.

As the day ended Alan posted the first official price board created from actual public trades. The numbers reflected real behavior from supply and demand. People looked at the board with a sense of awe. It felt like Dustfall had given birth to something new. A system that made sense even though no one understood exactly how it worked.

That night Alan sat near the empty exchange building. The lanterns glowed softly. The wooden tables held the faint marks of coins and cores. The chalkboard still displayed the final price of the day. Alan felt tired yet deeply satisfied. He knew that the exchange would grow beyond Dustfall. He knew this was only the beginning.

But he also sensed danger. Systems created clarity. Clarity threatened those who thrived in shadows. The black market would not sit quietly. The kingdom was still watching. The church had not yet made its move. Alan closed his notebook and whispered a promise. I will expand this. And I will protect it.

When he looked at the moon he felt certain of one thing. Dustfall had taken the first step toward becoming the center of mana trade. And every step from now on would draw more eyes both friendly and hostile.