After I emptied my stomach, I managed to drink Gregory’s stinky potion. My nausea instantly disappeared. I still would rate it low in usefulness because when you need the potion it will wreck you. It is effective but I wouldn''t want to rely on it in the future. We looked outside through the frost door I made and saw that the nuke had created a huge crater. The combo attack I did with Raishin didn''t exactly turn out to form into Fusion element magic but at least it did its job. Or so we thought.


    Wait guys look! Gregory pointed at the crater. We all saw that out of the crater which was just uhh crater, slowly a sprout grew and slowly started growing into a tree. I could see the problem though; I saw magic and leyline energy flowing from faraway locations to the spot where the big roots exited the room. That energy flowed towards the crater and reformed the tree.


    I can feel energy gathering from 7 directions in this room, can you see where it is coming from Agnis? Yeah, we have a big problem, it seems the tips of the roots are sending energy to this room and reforming the tree. Our nuke wasn''t ineffective since the roots seem to have lost quite an amount of energy but blasting the tree trying to exhaust the roots seems pointless since we will probably run out of steam before the tree does. Ugh great so what do we do now?


    Uhm guys we have a problem! I don''t know what''s happening but the movement of energy feels like bad news. Agnis what do you see? What is your take on this? Hmm, guys, I must inform you that, through my years of knowledge and expertise adventuring, I can conclude that we are… fucked.


    Yup, that sounds about right. Uhh, so we run? Yup! I fired up my tail dynamo again and started preparing a short-range teleport.


    You need help with that? Yes, please. Raishin fed me energy by pouring it into the frost door.


    Grab on we''re going to Raishin’s hut. I saw the energy swell and it looked like the tree that just got nuked but looked like a regular-sized tree. It seemed as if it was going to make a big jump in size and with it release a stupid amount of energy, we didn''t want to be anywhere near it when that happened. The ping I sent for the teleport returned and we teleported to Raishin’s hut. 7 seconds after we arrived a pink-purple beam shot into the sky and the ground rumbled.


    Hehe, this is the second mountain you vaporized Agnis! Hey, this wasn''t my fault this time! Well, this sucks it feels like that stunt made the barrier slightly stronger. Crap! I guess we need to formulate a new strategy then.


    Yeah, we goofed up. This tree is cheating! Imagine anyone else than us trying to break this barrier it would be impossible! Hmm, maybe that is the point, right? To make sure it doesn''t get broken?


    That is true but most magic works on a set of rules an all-powerful barrier doesn''t exist! Everyone making barriers and defensive skills knows this! I look at Gregory.


    Huh? I don''t get it why is that? Hmm, what Agnis means is to make a truly strong barrier you need to be selective with it. Making a barrier that blocks everything won''t be strong. But if you make it weak to all elements besides fire and make it strong against fire it will be unbreakable against fire but other elements can easily break it. That''s why multiple layers are used to cover the weakness of other layers. This also applies to most magic skills by the way. your lightning augment makes you sturdy against physical, element-less magic and lightning attacks but it''s quite useless against other magic. So back to the point, this barrier seems to have only 1 layer but it''s quite strong in its effect. I guess the weakness is that if you don''t want to leave permanently it''s as if the barrier doesn''t exist but besides that, it is extremely strong. Maybe the roots are the barrier''s weakness but still, from what I can see it doesn''t seem like a real weakness since 7 points need to be destroyed before the origin of the barrier, which is the tree itself, can be destroyed.


    Oh, you remember the cave we saw when we were hunting the PB? Yeh, that crossed my mind too. I suggest we eat, rest up, and make a plan tomorrow. I''m quite tired But it''s only like 15:00 we can still do more adventures! Well, you with your infinite energy only had to charge up a nuke, Agnis has been running illusions and literally running around for an hour dodging spears of death so he might be tired, I''m also a bit tired.


    If you have so much energy, can you gather some berries and herbs for me? I need to try and make this potion less stinky. Ugh fine, if it makes that abomination less stinky, I guess I’ll make the world a better place by helping with that. Raishin headed off to probably not gather berries and herbs but meat again. I was tired but not that tired. Ted seemed like he had quite the battle against broccoli monsters.


    Oh, before I forget! Did you discover what the sonic booms were saying? Yah, it said: ??? ??? ?????? ???


    Uhh in Kaledonian please? Oh right, it said: The real one isn''t here. The language doesn''t use words that form sentences it uses more expressions that need to be strung together and interpreted. The expressions used are: different identity, location misplaced, in between, and true form. That is what the tree told me. The best that I could make out of it is that the real one, whatever it refers to, isn''t here, its location is misplaced and in between something. I don''t know if it refers to the tree, the barrier, the caster, the clue to lifting the barrier, or something completely else. It took me a while because I had to make sure I didn''t misinterpret it and to find out if there were new expressions between those I''d already heard. I still might be wrong on this but it should be close to the actual message.


    Any chance this tree we saw isn''t real? Hmm, I observed it with as many filters as I could but I didn''t notice anything off nor does it seem like an elaborate illusion. It could always be made by a genius illusionist and we’d be thinking it is real but it is just an illusion way beyond our level.


    I also didn''t feel anything off with various forms of energy. Besides magic and leyline energy, which are in the majority, it also gives off a bit of nature energy and other types but besides the leyline and magic abnormality rest seems within realistic ranges. Normally the energy footprints are a bit off after an illusion or something deceptive happens but from what I could tell everything seems normal, which is odd since this tree is anything besides normal. So, what could this message mean then? Or was it a message? I can''t imagine the tree just giving us hints to defeat it. Hmm, it could be a trap but a lot of effort is needed and knowledge of a dead language to get this message so I''m not sure if it is a trap.


    I will try and see if granny Uraya knows something about it! Isn''t that going to be super suspicious if you ask something so specific?


    Nah I always ask her weird stuff. I once asked her if she could make a medicine that could boost my pun-formance or how she as a magic caster would counter someone who focuses on martial arts as a reference. And I got to hear a lot of interesting stories from her. Seems she was a well-known and strong magic caster in her time. Hehe, I wouldn''t be surprised if she was a witch with all her magic knowledge and knowledge about herbs and medicine. Hmm yeah, she is a reliable source of information for when I need to craft potions. Maybe I should ask her for tips to make my potion less uhh stinky. And calling her a witch is rude!


    <hr>


    We split up to do our own things. Ted and Gregory were heading for Uraya’s grocery shop and I went towards the front gate. Every month some merchants set up some stalls outside the barrier for a week so that the people in Boshi town can get to buy and experience stuff that''s made in the rest of the country. It is a pretty big thing for Boshi town. I saw a lot of people heading toward where the merchants were stalled. The reason I went to this market was that I wanted to sell some rubies. It is nice to have a bunch of rocks in my dimensional pocket that is worth a lot but it''s not used as a currency so it might be a good idea to convert some of these into gold.


    Boshi town is known for providing lumber, metal, and various types of rocks and minerals since we’re up in the mountains so there''s a high chance that some merchants are looking to buy gemstones. There were about 30 stalls of merchants looking to buy stuff or looking to sell stuff. A lot of carts from merchants and townspeople alike were seen. Hmm, this is a problem, I walked down to this market but it didn''t seem like I had anything for me. The number of rubies I wanted to sell was quite heavy. As I wondered how to fix this blunder, I overheard someone talking to a merchant.


    “The monsters around here have been getting stronger and more vicious, I would like a bit more for these pelts.”


    “You said the same thing last month!” The merchant said back clearly annoyed.


    “Yes, but this month they are extra fierce! I almost died hunting simple pheasants!” I thought about the PB we fought; I wonder how much we could sell that if it didn''t explode. I checked if anyone was paying attention to me and got a small cart with the rubies in it out of my dimensional pocket. Nobody seemed to have been paying attention to me to notice the sudden appearance of the cart. I spotted 3 merchants dealing with rocks in this place, and I pulled my cart toward the closest one. This shit is heavy yo! I got ruby crystals filling up this whole cart and it weighs about 100 kg it takes up the space of like 20 magical moving boxes! I had it covered by a veil to prevent my cargo from attracting attention.


    “Hey, there! What kinds of stuff do you have there?” Do you deal in rocks and minerals?


    “I sure do! I''m a well-known merchant from the Yttroz industries which deals in anything that comes out of the ground!” If you are so well known then how come I don''t know who you are?


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    “Listen here kiddo, don''t take the winds out of my sails here I''m not just trying to impress you but also other people from your town. Besides your town is in the middle of nowhere I''m sure there are a lot of well-known names you''re probably unfamiliar with, ever heard of Teppei Fugaku? Or Beatrice Manarune or Dehlia Star?” Nope, never heard of them, although that Beatrice Deltarune sounds familiar.


    “It''s ‘Manarune’ anyways thanks for proving my point. My name is Jeremiah Odell.” Oooh!


    “What? You''ve heard of me?” Nope, sorry.


    “Ugh this kid, anyways what can I do for you?” I want to sell some rocks. I said as I pointed at my cart.


    “I''m assuming they’re special rocks else you would''ve carried that heavy-looking cart down the mountain for nothing.” Oh yes, they''re very special rocks, they’re the good stuff, it will make you feel like a new man!


    “Wait are you sure you''re talking about rocks? It sounds like you''re talking about something else.” Just make sure that nobody catches you with them.


    “Hey kiddo what are you trying to sell me? Is this some kind of drugs or a magic weapon?” Wow, chill out dude I''m just trying to sell some rubies. I said as I uncovered my cargo.


    “Some rubies? Holy crap where did you get all this?” The mountain further up.


    “Who are you?” He asked while inspecting the rubies in amazement. I''m Agnis Hourai.


    “No, I mean what did you do to get your hands on all these rubies?” Well, this was a problem, I can''t tell him that I soloed a dungeon that can only be opened by an ancient language, although he wouldn''t believe me if I told him that. I would just have to go with a white lie. I''m a blacksmith and from time to time I need ore for my blacksmithing.


    “Very young for a blacksmith but I guess that makes sense, so you found this while looking for ore?” That works.


    “What?” Yes, that is correct. Since I started talking to this guy I paid close attention to his mannerisms, the way he speaks, his breathing perspiration, and his pulse. Why? Merchants are great liars. If they can buy for cheap or sell for expensive, they will do so, and to be honest I don''t know anything about selling rubies.


    “Hmm this is a good batch you have and this is the largest load of rubies I''ve ever seen, where did you mine these?” The merchant asked while inspecting the rubies with a magic tool. I mined it in the Umbra mountain range. But it seems something vaporized the mountain not too long ago so regrettably there is nothing left there.


    “Hmm yeah, we did see a blue pillar of fire when we headed towards this town, and also a pink pillar of light not too long ago. What is happening here?” No clue.


    “They sent some people to check out the pink pillar of light but they didn''t seem to have found anything.” Hmm, that''s interesting.


    “I overheard some hunters talking about monsters getting stronger and stronger and I thought he was talking nonsense but considering these pillars of light and fire it might be actually true.” Yeah, weird things have been happening a lot lately. So, what can you tell me about these rubies?


    “They seem to be almost in a perfect state, the color, saturation, clarity, and cut seem to be perfect. There are also no inclusions. Did you heat-treat them?” What? I found them like this, I didn''t put them in the forge if that''s what you mean.


    “That''s not what I mean… Judging from your answer you don''t know what that is so I assume they are not heat-treated. Ok kiddo how much per carat do you want them for?” I''m selling rubies, not carrots.


    “You really don''t know anything about gemstones, do you?” I know that rubies are hard because they were a pain to mine. I know of their properties but only from a practical standpoint, I''ve never had to sell any. I observed Jerry and saw that he looked composed but inside he was probably happy that he could rip some rubies off me. I know rubies are worth a lot but I don''t know exactly how much. And Jerry probably realizes that. I could still sell it for a lot but since I had a boatload more in my dimensional pocket I wanted to get as close to their real value as possible for future reference. Jerry seemed to be thinking and then started explaining.


    “In short, the color and clarity of rubies are the most important, the redder the better, and if it''s clear the value gets even higher. I used my magic tool to polish some surfaces of some of your crystals; they all seem to be of perfect clarity and color. When selling valuable metals and minerals you use ‘Carats'' to indicate their weight and a price tag is attached to these carats.” Oh yeh, I knew that.


    “What? But you said carrots? You know what, never mind. You seem to have about 15 big crystals here. Do you by chance know how much all of these weigh?” I looked at the rubies. My estimate placed it at about 100 kg but I suppose in these cases the exact weight would be quite important so I checked the weight of the crystals with my Elgards eyes and added them up. 117.362 kg. Jerry, who seemed to know that the rubies together must''ve been quite heavy still seemed surprised. No signs yet that he lied to me only that he will try to get these for cheap. Good luck buddy, I will try to squeeze every cent out of you.


    “Hmm, 117.362 kg is a bit under 587 000 carats. Oddly enough all these crystals seem to be about the same size. Tell me your price per carat and I will message the CEO of Yttroz Industries to notify him of this valuable deal and to send over enough gold to pay you. I''m wondering though how you are going to carry all that gold and what you’re going to do with it but that''s not my business.” What would be a good price per carat for these rubies?


    “Hmm, how about 100 gold per carat?” I knew that was a lot of money but looking at Jerry I could see that he didn''t believe that price was fair. Hmm, I don''t think that is a fair price. Jerry seemed calm outwards but I could see he panicked a bit. This guy was a good merchant, he could''ve fooled me if I didn''t have my overpowered eyes.


    “Ok, I might have been suggesting something on the low side, how about 300 gold per carat?” How much were rubies worth anyways? Because I could see that he still didn''t believe this was a fair price. I think I will just ask those other merchants.


    “Nonono! He started to visibly show that he was panicking. “I thought you didn''t know anything about gemstones!” Well, suggest me a fair price and then we can do business.


    “Ugh, you''re quite tough kiddo. Fine, the most expensive ruby ever sold similar to what you have here was the “Phoenix blood” ruby or also known as the Brilliant Dawn ruby for 1172 gold per carat. However, it wasn''t as big as this one, and to be honest I would have no idea what an accurate estimation would be for these gigantic crystals.” Hmm, how does 1200 gold per carat sound?


    “Ugh, that is a lot of gold but it''s probably way less than it''s worth. You ok with that?” Well since I now have a reference of how much rubies cost; I would say I don''t mind.


    “Wait you have more of these?” I couldn''t carry all of it.


    “What are you even going to do with all that gold? Are you going to start your own country?” I thought about our homeland which was gone now. In the worst-case scenario that it is gone forever making a country might not be such a bad idea after all. I do have to make sure I don''t become the leader though, or else I will get stuck in the same problem as my mom. Right, I have to answer this guy’s question.


    I want to start my own blacksmith projects and I will need a lot of gold to buy exotic materials. I won''t settle for regular quality stuff! This wasn''t exactly true but also not exactly false, I haven''t looked through the blueprints I found in the dungeon but there could very well be ingredients that are easy to acquire but only if you have deep pockets. At a glance, I saw some parts need rubies. Well, I''m more than covered on that part but if I didn''t rob that dungeon clean of its rubies it might''ve been a really expensive joke. I can only imagine that having to use diamonds or more exotic and rare materials could make most of these relic magic weapons impossible to make. Jerry thought about my answer.


    “Here, is my business card, if you ever need to sell more rubies or you get your stuff up and running and need materials, I’ll be your guy!” He handed me a hologram-looking piece of magic. What is this? You''re giving me junk?


    “Right, you live in the boonies, and this here is a magically printed card, it can''t be duplicated, well it can but it''s exceedingly difficult and not worth it, anyways wherever you need something from the Yttroz industries just flash that card. It will also allow you to contact me if you''re at a telepath booth.” A what?


    “This town needs some serious upgrades, I’ll try to see if I can arrange some stuff for my next visit, anyways a telepath booth is where you can go to send telepathic messages to people you are close with or who permit you to be contacted telepathically.“ So, it isn''t a skill you can just freely use to contact people?


    “Nono!” Jerry said while laughing. “People that can use telepathy are really rare and it seems it takes a lot of magic to get a clear connection. We use telepath booths or mobile telepathic devices called Teleroad.” This is a pun, isn''t it? Turning ''path'' in “telepath” into “road”?


    “Hmm never noticed, you must be good at spotting puns.” Sadly, I have a friend that keeps making puns. Anyways so the transaction? How is this gonna go?


    “Right, I need to contact the CEO to send means to transport this and they will also deliver your gold. I can''t take this off you now because, to be honest, this stuff looks heavy as fuck and I can''t keep it away from prying eyes. They will send a vehicle with the gold and transaction details. It will most likely arrive tomorrow evening at the latest. And congratulations you are probably the youngest millionaire which has earned his fortune by himself and in one transaction. Damn 704.2 million gold is gonna put a dent in our industry''s budget but we will put the rubies to good use and earn it back of course!” Impressive merchant spirit.


    “Alright, now I just want you to fill in these forms and sign them with your magic signature.” After we finished Jerry looked at me and seemed deep in thought. “You know the transaction is over but I would like to ask you a question and make a suggestion. My suggestion is to open a bank account for all that gold, I could try and pull some strings to make it happen so you don''t have to deal with physically over 700 million gold.” Nah that''s fine I have a way to deal with it. And I''m not too sure how this bank thing works.


    “Uhh ok, now my question is do you want to give these rubies a name? They will no doubt make ripples in the world because never before have such perfect and big rubies appeared.” Uhh, how about Hourai rubies.


    “If I remember correctly, I saw you write that as your last name. It''s a cool name though. I will make sure these rubies will be known as Hourai rubies.” Jerry seemed quite happy even though he didn''t manage to scam me. To be honest, this question he asked me took me by surprise, I couldn''t come up with a cool name so I used my last name. Oh! I could''ve named them after the late Bunai! I have failed you Bunai! But 700 million gold, eh? That''s a lot. I only used a small portion of my stash. It just dawned on me how filthy rich I am. I just had to be careful that they wouldn''t deceive me but since I have to keep the rubies around till, they deliver the gold I assume they are doing things properly. For now. My cart drew a lot of attention so I took it away from prying eyes and put it back into my dimensional pocket. I wanted to look around to see what other cool stuff I could find but people might be wondering how I made my cart disappear. I will just have to go home.


    I didn''t feel like walking back up the mountain so I checked my surroundings and then short-range teleported to my room. I remembered that we didn''t decide when to adjust our plan but I suppose we will do that tomorrow. We will need a solid plan to destroy all those roots and then the tree within the 6 or well now 4 days we planned on escaping. We might have to delay our escape to make sure everything will run smoothly and not rushed. It was quite late but not late enough to go to bed. I was wondering what to do with the last part of my day. I decided to go downstairs and go through some books about rocks, ores, and minerals. Maybe it will give me a better insight into the qualities that determine the price of rubies and sapphires. The next merchant I meet might not be as nice as Terry or was his name Jerry? I spent the rest of the evening looking through books about rocks minerals and ores, I found some information about some interesting metals and minerals and archived them, or else I would forget.