?


    The room was decorated with dozens of things, from armor and weapons to amulets and rings.


    However, past that, you could see dozens of workers working on pieces of equipment, forging them with their hammed and enchanting them.


    ''Wait...'' Ss narrowed his eyes when he saw one of them engrave a rune into the sword they were holding with some kind of pen instead of simply tracing over it and imprinting the rune on it.


    "Do you have anything I can buy for three gold? That''s currently all I have on me." Ss rubbed the back of his neck with an embarrassed smile, forcing himself to peel his eyes away from the enchanting process that he almost fell into a trance looking at.


    "Uhm... I''m not sure, but I think there might be one or two amulets or rings I can give you."


    The burly man walked to a corner of his store and opened a small drawer before taking out a ck rectangr box and cing it on the desk in front of Ss.


    Opening the box, the man picked out one of the rings and lowered it toward Ss so he could hold it.


    "Are you sure?" Ss raised a brow.


    "Of course. You''re a buyer. You should be able to inspect the product before buying it." The burly man smiled.


    ''He''s weird.'' Ss thought before looking at the ring for a moment.


    "What does it do?" Ss asked as he continued to look at the runes.


    He didn''t really understand what they meant. Sure, his knowledge of runes was probably impressive whenpared to most people; however, he knew nothing about enchantment runes.


    ''They use pure mana.'' Ss thought.


    Some of the equipment in the room used elemental runes, yet the rest used standard mana runes.


    "It increases your speed for short bursts of time. It''s usually only mages who use these types of essories, but I guess you''re young so you might not be able to move as fast as someone much bigger than you." The man exined with another one of his warm smiles.


    "How long is the cooldown?" Ss asked.


    "Around an hour."


    "How long is the burst of speed."


    "30 seconds? Give or take." He shrugged.


    "By how much?"


    "Depends on you. The ring is an enhancement essory. Even though it can be used by anyone, the effects vary from anywhere between 1.5x your speed, or 3x." The cksmith crossed his arms before asking- "What do you think?"


    "How much?"


    "Usually 5 gold, but since it''s your first time here, and I''ve been looking forward to getting rid of that thing, how about 1 gold?" The cksmith grinned.


    "Wow? Really?"


    "Of course."


    "Oh... Thanks." Ss smiled before taking out a gold coin and cing it on the counter.


    "Thank you." Ss bowed slightly before leaving the store.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "What a nice kid." The cksmith spoke aloud while watching Ss blend into the crowd and disappear.


    "I know, rigtht. I expected him to steal something and leave." One of the workers chuckled.


    "No. I had a feeling that he wouldn''t steal anything. Though, if he did attempt to steal of one of my things, he would have ended up like the rest of them." The cksmith''s eyes flickered with traces of cold before a smile blossomed on his face again.


    Everyone in the room shuddered when they saw his eyes, but they quickly quieted down and returned to work.


    ***


    After that, the day passed by quite quickly.


    Ss slept throughout the night for one of the first times sinceing to this city.


    As the sun rose, the blue crystals at the top of the cave''s walls illuminated with a blue radiance that shone throughout the entire cave system, alerting everyone that the next day hade and that they should wake up.


    Ss quickly showered using water magic before leaving for the mission Greed had for him.


    She said she would pay him for the mission despite the fact that he ''owed'' her, and this was supposed to be the method of repayment.


    "Game Evergreen?" The desk ninjady from before asked while looking down at Ss'' figure.


    Ss had walked to the mercenary hall, yet a small group was already forming outside it, each one of them holding a paper and reading what was on it.


    ''They know how to read? I seem to be getting one surprise after another these days. I wonder what the next one will be? Wait, no! Surprises are always bad. Ah crap, I think I just jinxed myself.'' Ss felt like facepalming, but in front of Jessica, the ninjady who tried to kill himst time, such a thing would have probably been considered rude.


    "Yes?" Ss replied.


    "Here is the briefing for today''s mission. Do you know how to read or do you want me to read it for you?" She asked with a slightly mocking tone.


    ''What''s her problem?'' Ss narrowed his eyes before rolling them and looking away.


    "I know how to read." He sighed before looking at the sheet of paper in his hands.


    ''7 individuals... kill a beast... Extract venom... h h h. Oh... This is kind of easy. However...''


    "Hey, Jessica." Ss waved at the woman.


    "What." She spat.


    "This briefing doesn''t say how strong the beast is." He pointed out, causing the rest of the group to look down at their sheets and point out the same thing.


    "That''s because we don''t know how strong it is."


    "You don''t know how strong it is, yet you''re making us go on this suicide mission?" Ss chuckled with mockery.


    "Hey! I''m going as well. Plus, we''ve had sightings of this beast quite a few times in the past month. The area it lives in is one without many strong beasts. At worst, it''s an amethyst core; at best, it''s a topaz core." She shrugged while the others nodded, but Ss couldn''t help but have a bad feeling about this.


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