Walking out of the forest, it was almost nighttime as Elizabeth approached the village entrance. To say that the guards were surprised when they watched Elizabeth walk alongside a magical beast, was a severe understatement, as they moved to kill it upon sight and would have succeeded in doing so had Elizabeth not defended her companion.Although Beast Tamers weren"t unheard of on Earth, not everyone would immediately connect the image of a "weak" little Soldier Stage girl with that of a powerful Beast Tamer. Fortunately, after having her pet do a few tricks, Elizabeth convinced the guards that her moose companion would not be a threat within the village. Elizabeth walked back to the Inn struggling to ignore all the annoying people that wouldn"t mind their business and would either stare or, "G.o.d forbid," ask her about the moose.
As she walked through the street, Elizabeth pa.s.sed by a stall selling odd trinkets and though she wanted nothing more than to reach the Inn as soon as possible, she found an item that couldn"t have appeared at a better time. Walking over to the merchant, Elizabeth instructed her moose beast to behave as she went about her business and through her entire exchange, the beast remained perfectly calm.
Once she was before the merchant, Elizabeth said, "Sir, what"s the price for this gla.s.s box?"
"Oh? It"s rare to find youngsters with such good eyes! This gla.s.s box here isn"t just any regular old gla.s.s box. It"s been refined from spiritual sand and can persist through an explosion of TNT. If you want it… I think I can part with it for a Low-tier Mortal True Core~" Thinking of Elizabeth as nothing more than a prodigal silkpants, the merchant thought that perhaps today was his lucky day and that he could easily markup the value of his goods.
Hearing that initial price, Elizabeth"s eyes narrowed as her gamer mind picked up on a sour scent; the smell of a scam… However, given that she possessed the almighty functions, along with her squinting eyes, Elizabeth smiled as she asked, "Mhmm… can I take a closer look? I"m a Smith myself and would like to see if it measures up to your claims."
For a split second, the merchant felt his heart sink as he heard that Elizabeth might be able to tell the true worth of the gla.s.s box. But, comparing her claim with her appearance, he thought she was bluffing. Even if she wasn"t bluffing, her interest in the gla.s.s box didn"t escape the merchant"s mind as she didn"t immediately reject him after hearing that absurd price. In the end, he perfectly held his jovial appearance, saying, "Go ahead."
Elizabeth weighed the gla.s.s box in her hands. She also gave a shot at actually examining the thing to see how her appraisal skills measured up against her status function, before actually calling for the function to manifest.
[Status
Name: Refined Gla.s.s Box
Grade: Mid-tier Mortal Grade Artifact (Unenchanted)
Description: An artisan box made out of refined spiritual sands. Created without inscriptions and possessing a refined rate of 82%, the box has plenty of potential left untapped.
Current Effect: Null; Aside from being more resistant to damage than regular gla.s.s, this artifact provides no additional effects.]
Smiling as she came close to the same conclusion as the status function, Elizabeth snickered as she asked, "Is this a joke? You want a Magical Core from a King Stage Beast in exchange for this gla.s.s box? Not only is the body lacking any inscriptions, but the refinement rate is also lacking. Had I done it myself, this would have come out many times better!"
Immediately, the merchant"s smile froze as he was found out. Trying to still complete the deal, he said, "Ok, ok… I"ll trade it for a Mid-tier Magical Pseudo Core." However, before he could even finish, Elizabeth already started walking back over to her moose companion. As she walked away, she said, "That isn"t worth more than a single High-tier Magical Fragment."
"Fine! Fine!!! I"ll trade for a Magical Fragment." Hopelessly at a loss, the merchant practically screamed at Elizabeth, pleading for her to buy the gla.s.s box. He had been there for weeks and had barely sold anything. So, even if he"d barely make a profit off selling the gla.s.s box, he panicked once he saw Elizabeth move to leave as if all her interest in the box had vanished. Never had he expected to face such a fearsome appraiser like Elizabeth. A person that was once known in ScriptScape to be the G.o.d of Trade for the legendary tactics she — he, at the time — used to trade-up a worthless berry for a G.o.d-tier endgame-level sword.
Smiling as she employed her years worth of bargaining knowledge in the real world for the first time, Elizabeth pulled out the Magical Core of a p.a.w.n Stage wild beast before happily trading it away for the gla.s.s box. Upon storing the box in her spatial ring, she continued her walk back to the Inn. Once back at the Inn, Elizabeth asked the receptionist, "Um… h.e.l.lo, I"ve recently tamed a beast in the forest and would like to know if I could keep it in my room."
At first, the receptionist was bewildered by the absurdity of the request. But as she looked behind Elizabeth, she could see a moose calf staring through the gla.s.s door that made up the entrance. Hesitantly, the receptionist said, "You… You"re a Beast Tamer? Mhmm… It should be fine, but you"ll need a bigger room to house your beast companion."
"Cool. How much do I have to pay to upgrade to a larger room?" Whilst her current room had been paid for with Atid"s money, along with all the other dojo members" rooms, Elizabeth didn"t even think to call Atid for the purpose of paying. With all the King Stage carca.s.ses in her possession, it would be beyond easy to pay the bill.
"Right… That"ll be one Mid-tier Magical Pseudo Core, then." The receptionist fumbled with her desk and pulled up a key as Elizabeth feigned activating a Storage Enchantment. In reality, she used her spatial ring to materialize the required Level 15 Magical Core. After making the exchange, Elizabeth thanked the receptionist before retrieving her moose and leading it back to their new room.
Once secured, Elizabeth walked back over to her original room to get Yrre. As she opened the door, she found Yrre running towards her faster than she could avoid. Not even struggling to put up a fight, Elizabeth let Yrre mess around with her body, listening in as the worried Djinn said, "Master! Why were you gone for so long! Are you alright?!" There was only concern and worry in Yrre"s intent, which made the whole ordeal less stressful than it should have been.
Still being examined like a frail animal, Elizabeth sighed as she said, "I"m fine! The only reason I came back so late was because I ran into some good luck." Of course, through their connection and Yrre"s healing powers, by the time she heard Elizabeth, she already knew she was as healthy as can be.
After separating from Elizabeth, Yrre asked, "Good luck? What happened?"
Before Elizabeth clued her in, she said, "First, let"s go over to our new room. You won"t believe what I found a couple hours ago..." She kept her words unbearably vague, leaving Yrre totally clueless.
Upon making it to their new room, Yrre stood flummoxed as she took sight of the moose calf laying down in the middle of the room. Seeing her reaction, Elizabeth laughed as she explained the adventure she recently returned from. As she spoke, she split her consciousness in half and began practicing inscribing a sealing enchantment. Elizabeth didn"t understand how impressive such an act was; especially for her level. This was her first time attempting it, and with all the power she"d knowingly or unknowingly cultivated in her soul, she managed to easily focus on the two tasks seamlessly.
By the time she felt confident in being able to draw the Enchantment her story neared its end. At that point, she took out the gla.s.s box she bought before returning to the Inn and summoned her furnace to finish increasing its refinement rate, before lacing the box with the Enchantment she"d been previously preparing.
Almost as if she had planned for it, the moment Elizabeth revealed to Yrre that she found a Spirit Vein, the work she"d been doing on the gla.s.s box finished and she managed to seal the vein into the box for Yrre to see it.
[Status
Name: Perfect Sealing Gla.s.s Box
Grade: Peak-tier Mortal Grade Artifact
Description: An artisan box made out of refined spiritual sands. After having its base improved by the user, the gla.s.s box now possesses a refinement rate of 99% and the inscriptions for a Neutral Sealing Enchantment.
Current Effect: Possessing a Neutral Sealing Enchantment, anything stored within the gla.s.s box will be perfectly contained for centuries. Only Mortal Grade ent.i.ties or items may be secured. Anything of a higher Grade will probably break free from the seal or be improperly contained. The box will begin to wear down if bombarded with attacks from Warrior Stage beings or above.]
In but an instant, the signal of the Spirit Vein was shown to the world, and in the next, it was contained in the gla.s.s box, with Elizabeth sucking up all the energy it leaked into the environment. Yrre was indeed shocked to see her master find a Spirit Vein so easily, but given her experience, Elizabeth didn"t get to witness her go insane from the reveal.
Instead, Yrre calmly expressed her thoughts, saying, "So you killed a Spirit Realm Moose Beast, took its offspring, and found this Spirit Vein all in a matter of hours?"
"Technically, it would have been a matter of minutes had I moved to tame the moose calf right after I killed its mother. Though you"re right, I did end up taking a couple hours to absorb the spiritual air the vein had been leaking." Elizabeth grumbled as her achievement was downplayed. Somehow, the life-extinguishing demon G.o.dslayer that effortlessly outcla.s.sed all the beasts in the eastern forest, still had it within herself to act childish at times…
"Right, right..." Acting the part of an acquiescent mother, Yrre did her best to calm down her unruly master. She only managed to completely cancel out the depressed mood Elizabeth adopted after suggesting the start training again. For the rest of the night, Elizabeth and Yrre succeed in terrifying Elizabeth"s moose companion with their intense sparring.