Chapter 269: Finding the Forgotten Empire (3)
‘I… want to take it…!’
Ian was holding onto the Dimensional Magic Power Charger in his hand, and his appet.i.te to take it was rising.
‘This one, Will he give it if I ask for it?’
Gripper and Ian’s affinity was so high that it couldn’t be raised any further.
Any item could be taken if the affinity was a high, but somehow, this seemed like an item that would be tough to get.
At the end of the information for the Dimensional Magic Power Charger, it was written as ‘The most cherished item of Gripper’, this made it seem tough.
‘Huh… I guess I’ll just have to try…’
Ian feeling a bit let down put the Dimensional Magic Power Charger from his hand back onto the table.
Then Ian’s eyes looked at the system message that came on.
[You have not met the requirements for using the item ‘Dimensional Bead’.]
[Item is sealed.]
“d.a.m.n.”
After placing the item back onto the table, Ian turned his gaze to a different side of the room.
Gripper’s studio had a lot of stuff, and Ian hadn’t even seen half of them.
At that moment, a low resonating sound started to come from the center of the studio.
Woong- Woong-!
Ian’s gaze moved to the place where a blue light began to form, and a portal was being opened.
And from that portal, came out Gripper.
“Phew, I came right away… have you been waiting long?”
Ian who had just reunited with Gripper, spoke in the brightest and the most cheerful voice possible.
“No, No. At this point, I don’t even know how long I’ve been waiting for. You came here real quick.”
When Ian spoke all that with a smiling face, Gripper opened his mouth, while being a little flushed.
“Uh. Is that so? I came here in a hurry thinking that you would wait.” Gripper brought his composure back and spoke to Ian after a gap of a few seconds.
“Anyway, here you go… are you all ready to go to the Ancient Maurya Empire?”
Ian nodded.
“Yes. Being in the Dimensional war for a few days made me realize that the item from the Wheel-Turning King/ King of Rings would be necessary.”
Once Ian was done with speaking, Gripper looked pleased.
“Kue, Great…! Ian you think quick and so are your actions… This was the right choice.”
Gripper who was done speaking—stretched out one hand and pointed towards the air.
A round ball came from the air.
“Now, I’m going to open the door to the Ancient Maurya Empire. Is there anything I can do for you, apart from opening the portal?”
Ian was thinking of completing the quest, and then ask Gripper for the Dimensional Magic Power Charger.
But since Gripper had himself asked, there was no way Ian would willingly let go of the opportunity.
“Actually, yes. Can I just ask one thing?”
“Hmm… Please tell me. I will do it if it is something I can do…!”
Gripper was a little puzzled as Ian had taken his sweet time to reply.
And Ian, realizing the high affinity he had with Gripper, nodded his head and spoke.
Ian glanced towards the table and pointed in the direction of an item with a high magnitude of magical power.
“Maybe… You can give me that thing?”
Upon seeing the item, Grippers eyes wavered.
“That thing…? Which one are you saying? Point it for me.”
As the request from Gripper, Ian took the item into his hand and brought it into the sight of Gripper’s eyes.
“This thing. I feel like I need this thing. Do you remember the Dimensional Bead that you gave me the last time…? I could use it if I have this thing.”
“Ha… Ho…”
Gripper started to sweat and had an uncomfortable expression.
“How did you know about the Dimensional Magic Power charge? I don’t remember telling you about this…”
Ian replied with a mix of lies.
“My beads seem to have responded when I got near this thing. So I found out.”
Gripper replied out of courtesy.
“Hmm… Is that so…”
Ian kept looking at Gripper’s eyes.
‘I think this much push is enough, this should be enough to persuade him, right?’
If this was something that should never be handed, then Ian wouldn’t have wanted it either.
‘Then, before his thoughts drift onto the ‘not giving me’ part, I should change his mind using something…’
Ian was thinking of something that he could offer to Gripper.
He thought that since he had accepted the request from Gripper, this should be something that could be offered to him for exchange.
Ian immediately said to Gripper.
“Gripper, did you think that you were the only one giving away stuff?”
Gripper’s face brightened up a little.
“Ooh…? You also have something to give me?”
Ian started to think hard.
‘The things that I have with me… would Gripper want something from it?’
Ian started to recollect.
For a long time, Ian had hunted many monsters and went on numerous quests, so there should have been at least one thing that Gripper would have been interested in.
After thinking for a minute or so, Ian’s mind came up with a thing.
‘Yes! That thing…!’
The item that Ian had thought needed to be somewhere in the corner of his inventory.
‘The strange egg that I received when I was in the first round of summoning…! I could give that to Gripper.’
Gripper was very fond of exploring things in veils.
And to such a person (NPC), giving an ‘Unknown egg’ would have him very interested.
‘Even if there is something great in it, there is nothing to do with it. For now, it is completely useless to me, right?’
The familiar in the egg is awakened when it meets the parents of the same species, or when certain conditions are met.
However, Ian had tried every possible way for this ‘unknown egg’ to hatch, but it didn’t.
Once a user knows the kind of egg it was, they could find clues to the process of hatching, but because this was an egg whose ident.i.ty couldn’t be known and it was just an egg to Ian.
Ian settled his thoughts and picked up the item ‘Unknown egg’ from his inventory.
“Gripper, this is one of the hard-earned items I had received when fighting a Legendary ranked monster in the 50th zone. I would like to give this to you Gripper… Is it alright?”
Ian looked into Grippers eyes. It was because he had exaggerated a little bit.
‘I didn’t get this from hunting a legendary ranked monster, but it is true that I found it in the 50th zone where I had hunted the Legendary ranked monster, so this isn’t entirely a lie!’
Ian, who was rationalizing his thoughts reached it out to Gripper.
And like Ian had known, Gripper’s gaze was completely fixed on the egg.
“Wow… This one, anyone can know that this is a rare thing in a single glance.”
Ian looked at the admiration Gripper had in his eyes, and muttered to himself.
‘Well, it is an incredibly rare thing. This is a great thing for a person who likes to explore, rather than being a user.’
Gripper, who took the egg from Ian, began to explore the egg much diligently.
“Keu, the smooth reddish texture and the light that is leaking out from it… if this thing hatches, then this would be a really big deal.”
As Gripper murmured, Ian’s hands started to s.h.i.+ver.
‘Is, is it really…? This wouldn’t have a very rare legendary cla.s.s in it… right?’
Just words coming from Gripper, and it had shaken Ian immediately.
Ian made his stand on the decision.
‘No, there is no way that a great thing could come out of it that easily.’
Ian, who had fixed his mind on taking the Dimensional Magic Power Charger looked at Gripper who was still interested in the egg and opened his mouth.
“I really think that there is something very tremendously powerful in it.”
At this, Gripper asked.
“But can you really give it to me?”
Ian scratched the back of his neck and replied.
“It is really upsetting… but I couldn’t figure out how to hatch it with my abilities. So I thought that you, being the Great Gripper would be able to hatch this egg.”
The word ‘Great’ started to get into the head of Gripper.
“Well, Uhmm. Great is too much. I’m not such a person.”
Ian’s new plan was launched in success.
“No. Wasn’t it the wisdom from you that made it possible for hunting down a Griffin? If you ask me, there is no one other than Gripper who can possibly make this egg hatch.”
Gripper was feeling better and smiled, he picked up the Dimensional Magic Power Charger from the table.
And at last, the thing Ian had been waiting for.
“Nice. I plan on trusting your skill and abilities when giving this dimensional charger to you… it is a very precious thing. This is a thing that I crafted after spending a long period of time… but since I already made it once, I’m sure I can make another one way much easier.”
Ian took the Dimensional charger from Gripper.
And Ian’s vision came up with a few system messages.
[Handed the item ‘Unknown Egg’ to the Magical Alchemist Gripper.]
[Received the item ‘Dimensional Magic Power Charger’ from Magical Alchemist Gripper.]
[The condition for using the Dimensional Bead has been met.]
[The item is unsealed.]
[Magical Alchemist of the Dimension, ‘Gripper’ is very happy with the exchange.]
[Affinity with Gripper has increased by 5.]
Ian had a questioned expression.
‘What, affinity with Gripper went further up?’
The Affinity with an NPC was a stat that could not be confirmed by opening an information window.
It was a fact that the basic affinity with NPC’s was 50. and one has to calculate and remember the affinity—they got to know the level of affinity, and there was no other way to know the stats.
But Ian remembered how high his affinity with Gripper was, and according to his memory…
‘Adding today’s affinity, it is 105 points.’
The affinity with Gripper was over 100 points.
‘I thought that affinity was a structure that doesn’t go above 100.’
Whatever it was, Ian smiled brightly looking at Gripper and entered new information into his head.
“I’ll use it well, Gripper. I’ll be able to find the item of Wheel-Turning King—that will help us all.”
Gripper gave a satisfied smile and replied,
“Huh, I’m feeling great to be able to give you my stuff. It is a hard-to-make item, but it is a great item to use.”
After a few moments of silence, Ian and Gripper were ready to proceed into the quest.
Gripper closed the portal that he used to come and opened a new portal.
This was a portal that could take them to the ancient Mauria Empire.
‘Okay, should I go in now…?’
Ian’s lip corners were slightly raised.
Now it was the time to see the Wheel-Turning King/ King of Rings!