Chapter 29: Chapter 29 - Consume (4)
Chapter 29 . Consume (4)
With the arrival of the mysterious merchant, Kahn’s and Doyle’s eyes grew wider .
“Hyung, do you also know the mysterious merchant?”
Doyle looked at Yeon-woo with a surprised face .
Yeon-woo lightly nodded .
“A little . ”
“Hey, how can you be so mean to me? I thought we had something special going on . Ohoho!”
The mysterious merchant gave a silly smirk as he babbled out some nonsensical jokes . He didn’t try hiding his fondness for Yeon-woo at all, which made Doyle eve more astonished .
In fact, the mysterious merchant was not someone one could easily have access to . He seldom showed himself in the waiting room of each section, or in the boss rooms . There was never a set time or reason for him to appear . Therefore, most people stayed in the waiting room and waited for an indefinite amount of time for the mysterious merchant to show up . But now, he had just popped up out of nowhere .
Of course, it wasn’t actually impossible to personally strike a deal with the mysterious merchant .
“And also, glad to see you again, Kahn and Doyle . We haven’t met since you purchased the pass tickets, right?”
The mysterious merchant then greeted Kahn and Doyle .
“Oh, yeah . ”
Kahn nodded with a sour face . He felt like he was getting a heartburn just by recalling how he had paid with his attribute points to buy the tickets to go to Section B’s waiting room .
The methods one could use to befriend the mysterious merchant were very simple . One was to rank within the top 10 in the tutorial rankings . That was how Kahn had acquainted with the mysterious merchant .
And the other was,
‘To be acknowledged by him . ’
It seemed like Yeon-woo was one of those ‘acknowledged’ people .
Kahn thought it was understandable . Considering what Yeon-woo had shown him so far, there was no way the mysterious merchant or the guardian wouldn’t pay attention to him .
After the simple greeting, the mysterious merchant quickly turned to Yeon-woo .
“By the way, would you mind telling me how you noticed I was here? I was so confident that I was hidding pretty well . ”
Kahn and Doyle nodded as well . The mysterious merchant was like the guardian, he belonged to The Tower, so normal players couldn’t notice their presence .
However, Yeon-woo flatly replied .
“It would be dumb of me not to notice you when you’re staring at me like that . ”
*Grunt* “I see, you are not going to tell me . ”
The mysterious merchant let out a groan at Yeon-woo’s reply . But under the robes, his eyes were giving off a strange glow . He had known it from the time Yeon-woo purchased the reset tickets for section A that no one else had bought before . In many ways, Yeon-woo was a very strange person . But the mysterious merchant put on his usual smile, suppressing his feelings from showing .
“But next time, please show me some wit and pretend you don’t see me . You’ve just ruined the fun, don’t you think? Ohohoho . ”
Yeon-woo tilted his head as if questioning his true intentions .
“If we hadn’t known you were here, weren’t you going to wait and pocket our items?”
The mysterious merchant grinned .
“My, my, you must have read my mind . ”
Yeon-woo shook his head as he looked at the mysterious merchant whose face was still filled with a smirk .
If I were asked to name things one should never trust in The Tower, the first thing would be the mysterious merchants . Contrary to what rumors say, that they don’t come outside very often, they always keep a close watch on players while hiding right next to them to pick up the items that they’ve missed or threw away .
His brother said that the being that players should be wary against the most, was the mysterious merchant .
They would never get the short end of the stick . Rather, they would be happy to dig around in filth if they could find anything profitable inside . They always kept an eye on players and secretly took things they abandoned and sold them at a high price .
If Yeon-woo had left the lair with only the items he needed in his hands, He would have shown up belatedly and taken everything left in the lair . Of course, Yeon-woo wasn’t going to give away his items that easily .
“150 Tokens . ”
Sudden words without any explanation .
It was a bargain . The price for the ownership of the lair and the Blue Scale Scimitar .
Kahn and Doyle then turned towards the mysterious merchant with excited faces . But the mysterious merchant snorted at Yeon-woo’s bargain with his arms crossed .
“Oh dear, now you’re trying to bargain with me . But, you know, even the top rankers…”
“160 . ”
“…can’t get that… . ”
“180 . ”
“…many Tokens…”
“200 . ”
As the mysterious merchant went on talking, Yeon-woo kept increasing the number .
“250 . ”
“…do you think you can sell them at that price? Really?”
“300 . You better take my offer quickly . The more you hesitate, the higher the number will be . ”
Then Yeon-woo raised the corners of his mouth .
“And of course, if you don’t accept it, I will blow up the entire lair . Along with all the Magic Stones inside the lair .
“Magic Stones like those are pretty easy to get, I can…”
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“I didn’t know you could get Magic Stones with a purity of over 70 so easily . Then I guess I’ll have to blow them all up . ”
For the first time, the mysterious merchant’s expression became stiff . Yeon-woo saw through that, and that was exactly what he was aiming for . As such, his smile grew bigger .
‘As long as I’m not a fool, there’s no way I can lose if I know exactly what my opponent is after . ’
It was only much later that the question arose in my mind . Why did Hargan’s Lair quest give us so few rewards? And why did it give ownership of the lair as compensation?
The Tower is a place where players are rewarded according to their achievements . So there must have been a reason .
Later, I figured out that Hargan’s Lair had a rich mineral reserve of fine Magic Stones .
But when I found out about it, I wasn’t too disappointed . Even if I had known beforehand, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything with it .
A Magic Stone was a basic medium to store and deliver mana . It was similar to an electrical conductor on Earth . The stones with higher purity were more efficient in transferring mana, so those with a purity of over 70 sold at a very high price . That was the reason why the mysterious merchant had his eyes on Hargan’s Lair .
Of course, if the lair contained Magic Stones worth that much, I could take them for myself . But the higher the purity is, the more complicated the mining process becomes . ’
His brother had also found it worthless even after learning about the secret of the quest .
‘I’d rather spend more time collecting Tokens . ’
So to speak, the reserve of Magic Stones inside the lair was a white elephant to Yeon-woo . If so, he was better off selling it to the people who needed it . And the mysterious merchant appeared right in front of him just in time .
The mysterious merchant finally realized that he had completely fallen in the trap Yeon-woo had set up . And now, there was nothing he could do about it .
“Hmm…! Still, 300 Tokens is too expensive for… . ”
“400 . ”
“O, okay okay! Stop! I’ll pay, so don’t raise it anymore! I’m really gonna go broke!”
The mysterious merchant finally waved the white flag .
Yeon-woo gave a victorious smile .
“Good . I’ll sell it for 405 Tokens . Five is for wasting my time . ”
“…I’ve never seen anyone worse than me . ”
The mysterious merchant let out a deep sigh, and stretched his hand wide into the air .
*Hum*
Then, a blueish magic circle was drawn in the air and the message popped up in front of Yeon-woo .
[You have sold ‘Blue Scale Scimitar’ and ‘the ownership of Hargan’s Lair’, and obtained 405 Tokens in exchange . ]
Yeon-woo noticed that the scimitar in his hand and the entire lair around him had disappeared . Instead, a new window appeared .
[698 Tokens]
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Yeon-woo had less than 100 Tokens before this raid, but now it had increased to nearly 700 simply by clearing a quest and selling some items .
As Yeon-woo’s trade ended in success, Kahn and Doyle were shaking their heads without closing their mouths . It was their first time seeing the mysterious merchant being forced into a deal .
After completing the deal, the mysterious merchant kept muttering to himself, saying things like ‘it was a total loss’, ‘there was nothing left’, ‘I got scammed’, and so on .
“Oh, and one more thing . ”
When Yeon-woo opened his mouth, the mysterious merchant appeared slightly vigilant of his words .
“W, what else are you going to rip off from me?”
“You sound like I’m bullying you . Anyway, I forgot to tell you, I have something I want to buy . ”
This was finally his chance . The mysterious merchant grinned .
“Uhuhu, what do have in mind?”
Yeon-woo pointed at the mask he was wearing .
“You see, it’s a little melted . I need something similar . ”
For a short moment, the mysterious merchant’s face distorted .
“Well, I do have things like that . Oh, by the way, it will cost you four Streng… . ”
“Of course, throw that into our deal . ”
“You can’t just do that!”
“Then I guess you want to cancel our deal . It doesn’t matter to me . ”
In the mysterious merchant’s mind, he had already hit the ceiling and was hurling all kinds of insults at Yeon-woo . But he couldn’t miss out such a big deal for such a trivial thing . In the end, the mysterious merchant once again stretched out his hand while grinding his teeth in indignation .
[You have acquired the ‘Face of White Ghost’]
Yeon-woo patted the mask in his hand .
It had a similar design to the one he had been using, but slightly different . It wasn’t made of plastic, but of a material he had never seen before .
“I noticed you were having a hard time because of the mask, so I prepared something good ‘specially’ for you . And next time we meet, if you keep bullying me like today, I’m not going to stick with your play, okay?”
Yeon-woo checked the artifact with a strange look .
[Face of White Ghost]
Classification: Headgear
Rating: E+
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Description: A mask with various spirits ensnared inside . The mere use of it gives off a bizarre atmosphere, and allows the user to hide some of their presence .
Once worn, it doesn’t come off easily . If damaged, it can restore itself by capturing another spirits .
It was a mask without any special options . However, Yeon-woo liked the line describing that it wouldn’t fall off from his face easily and that it would recover itself from damage .
Yeon-woo turned to the side so that the others could not see his face, and removed the mask he had been wearing . He was somewhat amazed at how the mask wasn’t completely ruined yet considering what he had been through . But now, he had to bid farewell to his old mask .
Yeon-woo easily crushed the old mask and threw it to the floor, and wore Face of White Ghost . The material felt odd on his skin . He patted on the mask to test if it fit its description . Thankfully, the mask was stuck on his face like a leech .
“I appreciate your kindness . ”
“Like hell you do!” *Sigh*
The mysterious merchant packed up the bundle he had brought with him and put it back on his shoulder . However, despite his sigh, he couldn’t erase the smile lingering on his face .
The mysterious merchant opened a portal and got ready to leave .
While he was sticking his foot inside, he thought of something and looked back at Yeon-woo .
“Oh, by the way . ”
“What is it?”
“When you were bargaining for the Magic Stones, you seemed almost too brave as if you knew something . So tell me, was that because you knew what’s going on ‘on the other side’?”
Under the robes, the eyes of the mysterious merchant shone keenly .
However, Yeon-woo replied in a calm manner .
“On the other side? What do you mean?”
“Huh . Well, it’s nothing . I must have been mistaken . ”
The mysterious merchant shook his head and disappeared over the portal .
Even while the blue portal was closing, Yeon-woo still kept calm . His new mask made it even harder to tell the expression he had just by looks, even more so his thoughts .
‘Now it’s clear . The arms race between clans and between rankers in The Tower has become very fierce . ’
Yeon-woo’s eyes let out a cold glow .
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