Chapter 37. Lotus's Gift
Three days passed.
In that ti, investigators investigated the events that occurred in Sylvester.
No, it was a scene of ‘tightening the gladiators’ discipline’ and ‘incitent and fabrication’ under the guise of an investigation.
The result of the near-torturous investigation conducted on the surviving gladiators was concluded as ‘deaths due to the mistakes of the gladiators who participated in the request,’ and it spread throughout the arena.
…As Hyunwoo had expected, it was a relief that a genuinely formal investigation was conducted on .
Thanks to that, just as the arena intended, the grim atmosphere from the deaths of many gladiators subsided.
Requests heading to Sylvester also reappeared with double the commission fee.
Since the arena's investigation seed to be completely over, it was now ti to go to Lotus.
Hyunwoo imdiately went to Lotus.
‘She said she had a gift prepared.’
I also had separate business with Lotus.
When it was Hyunwoo's turn, an employee ca directly to guide him.
“Please follow .”
I was guided to a new place, not the small consultation room I had been guided to before.
Following the employee's guidance, I headed deep into the building.
Just as I was wondering if there was so other sche, the employee opened his mouth.
“We apologize for the inconvenience. Our Lotus has a separate consultation room for those who sell information.”
“Aha.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s nothing.”
Hyunwoo, having grasped the situation, let out an exclamation without realizing it.
‘As expected, the gift must be that. An official mber.’
To Lotus, an ‘official mber’ ant a mber who sold information.
It seed the information I sold last ti was quite useful.
“You can enter this room. Well then.”
As if his job was done, the employee bowed his head in front of the ornately decorated door and turned back.
Various demonic beasts were embossed on the door in bas-relief.
Instead of opening the door and entering right away, Hyunwoo stood still and looked at the door.
The doorknob had a blue tint.
‘If it's blue… is it Grade 2?’
I could tell how Lotus treated its mbers by the color of the doorknob.
There were three colors in total.
Yellow was Grade 3.
Blue was Grade 2.
And red ant a Grade 1 mber.
Each grade was the sa as the grade of information the mber could buy.
In other words, a Grade 1 mber with the highest red grade could trade Grade 1 information.
Hyunwoo checked his mbership grade and opened the door.
Swoosh―
The well-maintained door opened smoothly without any noise.
The one who greeted him this ti was again the Dark Elf, Verian.
“Welco. Please co this way.”
She stood up from her seat and guided Hyunwoo to a table where simple refreshnts were prepared.
As soon as Hyunwoo leaned his body into the plush chair prepared in front of the table, she held out a small card.
“Please take it.”
“This is…?”
“It is a card that signifies an official mber of our Lotus.”
“Oh, you give these out too?”
Even though he knew full well, Hyunwoo examined the blue card with a continuously amazed expression.
‘Seeing as they even give out a mbership card, I guess I'm really Grade 2.’
Verian began to explain step by step.
“From now on, Mr. Hyunwoo, you are a Grade 2 mber of Lotus. You can purchase all information of Grade 2 and below.”
“It seems there are grades for information too.”
“Yes, that's right. For reference, the information on item prices that Mr. Hyunwoo sold last ti was Grade 1 information.”
“Was it that useful?”
“It was more than just useful. That's why we're giving you a mbership card. It's not sothing you can get easily, you know.”
Verian smiled brightly and lifted her teacup.
I did feel like I had sold the information cheaply since it was my first transaction with Lotus.
But since I got a mbership card in return, it wasn't bad.
“Did you co because of the gift I ntioned?”
“No. I ca because I have sothing to ask.”
“What is it that you need? Information? An item? A person? We can get you anything.”
“I need a small subspace pocket and a Corruption Resistance Artifact.”
Acquiring information from all over the Demon World was also closely related to distribution.
‘If there is sothing you need, knock on the doors of Lotus.’
It was a famous maxim in ‘Masal’.
Verian imdiately stood up from her seat.
“If you'll wait just a mont, I will inform you of the market price.”
Becoming an official mber certainly made the information transaction flow like water, on a completely different level from the previous one.
Verian turned, approached the wall of the consultation room, and knocked on it a couple of tis.
Swoosh―
A shadow erged from the wall, handed her a small booklet, and disappeared.
She approached again and opened the booklet.
“A small subspace that can hold a Goblin is 30,000 Mana Stones, and the price of a Corruption Resistance Artifact varies depending on its level.”
I had expected the small subspace to be around that price.
The problem was the Corruption Resistance Artifact.
The price of artifacts varied wildly.
To grasp the market price, I asked about the most expensive one first.
“By any chance, how much is one with a permanent effect?”
“The ones with permanent effects… prices start at 500,000.”
“……That’s expensive.”
“It's not a very commonly used item.”
Verian shrugged.
For instance, an artifact to block a specific skill like corruption was an artifact with both low demand and low supply.
‘It’s even more expensive than I thought.’
Hyunwoo checked the pouch of Mana Stones inside his clothes.
In the anti, he had sold so of the items he had collected through Pierre.
Adding this and that, the amount I had now was roughly 60,000 Mana Stones.
I thought I had been scraping together Mana Stones like crazy all this ti….
It was far from enough.
“How much are the cheap ones?”
“An artifact with a one-ti use resistance spell costs between 10,000 and 15,000 Mana Stones.”
Hyunwoo shook his head.
A single-use one wouldn't do.
I didn't know what variables might exist in the Anesta hunt.
“It needs to be usable at least 3 tis.”
“How about this one? It's rechargeable and can be used 5 tis a day.”
As it seed the conversation would get longer, Verian moved closer to Hyunwoo, showed him the booklet, and pointed to each one.
She looked just like an insurance salesperson presenting a catalog.
If you excluded her excessively beautiful appearance, that is.
Hyunwoo put a little distance between them and opened his mouth.
“I don't mind if it becos unusable after 3 uses.”
“Not rechargeable, but a disposable artifact usable 3 tis… here it is. It's from the Keokeulleoseu region, so including everything, it's about 40,000 Mana Stones.”
“…40,000?”
I couldn't easily nod at her explanation, given with a bright smile.
I had about 60,000 Mana Stones.
If I bought the small subspace for 30,000 Mana Stones, I would be 10,000 Mana Stones short to buy the artifact.
Verian saw Hyunwoo's troubled expression and pointed to the card in his hand.
“If you're just a little short on Mana Stones, you could use your mbership card.”
“…Are you talking about a loan?”
“You know well. In the case of a Grade 2 mber, you can take a loan of up to 20,000 Mana Stones.”
Is this what they call scraping the bottom of the barrel?
The interest on a loan from Lotus was no joke.
‘Should I sell off all my remaining items… or, should I sell one more piece of information?’
For a mont, I was tempted to sell information, but I soon stopped.
Just by Hyunwoo releasing the information that item prices would rise, the speed at which the prices rose beca unbelievably fast.
I thought it was just a small piece of information, but the butterfly effect was not to be ignored.
‘…I can't just sell information thoughtlessly anymore.’
His advantage was that he could predict, to so extent, the events that would happen in advance from ‘Masal’.
Deviating from the flow of the ga was the sa as throwing away his advantage.
Hyunwoo let out a deep sigh and finally nodded, holding out the card along with the pouch of Mana Stones.
“I will purchase both the subspace and the artifact. Please cover the shortfall with a mber loan.”
“Thank you. The subspace will be delivered to you right on your way out. The artifact will take so ti, so we will deliver it directly to your dormitory as soon as it's ready.”
Verian smiled and tucked the Mana Stone pouch into her pocket.
I got everything I needed.
Thanks to that, Hyunwoo was once again broke.
Whenever he gathered Mana Stones, they disappeared, and when he gathered them again, they disappeared once more.
It was no different from pouring water into a bottomless jar.
As Hyunwoo shook his head and got up from his seat, Verian also stood up and spoke.
“Seeing that you're preparing artifacts, I assu you're going on a request again?”
“…Yes, well. That's right.”
I answered obediently, thinking that Lotus would find out this much even if he didn't say anything.
“Do you happen to need information on the Sylvester area?”
“It would be nice to have it. But… as you can see.”
Hyunwoo shook his empty Mana Stone pouch and shrugged.
She smiled and handed him a small note.
“Check it when you go outside.”
“This is…?”
“It's a service.”
When I peeked inside the folded note, it was filled with information about the Lafre Forest.
Detailed information on the current battle situation was valuable even to Hyunwoo.
“Thank you.”
“Don't ntion it for sothing like this.”
Hyunwoo expressed his gratitude for her favor and headed outside.
Click―
As I grabbed the doorknob to leave, I heard her muttering to herself.
“Ah, there was a really important request.”
Hyunwoo paused and pricked up his ears.
“Baron Modric asked to find soone…”
As if for Hyunwoo to hear, the small voice ca through to his ears clearly.
Baron Modric.
He was the demon who sponsored the gorilla guys I ran into at the bar.
‘And I'm in a state where I've refused his sponsorship.’
It was unlikely he'd hold a grudge over sothing like that, but Verian didn't seem like the type to speak without reason.
If so, that ant she had intentionally left a hint for to hear….
If I had to guess, it would be Lucas, who killed the gorillas he sponsored.
Hyunwoo had a connection with Lucas.
‘It’s also unlikely Verian would warn about Lucas, who isn't even here.’
The one she was trying to warn was clearly .
‘Does it an I should watch my back…?’
Even though I was bound to Lucas by the Blood Pact, I couldn't say we had a deep relationship yet.
However, from Baron Modric's perspective, it seed he couldn't just let it slide.
‘I got roped in.’
Even a no-na baron among the nobles was a big shot to Hyunwoo.
Well, I had expected it.
From the mont I thought of accepting Lucas as a companion, it was my fate to et Baron Modric as an enemy at any ti.
The problem was that I hadn't expected him to be targeting already.
‘I need to hurry up with the Anesta hunt.’
I had to deal with Anesta first, before the variable nad Baron Modric interfered.
Hyunwoo took the subspace pocket, the size of a small lucky pouch, from the Lotus entrance and left.
I needed to prepare before heading to Sylvester to hunt Anesta.
He headed straight for his dormitory.
While on his way to the dormitory, Hyunwoo checked the things he got from Lotus.
‘A subspace pocket, information on the Sylvester region, and….’
Hyunwoo smacked his lips while shaking the empty pouch.
“An empty Mana Stone pouch, I guess?”
I hadn't even received the most expensive item, the Corruption Resistance Artifact, yet.
Moreover, the information on the Sylvester region was a service.
In the end, all that was left right now was one subspace pocket.
‘In a way, this is all my fortune.’
Receiving a service was one thing, but if there was any defect in the subspace, I was planning to go right back and raise hell.
Hyunwoo placed the subspace pocket on his palm and looked at it wordlessly.
A subspace the size of a small lucky pouch.
A subspace pocket was, simply put, a backpack with ‘space expansion magic’ cast on it.
If the space inside the subspace was sufficient, a living creature placed inside could even reproduce without issue.
The reason Hyunwoo bought the subspace pocket was because of the golden beetles.
He put his arm into the subspace and gauged its size.
‘They said it could hold one Goblin? This size… is it about the size of a ran box?’
It was even smaller than what Lotus had described.
Did they just stuff a Goblin in there?
Hyunwoo grumbled and pulled his arm out again.
Having finished checking the size of the subspace, Hyunwoo took the glass bottle from his clothes and put it into the subspace.
Inside the glass bottle were the golden beetles and Lafre seeds.
Now, as ti passed, the number of golden beetles would continue to increase.
‘And then I can just transfer them little by little into the glass bottles Pierre will bring.’
I tried to think if there was anything else to put in the subspace, but there wasn't really anything.
‘And, the note.’
Hyunwoo took out the note Verian had given him as a service.
The mont he was about to unfold the note to examine its contents in detail, Hyunwoo narrowed his brow and put the note back in his pocket.
The dormitory door was wide open.
‘What is this?’
I clearly rembered locking the door before I left.
There was only one guy who would co in as he pleased.
“Van?”
“…You're back?”
Van stood up from the sofa with his arms crossed.
His face looked like he had so complaint.
“Why did you leave the door open?”
“I was in the middle of chasing away an unwelco guest. He wouldn't listen even when I told him to leave.”
‘An unwelco guest?’
Hyunwoo moved closer to the sofa.
The person sitting on the opposite sofa, who had been hidden by Van's large fra, belatedly ca into view.
Slurp―
The unwelco guest slurped his tea, not even giving a glance.
‘…What is this situation.’
Hyunwoo stared at the unwelco guest in front of him, bewildered.
There sat the long, black-haired vampire, Lucas.
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