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I shot a quick look at Doror the moment the Authenticator had proclaimed these as [Pluralities]. The fool was grinning from ear to ear and he shot me a sly thumbs up behind his back.

He had a right to be smug about it too.

First, to go over some things. [Pluralities] refer to the MSS version of set items. The catch is that [Pluralities] refer to a very specific type of set item, namely those of [Legendary] and [Artifact] grades, the highest tier for items. [Legendary] items are those that primarily boost your stats and then offer an ability or too, like my [Lunar Shield]. Artifacts are the opposite: their primary use is for their abilities while stat boosts are secondary.

There are Set Items of lower grades, but usually, I reserve those items for very specific builds.

'It's easier to get Unique Set Items… so you have an easier time in early to mid-game.'

Depending on your build, you go for a [Legendary] item or [Artifact]. More often than not, your build incorporates a little of both.

So why was this so great? It's no secret that a Master Smith can create [Pluralities].

It's the fact that Doror had less than a week.

Oh, I knew he was fiddling around with metals on the Barge, poring over designs and whatnot. I hadn't even bothered checking those items, assuming they were top-class gear. But the fact that he managed to create [Pluralities] within three days?

His [Smithing] stat must be near maxed out.

There's another thing I should mention.

[Plurality] prices increase in multiple folds the more pieces of the set you have.

It's like scrolling (which thankfully, MSS does not have for items) your gear. Gears that have been successfully scrolled are worth multiple of their scroll counterparts. Same for [Pluralities]. Even if you have one part of a [Plurality], there is no guarantee that you could find the other pieces in time.

Even my [Lunar Shield] might be worth a couple of million if it had the Sword part of the set next to it.

Hell, if I wasn't using a Sword and Board build, I'd be tempted to take those greaves and dagger for myself.

"Dwarven-made Legendaries…" Twenty-Two repeated. He turned to the purple-haired Mage and passed him a slip of paper. "Pol."

Pol swallowed and read the paper before slipping it in his pocket. I caught a glimpse of the excited look exchanged between them. He turned to me. "Mr. Lock, a word?"

"I'll accompany you." Aurora's greaves clinked against the floor tiles.

Pol led us to a small corner of the room. To be frank, I don't think it offered much privacy. As roomy as the room was, we all knew what Pol wanted to talk about. And considering Stole's natural curiosity and [Hearing] stat, we might as well have talked out in the open. I was sure that Pol knew this too, but my guess is that habits die hard.

"Mr. Lock, those items… the Greaves and the Dagger. They are beautiful. Masterpieces, really." Pol squinted his eyes, glancing over to Doror who had his chest puffed out. "Are you aware of the Free Trader's League's commision pricing?"

"3% for items of Common and Uncommon. 5% for Rare and Unique. 7% for [Legendaries] and [Artifacts]. And then a 9% charge for [Legendary] and [Artifacts] that are [Pluralities]."

Aurora had apparently done her homework.

"You've done your homework, Ms. Aurora." Pol winked.

…Homework?

No, I was being paranoid. The Mages from the Babel Towers have the concept of homework too. It's not strange for someone to use that phrase. I was just being sensitive.

…Was I?

"But there is a way to forgo the commission. And that is to sell directly to the house."

"We're not interested." I said immediately.

Pol's eyes curved into little smiles. "Ah, it was worth a try. My superiors would have my hide if I didn't actually mention it. But I knew that someone like you wouldn't take that option, Mr. Lock."

"I've heard that the House will offer sellers a minimum deposit, to use for the bidding process," said Aurora. "By my estimation, we should receive at least a million for the loot contained in the ring and five million for the Greaves and Dagger."

"There were a lot of items in the Ring. We need more time to look through it." Pol stated, "As for the Greaves and Dagger, five million is the number that Twenty-Two reached as well. Of course, if it sells for more, you will be compensated for the difference minus our commission fee."

"Five million and eight hundred." Aurora said suddenly.

"Five hundred."

"Seven."

"Five-fifty."

"Five million and six fifty-five. Or we will take them to a private dealer."

Aurora seemed like she was used to this. I'd been half-expecting to step in, but there was no need.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Pol's eye smile widened, the corners deepening the lines on his face. "Are you sure you are fixed on being an Adventurer, Ms. Aurora?"

"I am quite happy where I am." Aurora's expression didn't change at all.

"I will tell my superiors your conditions. First, here."

Pol led us over to a table where he had us sign a bunch of things. They were basic things, a certificate of deposit for the Dagger and Greaves, so that their [Authenticators] could take a second look. That if they were stolen or tampered with in any way, we'd be compensated. Those sorts of stuff.

As soon as I finished signing everything, Pol and the Authenticator left with the goods in tow.

"Good." I took the first breath in what seemed like an hour. The short exchange had loosened the wired tension in my shoulders even though the Auction hadn't even started yet. Somehow or other, we'd passed my goal of three million gold by leaps and bounds.

"Mr. Lock, I'm surprised."

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"I half thought you wouldn't let them leave the room with the items."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because…" She searched for the right word. "You are careful."

I felt a smile coming on but tamed it into neutrality. "I'm not that distrustful. An auction house of this size wouldn't tolerate anything that dirties their reputation."

"That is very true."

"So how much are we getting?!" Stole jumped over a chair, sitting on the next one backwards. Her eyes practically sparkled with unbridled excitement. "Did we make the three million gold?!"

"5,655,000 gold as a deposit." Aurora said, then seeing Doror's expression, "That is simply the initial deposit, for us to bid with. After the auction is over, we will be paid for what the items were actually sold for."

Stole face blanched. "So we're going to see all those items at the Auction? Would people even buy them? They were kind of… shitty."

"I doubt we'd see the Scavenger's loot on Auction. Most of them will be sold to merchants with connections to guilds or large shops." Kyrian explained to Stole's benefit, "We could have sold them on our own if we had time. But for times' sake, this was the best option." He brought out a Dimension Ring, closing his eyes and searching within. "With the money we have on hand… that comes to a little less than 6.5 million gold to spend."

"We won't be sparing any expenses." I looked out the window, seeing tiny people filter in through the open doors and take their seats downstairs. I tried looking through the window of the other VIP rooms but like Pol said, they were enchanted to block any spying attempts.

"Do you think other people from the expedition are here?" Stole asked.

"The ssssshielder sssscion." Skaris popped a grape in his mouth.

"Borealis? How do you know?" Kyrian asked, taking a seat next to the lizard beastman.

"Mr. Skaris and I were training with Borealis and his party." Aurora said simply.

"By the way, I've been wanting to ask." Stole suddenly changed topics. "Mister, that purple-haired guy said that you got a Core from the orcs. But that's untrue, ain't it?"

And all of a sudden, everyone was looking at me.

"I mean, I saw that thingie on your back. You know, the bird." Stole kept talking without a care, "I just thought that Old Man Arrosh put it there."

"He did." I ventured.

"...And it's an Orc Blessing? But Mister, you ain't an orc."

"Lad looks like one though." Doror said outloud, "Like the ass of one."

I never really knew how annoying Doror could be until we started spending more time together.

Regardless, I'd been expecting this line of questioning. After all, people saw the tattoo on my back.

Though just like Cores, people of this world don't really have a good understanding of other race's racial traits. I mean, people know that humans have [Aura]. But I doubt that anyone but a human has a really good idea that [Aura] can be broken down into stages. Then for the Orcs and Beastmen whose racial traits have multiple branches, it's hard to tell where the Trait begins and Cores end.

How the hell is someone supposed to tell whether an Orc berserker is using [Leap] as a skill or a Core Ability that's very similar? It's a common way to trick other adventurers. You hide your build through a combination of Cores and Racial Traits that keeps your enemy guessing.

Initially, I'd been worried after my duel with Kariyo. But after time passed and no one questioned me on it... I doubted anyone could really believe that a human could use an Orc Racial Traits. Hell, I didn't even know it was possible. My guess? People wrote it off to a Core, happy that they figured out one of my abilities.

Most people live with their heads in the sand. They believe what they want to, something that they can wrap their heads around. A human with an orc racial trait?

I think that's a little too farfetched for people to believe. Even [Players] wouldn't really think it's possible. It hadn't been a game feature back then. Either way, this became an important part of my build.

'And with the Orc Racial Trait, I can hide more of my Core abilities.'

Except Elves, all the races can only take in ten Cores. So it's natural that in a duel between adventurers, keeping track of your opponents Cores is key.

So I decided to just lie.

Not out of malice or anything. But I just didn't see the benefit of explaining everything to my Party. Even if they believed me about this tidbit, it didn't change anything between us.

Also, it's not mine to tell. The same reason why I didn't simply teach Aurora the [Aura] technique of the Sword Saint. Arrosh entrusted this to me. To keep, guard and nurture. It just didn't feel right, teaching it to someone because they were my friend. And if I started sharing about the Orc Racial Trait, who knew how that information could spread and affect the orcs.

No, these details weren't mine to share.

I couldn't do that to Arrosh.

"It's just a tattoo Arrosh gave me." Leaning back in the chair, I reached into my Dimension Ring and brought out [Snow Scream] to sharpen it.

"Oooooh, can I get one?"

I smiled at Stole. "You'll be getting one when you become a Walker anyways."

Stole sighed. "I can't wait until I'm a Walker."

Skaris snorted. "A whelp ssssshould not think about the path until they've proven themselvessss."

"Lock, you should be careful about showing that tattoo in the future. Some orcs might not take kindly to a human who appropriated their god's blessing."

"Too late for that." Skaris yawned. "When will thissss thing sssstart?"

"Kyrian, you never wanted to use [Aura]?" Stole turned to the Mage as he spoke.

Kyrian closed the book he was reading, "There is a theory that Mages can't use the blessing of their gods because magic severs your connection to them. It's also cited as the reason why Mages can't absorb Monster Cores."

"I heard that Elves don't have blessings. Cause their god, the Nine, is so fucked up in the head, that she–"

"Lass, don't talk about other races' gods like that." Doror chided.

"It's true! I overheard Zenom's priests and priestesses talk about it!"

"Bah, human priests know nothing." Doror shot an apologetic look at Kyrian and Aurora, "No offense. But no god would have left their people to fend for themselves. Before the five races learned how to take in Monster Cores, it was the blessing of the gods that allowed us to survive."

"Then what's their blessing?" Stole pressed.

No one had an answer for that.

So naturally, everyone looked at me.

"...I've heard that it has something to do with Cores. But that's about all I know." I shook my head, trying to change the topic.

Unlike the other racial traits elves don't have any outwards signs of activation.

[Core Domination] of the Elves.

Thank god Arione wasn't an adventurer.

Or I'd be facing an adventurer with 11 Cores.

Yes, the most highly kept secret of the Elves.

At the last stage of [Core Domination], they unlock an extra Core Slot. So to speak.

Then the lights went off, spotlights gathering at the center of the stage on the Auctioneer. While we'd been talking, the entire place had filled up. People wearing masquerade masks, those without and the invisible faces in the VIP room… I felt the weight of their attention on the entire place like a densely packed air.

Tension thrummed in the back of my throat and despite all the previous nonchalance, I grew nervous.

Cores. Gear. Utility Items.

Time to upgrade our party.

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