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Damn. This was only the first purchase, and we spent a million on it. But the previous bid was 900,000 and I could see people paying around a million for this thing. So I had to overbid.

"I didn't know Grade-5 Cores can go for so much…" Stole said, her eyes wide. "I don't know if I can get used to this."

"Well, you should. Because this one is yours."

Stole's eyes widened.

"WHAT?! REALLY?! TRULY?!"

"Yup, I–"

Stole leaped into my arms and grabbed me in a hug.

"MISTER!!!! I KNEW IT! I'M YOUR FAVORITE!"

"Get off him, whelp!" Skaris moved to tear her off of me.

"NO! I'M NEVER GETTING OFF!"

"I can't–"

"Ms. Stole, perhaps you should–"

"Ssssshhhhaaaa!"

"Excuse me, the Core has arrived." The moment Pol said that, Stole basically kicked me aside and found herself next to the Core.

She tapped on the [Incubator], lovestruck. "What kind of monster is it, Mister? Do you know? Have you seen it before? What did he say it was again?" The wolf beastman girl rapidly fired the questions.

"[Nyeolbi]." I said, "It's a monster that only appears in special dungeons."

Well, that was only a part of it.

[Nyeolbi] is a monster with a cat's head, a hawk's wings, a rooster's tail and a koi's body. They stay on trees, using their wings as camouflage against adventurers and other predator-like monsters. Despite being a grade-5 monster, it's pretty weak. What makes this monster a grade-5 is the difficulty in hunting it.

First, it only appears in Fractures, [Rainy Woods].

Second, they live in packs.

And third, the name [Rainy Woods] is because of these guys, not the nature of the Fracture itself.

Wherever a pack of [Nyeolbi] is, it's raining. And I don't mean ' everyone bring out your umbrella' kind of rain. I mean raining as in bullets of water that cuts through armor like hot knife through butter kind of rain. Like the type of rain that's similar to a water pressure blade used to cut diamonds.

A single [Nyeolbi] can only bring soft rain, a sort of mist that clings to you. But an entire population of them will create a rainstorm that crushes and cuts.

"Go ahead, Stole. It's yours." I said softly.

I owed Stole a lot and I promised her a lot of things when we started this journey a few weeks ago. Finally, I was able to keep one of them.

Stole swallowed. "Really? Free?"

"The eight-million is our party fund. It's not an expedition. Consider it an investment." I said.

Most parties don't give out Cores like this. You calculate it down to the cent. I think it might be because of how we met, or maybe because of the way I did things. But even Aurora, who was the most set on splitting hairs before, didn't say anything as Stole reached out and absorbed the Core.

"Whelp." Skaris grinned, showing his fangs. "You have grown in sssstrength."

"What does it do?! What does it do?!"

"You can experiment with it later." I said, "Make sure you do it outside and where there's not a lot of people though."

The [Nyeolbi] Core that Stole took had the [Spring Rain]. It didn't necessarily synergize with her other Cores but with Kyrian's lightning spells…

'It's way more useable, and she can do something else besides shoot just arbalest bolts at the monsters now. And if I decide to get lightning or ice on my sword…'

The Auction continued.

In the end we found a Core for Skaris and Aurora.

For Skaris, we bought the [Blind Hellsmith], a monster with a goat's head on a man's body, twenty feet tall and carrying a hammer and anvil. A grade-4 Core for 4.2 million.

Then for Aurora…

A grade-4 Core of [Gudujangoon Agwi (구두장군 아귀)] costing a whopping 5.9 million, forcing me to pull credit from the auction house. I reckon it was a bargain, costing us only 6 mil when it should have cost more.

"Don't worry, Lad." Doror puffed out his chest, "I poured my sweat inta those things. They'll sell more than anything that this auction has."

"I certainly hope so, Master Doror." Pol answered for me, smiling.

"Lock, are you sure this is alright?"

Aurora and Skaris ran over, absorbing the Cores the moment they arrived in the room. Kyrian and I watched, talking.

"It should be fine." I answered.

"But now you can't have a Core for yourself."

I shrugged. "I'll hunt it."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"This is Skaris' second Core from an auction." Kyrian noted.

"We can't really hunt the Cores that he needs yet. You know why."

To get the Cores for Skaris, we had to travel. Either back to the Samak Desert or some places away from Jayu. Even then though, chances were slim that we could get a core for Skaris. First of all, all his Cores were fire-based. Meaning that we'd have to stave off environmental effects and go into special fields, including Fractures.

The one weakness of my build.

Elemental damage and environmental damage.

Yes, I can shrug off physical damage easily. Yes, I can snuff some spells by standing in darkness. You might think my build is OP because of that, but that's not the case.

But bring a Mage into the mix who can create a [Special Field] and everything chances. Suddenly my fragile HP is ticking away without a way to mitigate any of that. And that's not even counting other adventurers who can also create [Special Fields].

And some monsters are walking [Special Fields]. Just by being near the monster, you suffer poison damage, acid damage, burn damage or freeze damage. Even [Blind Hellsmith], being a grade-4 monster, had an ability to create a special field [Burning Forge]. We were lucky to find it in this auction.

We weren't anywhere near ready to tackle those. Not yet.

"This was more important." I said, reassuring myself more than Kyrian.

Claw's Nest would be dangerous and I needed my party at their strongest.

The auction continued. With the potential of another debt hanging over my neck I didn't dare bid on another Core. It's not like there was any that I needed anyways. I needed very specific Cores right now and I wasn't willing to compromise on that.

While the Core auction was underway, the auction house began to sprinkle in the sales with bits of gear mixed in between. Breastplates, Greaves, Bracers and the sort. No weapons, but there were some shields. But besides Stole, who strictly used Arbalests and small crossbow guns, no one really needed an upgrade. So we sat, watching the auction. With the credit extension, we had a few more gold coins to spend.

"It doesn't seem like anything useful is coming out." I commented.

"Seems lackluster." Stole wasn't happy with any of her options.

Well, she'd seen Skaris' [Strange Antler], as well as my [Lunar Shield] and [Snow Scream]. Even Aurora's shield was way above what normal adventurers could afford, possessing the ability to repair itself.

"Aye, that's why my babies will be a hit. I'm telling ya, Slaveborn."

I was banking on it.

"Mr. Slaveborn, a moment." Pol interrupted.

When Pol was sure I was paying attention, he continued, "Regarding the credit extension you asked for, we need another signature."

"Ok." I said.

The mage politely handed over a scrap of paper, identical to the one from before.

"Need help?" Kyrian offered.

"No, I get the gist of it." I murmured.

I stumbled through the words, Kyrian's constant lessons paying off. It was one of those T's and C's, the kind you don't really read through. I skimmed over it, understanding what I could. The short version was that we were liable for any gold coins we came up short on the loan extension with a hefty interest rate. I signed it quickly, eager to get back to the auction.

After getting the paper, Pol left.

Moments later, he returned.

"Mr. Slaveborn, I'm sorry to interrupt you. But it seems my supervisors want to meet you." For once, the mage wasn't smiling.

"Why?"

"I cannot claim to know." Pol shrugged. "As I said, I am a third-party hire. It is the Auction House management that wishes to meet with you."

"I can come with you," Kyrian made a motion of getting up.

"Ah, I'm afraid they asked for Mr. Slaveborn, alone."

That earned a sharp glare from Aurora. "Why alone?"

Pol took a breath. "I can only imagine it is regarding something related to the credit extension." When that only earned cold stares, he ventured, "As a member of my Guild, I pledge upon my honor that no harm shall come to Mr. Slaveborn. We might have been hired by the Auction House, but we have a reputation to uphold."

The fact that a powerful mage like Pol said such things abated our suspicions somewhat, even mine.

"If there's anything that seems helpful to the party or one of you might need, you two consult each other. Feel free to use the Credit Extension."

"Understood, Mr. Lock."

Leaving them behind, I followed Pol out of the VIP room.

Once more, we delved into the maze-like tunnels. Pol walked at a leisurely pace, like he was drawing out the moment or waiting for me to bombard him with questions.

The Cores threw themselves at the mental bars again and again, especially the Shadow Mimic Wolf. They didn't like this situation. At this distance, I could run up behind him, grab him by the hair, slit his throat in less than a–

I breathed in and out.

Thinking logically, things like this happened all the time in the Game. And from my experience, Auction Houses took their reputation extremely seriously. That went double for whatever mercenary guild worked to keep the peace in situations like this. Deep inside, I knew there was an extremely small chance of this being some kind of trap.

Still, it was hard not to feel like it wasn't.

'Too many fucked up situations. Too many things, too fast.' I shook my head, trying to imitate the thoughts of someone who hadn't been through all the things I had.

I think Coum really fucked me up.

Finally, we came upon a door which Pol unlocked. He opened the door for me, "After you, Mr. Slaveborn."

"You first." I said, draining the hostility out of my voice and somewhat succeeding.

The elf's expression never changed as he strode into the room.

The room was a small one, especially because I've just been in the VIP room; not to mention I spent the last few days in Jared's manor. It wasn't a huge room, but it wasn't a paltry one either. Small paintings were on either side, and a lush couch sat in the corner. There was a small wooden table with a wax candle sitting on top of it. It seemed more like some well-to-do man's study rather than a meeting room.

I walked in, all slow-like, and stretched out my senses. I'm not Stole, but I still have a better [Smell] and [Hearing] stat than most adventurers. I sniffed, once and twice, and then held out a hand to stop Pol from moving. I held up a finger to my nose, telling him to be quiet.

And surprisingly, Pol stopped breathing.

'So he used to be an adventurer… or extremely skilled.'

Only an adventurer would respond to that order by halting their own breathing; in order for their Scout to utilize their [Hearing] to max efficiency. I spent the next thirty seconds in silence,

Satisfied, I went over to the couch and sat down.

The moment I sat down, Pol drawled, "...There's something I must confess, Mr. Slaveborn."

I immediately started leaking mana into my Dimension Ring, ready to draw my weapons.

As a mage, there was no way that Pol didn't notice that. But he didn't react.

"I told the Auction House staff that you wanted to meet in thirty minutes. So that I could have thirty minutes of your time." He sat down on the couch across from me, leaving the coffee table between us. "Believe me, if we meant you harm–"

"You'd try and end up dead."

He raised his eyebrows, still smirking. "Your reputation is well-deserved. But trust me when I say that you're hardly the strongest adventurer we've had to deal with."

"We?"

"We, my Guild."

The paranoia in me flew to the surface, threatening to break free. But Pol hadn't done anything. Not yet. Logically, I knew that he just wanted to talk.

"And what Guild is that?" I took that moment to ask the question I've been wanting to ask since we met.

"...First, let's agree to do each other no harm." He placed a hand on his heart, which began to glow with dark lavender mana.

The universal sign of a Mana Vow.

"For how long?"

"I swear that I will not do harm to Slaveborn or his Party for the duration of this conversation."

"You and your Guild. And for twenty four hours after."

"Both I and my Guild, to the best of my power for twenty four hours after –save in self-defense." His eyes were lit with ambient mana.

"...I agree."

The Mana Vow went into effect immediately, tendrils of arcanic energy reaching out from the Mage and towards my own figure. I barely felt a thing as the Mana Vow settled around me, feeling a metaphorical hand grab my heart –where it would remain until the conditions were met.

"First, a gesture of good faith." Then Pol reached inside his cloak and took out a small leather-wrapped parcel.

He slid it across the table.

Taking it, I unwrapped it and found…

…the [Knight's Journey].

And Pol said, "As to the answer of your question…"

"The [Player's Guild]."

The world spun as my Cores railed against the bindings of the Mana Vow and the heart palpitations caused me physical pain.

"We're very, very interested in talking with you, Lock Slaveborn."

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