Novel Full Chapter 97: Sales and Acquisition
Chapter 97: Sales and Acquisition
The rain-washed island was finally quiet.
Behind them, the towering spire of the Storm’s Eye still reached into the sky, but its perpetual, violent lightning had dimmed to a gentle, ambient aurora. The Tempest Matriarch was dead. The ferry rocked rhythmically against the slick wooden docks, waiting to carry them back to the mainland. Overhead, seagulls wheeled in the clear, grey sky, their cries distant and indifferent to the god that had just been slain.
Standing at the water’s edge, Nathan breathed in the sharp salt air. Three High Class Towers cleared. Three to go.
Against his wrist, the new Mana Capacitor was entirely dark and dead, completely drained by the final fight. The Leyline Ring thrummed weakly against his finger, struggling to replenish the massive toll the Matriarch had demanded of his F-Rank core. He was bone-tired, his muscles aching with a profound, hollow exhaustion. But it was a good kind of tired. The quiet, ringing exhaustion of victory.
Then, his interface chimed.
[Ding! Kuro has reached Level 30!]
[Evolution threshold met!]
[Kuro is evolving from E-Rank to D-Rank!]
Perched on Nathan’s shoulder in her rabbit form, Kuro went completely rigid.
Her small, ink-black body began to glow, but it wasn’t the fluid, shadowy transformation of her first evolution. This was infinitely sharper. The shadows surrounding her didn’t just pool; they crystallized. They formed razor-sharp edges and geometric points, folding around her like intricate origami folded from the void itself.
She drifted upward from his shoulder, suspended in a cocoon of crystalline darkness. As her form lengthened into her humanoid shape, the shadows shattered like glass, revealing her new design. Her bodysuit was still charcoal and midnight, but it was now traced with faint, pulsing silver threading that ran along the seams like lightning permanently trapped in obsidian. Her twin daggers materialized in her hands, the shadow-forged steel looking impossibly dense, carrying a keener, more absolute edge.
When she opened her eyes, they were the same endless black, but there was a new depth to them. A cold, surgical satisfaction.
[Ding! Kuro has evolved to D-Rank!]
[New Shadow Assassin Skill Unlocked: Blind Lv.1 — A precision shadow-magic assault targeting the opponent’s Eyes. Causes absolute temporary blindness. Duration scales with the target’s strength and level. Weaker enemies: up to 10 seconds. Stronger enemies: 2–5 seconds.]
Kuro flexed her fingers. Shadowy mana rippled fluidly across her knuckles. Blind. A disruptor skill, she noted through the link, her mental voice carrying a quiet thrill. Highly effective for forcing openings against superior opponents. Or for ensuring a clean disengagement when the tactical advantage is lost.
"Or for setting up a clean [Assassinate]," Nathan added, a tired smile touching his lips. "Drop their vision, take their spine."
Yes. That too. She paused, tilting one of her daggers to examine her reflection in the dark steel. The evolution has refined my core attributes. Speed. Precision. Density of shadow affinity. I am... sharper.
"Hmph!" Mirko materialized in her humanoid form beside Nathan, crossing her arms as her pink eyes studied Kuro with open, competitive interest. "D-Rank! You are catching up, my quiet junior! Soon, you will be almost as impressive as this Knight!"
I am already as impressive as you, Mirko. I am simply quieter about it.
"That is factually incorrect!" Mirko huffed, tossing her hair. "I am overwhelmingly impressive! I have entire songs composed about my martial prowess!"
You compose those songs yourself. Humming off-key while you polish your greaves does not count as a bardic legacy.
"It absolutely counts! Self-recognition is a vital part of the creative process!"
Dillon ambled over, his Cloud Serpent coiled lazily around his neck. "Did I hear that right? Little Shadow hit D-Rank? You’re so lucky gross, you got summons that fucking rank up! Good stuff. What’s the new trick?"
"Blind," Nathan said. "Temporary, absolute visual disruption."
Dillon paused, his eyes widening slightly. "You can literally blind people now? That is deeply terrifying. I love it." He pointed a finger at her. "Never use it on me."
"That entirely depends on your behavior, Samurai."
"I will be a model citizen. A paragon of silence and virtue. The most well-behaved—"
"You are already failing."
---
The common room at Celestial Peak was warm and smelled of roasted coffee. The party gathered around the heavy oak table, their accumulated rewards spread across the surface like a dragon’s hoard. Nathan had divided the spoils into two distinct piles: Sell and Commission.
The Sell pile was imposing. The Matriarch’s Storm Eye pulsed with its captive miniature hurricane—a beautiful, legendary anomaly, but useless for their specific builds. Next to it sat the Legionnaire’s Furnace Core, radiating a heavy, industrial heat. Together, they would fetch an astronomical sum on the guild market, easily covering their upcoming commission costs and travel expenses.
The Commission pile was smaller, but carried far more weight. The Butterfly’s Frozen Heart, pulsing with trapped aurora borealis. The Aurora Wing Fragment, catching the ambient room light and refracting it into shifting rainbows. And the Tempest Feather, a massive grey-and-yellow plume that still actively snapped with residual static electricity.
"The Storm Eye and Furnace Core go to the market," Nathan declared, leaning against the table. "The Frozen Heart and the Wing Fragment go to Elise. The Tempest Feather goes to Dillon."
Dillon choked on his coffee. His eyes darted from Nathan to the crackling feather. "Wait. Boots? For me? Lightning boots?" He reached out, his finger grazing the feather. A blue spark leaped to his skin. "You are giving me lightning boots."
"You’re our fastest climber," Nathan said simply. "This makes you faster. The feather’s innate properties should perfectly integrate with your Cloud Serpent’s static—maybe grant you a short-range dash that doesn’t consume the mana [Flash Step] requires."
"I am going to be a god," Dillon whispered reverently, staring at the feather. "An absolute blur of untethered lightning. A—"
"A blur that still needs to hold formation," Elise interrupted smoothly.
She was looking down at the Frozen Heart. Despite her usual impenetrable Winterhart composure, her eyes betrayed a quiet, intense reverence. "This is... profound, Nathan. A Legendary-grade heart from a High Class boss. If Vex uses this as a staff core, it will forcefully amplify my ice affinity. We are looking at a paradigm shift in my output."
"That’s the point. And the Wing Fragment goes to Vex for a circlet," Nathan added. "Something light, wired with a passive defensive array. A reactive [Mana Shield] that triggers automatically if you get ambushed blind."
Elise was quiet for a long moment, her fingers tracing the edge of the table. Finally, she met Nathan’s eyes and offered a slight, formal inclination of her head. "Thank you. I will ensure they are weaponized properly."
"That’s what the party’s resources are for," Nathan said. "Keeping us alive."
Garrett leaned back in his chair, Volcan propped casually against his knee. "Look at us. Three Towers down, three to go, and we’re entirely restructuring our loadouts. This is what a real guild party looks like, kid. We aren’t just surviving the climbs anymore. We’re scaling."
"We have to," Nathan said, the warmth of the room fading slightly as he thought of the badlands. "The Court isn’t going to just watch us anymore. Clamour is out there. Whatever localized collapse they’re trying to trigger, we are going to end up standing right in the middle of it."
"Then we stand in the middle of it with better gear," Dillon grinned, picking up the feather. "And lightning boots."
---
The TCA forge wing smelled of hot iron, ozone, and crushed coal. Vex was hunched over her anvil when they walked in, Ember spiraling lazily above her head. The Molten Sprite immediately chirped and dive-bombed the Frozen Heart in Nathan’s hands, thoroughly fascinated by the trapped aurora light.
"Down, Ember. You’ll melt it," Vex ordered, pushing her heavy welding goggles up into her hair.
She surveyed the materials Nathan laid across her workbench. Her scarred, calloused fingers moved over the Legendary drops with the quiet reverence of a master artisan.
"Butterfly’s Frozen Heart. Aurora Wing Fragment. Tempest Feather," Vex muttered, letting out a low, impressed whistle. "You’ve been busy, Cross. Three High Class Towers in what, six weeks? Most veteran parties take a year to clear a roster like that."
"We’re on a tight schedule," Nathan said.
"Clearly." She picked up the Frozen Heart, the aurora light reflecting in her dark eyes. "A staff core for the ice mage. I can make this sing. The residual magic is so dense it’ll amplify her baseline affinity by thirty, maybe forty percent over a standard High Class focus."
She set it down gently and picked up the Wing Fragment, holding it up to the harsh forge-light. "This is delicate. A circlet. I can embed a reactive, passive [Mana Shield] rune. It won’t hold up to a boss strike, but it’ll buy her a full second of reaction time against an ambush."
Finally, she picked up the Tempest Feather. The static immediately snapped against her skin, and a rare, genuine grin broke across her face. "Boots for the loud one. Woven with lightning enchantments. I’ll fold the feather’s properties directly into the leather—enhanced traction, explosive movement speed, and a localized micro-dash. He’s already a headache with [Flash Step]. This will make him a nightmare."
"Turnaround time?" Nathan asked.
"Seven to ten days," Vex said, wiping her hands on a grease-stained rag. "I have a silver-spoon Climber from Silver Drake who’s been whining about a sword delay for three weeks, but your materials are actually interesting. I’ll push him down the queue."
She named her price. It was exorbitant, but the sale of the remaining boss cores would cover it with room to spare. Nathan transferred the funds without a second thought.
Vex checked her ledger and nodded. "Good. Now get out of my forge so I can actually work. And tell the Winterhart girl her staff is going to be my finest work since Moonlight. She had better appreciate it."
"She will."
"She better," Vex grunted, pulling her goggles back down. "I am not spending a week forging a Legendary staff just for her to look at it, say ’acceptable,’ and walk away."