Game of the Universe: Zenith

Chapter 18: Blue

About half an hour later, the two of them broke through the final stretch of trees and returned to the familiar clearing that bordered the city.

The moment they stepped foot on the battlefield, Arthur could feel the weight of quite a few eyes landing on them, or more specifically, on the items they were carrying.

John looked like some kind of war-hardened merchant, cradling his [Goblin’s Fangs] like he was holding a pair of toddlers, while Arthur’s [Fang-tipped Spearhead] that was glinting faintly, was even more eye-catching.

They were both walking loot advertisements.

Still, for better or worse, no one was dumb enough to make a move against them.

Whether it was John’s ridiculous physique or the fact that the two of them had clearly just returned from a profitable forest run was enough to deter any sane level 1 or 2 player from picking a fight with them.

In the end, they made it to the city without any problems.

The moment they stepped past the city gates, John turned to Arthur and said with a grin,

"I’m gonna dump this stuff and call it a day. So what d’ya say we meet here again in ten hours? You know, get a good night’s sleep, work out, grab breakfast, and get back to hunting?"

Arthur thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Alright. I’ve gotta check on my grandfather, but ten hours should be good."

The two of them then exchanged a quick fist bump before parting ways.

Arthur watched the burly man veer off toward the other side of the plaza, probably to find a general store or something, before he turned around and headed in the opposite direction, toward the familiar alchemy shop.

...

The streets in this place were still as strange and alien as ever, filled with hundreds of players, tall buildings, and spiraling towers, but at least this part of the city was starting to feel a little familiar to Arthur.

He still wasn’t used to those creatures who were clearly not human roaming around, but luckily, they seemed to be a minority.

That familiar faint chime rang out as Arthur pushed open the door of the shop and stepped inside.

To his surprise, the insectoid shopkeeper wasn’t alone this time.

Standing opposite the counter was a tall, sinewy creature that looked eerily similar to the four-armed monsters from the Gwong war tribe. Had it not been for the extra set of legs this thing had, Arthur would probably have thought it was one of them.

The creature’s skin was a mottled gray-blue, its arms long and sinewy, and it spoke in a low, deep voice that Arthur could barely make sense of.

The shopkeeper, however, seemed to understand it just fine.

It glanced at Arthur as the chime rang out, then turned back to the eight-limbed creature and rasped while rubbing its mandibles together,

"That will be all, friend. Should you find any more of those serpent eyes, you know my shop is always open."

The creature gave the shopkeeper a subtle nod and turned to leave. As it passed, it threw Arthur the briefest of glances, its four yellow pupils narrowing for a second, before it ducked beneath the doorframe and stepped out into the busy streets.

The shop grew quiet again.

Then, the insectoid shopkeeper turned its attention back to Arthur and said,

"Welcome back, friend. Did you bring more stuff to sell, or are you here to buy my potions?"

Instead of answering, Arthur walked straight to the counter and placed the [Fang-tipped Spearhead] on its wooden surface. Then he reached behind his back and unbuckled the [Scrap-Leather Chestpiece], before placing it right next to the spear.

The chitinous merchant tilted its head, clearly intrigued by all this.

Its compound eyes gleamed, but Arthur wasn’t done yet.

He followed it up with the [Threadbare Jerkin], the same type he’d sold to the shopkeeper before, and then the [Goblin’s Fang] he’d found during his hunt with John.

Finally, he slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a second [Goblin’s Fang], the one he’d looted earlier, right before meeting John in the forest, and placed it beside the others with a soft clack.

The shopkeeper’s mandibles clicked twice. Its eyes, however, weren’t looking at the items, but instead at Arthur.

"It looks like you’ve been busy, haven’t you?" he said in a tone that Arthur figured was probably approving.

So Arthur met his gaze and nodded. "Do you mind appraising this stuff for me?"

The shopkeeper gave him a low buzz of amusement and rubbed his mandibles together with something that might’ve been delight. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

"Of course not. In fact, I insist. If you’ve brought more stuff for me, you are always welcome in my shop."

With careful precision, it then began lifting the items one by one. It ran a claw across the [Scrap-Leather Chestpiece], tapped the surface of the jerkin, and held both fangs up to the shop’s flickering light.

But when it reached the [Fang-tipped Spearhead], it paused.

The shopkeeper rotated it slowly in its hands, chittering softly under its breath. "Interesting. I didn’t expect a little newbie to take down a [Goblin Spear-Guard] so quickly."

The insectoid merchant fiddled with the [Fang-tipped Spearhead] for a few more seconds before setting it down with surprising delicacy. Then it pulled out a small, weathered leather pouch from beneath the counter and began speaking without looking up.

"Both [Goblin’s Fangs] are in decent condition. I’ll give you ten base stones for each one. The [Threadbare Jerkin]... is passable. Just like before, I’ll give you sixteen stones for it." The shopkeeper tapped the jerkin once, as if verifying its condition before moving on to the last two items.

"The [Scrap-Leather Chestpiece] is actually decent, too. I’ll give you thirty stones if you are willing to part with it. As for this [Fang-tipped Spearhead]... the goblin craftsmanship is actually impressive. I’ll give you thirty-five base stones for it."

Arthur blinked.

"Which brings us to... a total of one hundred and one elemental stones," the shopkeeper continued, pushing a half-filled leather pouch towards him.

Arthur stood there for a moment, just staring at the giant mantis. This time, he was actually at a loss for words.

He hadn’t expected to make this much from today’s hunt. He ran the numbers in his head again, slower this time, and yet it all seemed to add up.

If he included the jerkin he’d sold the shopkeeper earlier, he’d made nearly 120 elemental stones just today. He was still a bit short of the 200-stone daily goal he needed, but not by much.

If tomorrow went just as well, or potentially better, he’d be able to do it.

Still, Arthur didn’t move right away. His eyes dropped to the [Scrap-Leather Chestpiece] lying neatly on the counter.

After a brief silence, he shook his head and took it out of the pile.

"I’ll keep this one," he said, slipping the armor piece on him. "You can have the rest."

The shopkeeper’s mandibles twitched slightly, but he nodded without objection.

With practiced efficiency, he reached into the pouch and began setting the stones in neat stacks, one by one, as the smooth clack of stone echoed on wood.

Ten... twenty... thirty...

Arthur watched in silence until the last of the elemental stones was laid out before him.

Seventy-one in total.

Most of them had the familiar warm red hue, identical to the fire-elemental stones already in his pouch... but nestled in the mix were a few that stood out as well.

They were blue. A pale, almost icy hue... like a drop of water captured in a crystal.

Arthur’s eyes gleamed.

He glanced at the shopkeeper, who was waiting for him to verify the payment, and after counting them mentally, he scooped the stones up and poured them into his cloth pouch before tightening the drawstring.

There were now a total of eighty-six elemental stones on his waist.

And yet, what drew Arthur’s attention the most wasn’t the sheer number of stones, but those blue-colored ones that he hadn’t seen before.

Even without touching them, he could tell: they were of a different element.

Water? Perhaps ice? ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

And he was dying to find out if his [Child of the Elements] title would react to these as well.