Chapter 7 – Everything Is Expensive
Hanz walked out of Molly Store and he was in a bad mood. The service provided was bad. He felt like the people he asked before lied to him. Looking at his attire, he did not look that bad for people to treat him badly.
It was also not his first time in the town and there were a lot of village people who came to the town with worse clothes than him. “Maybe it is just that girl that is the problem…” thought Hanz. He shook his head and hoped that he would not be in the same situation again.
“Urm, let’s buy new clothes first… wait, I should buy a space ring first or else, I will need to carry all of the clothes around,” Hanz decided to head to the item shop where he could buy a space ring. He did not know the price for the space ring but with the money at hand, he could afford it.
Walking around for 15 minutes, Hanz arrived at the biggest item shop in Molip town. Hanz got inside and saw a lot of people shopping for items. Weapons, armors, everyday tools, accessories, and many more were sold there. As he looked around the shop, he could not find any space rings and decided to ask at the store worker.
Hanz headed to a worker nearby and asked, “Is there any space ring here?” The worker looked at Hanz from head to toe. Hanz was a bit annoyed when the guy scanned him like that. He knew he was poor before but at that moment, he was wealthy. He wanted to say, “I have money,” but the worker talked first.
“Space rings are too expensive and thus, we do not put them on display. Follow me but before you buy, we need to know if you learn the system skill?” The worker asked politely. Hanz was clueless as to why the worker asked that question. Was the space ring only usable with the system skill?
“Yes, I learned the system skill but, why are you asking?” Hanz asked the worker back after he gave his answer. He was curious and thus, he wanted an answer.
“That is because the space ring is unique. Although it is an item, it works the same as skill,” said the worker while he led Hanz inside a room in the shop. “To use this item, it needs a slot of skill in your system, and then, it can be upgraded the same as normal skill.”
Hanz was surprised and shocked. He never thought that something like that could happen. “For real? Something like that exists?” Hanz did not believe what the worker said. He never heard of anything like that.
“Yes, it is real. Not only the space ring but all items can do the same but people rarely do that because the skill slot is precious,” said the worker, and Hanz was more surprised. Not only the space ring but the other item could do that too and that meant, any equipment could grow stronger.
“Not only that, since the item can grow the same as skill, the skill growth rule and method applies the same to the item. To raise the item level and grade, they follow the same method as leveling up the skill,” the worker continued.
“As you know, the items are man made. No matter how similar they look or how similar their status, there are still many small details that are different. Thus, leveling the item with the fourth method is impossible. The third method was hard too because too many materials are needed for a small upgrade.”
“The first method took too long and it will be a waste of time and thus, only the second method is available. However, the second method is the most dangerous one because once the item broke, it will disappear from the skill list. In other words, raising the item like this is a waste of time and money. It is better to just use the slot for skill because the skill will never disappear,” said the worker.
As Hanz heard the explanations from the worker, his eyes lit up. If he used his duplication skill, it was possible to raise the item’s level using the fourth method. “Wah~ my special skill is really useful!” Hanz was happy when he thought of that but he decided to ask a question.
“I am sorry but I have a question. Let's say that it is possible to use the fourth method, will it have the same risk as the skill. Will the item go uncontrollable?” Hanz was curious about this because he knew the risk of the fourth method.
“I told you that using the fourth method is impossible and so, I don’t know if it possesses the same risk,” the worker answered and shrugged his shoulder. Hanz realized that his question was stupid. After that, the worker left the room to fetch the space ring for Hanz.
Hanz waited for a few minutes and the worker came to Hanz with a slim wide box with him. The worker put the slim wide box on the table and opened it. Inside the box, Hanz could see many designs of space rings. They looked just like normal rings and nothing unusual about them.
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The rings were also divided into three sections. The 1 cubic meter space ring, 8 cubic meter space ring, and 27 cubic meter space ring. Hanz frowned because the space was not that big. He was a bit disappointed. “Are there any bigger spaces?” Hanz asked.
“No matter where you go, the biggest space ring available will be the 27 cubic meter one,” said the worker while smiling. Hanz was again disappointed. Without much choice, he decided to buy the 27 cubic meter space ring.
Space ring was useful to store everyday items because the worker said that they were time proof the same as the item storage skill. Hanz had no idea about that. The only advantage the item storage had was the steal proof as well as the box to easily organize the same type of item. Space ring had no such box and everything was put in the same space.
“How much?” Hanz asked. He had no problem with money and he could buy the space ring. Since he could strengthen the space ring easily with the help of his duplication space, he did not mind about the small space.
“27 billion,” the worker said calmly but Hanz froze. “How much again?” Hanz asked the same question again. He thought he misheard the price. The worker repeated the same words, “27 billion.” Hanz’s face turned white.
“What the heck?!!! How can this small thing be that expensive? This thing is much more expensive than many S rank skill orbs!!” Hanz's mind was in turmoil. With only 4 billion on hand, he could not buy the 27 cubic meter space ring. Hanz felt like the worker was screwing around with him and decided to ask again but the worker said the same words.
“Why is this space ring so expensive?” Hanz asked the worker and the worker explained calmly. The worker knew that Hanz was oblivious to the price of the space ring but he was still a potential buyer and decided to calmly explain everything.
“The space ring is one of the hardest items to make in the world. The space element imbued in the ring is one of the hardest and rare elements to master in this world and thus, the difficulty of making this ring increases tremendously. To make even one ring, millions of rings are damaged with the result of only one successful space ring. Due to that, the ring’s price is this high. They decide to put the price of 1 billion per cubic meter.”
“1 billion per cubic meter… So, the cheapest space ring in front of me is the one cubic meter ring? And the price is 1 billion coins?” Hanz wanted to faint. This was the most shocking news he had ever heard in his life.
“I am sorry, I can only afford the 1 cubic meter space ring,” Hanz carefully put back the 27 cubic meter space ring and chose a plain blue one cubic meter space ring. He did not take the intricate design ring because he was afraid that the price would increase.
Once he finished the transaction, he walked out of the shop lifelessly. He was still shocked by the price mentioned by the worker. Hanz stopped by the roadside and put the space ring inside the duplication space stealthily. “1 hour…” He needed one hour to duplicate the ring.
Hanz looked at the system skill orb that needed 3 hours to duplicate and compared it to the space ring. He grumbled, “Urgh~ They have the same price but the space ring is much more worthless than the system skill orb.” Hanz rubbed his forehead and sighed.
Since Hanz could not use the space ring yet, he decided to waste time by touring the town and surveyed the price of things he wanted to buy. Three hours later, Hanz’s system skill was duplicated. He took out the skill orb and used it to level up the system skill to level 2.
At level 2, the system skill could support six skills and thus, Hanz had one more available skill slot. He took out the space ring that he had duplicated and the system asked if he wanted to connect it to the system. Hanz said yes and the skill slot was filled with the space ring.
Hanz had two more space rings he could use to level up the space ring inside the duplication space and decided to use one of them to level up the space ring to level 2. He should not level up that fast because of possible backlash if that was a skill but he decided to test it because the space ring was an item.
Hanz leveled up the space ring and the space increased from 1 cubic meter to 8 cubic meters. Hanz was happy and he tried to feel if there was any backlash but there was no backlash. “Hmm~ is it because the level is too low? I need some more tests but, although the space ring is connected to the system, I cannot feel the same feeling I have with my skills,” thought Hanz.
When Hanz learned a skill, he could feel the connection with the skill and he knew immediately if the skill had stabilized or not. Hanz's system skill had stabilized long ago and thus, he increased the skill level. However, his other skills were still not fully stabilized and thus, he did not level them up.
However, he could not feel the same feeling he had with the skills. “Let’s test them later when I have more space rings,” thought Hanz and he decided to do some shopping. With an 8 cubic meters space ring, it was enough for Hanz to store all the things he decided to buy.
Hanz’s first target would be the clothes shop. He entered many shops and bought many new expensive clothes. Even though the clothes were expensive, they did not pass 5 thousand coins per clothes. All the clothes Hanz bought were normal.
After that, Hanz went to many other shops and bought some equipment for preparation as a beast tamer. He bought some armor, weapons, and a few more equipment. Hanz bought the best equipment he could get in the town.
While buying the equipment, he found out about another harsh truth. Equipment imbued with something’s price was not that much different as the space ring. They cost billions. That was due to the difficulty of making the equipment and they were exceptionally much stronger than the equipment Hanz bought.
Due to the price, Hanz bought normal equipment without any special imbued. All the equipment he bought only contains stats like durability, attack, defense, and speed. The most basic stat an equipment could have.
Putting everything inside the space ring, Hanz went to buy skill orb. Hanz did not go to Molly Store and went to another skill orb store in the town. He decided to buy whatever skill orb he could get there that was affordable to him.