Chapter 8 - Broke

Skill orbs could not be created by humans. The only way for humans to obtain the skill orbs was by searching them in the wild. Skill orbs could be found at the roadside, in the grass, inside a rock, and many other places. Those kinds of skill orbs were naturally formed by the plane.

There was one more method of getting skill orbs and that was by finding the skill tree. The skill tree looked exactly like a normal tree except that it could produce skill orbs continuously. As for the type of tree, it was random.

The same skill orb's tree might not have the same type of tree. The tree was random. For example, two ‘the system’ skill trees might have a different tree. One could be a coconut tree while the other could be an apple tree. Though they had different types of tree, the skill orbs produced were the same. No one knew the reason. Humans assumed that it was the natural order.

In the past, before humans found out about skill orbs, they considered the skill tree to be a failure of a tree. Since the skill tree could take the shape of any tree, humans thought the tree was a failure because they could not eat the fruit of the skill tree which was the skill orb.

If a farmer had these trees, they would immediately cut them because they were afraid that the other trees nearby would become a failure too. However, after the discovery of the system, humans found out about the skill orbs and many of them regretted cutting the skill tree.

In current times, having a skill tree meant huge fortunes because skill orbs were expensive. So, a skill tree could be considered a treasure to many people. Skill tree was common in the world but, the type of skill orbs the skill tree produced had some kind of rarity. Due to this rarity, humans started putting a rank to the skill orbs.

The rank given was based on the rarity. However, humans later found out that the rarity was related to the type of skill the skill orb had. From then, skill orbs were separated into four ranks, C, B, A, and S.

The lowest rank would be C, the most common of skill orbs that could be found in the wild. C rank skill orbs all had the same type of skills, permanent enhancement. It might sound like it was a really good skill, so they did not deserve to be C rank.

However, that was not true. The permanent enhancement skill did indeed enhance the human but they were minuscule. The enhancement the skill gave was too low and with limited skill slots as well as time taken to level up the skill was long, they were useless. Since skill could not be deleted once learned, no one wanted to learn the skill to save their skill slot as well as saving time.

Next would be B rank. B rank skill orbs were uncommon but they were not rare. Those in the B rank were lifestyle skills. Cooking, cleaning, reading, calculating and many more skills needed during everyday life were in the B rank skill orbs. Since not everyone wanted to become a beast tamer after getting their system, they would usually go after B rank skill or A rank skill.

As for A rank skill orbs, they were rare. These groups of skill orb contained specialized, professional, or career skills. For example, let say the B rank skill orb, cooking. The cooking skill in B rank skill orb was the basis of the basic of cooking.

However, A-rank cooking skill was more specialized towards a certain type of cooking skill, for example, frying, seasoning, soup, and many more skills. Due to the specialized characteristics, the A-rank skill would be much better than B rank skills. Thus, they were put in a higher rank.

Other than that, A-rank skills also contain a skill for a certain profession. For example, swordsman, archer, accountant, merchant, guard, chef, and many more. People with this kind of skill would usually be at the top of society because the skill greatly helped them in their jobs.

As for S rank skill, they were super rare as well as magical. All the skills in S rank were super rare. S rank skills were the fantasy type of skills. For example, fireball skill, wind slash, ice spear, and many more. All mana-based skills were put in the S rank.

Though the system and taming skill did not use mana from the user, they were put in the S rank because they used mana from the surrounding. As for skills such as fireball and similar kinds of skills, humans could learn them but unable to use them because humans did not have any mana in their bodies.

For humans to be able to use such skills, they would need the mana status which they could get once they reached a certain point in their status.

As for the price of the skill orbs, the C rank was the cheapest while S rank the most expensive. C rank skill orb would usually be around 100k to 200k coins. As for B rank skill orb, their price range was slightly higher than C rank from 300k to 500k coins.

However, A-rank skill orbs were far more expensive compared to B rank skill orbs. They were around 1 million to 90 million coins. As for S rank skill orb, they were more than 1 billion coins. No matter the skill, as long as they were S rank, they would be in the billions.

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With more than 2 billion coins on hand, Hanz decided to forego S rank skill orbs. Since he did not have any mana, they would be useless to him. He did not have much money either. Why waste money on something he could not use and afford?

When he got inside the skill orb store, Hanz bought all the C rank skill orbs he could find in the store. He only needed one for each and then, he could use the duplication space to make more of them. He did not plan to sell them but wanted to use them for himself.

Since he could upgrade his system easily, he did not need to worry much about the limited skill slot. However, he still would only learn the one that was useful to him. As for those that he could not use, he would just store them in his storage, and who knows, he might need them in the future.

Hanz bought many kinds of skill orbs from C rank to A rank. When he paid the money, he was stunned because all of them amounted to almost 2 billion coins. “For real? I only buy at one store and I almost spend all my money?” Hanz knew the prize of the skill orbs but he took them without counting and luckily, he had enough money.

Hanz put all of the skill orb in his space ring and went out of the store. He sighed because he was left with only a few thousand coins. “15 thousand left…” Hanz felt like crying. He regretted that he did not control himself when he shopped for the skill orb. He just did not want to miss his chance of getting the skill orbs and overspent his money.

Hanz checked the time and it was 3 pm. He went shopping in the morning and now it was evening. “Growl~” His stomach grumbling. “Urm~ Lunch… I forgot to eat lunch,” Hanz looked around and found a restaurant. He ordered some food and started eating when the food was served.

While he was eating, he checked the bill and he sighed again. The food was expensive. Hanz never ate at a high-end restaurant and thus, he chose that restaurant. Though he could afford the food, he did not have much left after eating. The money was enough for him to eat cheap food for a few months, so he decided to just savor the food.

“Hmm~ This is good. Well, I don’t need to worry about money anymore after this because I will become a beast tamer soon,” thought Hanz while he happily ate the food. Suddenly, he stopped. Hanz swallowed the food in his mouth and his face paled.

“Shit!!! I forgot!” Hanz checked his money back and he felt like crying. “I don’t have enough to get a good beast!” Hanz finally realized he made the biggest mistake in his whole life. “I should not buy the skill orb first. I should get my beast first!!!” Hanz loses his appetite. The food did not look that good anymore.

“Should I resell the skill orbs to other shops?” Hanz thought but he shook his head. He felt like he would lose a lot of money. He could duplicate them but it would take a long time to get back the same amount of money.

If he were to sell multiple of the same A rank skill orb, they would be suspicious because skill tree of A-rank skill orb was rare and he might get kidnapped or something similar later. Hanz scratched his head. He realized he made a mistake and he remembered back what Juin said before, “Don’t be greedy.”

“Grandpa is right… Now, I must face the consequences,” thought Hanz. “I will just go to a beast store and see if I can afford a cheap beast.,” Hanz continued eating but he was not as happy as earlier. He knew how stupid he was. He wanted to become a beast tamer but he prioritized himself to buy skill orbs which were not important for him at the moment.

Not only that, but he also realized that he did not have enough money to buy a ticket for a ride to the next city. “Ugh…” Hanz grumbled. Once he finished his food, he went to a nearby beast store.

The reason he wanted to buy his first beast was because it was safer. He had no one that could help him tamed the wild beast and thus, buying them was the best choice. Other than that, his taming skill was low level with only a 10% chance of taming rank zero beast. How long would it take him to tame a single beast with that rate? So, buying a beast was the go-to.

Hanz entered the beast store and the store attendant greeted him with a smile. “Welcome,” a beautiful girl greeted Hanz. Hanz was not in the mood to appreciate her beauty and thus, he only nodded.

“How may I help you?” The beautiful girl asked. Hanz looked around the shop but there was no beast there.

“Urm… I am looking to buy a beast to tame. Is there any beast available?” Hanz asked politely.

“Your first beast?” the girl asked and Hanz nodded. “At the moment, there is no more beast living beast available. You come a bit late because someone else bought them a few hours ago. The new batch of beast will only be available tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Hanz nodded and then, he decided to leave but the girl stopped him. “Is there something wrong?” Hanz asked.

“You might not be able to buy any beast today because that man bought all the beast in this town,” the girl explained. She knew about it because people were talking about it.

“Hmm… then, that will be a problem,” Hanz did not know if he should tame a wild beast but that was too dangerous. Even if he waited the next day, he would not have enough money to buy them.

“Is there any way for me to get a beast today other than taming the wild beast?” Hanz asked. He did not want to stay in the town for long because he wanted to meet his family fast and then came back to Milik village.

“If you do not mind about the gene slot of the beast, you could try the beast egg. We have a lot here and they are cheaper than a beast but it will be like a lottery. If you are lucky, you will get a beast with many gene slots but if you are unlucky… well, you know what you will get,” said the beautiful girl.

“How much is an egg?” Hanz asked.

“It depends on the species of the beast. The cheapest one is the chicken’s beast egg which is less than 2 thousand coins. The most expensive egg here is the horn rabbit which is 20 thousand coins,” said the girl. Hanz asked for the list of beast eggs available in the shop.

Once he looked at the list, Hanz frowned. The strongest species he could get with his money was the sheep beast. If he bought the sheep beast, he might have just enough to buy the sheep’s food. However, he would not have enough to buy a gene reagent or essence to power-up the sheep. Not only that, the amount of gene slots was random too.

“Well, I should just go for it,” thought Hanz and he decided to buy a sheep beast egg.