They retraced their steps as they appeared back near the glowing circles which were supposedly elevators for this venue. The guy sent to prepare his ID stood beside them, as if waiting for someone. He smiled seeing them approach and spoke.
“Your Ethlet is ready Sir. You can receive it at the reception on the ground floor.”
Ragnar nodded at him and prepared to move into the circle. But he was stopped by Aura as she spoke up.
“Wait. First, we should get you changed. Paul, can you take him to the clothes section and get whatever he chooses. There should be one on this floor, right?”
The butler guy, who was apparently called Paul nodded and gestured at Ragnar to follow him.
Ragnar looked at Aura and said after some thought.
“I don’t have any money yet.”
Aura waved her hand as she spoke in an assuring tone.
“Don’t worry about it. They are on me. Payback for the shoes, remember?”
Ragnar appeared like he had recalled something. “Oh… “
He followed after Paul without any further questions. He had definitely forgotten all about the shoes.
Aura’s gaze followed Ragnar’s back as it disappeared past a corridor. She was glad that her Uncle hadn’t asked about Ragnar’s outfit, because he had definitely realised that they did not belong to him. She considered her plans going further as she stood there with her arms folded under her bountiful chest.
A few minutes passed in silence before she noticed movement at the corner where Ragnar had disappeared with Paul. He had finally gotten a proper outfit. Aura was quite genuinely surprised with how he had turned up. She definitely didn’t expect a person like him to have a good fashion sense.
He wore a white t-Shirt with a skull drawn on it along with a black-jeans that contrasted quite well. He had also draped a casual blue denim jacket over his shirt which really completed his outfit.
Ragnar had finally gotten his black shoes. They weren’t sneakers though; he had chosen sports shoes instead. They appealed more to him. When he got closer to Aura, he heard her speak in a surprisingly genuine tone.
“They look good on you.”
Ragnar walked past her as he replied.
“That’s why I picked them.”
Aura really wanted to punch him right now as she followed him into the glowing circle. But before they had disappeared completely, she heard him continue in his casual tone.
“Anyways, Thanks.”
Then the scene changed, and they had appeared back on the ground floor.
The reception was still quite busy with several people coming and going, some arguing about the prices, others checking out everything and not buying anything. Aura took the lead again as she walked towards one of the free ladies in the reception.
“We have an Ethlet by the name of ‘Lord’ Ragnar.”
The lady gave her professional smile and spoke.
“Please wait a moment, I will arrange someone to get it to you.”
Aura nodded and looked back at Ragnar. He didn’t seem interested in the staff ladies anymore and was looking around the Union with curiosity visible in his eyes.
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Ragnar was really awed by the variety of stuff that was stuck to the walls around him. They were filled with armours, weapons of all kinds, other artifacts that he had no idea what they were for and what not.
As he looked around, he saw another one of the butler people approaching them. He was holding a silver-coloured tablet in his hand that he presented to him and spoke.
“Lord Ragnar?... Here is your Ethlet. Please insert your Essence into it to activate it.”
Ragnar was quite excited about this thing he was receiving. He knew that these were the artifacts that people used in the HCR for all monetary transactions. He took it from the man’s hand and gave it a closer look.
It was a glass pad outlined with a silver metal. The glass also had a tint of silver in it and was currently translucent since nothing was visible in it.
He did as he was told and inserted his Essence into it, which suddenly made characters form inside the glass. It appeared like black ink had emerged from the boundaries as it convulsed to form the characters.
It said his name and his balance. Lord Ragnar and ‘0’ respectively.
The name made him nod in satisfaction but the balance made his eyes twitch. He looked back at Aura who was enjoying his change of emotions with a slight smile and spoke.
“Sell the Queen now.”
Aura sighed again. He had said that no one orders him and now he was ordering her around so casually. But she didn’t refute him and just turned back towards the reception.
“We came with the corpse of a big purple Ant. Where is it?”
The lady looked slightly embarrassed as she pointed at a group of people who were currently crowding around something as they tried to get a better look.
Killing a Spectral Dread, although wasn’t unheard of, it was still quite rare for these newbies to see it in flesh. Since most people did not carry the whole corpses back, instead getting the important bits separately.
Aura understood at a look what was happening, she didn’t bother to collect the corpse and asked her directly.
“How much can we get for it? The whole body.”
The staff lady switched gears in an instant as she said.
“We have already evaluated it, and we can give you 400,000 Enders for it. It was coming around 390,000 but we rounded it up for Miss Aura so you can get 400,000 Enders.”
Aura looked back at Ragnar and asked in an inquiring tone.
“What do you think?”
Ragnar was puzzled as he asked to confirm.
“Is that a lot?”
Ragnar had no clue how much stuff he could get for that many Enders. He had never bought anything since his missions involved killing and not shopping. This topic had also not come up in the lessons, yet.
Aura was past the point of getting shocked at his lack of knowledge so she just explained it.
“Yes, it is. You can get one of those glowing Stags that you might have seen on the way here. But if you want more, then we can probably get around 420,000 for it if we sell the meat and exoskeleton separately to butchers and armouries. Do you want to do that?”
The staff lady’s professional smile did not waiver in the slightest despite the fact that her business was currently being persuaded to sell it somewhere else. She had enough experience from this job to tell what Ragnar was going to choose. And her smile only widened after hearing his words.
“No, just sell it here. We don’t have all day.”
Aura also knew what his answer was going to be so she didn’t react much and just told the lady.
“Okay, transfer the money to his Ethlet.”
Ragnar was asked to touch his Ethlet with an artifact that was installed in the reception desk. After he did that, he saw the numbers climb higher in his Ethlet at an astonishing pace as they stopped at 400,000. Now it looked better.
After asking Aura and testing a few things, Ragnar figured out how to use them properly. Ethlets were also a sort of artifacts that were made to completely remove physical currency from the market. Just like they had done back on Earth. This helped in burying all sorts of corruption before it could take shape.
It was a very neat system since Ragnar just had to touch another person’s Ethlet with his own while channelling his Essence into it to transfer the amount of Enders he wanted. There was no point in stealing other people’s Ethlet since it was impossible to activate another person’s Ethlet. They needed the user’s Essence to activate and wouldn’t work otherwise.
Enders was the one currency that every Continent on Earth had agreed on after the Calamity. Although some small communities still liked using their own currencies, Enders was still the one recognised worldwide.
After some thought, Ragnar inquired from the staff lady.
“I want to buy a Dagger. Show me the best ones you have.”
The lady had not stopped smiling ever since they had approached her. Was her face not tired?
She nodded and went back to retrieve a bag. The bag was made of the same material as Aura’s pouch. So, he could guess that it was also a spatial Artifact. The lady took out several daggers from the bag and started showing them off.
One after another she brought out daggers from the bag as Ragnar’s face started to form a frown that grew deeper with each one that came out. He finally couldn’t resist the urge to inquire.
“You don’t have any Mystic ones?”