Chapter 32
It was late in the afternoon by the time Keith awoke.
Rising from the bed, he glanced down at his regenerated right hand, relieved until he remembered he was now bald. Keith ran a hand over his scalp. It would take weeks to grow back his hair.
Slimeballs, he thought. How am I going to show myself in public?
Why did the System regrow his hand and not his hair? It was clearly biased!
After venting his grievances, Keith headed to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat and sent his Aunt Serilla a message informing her of yesterday’s events and his loot.
While Isuni’s level 800 divine equipment gave plentiful Collection Value, Keith wanted to give it to the military in exchange for contribution points. Nobody could craft equipment at that grade and level yet, so the military would pay a premium for such high-end goods. With the contribution points, Keith could exchange for items from the military’s armory and gain more Collection Value than what Isuni’s equipment gave.
Serilla soon responded, and the two planned to meet at the military exchange center in New Hope. Half an hour later, Keith arrived under the shadow of a massive oval complex, where soldiers and adventurers continuously filtered in and out through several open entryways.
Before Keith could even search for his Aunt, she walked over from the side, inspecting Keith’s beanie as she attempted to hold back a laugh.
“Ha, ha,” Keith grumbled when he saw her expression, pulling down on the sides of the beanie to make sure not an inch of his head saw the light.
Seeing his cautious behavior, Serilla playfully reached out, intending to tug it away, but stopped when he yelped in horror, saying, “Don’t!”
“Sheesh, fine,” Serilla replied, the corner of her lip twitching.
Suddenly, before Keith understood what she was doing, Serilla snapped a photo of him with a photography gem.
“No!” Keith’s eyes widened in alarm, and he reached out to grab it, only for Serilla to store it in her inventory.
Serilla smirked victoriously, “Heh, just wait till your mom sees this. Oh, and your sisters.”
With an aggrieved tone, Keith asked, “Can we go already?”
“Sure, sure,” Serilla laughed and took the lead.
Together, aunt and nephew entered the military exchange center, tuning out the numerous conversations occurring around them. They walked up the stairs to the upper floors, and when stopped by a guard, Serilla flashed a golden badge with the image of two clasped hands etched on its surface.
The military exchange center had three levels of badges: bronze, silver, and gold.
Anyone could register for a bronze badge, while the silver badge required you to have exchanged over 100 million gold worth of items with the military, and the gold badge required over a billion. To enter the second and third floors, you needed a silver and gold badge respectively. Most notably, each floor had different goods you could exchange for, with higher floors possessing increasingly rare items.
When the guard saw Serilla’s gold badge, he stepped back and let them through, full of respect. Anyone who had a gold badge was either a financial magnate or someone with high combat power.
Till now, the military exchange center has only given out a little over two thousand gold badges, mostly to adventurer teams, so the third floor was less bustling compared to the first two floors.
Passing the guard, Serilla brought Keith to an available office, made private by sound-canceling and vision-obscuring arrays. There, an female elderly elf sat behind a desk, an industrial-use magic tablet in front of her. She welcomed them with a smile, “Hello, how may I assist you today?”
Serilla sat down in one of the chairs designated for guests and gestured to Keith, passing over all responsibility to him. Keith took a seat beside his aunt and began, “I have a set of agility based level 800 divine grade equipment to exchange.”
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“Okay,” the clerk started typing into her magical tablet before abruptly freezing. Looking up, she stuttered, “W-what did you say? Level 800?”
“Yeah,” Keith nodded, then added, “I also have three sets of level 780 ancient grade equipment, a few pieces being divine grade.”
The clerk was visibly astonished, and her breathing quickened. Cautiously, she asked, “It’s not that I don’t believe you, but so far, nobody has acquired equipment with that high of a level.”
Keith flipped his hand, withdrawing a level 800 divine grade crimson dagger from his inventory, and placed it gently on the desk.
“Amazing,” the clerk gasped after using Inspect, growing excited at the commission she’d get for this transaction. Putting her professionalism on full display, the clerk asked Keith to take out all the items he wanted to exchange and started entering their details into the military’s database.
Fifteen minutes later, she frowned, “Sir, with the uniqueness of your items, I do not have the necessary authority to quote a price. Please wait a few minutes while I get my superior.”
“Okay,” Keith answered as the clerk stood up and left through the back door.
At this time, Serilla sighed, “If I weren’t so far from level 800, I’d buy those two daggers from you.”
“Why should you buy them? Say the word, and they're yours,” Keith replied, grateful for all his aunt's help over the years.
Serilla considered briefly before saying, “No, I think not. Who knows how long it’ll take me to reach level 800? It’s more beneficial to exchange them now and increase your strength.”
A short period later, a male, middle-aged dwarf wearing formal attire walked in through the backdoor, accompanied by the elderly elf from earlier. The dwarf took a minute scrutinizing the stats of Keith’s equipment, then said, “We’ll give you twenty billion contribution points for everything.”
Keith turned to Serilla for her opinion, and when she nodded, he responded, “Deal.”
With the exchange concluded, the dwarf prepared to leave when Keith spoke up, “I also have some information I want to share.”
“Oh?” The dwarf gestured for Keith to continue.
Keith took a second to sort his thoughts before explaining, “Yesterday, I went into the zone east of Mandara Desert, called Foggy Marsh…”
At the start, the dwarf was mildly curious as he listened, but when Keith recounted his fight with the demon party, he grew solemn.
The information revealed in Keith’s story was incredibly important to the military, as they hadn’t stepped foot in Foggy Marsh yet. Whether it was how the fog worked or the fact natives from the Sin Dimension were roaming so close to Serenity Canyon, both were vital pieces of knowledge that could save lives.
When Keith finished speaking, the dwarf took a deep breath, looking at Keith in a new light. “Sir, the information you provided is invaluable. I’ll add 25 billion contribution points to your account, and including the equipment from earlier, that’ll be 45 billion. May I see your badge?”
“He doesn’t have one. I brought him here,” Serilla answered before Keith could respond.
“That’s no problem. I’ll just create an account for him now and get a golden badge issued. It won’t take long,” replied the elderly elf.
“I’ll take my leave,” said the dwarf, who left in a hurry towards the intelligence officer stationed at the exchange center.
Fifteen minutes later, Keith held a golden badge, with 45 billion contribution points already inside his account.
According to his aunt, each contribution point was equivalent to one gold, meaning the fight with the demon team had netted him 20 billion gold in equipment. In comparison, it took Keith half a year of growing precious herbs and taking advantage of the market to accumulate 40 billion gold.
If Keith took down a few more demon teams, he’d easily exceed a hundred billion gold, and it wouldn’t take more than a week. Of course, he’d be putting his life at risk. Keith wasn’t willing to gamble with his life for money. He wasn’t that desperate.
Now that Keith had so many contribution points, he spent the next few hours browsing the exchange list. In the end, he returned home with less than a million contribution points to his name.
All his points went towards efficiently getting enough Collection Points to purchase the Clone function, with the remaining contribution points spent on 65 mythic grade elixirs. Although they weren’t nearly as good as the ones Orcus dropped, they were better than nothing.
Rushing to the dining room, Keith withdrew the elixirs from his Collection Grimoire and placed them on the table. The room lit up with an array of vibrant colors the moment they appeared, dazzling the eyes, and the fragrant aroma made Keith lick his lips in anticipation.
While they were absurdly expensive, there was one reason why Keith chose to purchase elixirs: they increased base stats.
By now, Keith had several titles and effects that boosted his base stats, so raising them even further made sense. He had only consumed a handful of elixirs to date, so he was far from reaching his body’s limit. Not everyone was like Markus and Ska’dur who had long reached theirs. The average person could barely get their hands on more than a dozen.
And so, there was one thing left to do.
Overwhelmed with excitement, he drank twelve elixirs in one go, and when he reached out to grab another, he felt something rise from his stomach. Turning to the side, he threw up on the spot, rainbow-colored liquid spewing from his mouth and all over the floor.
The sight dazed Keith when he suddenly realized something.
Oh no!
Keith hurriedly opened his notification history and saw that he had only digested a few elixirs. The other eight had not given him stats yet!
What did that mean?
Keith looked back at the glowing rainbow-colored vomit on the floor, his face pale white. Thinking of how precious elixirs were, Keith eventually mustered his resolve. Slowly getting on his knees, Keith bent over, closed his eyes, and sucked until not a single drop of liquid remained.