When I crawled out of the tunnel leading to the Tombs of Nazlock, I noticed that the sky was already getting brighter. I took a deep breath as soon as I escaped the narrow and suffocating tunnel.

“Dawn is near. Did we really spend that long inside the secret area?” I pondered while quickly hiding the entrance to the Tombs of Nazlock with the dirt. These tombs were my secret and I needed to make sure that people would not randomly stumble onto them.

“Are we finally going back? I did not get to sleep all night because of you.” Levi complained after yawning. He felt tired after having scouted the tombs for an entire night. He did not feel the fatigue on the spur of the moment but now that he has returned to a peaceful and familiar environment, he could feel the weight on his eyes.

“Well. Ideally, we should stay here for a little while. We have a brief window of opportunity to hunt the monsters. With the first signs of dawn appearing, the awareness of the lookouts is usually at its lowest.” I explained. I was speaking objectively but inside, I also wanted nothing more than to return home and rest.

“What? Not happening. I am a fairy and need to rest. Do you see this smooth and fair skin? How can I maintain my appearance if I lack sleep? I am not your slave and will not work outside of my agreed hours. I already did a lot by changing my schedule.” Levi instantly complained.

I chuckled. ‘He has become a lot chattier recently. He is learning that he can earn a lot of points by being on my good side. But tonight may not be the case. I only earned two points from the giant rats. Hopefully the coins we collected have some value and can help him forget about the points. Let’s not comment on his appearance to maintain his good mood.’

“Then, let’s head back.” I said as I stretched my arms.

“I hope that you can explore the tombs quicker the next time we go there. I do not want to have another sleepless night.”

“Then simply get better at solving the puzzles. Trial and Error takes so long, and it can only get us so far.”

“…”

…

By the time I arrived at the village, the sun was already rising at the horizon. There was no much activity going on at the village. I went directly to the merchant tower to appraise the coins.

“Hello, how can I help you today?” The clerk greeted me politely. He treated me differently from the others as I was the only one who spent points here. The others strictly traded in mana stones.

“I would like to sell a few items.” I started by taking out the two corpses of the giant rats. My storage belt acted only as an empty box where I could store the items. The stored items were still affected by time and could affect each other. I did not like the idea of leaving a corpse in my storage belt for too long.

“Oh?” The clerk widened his eyes. “What a strange monster. According to the regulations of the merchant tower, if you bring a monster corpse outside of the usual coyote, ogre or golem, you can exchange them for five points.”

“Five points?” I was pleasantly surprised. ‘The corpse of a giant rat is only worth one point up in the tower. But for the tutorial, the rules are different. These giant rats represent a nice source of points, but I will need to bring back the corpses to retrieve the points. I may end up buying more storage items than I need.’

“Sure, I’ll sell these two then.”

“Anything else? Since you found these two corpses, I suppose that you must have a lot more to sell.” The clerk smiled excitedly.

I nodded quietly and took out one of the metallic coins. Levi flew down to the counter to monitor the exchange.

“As I expected!” The clerk’s eyes lit up. “Since you have a Nazlock Coin, please follow me.”

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“Follow you?”

“Just jump over the counter. Someone who found the tombs does not need to be polite in the merchant tower.” The clerk led the way to the back end that was hidden by a curtain.

I hesitated before complying to his instructions. I disappeared behind the curtain with Levi and to my surprise, I found a staircase leading up.

“Don’t look so surprised. This is a tower after all. Just look at the size of the building. You should have expected that it contained more than just a floor.” The clerk commented as he started climbing up the stairs.

I was dumbfounded. ‘The merchant tower actually has a second floor. I have never heard of this before.’

“Miss, I brought this hunter to the second floor. He has found the tombs and came back with the Nazlock Coins.” The clerk politely announced as we entered a new room. I saw countless items arranged on shelves. A woman stood on the other side of a counter. When we entered, she was building up a tower using the same metallic coins I found in the tombs. She was tiptoeing to reach the top of her tower of coins.

The woman flinched as soon as she heard the clerk’s voice. Unfortunately, during this involuntary movement, her hand barely touched the tower of coins. It wobbled until it gave in and crashed on the floor.

“Ahh!” The woman froze in place for a moment before turning red in anger.

“Alright. I have accomplished my task.” The clerk said hurriedly before disappearing downstairs.

Only Levi and I were left to face the wrath of the woman. She clicked her fingers and suddenly, all the coins stopped rolling around. They trembled and all magically flew back to the counter where the woman was at, arranging themselves in a neat pile.

“So you have found the tombs and got some of these coins, right?” The woman faced us with narrowed eyes. I could hear her tapping her feet on the ground.

“Yes.” I choked on my words. That woman was strong; there was a strange but powerful aura surrounding her. I glanced at Levi who for the first time, landed on the floor, behaving as if he did not have wings. ‘Even a fairy can be intimidated and behave respectfully.’

“How much do you have?” The woman asked coldly.

“86 coins but we will divide them equally between us.”

“Hmmp. Not even a hundred.” The woman said in annoyance. She pointed at a particular shelf close to the entrance. “Look at the items on this shelf. They are the only one you can afford for now.”

I quickly complied and so did Levi. I did not dare ask any questions or even move to have a look at the other shelves as I still felt the woman’s stare lingering on me.

I scanned through the items on the shelves and sighed. I was unimpressed. ‘These are all used for crafting. Various types of wood, plants and ores. I was expecting more… These are indeed uncommon, but it is not impossible to buy them once I get out of the zeroth floor. It is just too bad that I never spent the time to learn crafting techniques.’

In the corner of my eyes, I noticed Levi wearing a disappointed expression. Just like me, he understood the value of these items. These items could be purchased on the upper floors at a price varying between 100 and 500 points depending on availability. I mentally valued the Nazlock Coins at ten points.

I shook my head lightly and started observing the items on the neighbouring shelf discreetly.

“Tap Tap Tap!”

Behind me, I heard the woman impatient tapping on the wooden counter with her long nails. “What? Not found anything interesting? This is all you can afford right now.”

I could feel the contempt and taunt in her voice. She was not pleased to have someone browse her shop.

“Still, since you managed to collect a few Nazlock Coins, feel free to look at the other items available. Maybe they will motivate you.”

The pressure she was emitting suddenly disappeared. She turned around and started playing with her pile of coins again.

I let out a sigh of relief with Levi. Having obtained her permission, we started looking around for valuables.

My eyes sparkled. The next shelf was rather disappointing, displaying only enchanted weapons. These were powerful weapons but nothing out of the ordinary for people climbing the tower. However, what came next attracted my attention. The next shelf was dedicated to codices.

Codices were books that contained the instructions to use one spell. The special part about them was that anyone could use the codex to learn the spell. The user did not need to have picked any particular element. They could learn any spell from the other elements without suffering from the downside of having to constantly groom an entire skill tree. Codices were rare and gave their users a powerful trump card.

The next shelf displayed eggs. According to the small description card, these eggs belonged to elemental beasts. Each egg corresponded to an element; once they hatched, they would reveal a beast capable of using spells related to their element.

The next shelf showcased various artefact that I have never seen before. Each artefact was rare and unique but only a few were useful to me like the soul container that would give me a second life or a shadow doppelganger that would allow me to have a clone.

All these items were extremely rare in the tower and were priced in millions due to their availability. Yet, these items could all be bought for only a fraction of their price in Nazlock Coins. As attractive as these items could be, I knew collecting enough Nazlock Coins to buy them was going to be extremely difficult.

I looked around me and found Levi salivating as he was facing a particular item on a pedestal. My eyes widened in shock.

‘An artificial elemental seed? What is a taboo item doing here?’