“Two points per gold ingot and three points per multi-coloured gem. I’ll pay twenty points for each urn of century sauce and as for the wine barrels…”
“No need to talk about the wine barrels. I will keep them for now.” I cut the clerk short with a faint smile. I took out the twenty-eight giant rat corpses from my storage belt, along with the ten gold ingots and the four urns.
I traded them all for a total of 240 points. It brought my points up to 972. It felt unreal to suddenly earn so many points and I still had items I had yet to trade. I eyed Levi suspiciously. “I wonder just how many things you pocketed for yourself.”
The fairy awkwardly whistled and averted my gaze. “It is just that we are moving into the wealthier portion of the tombs, of course each trip is going to get more and more profitable. As we agreed, I’ll let you take a little bit more.”
“Ehem. Would you also like to exchange the multi-coloured gem? You are so close to reaching 1000 points. Just ten multi-coloured gems and you will be able to purchase your First Floor Ticket.”
There were twenty-five gems in my storage pouch, but I was hesitant to trade them. These multi-coloured gems were generally used as crafting materials for enchantments. It was something I was considering learning later when I found myself a place to live in the tower. The multi-coloured gems were not available to the public; one needed to join the different studios to purchase them. There was a whole industry centred around crafting in the tower and the raw materials were rarely obtainable by people outside this circle.
Nevertheless, it did not take long before I took out ten multi-coloured gems and handed them to the clerk.
[You have collected the maximum number of points allowed on the zeroth floor. Your points will be set to 1000. Please spend them at the merchant tower.]
As I expected, the tower’s voice sounded to my ears. The new hunters were not allowed to save more than a thousand points as long as they remained on the zeroth floor. It was a mechanism set in place to keep the newcomers in check. It was not so easy to earn points on the higher floors and it would greatly unbalance the forces if the new races could stack up massive amounts of points.
There were still a few ways to go around it such as buying expensive equipment or tons of mana stones, but these also had their own limitations.
“I’ll buy the First Floor Ticket immediately.” I said. Having the First Floor Ticket in hand would provide me with an additional safety layer. There was no need to use it immediately; I could do so at any time, including a situation where I may experience great dangers.
The clerk happily took out a yellow piece of paper with the a large “1” written on it. “Congratulations dear customer. You can activate the First Floor Ticket at any time by tearing it apart. We hope that you will continue to do business with us.”
I accepted the piece of paper and dropped it in my storage pouch disinterestedly. It was covered with runes and glyphs that I did not understand. ‘Now, all that is left is to collect another thousand points which is not absolutely necessary but should not be too hard considering how many valuable resources the tombs contain.’
“Anything else you would like to purchase?”
“A warm meal would be nice and also, an empty glass.” I took out the mana stones from the giant rats and treated myself to a sumptuous meal. It has been a long time since I was able to enjoy a lunch break.
I poured myself a glass of wine from the wine barrels and sat down in a shaded area to eat. The wine tasted sour and sweet but mostly sour. I was not a wine expert, but this was not something I would consider to be very enjoyable. The whole wine barrel was the equivalent of a mana crystal; the mana stone equivalent used by fourth circle creatures to expand their mana pool.
If I were to consume a mana crystal, I had no doubts that my mana pool would instantly explode under the pressure. Nevertheless, drinking a single glass of wine would only apply enough pressure as an Intermediate-quality mana stone. The low-quality ones were no longer suitable for me as a first circle creature; they could still be used to recover my mana but not to expand my mana pool.
It was one of the incentives to climb up the tower; if one wanted to advance and unlock more spells, one needed to climb the tower and face the stronger monsters. Intermediate-quality mana stones were unfortunately not available on the zeroth floor. The merchant tower did not sell them and the monsters on this floor were not strong enough.
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Although I did not enjoy the fermented wine, there were some benefits to drinking it if I did not take in too much at once. My mana pool grew slowly without the gagging feeling welling up.
I ate quietly while thinking about a way to solve the issue at hand. I was planning on going back to the tombs to maximise my gains and possibly rip off all the other hunters. However, there was the issue of limited storage. My storage belt still contained over 3000 Nazlock Coins, 15 multi-coloured gems, a wide assortment of potions, two daggers and two wine barrels. The coins and the large wine barrels took up a lot of space which would limit the number of treasures I could take from the other hunters.
I would not commit the same mistake of leaving my treasures in my house but there was nowhere to store them. The merchant tower did not allow pre-payment and did not offer storage services. For storage services, I would need to purchase the blueprint of the Bank which would cost a lot.
‘Should I hide a stash somewhere in the canyon? No, someone may randomly stumble upon it…’
I finished my meal, pondering about my storage problem. In the end, I chose to simply keep my treasures on myself. It was inconvenient but also the safest solution. I would just have to charge my fellow hunters appropriately for my spells.
…
I once again faced the entrance of the Tombs of Nazlock. To my surprise, Eric and his group were camping outside. They seemed to have just escaped from the tombs. They were exhausted, breathing loudly and many were covered with injuries.
Hannah, the healer of Eric’s group was busy moving from hunter to hunter, casting her Heal spell continuously.
“Hey.” I walked up to Jake, one of the few people I was acquainted with.
“Alex. Good timing. Can you lend us a hand and heal my comrades? Even Eric does not look in good shape.”
I glanced at the other hunters calmly. “What happened inside? I know that the giant rats are sly, but they should not be able to harm you all that much.”
“When exploring the tombs, we came across a different type of giant rats. They were much larger, about this high.” He moved his hand up to his waist. “These giant rats were different from the others; our swords and spear could not cut through their hides. These giant rats worked together with the smaller ones and forced us to retreat. We ran away but even after Hannah used her spells, our injuries barely improved.”
“A different type of giant rats?” I asked thoughtfully. “Where did you meet these rats? At the Royals’ section?”
“No. We went to explore the Soldier’s section. Xia Shiyu’s team also tagged along but we went separate ways when we reached the deeper part of the tombs. I think they also met these giant rats and had a hard time.”
‘It is rather unusual. I’ve been exploring these tombs for over a week and never encountered a different type of giant rats. Levi did not warn me about them either.’ I said to myself.
“All I know is that some teams had casualties. When I was at the village, I noticed that the number of names on the daily ranking went down to 101. You should be careful when exploring the tombs. Hannah’s healing won’t help you much. Right now, you have been infected by a virus that is transmitted by the giant rats’ bite. Anyone bitten by the giant rats should start feeling weak after a while and their injuries would stop healing. I can help you with that, but you know my policy. I will charge you one point per spell per person. Is that alright?”
Jake bit his lips awkwardly. At the same time, I felt the resentful stares of his teammates. They all thought I was taking advantage of the situation to take their points. It was indeed scummy to ask for points, but I was giving them an extremely favourable rate. I would not use my mana for free; Cure costs about twice as much as Heal. But I was willing to help Eric’s group. After all, he did help me clean up the mess I made by killing Rudolf. He covered my back to some extent, and I was grateful for it.
“It is up to you. If you don’t want me to help, then you can go back to the village to buy antidotes. They cost ten mana stones each. It’s up to you.” I said casually.
Eric, stood up weakly and walked up to us with a pale face. “We will accept your offer. Help us and you can trade with Sonya afterward.”
And so, I got to work, starting with Eric himself. He knew very well that the others would not trust me because of my reputation and agreed to serve as a guinea pig. He wore a pair of greaves and a chestplate but his arms were completely exposed and covered with bite marks.
Cure!
I used one of my new spells according to the template in my mind. My mana flowed inside Eric’s body. The bite marks turned crimson as suddenly, blood started oozing out from the scabs. The blood had a brownish taint, showing that it was contaminated. Eric continued to bleed until the blood that came out returned to its familiar crimson colour. The process took some time as the virus had already flared up.
I followed up with a Heal to close the wounds again and a Cleanse to remove the impurities and blood that stuck to the scabs. When I was done, Eric could feel his strength coming back. It was not instantaneous but the nauseating feeling he had been experiencing, disappeared completely after treatment.
“I am feeling better. Thanks.”
I nodded quietly. “Just sit down and rest for a few minutes. You will feel better soon. Next time, don’t face the giant rats without a proper armour.”
“We are not as rich as you; my whole team cannot afford a full armour set. We should have taken precautions and bought antidotes. How come you managed to heal me, but Hannah cannot do so?”
“I used a different spell called Cure. Hannah will naturally learn it once she advances.”
“You already advanced? How did you do it so quickly?”
I casually exchanged a few words with Eric as I moved on to the next person to heal, Jake.