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Trading Across the Universe
CH 3: Scavenger's Greatest Find

CH 3: Scavenger's Greatest Find

Harsh thought about it for a while and chose to use the Travelling Shop first. While he's eager to use the True Path Card and find a way to get stronger. However, doing it in the shop should be more secure.

As soon as he thought of the Travelling Shop, he was transferred to another place. He was in front of a small garden and behind it was a reception. There were a few other rooms: a room for putting up requests, a meeting room, a storage room, and even a room for just sitting around.

He went into the sitting room and started using the other things he had gotten. The first thing he used was Fog of Mystery. Immediately, a fog surrounded the shop. He had looked outside before and it was just abandoned buildings. He didn't know where he was but now that the fog has spread, others won't know when they get in the shop. No one outside the shop can see inside either.

Next, he summoned the security Golems. Turned out they were switched off. To run the Golems, one needed a mana stone.

He could, however, buy Mana Stones from the shop.

A Tier-1 Mana stone was worth 1 TP and a Tier-2 Mana Stone was worth 10 TP. Any Mana stone can run a Golem for 2 Hours. He was currently unable to buy Mana Stones of higher Tiers.

He also found out he could buy some other things from System Shop. Like more Golems. However, these Golems had fixed Tiers. Tier-1 Golems were worth 1,000 TP and Tier-2 Golems were worth 10,000 TP.

There was also a Recruitment Letter worth 1,000 TP. There was also a note saying more things would appear as he encountered them.

As for the Display Shop. There were many things in it. The only problem was he couldn't see the description of these things until he rented or bought them and could only see their name. While names can sometimes describe an item perfectly they can also be misleading. So, for now, he put the display shop aside; he'd have to look at it and determine what to do later.

Now, finally, he took out the True Path Card.

As soon as he activated the Card, he found himself in endless space. This was different from last time when he had met his doppelganger. Now, the space was quite different; there was light, and he could see galaxies and such.

In front of him were 4 gates; each gate was different from the others. The first one was dark red and oozing out the aura of destruction. On the gate it was written: The Dance of End

The next door was calm and sturdy. The gate was light grey and with light as ink was written: The Space is a Barrier

The next door was entirely made of light and had nothing written on it. But if you try hard enough you'll feel as if light separating and turning into letters and it said: Beyond the Horizon

The last door was a simple wooden door, but you could feel the aura of the universe itself from it. As if everything lay on the other side of the door. On the door, was a simple sign that had something written on it, it was: 108 Laws and One Creation

He started with the process of elimination. First of all, he removed the destruction one because he was not someone who would be destroying things right and left. Maybe he'll be powerful enough to destroy his enemies if he chose it but he would rather not.

Next, he eliminated the Space is Barrier thing because, obviously, it was a type of Barrier-based class or something. While it might be a good defense, it would probably have no offense.

Now he was torn between Beyond The Horizon and 108 Laws and one Creation; The former felt like it had something to do with distance and going beyond something, while the latter seemed extremely versatile. In the end, he chose to listen to his mind and go for the Versatile path because while focusing on one thing is good, it's only good when you've allies who can help you with things you lack. Currently, he has none, and he doesn't think he'll have such allies anytime soon.

As soon as he opened the door, he found himself back in the sitting room; however, in his mind was a book. The book seemed extremely large but only a portion of it was currently available to him.

He immediately started reading it.

“Laws are the building blocks of creation. There are 108 prime laws that lay the foundation of the creation. In this universe, these laws can be understood and rewritten by using pure forms of energy. Aether is an energy that is created when matter disintegrates without any law and thus the purest form of energy. Only a being made of Aether can control the laws to their finest points. To do that, one must first create an Aether Body and to create an Aether Body, one must first absorb Aether in their energy core. An energy Core can be built by first making a foundation using energy; to do that, first, one should feel the energy itself. Now let us talk about how to feel Aether and manipulate it to Basic intent. There are many ways to do that; while some are extremely fast, they also have extremely specific conditions; the most proficient way is where there are no specific conditions. A soul…."

Ruins of Jazag, Mahmia Region, Planet Axises

Andre and his team of scavengers had been trying to find something useful in the Jazag Ruins. That's not to say they haven't found many useful things already, but still, they had come here for a particular resource. Their contractor had specifically asked for Necro Wood. While rare before the Great Catastrophe, nowadays, Necro Wood is quite easy to find but hard to acquire.

Necro Wood is found from any kind of Tree that had grown in Death Energy and almost all the ruined cities were full of it. But still, the quality of the wood can also be different; if it was just a simple Necro Wood, they wouldn't have come here. No, they were looking for the Holy Genic Plant that had been born in Death Energy. As the only city on this continent that had a Grand Priest living there before the Great Catastrophe. Their chances of finding it here were the greatest.

But who would have thought that this place would be filled with rats, rats that had been absorbing pure Death Energy for years? Rats weren't hard to kill for these professional scavengers, but these mutated rats who, as soon as they die, come back to life as zombie rats were extremely hard to kill, and the population was also simply too much.

The only good thing was that all of their weapons were specifically built to deal with these kinds of creatures. But alas, Andre was the only one powerful enough to survive the constant onslaught, his teammates died one by one. Was he depressed about his teammates' deaths? Not really, as a scavenger with 30 years of experience, he had seen too many comraded die in front of him, hell he didn't even cry when his own hand had been cut clean by a beast. The profession of a scavenger was such that you could only accept your fate.

But to his surprise, he did end up finding what he was looking for, the thing they had come to collect. The Holy Genic Plant that had been Corrupted by Death Energy was even 200 years old as well. A treasure that could fetch him a year's worth of Aura cores.

He also found some younger ones and uprooted those as well and put them all in his storage bag. Of course, not just any scavenger had a storage bag; while they were extremely common before the Catastrophe, nowadays it was a treasure. It took him years of scavenging to find this one.

As he was looking for the best way out and climbed a tall building, he saw a building not too far away. There are many buildings here, yes, but this one was different, it was intact. It looked as if it had just been built; there were no weeds growing around it, there were no cracks, and it looked completely out of place. But the most surprising thing was that just as he was watching, it suddenly got shrouded in thick mist.

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Okay, he wasn't a mad person, but come on. As a scavenger, if he didn't take chances, how would he have survived for so long? He knew he had to go there; there was a good chance that it could be dangerous, but danger also meant more opportunities. He immediately started heading towards the Misty building.

Of course, he had just earned a fortune, but fortune also meant danger; if he could become strong, he would take the risk. Having a fortune with you without the power to protect is the greatest risk. But this mist gave him the feeling of power. Obviously, he has no idea that it wasn't the mist but rather the building itself that gives off an Aura that makes people feel that if they go in, they'll get whatever they desire.

While the effect wasn't strong enough for the powerful, it was still quite strong for Andre.

Back at the Trading House/ Travelling Shop, Harsh was still reading the large book floating in his mind when he was suddenly surprised by the mental notification from the system.

[Task: Your first customer has entered the shop. As it's your first impression towards the universe, prepare the best and fulfil your job as a Trader. Make at least one deal with the first customer.

Punishment on Failure: -1000 TP

Rewards: 7-Day Rent-A-Pack Card (Rank Determined by Performance)

Task Type: Growth ]

He immediately tidied himself and approached the reception desk.

"Welcome to the Universal Trading Centre, how may I help you?"

Harsh was quite nervous as he himself didn't know much about what the trading here was supposed to be like. What if the customer tried to sell something extremely expensive? Or he asked to show him items, he didn't have any items now, and even the Display shop was closed because he hadn't bought or rented any items in it.

He tried using Appraisal on the customer.

[Name: Andre Cliffgaurd

Tier: Low-Tier 2

Energy Type: Aura-???

Race: Human-Axises

Bloodline: (none)]

Andre was looking around the shop, which seemed extremely ordinary yet everything he saw seemed as if they were Mysterious. His 5 senses told him everything is ordinary but his Aura sense told him that everything is unknown and Mysterious.

As the Shopkeeper asked the question, he thought about it for a moment before replying.

"Ah, Can I sell this here?" He asked, taking out a spare Holy Genic Plant that he had found; while this one was also 200 years old, it was already uprooted, so its quality wouldn't last anyway, and if he was too late to reach the city, the plant's value might drop by a large margin.

Harsh took a look at a small plant that had golden leaves but was spewing out grey smoke.

Upon using his Item Appraisal, which could appraise anything he found.

[Item Type: Herb Plant (Uprooted)

Item Tier: 3

Item Energy: Mana

Item Name: Holy Genic Plant (Corrupted)

Description: It's an uprooted Holy Genic Plant that has been corroded with Death-type energy for about 200 years. It's a rare plant that's only found in places where there's a consent flow of Holy or Light-type mana as well, and it's taken care of by a specific person only. While its Corruption due to death energy is almost impossible due to the counter elements, this particular plant has been corroded by constantly being in Death Energy yet constant supply of Holy Energy from its root. It can be used by a Holy Necromancer to create a Tier-3 undead which could even go against Low Tier-5 beings. Other uses include but are not limited to, healing undead, corruption of the soul, rituals of death, and Summoning of the Angel of Death. It's recommended to be contained soon so it does not lose energy in the environment.

Item Price: 80,000 TP]

"Let's see, what price are you asking for this Corrupted Holy Genic Plant?"

Andre started thinking about it. The price of such a thing can be about the same as 5 Tier 3 Aura Stone, but it's already been Uprooted, so the price should be lower. While he could not see through the entity in front of him, it seemed as if the same fog that had blocked his vision before was blocking his senses. He was still a confident scavenger; he knew that if this person wanted, he could directly take away the plant, but every place has its rules, and he was confident that this person wouldn't attack him unless he took the opportunity to.

So he confidently replied for 5 Tier-3 Aura Stones.

Harsh, on the other hand, was thinking about how he should decline this request yet make at least one deal after all the failure to the Task given by System was -1,000 TP. He was already short of TP, he had seen it after browsing through the Display Shop options for just a couple of minutes.

So when his first customer replied

"I can offer it to you for a total of 250 TP." Harsh was confused at first but then became overjoyed. Isn't that Trade is buying things from people who have an abundance of it and would trade it at low prices and sell it to people who didn't have it at higher prices?

He politely replied.

"That is a suitable price, I can take it off of you."

Andre was also quite happy; if he had waited to sell it in the city, he knew getting even a single Tier 3 Aura Stone would be extremely hard. Next, he thought about how he might be able to buy things here as well. Could he buy an Aura weapon here? Aura weapons were extremely rare. Currently, everyone just uses imbued weapons. These were weapons imbued with an Aura Stone, and you had to constantly change the stone about every month. But with 5 Tier-3 Aura Stones, he should definitely be able to buy a Tier-1 Aura weapon. You might think that he, who's someone at Tier 2, shouldn't be using a Weapon below his Tier. But obviously, it's extremely hard to get weapons of the same tier; after all, same-tier weapons can almost double your power. On top of that the blacksmith to craft these weapons were rare, rare enough that he had only heard about such people and never seen one.

"Would you happen to have any weapons here?"

"And what are you looking for, sir? We have a variety of weapons, you see, so if you could state what you want, we can narrow down the search." The Shopkeeper Answered.

"Do you have any Aura weapons?"

Harsh who was using the system to look into display shop items. Immediately searched for an Aura weapon. He found many packs which only contained Aura weapons, so he instead asked.

"And at which Tier would you like your Aura weapon to be?"

Andre was surprised, they even had options on that. Did they probably even have Tier-3 weapons? The thought scared him. Only existences like Lords had it. Of course, it's said that before the Great Catastrophe, they were quite common, but nowadays?

Still, he answered what he wanted; after all, he knew that even if they had it, he did not have enough money to buy it, so why bother with it and offend this mysterious shop?

"A Tier-1 weapon is fine with me." He replied.

Harsh found many packs that had Tier-1 Aura Weapons. While he could also just buy an item, it'll definitely be better to rent a pack as he had calculated.

He rented a pack called Aura of Light and Dark, and immediately, it was in the Display Shop.

"Please look at these", he said as he pointed towards the display, where suddenly 20 different weapons appeared.

The rent had cost him about 50 TP; the rent was for a month, so he might even earn from it in the future.

He also had to immediately set the price which he did extremely fast.

There were 20 weapons, 15 of which had an original price of 10 TP, and 5 had an Original price of 20 TP. It costs about 20% of the original price to rent it for a month.

He priced the first 5 Weapons at 12 TP each, the next 5 at 15 TP each, and the last five at 20 TP each.

Next, he priced all the weapons, which had the original price of 20 TP at 35 TP, except the last one, which he thought looked cool, and priced that one at 50 TP.

While you might think the price increase is too much, again, this person had just earned 250 TP, and Harsh wanted to recover the rent as soon as possible. After all, who knows if he'll find another customer who's interested in Aura weapons at Tier-1.

Andre on the other hand, was astonished looking at the low price of weapons. But he just couldn't trust it immediately, so instead of thinking of buying a Tier-2 weapon, which, looking at the rates, he probably could, he'll just buy one weapon now and see how good it is.

Each and every weapon on the shelf looked great, but he knew the best one was the highest-priced one. The long curved sword. Its blade was dark, but yet you could feel something holy in it. The sharpness was such that it was dazzling to him.

He immediately bought it; after all, the cost was only a single Tier-3 Aura Stone.

Harsh, on the other hand, had earned back 30 TP.