“I wanted defence equipment but they had none in ‘stock’ or were already sold out.” Ashton sighed as they walked out of the black market, “Why is my luck so shit?”

“Hey, at least you got another rare accessory. Cheer up!”

Unlike Ashton Rose was in a good mood. Why wouldn’t she be? After all, she got all the money she wanted. Heck, she even got more than she had hoped initially. Whereas, he wanted to get some defence equipment and couldn’t find an uncommon quality thing. 

He thought maybe he could save this opportunity and get something later. But he was told he had to get something right then and there or his winnings will get revoked. In the end, he was forced to get an accessory instead.

__

Item: Grim Reaper’s Necklace

Type: Accessory/ Necklace

> Defence: Boost undead stats by 20%

Stats bonus:

>> Armour: +10% in presence of an Undead (increases with user’s level or the number of undead creatures around).

>> Boosts the effect of curses cast by the user by 50%.

Rarity: Rare

Description:

A necklace said to have been retrieved from the Archlich, the second floor boss of the ‘Dungeon of death’. It is said to have some hidden bonuses and abilities that none of its previous owners had been able to discover.

This Necklace can only be equipped by a Vampire or an Undead. 

The weapon had been enchanted and imbued with unique abilities and effects.

Effect(s):

> Protects the wielder from curses by absorbing them and turning them into mana. <The user can not use mana yet. Please get to level 15 to unlock mana manipulation.>

> The necklace senses the presence of familiar skill. The user has been granted a Sync Skill: [Dance of the dead].

When [Corpse Parade] ability is activated, the user will be awarded some stat boosts depending on the type of Undead resurrected.

> Grants the user the active skill: [Locked] <Unlocks when the user reaches level 15>.

> Grants the user the active skill: [Locked] <Unlocks when the user reaches level 25>.

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‘At least I learnt something new today.’ Ashton thought as the image of ‘Bella’ crossed his mind.

Back when Ashton saw ‘Bella’, even though he couldn’t see her face, he had a feeling he had seen her before. That suspicion was easily confirmed when he used Detection to peek into the girl’s stat.

He had hoped that he would get to know something he could use to take ‘Bella’ down. However, he had never thought to discover that Bella was Anna swan. The same girl who stood by him when the Gruntas and other nobles started berating him after the exam.

From that moment on, she had piqued his interest a bit. Ashton could see a noble coming there to bet on fights and buy stuff, but he could have imagined someone of noble birth fighting in a place like that. 

Either way, since it had nothing to do with him, he didn’t care about it. Also, it wasn’t like he could just go up to her and ask her about it. Anna clearly wanted to keep it a secret and thus went to the length of colouring her hair and everything. So Ashton decided it was better to stay silent about it. For now.

A few minutes later, Ashton had his hands on the goods he wanted and Rose had hers on the money. But she wasn’t as heartless as Ashton thought she would be. After all, she gave him another 10k blue units from her winnings. 

Ashton was calling it her winnings because he didn’t place any bets on himself. What money Rose used to bet on him was hers and hers alone. The only thing Ashton was entitled to, was the necklace he got and nothing else. The money Rose was about to share belonged to her alone. 

“Thanks for this,” Ashton mumbled while Rose transferred the money to him, “I wholeheartedly believed you were going to take off with the money.”

“Yeah, well, I might be a bitch. But even I know what’s right and what’s not.” Rose smiled, but this time her smile felt like it was genuine, “Either way, I need to keep my fighter happy, don’t I?”

“This was a one-time thing.” Ashton immediately retorted, “Don’t think I’m going to fight here regularly.”

“What? I thought you liked the experience! On top of getting name and fame, you also get high-quality gear and good money. What else do you want?”

“Yeah yeah, it’s all good. But there’s just this one thing that bothers me… it’s ILLEGAL! If anyone from the academy got a whiff of the situation, I’ll be kicked out of there on the damn spot. That’s something no amount of money can make me do.” 

“The mask ain’t good enough to hide your face?”

“To be honest, it isn’t. At first, I thought it would be a great idea. But when that Bella girl kicked me in the face, the darn thing almost fell off.”

Rose got silent all of a sudden, or in other words, she was thinking something. It was true that the mask could hide his face, but if it ever fell off, things would get troublesome. Both for him and… for her. 

“I’ll figure something out. Till then you don’t need to fight there.” Rose confidently replied.

Ashton was surprised she actually listened to him for once and did not offer him more money to continue. Well, even if she had offered him more money, he would have declined. 

No amount of money was more important than his revenge, and to get that revenge, he needed to be a good boy in front of the mistress. He needed to learn as much as he could and try to earn the mistress’s trust before stabbing her in the back with the sharpest dagger.

“Glad we could come to an agreement. And on that note, we should part ways here. I don’t think the werewolves would like to meet you just yet even if you have your werewolf genes active.”

“Oh, I get it. You don’t wanna introduce your girlfriend to your mommy. Typical playboy stuff. Huh!” Rose threw a bit of drama and stormed off. 

Anyone who would have seen it happening would have thought Ashton to be a real jerk for sending his ‘girlfriend’ away like that. In fact, he could already feel their judging eyes on him.

‘That bitch…’ Ashton ignored everyone and walked back into his room through the window. However, as he did he realised he wasn’t the only one there.

“Where have you been?” The mistress’s scary voice echoed behind him.

‘Oh…. shit.’