Chapter 37: Contract

She wore similar clothing to Lawrence, which consisted of a turban and desert clothes. Unlike other Bermurans, hers was gray, but there were other differences as well. For one, her skin color was lighter.

“I am Marie Kruger-Mukasa!”

She had curly red hair, and she was very tall, but she also looked very young, maybe at the age of 14 or 15. She bowed with a huge backpack on her back.

“Thank you for using the Mukasa Trade Group, and thank you for calling me….”

When she straightened up to face Dohyuk…

“HEEEEEEEK!” she screamed. “Y-You’re….!”

Dohyuk quickly approached and covered her mouth. Marie was staring at Dohyuk’s cheek with a terrified look on her face.

“Isn’t it rude to make a ruckus in front of a customer?”

“…”

“You can say whatever you want. Quietly.”

Marie nodded and Dohyuk let go of her.

“Good. Show me what you’ve got to sell.”

“G-gosh… Lawrence, what did… you do to me… You never said…”

She mumbled as she began opening up her backpack to form a cart.

“I’m… an initiate, but that doesn’t mean…”

“…Sorry about that.” Dohyuk could guess what had happened, but he was in a much worse situation than her, “You must know how much I have.”

“Y-Yessir!” she stammered.

“I don’t care what it is, and I can use all my coins. I just need as many items as possible.”

“…You don’t care about any… kind?”

“Right.”

Marie was scared, but at the same time, she was curious.

“C-can I… ask why… you would want such a trade?”

Dohyuk narrowed his eyes. To him, he was buying food. If he could get his hands on anything that had ranks, he would consume it.

“I-I’m sorry! B-but I had to ask… That’s how I learned… all customers buy things for a reason… and it is my duty to… help the customer to purchase what suits them best…”

“…”

“HEEK! I will get you what you need!”

“I am going to eat it,” Dohyuk answered. He didn’t have much time. There was no time to waste until the Bermurans would come to fight him. However, his instincts told him that this Mukasa Merchant Group was one of those who made this game move.

“It’s my Nature.”

He explained his Nature, ‘Flavor of Iron’.

Marie did not react immediately as she was deep in thought.

“Then… can you tell me what ‘talents’ you have right now?”

“Talents?” Dohyuk asked in reply and realized what she was asking.

“Status.”

<<Skill – Talent>>

-Skill: Flying Master Kicks(Ga.2)

-Talents: Survivalist(Lv.2) Sense of Wolves(Lv.1) Bleed(Lv.1) Increase Pain(Lv.4) Damage Reduction(Lv.3) Clean Cut (Lv.1) Increase Strength (Lv.1)

“By the Mukasa…”Marie was astonished, “You really have an equipment option as your talent.”

“These things have never helped me though.”

“That’s impossible!” Marie shouted, but quickly covered her mouth, “I-I’m sorry. But that’s… it’s really hard to get talents.”

“…” Dohyuk nodded.

“I mean, talents are ones that people have within themselves. It’s like… a hidden trait within your spirit? Or something…”

Dohyuk did not realize it, but his ‘Damage Reduction’ allowed him to move and react in a way to receive the least amount of damage. ‘Bleed’ would have allowed him to inflict damage against opponents in the best way to make them bleed, and ‘Increase Pain’ would increase the pain when inflicting damage.

“In most cases, talents are given by the gods. Unless..”

“Unless?”

“There are races with genetic talents. Or geniuses? Those sorts of people can have different talents.”

Dohyuk then remembered the first time he saw his two talents.

Survivalist(Lv.2) Sense of Wolves(Lv.1)

“…”

“Oh, so what I wanted to say was…”

Marie quickly concluded, “You can sacrifice a number of items to get the items that can work with your ‘talent.’ This one for example..”

<<Corset of the Fallen Noble – B->>

-Magic Defense: 14~19

-Durability: 35/35

-Increase Pain(Lv.5) Lighten Body(Lv.4)

-Price: 32000 coins

She showed him the item. It had the same talent that Dohyuk had.

This was something that Dohyuk did not think about until now. Dohyuk then spoke his mind.

“…Are you really okay with that option?”

“Yeah.” Dohyuk nodded. After paying 91050 coins, Dohyuk received three items and a bag so that he could carry them on his back. They all had the same options.

“Uh…”

She shook as she finished the transaction. “I’m sorry. It’s my first solo trade… I had customers calling me, but there were problems with my communication…”

“It’s okay. You were a big help to me.”

She thanked him. “T-thank you.”

“Have confidence.”

“…”

Dohyuk then turned away as he was done with Marie. He had two more summoning scrolls. But-

“Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh….”

“Go on.”

Marie seemed to want to ask something.

“The armor that you’re wearing…”

“I’m not selling this,” Dohyuk replied. He did not know what the armor could do, but he had no intention of selling it.

“R-Right! Of course! I’m sorry. I didn’t think of buying the Godly Item. I just saw that you were wearing..”

“What good does it do if you buy this?”

“Huh?”

“That Lawrence tried to buy this off of me too.”

Dohyuk couldn’t Digest the item, so if there was a way for him to change it into coins, he thought that it would be better to gain information from Marie than from Lawrence.

“It… it is valuable, for one. It’s given by a god. It has power, but the wielder values it too. Besides, gods send their wrath to the seller if it’s sold…”

“And Lawrence wanted me to sell it.”

“I, uh…”

“It’s okay. Go on.”

Marie swallowed and continued, “Even then, if we are able to buy it, it proves that we are good at trading.”

“So, it’s a symbolic thing?”

“Y-Yes… even if it does not do anything, if we can buy even one…”

Her thoughts then turned into a dreamy illusion.

“Nobody in the group will ignore me… I will be nominated for the regional manager candidacy and…”

Suddenly, two figures jumped in from the window. It was the two Bermuran guards.

“YOU-”

Before they could yell, Dohyuk was already charging at them. He was ready as he had heard their footsteps. In his hand was the bag and he pulled out a scimitar.

“A sword?”

“That’s not in the report-”

<<Captain’s Scimitar – B->>

-Physical Damage: 39~51

-Durability: 28/28

-Clean cut(Lv.7)

A weapon that only served to cut was digested immediately.

<<Using ‘calories’ to heal wounds>>

<<Acquired Clean Cut(Lv.4)>>

<<Acquired 4221 coins>>

The Bermurans were shocked when the weapon disappeared, but they quickly swung their giant swords at Dohyuk.

‘They are weaker than the gatekeepers.’

Dohyuk knew from experience. However, this place was small and he was facing two of them. He couldn’t use big skills like he did on the gatekeeper as it would make him vulnerable to the other guard. Dohyuk readied himself with his kick that was aimed at the target’s arm. His feet lay horizontally as if they were going to cut something.

Then, he kicked. It was a simple kick, less powerful than Do-Ryu-Zen, but this was focused on destroying. That was why he did not use it until now. He now had a reason to use it.

-Clean Cut(Lv.4)

With his empowered talent, his foot struck the guard’s wrist. The guard dropped his sword as part of the wrist was cleanly cut. The arm now had a dangling wrist.

“…!”

Before the guard could scream, Dohyuk kicked his chin.

“N-NO!”

The other guard rushed in, but it was too late.

<<Acquired 1621 coins>>

<<Acquired 1549 coins>>

“It’s been a great help,” Dohyuk said as he turned back. Marie Kruger was slumped on the ground with tears and a runny nose, terrified at the scene in front of her. She was trying hard to quickly pack her belongings.

“I-I thought y-you were a good man…”

“…”

“B-but you were the one with the trace after all…”

She was holding the ticket to teleport out, but she couldn’t leave with her valuables still on the ground. Dohyuk then spoke to her.

“Let me offer you a contract.”

He said to the panicked girl, “I will get you more coins and respect that no one else can get.”

“…” she turned.

“As you see, I’m not in a really good relationship with this city.”

“It’s-it’s my first t-time seeing someone… breaking the o-order under the Sun…”

“Let’s cut out the irrelevant stuff.” Dohyuk continued, “I’m going to rob this city. I heard this place worships the one called Aruga.”

The whole city was like a shrine to the god Aruga. It meant there must be loads of those Godly Items.

“I’ll give every one of them to you. Didn’t you say that even one will raise your reputation?”

“…”

She was shocked, but Dohyuk could see that she was shocked because of the potential in that plan.

“It’s my guess, but that will help you get better items to sell too. No?”

“Y-you’re right.”

“I promise that I will sell all Godly Items to you, even outside of this city. But in return-”

Dohyuk then pulled out the two summoning scrolls. One had been used, which was Marie’s. The other two were Lawrence’s.

“He probably thought that he didn’t want to deal with me when I’m only a beginner. That’s why he gave me your scroll so I can talk to you for now.”

“…”

“But, you can keep on dealing with me.”

Dohyuk handed over the two scrolls to Marie. She meekly said, “But… if you do that… You will face the wrath of gods…”

“F*ck them. I don’t care.”

He was sick and tired of gods. He didn’t care what they did to him.

“B-but are you r-really okay with me?”

“Yeah.”

He had met only two merchants, but she was better than Lawrence.

“…Okay.”

She decided and took both of Lawrence’s summoning scrolls. Then, she took out almost ten stacks of her summoning scrolls.

“I’m still an initiate, so all this won’t be worth that of Lawrence’s.”

“It will change. You might even regret giving me so many later on when your summoning scroll costs go up.”

He then snatched the scrolls, “But it’s too late.”

“…”

She smiled faintly.

“…Then.”

“Goodbye.”

Marie disappeared. That’s when Dohyuk realized that for some unknown reason, he had been forgetting something.

“This damn thing.”

It was the glass bottle. This was, after all, a Godly item. As Dohyuk thought about summoning Marie back, a certain word popped up.

“…Huh?”