Supreme Monarch

The five hunters stared at Tyler intently, it was indeed true that he had no reason to bother with such a shady and dangerous mission when he was already a VIP merchant with access to valuable resources.

Based on that alone, money would no longer be a problem for him, and judging by the strength he displayed in the alley, his ability to transport goods to faraway regions due to his rare mound, he was already doing them a favor just by considering their request

Dohel sighed inwardly, he turned to his companions and they shared a look of understanding. They've already wasted a lot of time searching for a decent merchant and even going as far as wanting to hire the shady merchants that had ties with the underground.

And even those had rejected their offer. The job was just too risky and the reward wasn't even guaranteed. They no longer had a choice but to use their last negotiation chip.

It was a shame they had to give this up but this was a golden opportunity to get an actual VIP merchant. With his VIP discount, their gains would surely be a lot higher than expectations and with the predicament, they've found themselves in. They really could not afford to give up more than 20% of their actual loot especially now.

Dohel clears his dry throat before he spoke again:

"We appreciate you considering our proposal, and believe me, I wish we can offer you more but like I said earlier. We need every penny we can get so how about this..."

He reached into the pouch by his waist and retrieved something, before placing it at the top of the table. Tyler's eyes squinted underneath this hood as he tilted his head slightly and Dohel surely wouldn't miss the opportunity.

"Seeing as you have a magic carriage. I take it you're quite familiar with magic items right?"

He did not give Tyler any opportunity to speak as he quickly added: "This right here is an Epic ranked magic item, of course you know how magic items are ranked right? It starts with Ordinary, Extraordinary, Rare, Famed, Relic, Epic, Legendary, and to top it off, Artifacts, or magic artifacts if you prefer. That means this right here is only two ranks below that of a magic artifact."

A smile grew on Dohel's face as he could sense the rising interest in the hooded man even though his partner was just quietly staring as she sipped the drink in her cup.

He was right, Tyler's interest had been piqued but it wasn't because of the item Dohel had brought out. Rather, he was more interested in what was coming out of Dohel's mouth as this was the first time Tyler had learned more about magic items. 

To be frank, he was under the impression that magic artifacts were entirely different from magic items but to his surprise, magic artifacts were just the highest level magic items. Although, he wasn't entirely wrong in his thinking.

"Amongst the list I just mentioned, magic artifacts are further separated into four ranks based on how strong and unique the artifact was as not all magic Artifacts had been created equally. They were further ranked into four grades. Starting with Special Grade artifacts as the weakest and possessed the least amounts of effects."

"Followed closely by Celestial Grade artifacts, Divine Grade artifacts and finally to top it off were God Tier artifacts, although the last one is just rumored as no God Tier artifacts has ever been found."

As Dohel, kindly explained to him the list of magic items and artifacts. Tyler finally lowered his gaze to take a look at the magic item on the table. It was something like a stick of about thirty to thirty-five centimeters in length. It emitted a faint but wild aura that was barely visible. 

This was undoubtedly a wand that looked to be made out of ivory. The handle was inscribed with quite the high-level runes that probably consisted of only first-level intermediate runes and as such, Tyler was unable to decipher its meaning.

There was a slightly glowing green gem attached to the front end of the wand and it gave it an indescribable feeling.

"What is this?"

"This is the wand of chaos, we haven't gotten it appraised yet so we're not exactly sure on the details but according to what we've learned, this is a summoning wand that is worth nothing less than 20,000 DC maybe more. That should be more than enough to upset your losses right. Truth be told, we were planning on keeping this as it seems like a great lifesaving card to have. Although we can't sell it ourselves due to the restrictions placed on high-grade magic items trading, as a VIP merchant, you should be able to do that no problem."

Tyler stared at the wand for a few minutes and thought about it. He wasn't really bothered about being dragged into anything troublesome to begin with as it was the fastest way to get introduced to the hidden powers in this city but he still wanted to get something for his efforts, and a magic item was surely worth the effort.

Not to mention, the magic item in question was something that could help him protect the castle. Although there was an abundance of magic artifacts in the magic library, he still couldn't enter and he wasn't even sure if it was a good idea to used anything from there in Public given as they were all valuable magic artifacts.

"Alright, we have a deal, what are the details of the mission."

"Really, that's great, well, first of all, we need to prepare and I'm afraid we can't tell you the details yet but, please meet us at the cities entrance first thing in the morning."

"Tomorrow huh..."

"Is that going to be a problem?."

"No, that would be fine.

They all nodded and Dohel smiled at them before the group quickly finished up their order as they stood up and bowed to them, bidding farewell before leaving the restaurant. 

Tyler watched the group leave before placing an order for some food when he suddenly realized something very important. Those damn idiots hadn't paid for the mountains of food that gluttonous succubus had eaten before they left.

He used placate on himself before remembering he would see them again, surely this time they would pay for this. The food arrived and they both ate. Although Tyler didn't need to eat he was curious about the delicacies of the demon continent.

They served him several specialties of the Sentro Region. Which were all a bit spicy but quite tasty and he ate them all without taking down his hood. When they were finally done with dessert they both left the place and took a private carriage to the large weapon shop in the south borough called Runic's Weapon shop.

This place came highly recommended by Zomatsu. It wasn't the popular Blackwing Weapons shop but the owner had a direct connection with one of the Ore refinement industries ran by an earl which was what Tyler was truly after.

The trip took about an hour but they finally arrived. The place was just a two-story building but it was still large and compared to the other buildings in the area, this place stood out quite a lot. They alighted the carriage and as usual, Nadine drew most of the men's attention and Tyler drew hostile glares.

The shop was filled with exquisite-looking armor that was on display behind a thick layer of enchanted glass. They glisten and shone like they were made of rare and valuable metals but Tyler could tell that, although they were valuable armaments and weapons, they were not that impressive and were purely meant for show.

A male clerk greeted them as they walked in and asked if they required an assistant. Tyler nodded under his hood and the clerk came over to introduce the various types of weapons and armors they had in stock.

Tyler listened quietly for a while before asking for ores, of course, most people wouldn't come here for ores so the clerk gave him a suspicious look. He then brought out his VIP license and handed it to the clerk. 

The clerk stared at the license for a while before leaving their side and headed for the back. A few minutes passed before the clerk came back out and invited them to the back. 

Tyler complied and followed the clerk closely behind. The back was partly a storehouse for large quantities of weapons and armaments. The Runic's Weapon shop also had a few blacksmiths on staff that produced most of their wares.

Tyler knew the top floor was for the more expensive and higher quality wares that were reserve for special customers and also contained VIP meeting rooms. The area they were in contained a large storehouse, several forges, and offices for the staff.

As they trailed behind the clerk, he leads them into one of those offices, one that was a little larger than the others. Situated inside the office was a short middle-aged man in purple overalls that were only worn as pants revealing his black tank top and bulging muscles.

He sat behind a desk as he used a tool that resembled a quill to engrave something on a short blade. 

Even after the three of them entered the room he continued his work as the clerk introduced them to him. The clerk pointed to the sofa by the side and asked them to sit. Tyler obliged and so did Nadine.

They both sat down and patiently waited for the man to speak. The man finally raised his head after a long time of working on the dagger. He took a look at Nadine and then the hooded figure that sat beside her, squinting his eyes a bit perhaps trying to use a Skill to take a peek underneath the hood.

Once he was either satisfied or disappointed with the results he nodded his head with the same deadpan expression on his face and spoke with a hoarse voice. "You're supposed to be a VIP merchant yet I have never heard of you before. Where exactly are you from."

Tyler turned to face him and responded curtly. "We came here because we were told that you had connections to provide us with more than the normal amount of refined steel, as well as some Orichalcum, and adamantine."

"And who exactly told you that."

The room grew quiet for a brief moment before Tyler spoke again. "It's fine if you can't handle it, we'll just have to try elsewhere."

The expression on the short man's face finally twitched a little. He nodded his head and said. "Fine, but this will cost extra. How much do you want?"

"Around a thousand tonnes of steel and as much orichalcum and adamantine as you can manage within the week."

He stood up and pick a small parchment on the drawer next to him and took a glance at it. He then went over to his seat and spoke again. That'll be a total of 56,250 DC, you'll have to pay half up front."

Tyler reached inside his robes and threw two small boxes at the man and he easily caught them. "Half of that amount is in there, please put the metals in those boxes and I hope they'll be ready by the end of the week."

"The man nodded and a faint smile grew on his face. "Alright, I know this is late and you already know that but I am Ferl Runic, the owner and head blacksmith of this shop. Do you also want to make some weapons or armaments from those materials?"

"That's fine, I'm only interested in the. materials. 

"Alright, I'll have my assistant draw you a contract, but of course, you can choose to forgo it if you do not want any paper trail." The man said with a strange smile plastered on his face.

"A contract is fine." What was the point in using a fake name if he was still going to be scared of a paper trail?

Ferl frowned slightly and rang a bell by the side.his desk, soon after the male. clerk entered the room and lead Tyler and Nadine back to the main shop. A contract was soon drawn and Tyler took it and left.

The moment he was out of the shop Tyler's entire being felt like screaming. He fought desperately against the urge as his mind kept spinning.

: Why the fuck was that so freaking expensive, Damn it!, my wealth is all gone."

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