Chapter 22 : : Fallen Sakura

When they entered, their eyes first landed on the three main sets of equipment on the display at the opposite side of the entrance door in the store.

Three cuboidal glass frames were arranged in a row, a mannequin in full-body attire was placed in one each. The mannequin in first glass case looked like a bulky man, he was wearing a full-body armour resembling a knight, he was holding a dual edges long sword in both of his hands, just by wearing the set that mannequin developed a majestic presence to it. The armour may look simple in design but it was a treasure for those who walked the martial path to become Martial Artist/Battle Knight, it can only show its true capability when Battle Qi is injected in it.

The second mannequin was wearing a black suit, it looked like a light armour that covered his whole body but unlike the simply designed knight armour it had a complex infrastructure, the helmet had pitch-black glass instead of metal, a mechanical spinal cord supporter was present on its back, the body of the suit so precise that it seemed like it was processed with laser tech. The technology used in making the suit was without a doubt belonged to the science field, it was made for mutants, the suit can use the psychonic energy wield by mutants to work.

The mannequin in the third glass case was of a woman, she was wearing a long white robe with a hood covering her face, she held a long wooden staff in her hand, it was a wooden staff with irregular surface, there was a big lump on its top and a red crystal was embedded in it.

It wasn't easy to tell the capabilities of a mage robe or staff just by looking, it was harder even when compared to the other two because when a mortal looks at them, the former two might caught his attention because of their extraordinary presence and cool designs but the robe looked quite ordinary. A magic robe and staff are just like sleeping creatures that won't wake up until they found their host.

Kale looked at the not-so-cool staff in the third mannequin's hands, his brows twitched.

'Don't tell me I too have to carry that type of thing in the future, it looks like a toilet cleaner, don't they feel embarrassed using it while fighting?' Kale thought when he looked at the disfigured wooden log in the glass frame.

"Boy don't underestimate that magic staff, it might not look cool and fashionable like the modern ones but it was once wielded by the supreme wielder of flame in her early days, you might have heard of her nickname before… Inferno," The man managing the counter saw Kale staring at the staff and said.

Kale turned to the man, he was a middle-aged man with short grey hairs, he was neither tall nor short, right now he was sitting on his chair with his right leg folded on his left, showing his disposition in the store.

"Inferno? Is she the same Inferno who is now respected as one of the Supreme Guardians of the kingdom that works directly under the command of the Queen?" Arlo asked in doubt.

"Haha… Are there two Inferno in this world? She is the same one, let me tell you something interesting, she had also graduated from this academy in the past, aim high boys, someday one of you might also become the man pillars of the kingdom," The man said with a smile.

'Who wants to waste their whole life in one kingdom? Humph,' Kale inwardly snorted but didn't show it on the surface, he nodded then started browsing through the items on the display again.

He had first desired the white rob on the third mannequin but after looking at the price tag, that thought vanished without a trace. The number of zeroes aside, the robe cannot be bought with CP alone, it needed either Origin Crystals or Magic Crystals which is not something he could afford right now.

The former are crystals produced when a rich amount of Origin Energy is condensed into one place, the Origin Crystal contains a large amount of Origin Energy that can help others cultivate easily. The latter is the condensed form of Mana, and the mages could directly absorb Mana from it by just using the secondary cultivation technique.

This was the same with the first mannequin and the second mannequin, the first had the choice between Origin Crystal or Spirit Crystal while the second had the choice between Origin Crystal or Psychonic Crystal.

While looking through the rows of items on display, Kale saw several types of interesting origin tools, spirit tools or magic tools… etc but these were not suitable for him. In the end, he stopped searching and came to the man at the counter.

"Are there any good knives?" Kale asked.

The man raised his eyebrow, he asked "Are you looking for a butchering knife? It's for dismantling right? You can go and check out the last row, there should be some good quality ones there,"

Kale shook his head "I already checked them, they are not suited for battle, I want a knife for battle not butchering,"

The man was quiet for a few seconds, he expected Kale to be a mage so he shouldn't need a weapon. Moreover, even if he wants to use a weapon why would he use a knife? He said, "Boy, if you want a short and light blade then why not use a dagger instead?"

Kale denied his suggestion almost instantly "Knife and dagger are different, the feel is different, I want a knife long enough to match a dagger, light as a soft sword, strong and sharp like a blade but it has to be a knife,"

The man sighed deeply, then pondered for a while before asking "Hmm... Maybe you want to order a tailor-made weapon, by the way, how much CP do you have?"

Kale took out his phone and showed it to him. He wasn't worried about the man tricking him as he had no benefit in doing such a thing.

The man gasped at the sight "3500? Weren't you from the new batch?"

it was the reward Kale got after betting all the points again and again, not only on himself but on Arlo's duels too, sometimes he got the rewards with the extra bonus before the duel and betted all of it, in the end, the total he got was 3500 which was an astonishing amount for a rookie, if he hadn't bought information from Layla at 25 CO then his gains might be more right now but he didn't regret it, who knew if he had waited and didn't buy the information from Layla, then the next time he goes to choose the technique, the result he gets might not be the same. Or maybe if he did that then Layla wouldn't have asked him to go with her to hunt then he wouldn't have gotten 40 CP because of those foxes. Like that… There were no ifs in this world.

Kale nodded, admitting that he was from the new batch.

The man had guessed their identity because of their new faces, and age. Even if Kale lied, he would know it at the time of completing the transaction.

The man thought for a while, then his eyes gleamed "With this much money, there might be something that may suit you, wait here for a moment," He said before leaving the store from the door behind the counter.

"Did you find something suitable?" Arlo came from behind, he was holding two identical sheathed blades in his hand.

The blades were slightly curved backward, their scabbard was blue and the hilt was silver, the most eye-catching thing about them was the pale blue crystal embedded on their hilt.

The crystal soon caught Kale's attention.

"What grade?" He asked.

Arlo smiled then replied while gently caressing the blades with his hands "Enlightened-Mortal-Rank Rare-Grade,"

"Hmm…" Kale slightly nodded, Arlo too had earned a lot of points, although he didn't bet on Kale all the time, his initial bet amount was higher because of his ranker prize, Kale didn't doubt that he might still have quite a lot of points left.

The owner of the store came back at this time, he was holding a long cuboidal box in his hands, the box was covered in dust, it looked like it wasn't taken care of for a long time.

The man grinned when he saw Kale's expectant gaze, he placed the box on the counter and opened it without saying any words.

Kale looked at the content of the box and his eyes flickered.

A pitch-black long knife was lying motionlessly inside the box, it was a one-sided curved edge knife, its surface was so black that when the light feels on its surface, it seemed like the light got sucked inside it. The handle of the knife was similarly made of black material with a red spiral lining on it.

'A perfect killer tool to move in the night,' Kale thought when looking at the knife.

"How is it?" The man asked with a smirk.

"It's grade?" Kale asked in a doubtful tone.

"Elemental-Mortal-Rank Epic-Grade," The man said with a hint of pride in his tone.

Arlo stared at the knife in slight surprise.

Unlike him, Kale frowned "Is 3500 CP enough to buy such a thing?"

The man smiled at his question "Of course it isn't but that's in normal circumstances, there are four reasons for which you can buy it.

The first is, this wasn't supposed to be a knife. My father once refined it on a customer's order, what he intended to refine was a short blade similar to short swords but because of the lack of good material the refining was about to fail so instead of letting it fail he altered its shape to prevent the degrading of quality and here is the result. We cannot give such a thing to our client so it wasn't on display but no one bought it so far and I had no choice but to put it in the storeroom.

The second reason is, you two have just triggered the hidden event 'Fast 20', the first twenty students from your batch will get a 30% discount on the first thing you buy. One more thing, you cannot change your decision to buy it or you will get disqualified from the event. Lucky for you two, you are my 7th and 8th customer.

The third reason is, it's a knife, knives are cheaper compared to blades and swords, if I have to speak the truth its price is higher because father intended to actually refine a Legendary-Grade blade but unexpectedly.. sigh.. let's leave it aside.

The fourth is, although even after the first three points, 3500 CP is still not enough to buy that but we have a loan and installment function when selling things at price above 3000 CP, I won't lie to you boy, I want to give you an extra discount but the rules are rules. This weapon stands at the peak of the Elemental-Mortal-Rank stage in quality, if it was a sword or a blade then its price would be around 5500 on average which is after cutting of the discount but it's a knife. Hmm…. According to my evaluation, the minimum price of this knife is 4500 CP.

You can take a loan and we can talk about the interest rate or else… Borrowing is also an option," He said while shooting a glance at Arlo.

Arlo understood his meaning, he looked at Kale "1000 CP it is, sure take it just return me in the same amount,"

He had quite a lot of CP, even so, if it was before he might have hesitated but he now he knows that it's easy for Kale to earn that much and he could increase his trust in him by doing that… so why not?

Although he agreed he didn't like Kale's idea of carelessly spending all his points on the first day, of he spent all the money on the weapon then what about the armour? Potions? Spells? And other gears. He himself is only buying Enlightenment Mortal-Rank blades for this very reason, he wanted to warn Kale but he felt that if he interfered right now then it would seem like he doesn't want to lend points

Kale didn't reject and took the points from it.

He then looked at the owner "What's the name?"

The man chuckled and said "I'm Freed Ironheart, you can call me Owner Freed,"

"I was talking about the knife," Kale said with an innocent look.

Freed was speechless.

Arlo looked at Kale, with an expression that said 'Can't you be more considerate?'

Items whose grade reaches at least Epic would usually have a name regardless of their rank. So it was natural for the knife to have one.

Freed coughed a few times, then said with a straight face "It was named as Fallen Sakura, it means…"

"I understand, can I try it before making a decision?" Kale interrupted him again.

"…" Freed was at a loss.

'This child doesn't care about other's face at all,' He thought then said "There is a trial room at the end on second last row, you can try it there, you don't need to worry about someone eyeing your techniques because according to the rules of the academy, if someone does that then their license would be revoked and they could even be sent to prison,"

Kale nodded he then reached out his hand and held the knife in the box.

'It's heavier then it looks, it's not ideal but it should work for now,' Kale held the knife in his hand and went to the trial room.