Chapter 36: The End of Preparation
Stroph was dumbfounded by what he had seen, it seemed to be the way to the appraiser's room, not the fight club.
Immediately after the man flew out the door, some old man shouted, "Get out of here! How dare you bring me some junk for an appraisal, am I a stupid boy?!"
The man said nothing and just ran away in fear. Apparently, he couldn't afford to insult the man inside.
Stroph watched the whole thing, then walked into the room, which was already doorless. He immediately saw an angry old man with a long white beard and many wrinkles on his face. Oddly enough, he looked rather frail, but it was obvious that it was definitely he, who had just thrown the man out.
The old man immediately spotted Stroph, and snarled: "What do you want? If you brought some junk, you can get out of here right now." As he said this, his beard rippled and his eyebrows wrinkled heavily.
Stroph was silent for a while, then he said: "Mr. Mo, I have two blades for you to evaluate, please, examine them". There was a plaque on the table with "Mo" written on it in large letters, so Stroph decided to address him that way.
Old Mo didn't answer Stroph right away, first he looked him over, head to toe, then he snorted and said: "All right, show me what you've got." After these words, he pointed to a large metal table.
The blades were in Stroph's inventory, so he simply put his hand under his coat and took them.
When old Mo saw the two azure blades, he did not react in any way. He began inspecting every detail and he used different devices to check the various data of the weapon.
For a moment, old Mo's eyes widened greatly and Stroph noticed it.
For the next couple of minutes nothing unusual happened. Putting the blades aside, the old man looked at Stroph and asked: "Young man, where did you get those blades?"
Stroph was alarmed by this question, so he decided to ask his own without answering this one: "Will it change the price?" Stroph's voice was calm and relaxed.
Old Mo answered nothing and only nodded affirmatively.
Seeing Old Mo's answer, Stroph sighed slightly, then, replied, "I got them by killing an agent from the organization that is located in the 'Inner Circle'."
Immediately after Stroph finished his sentence, a slight smile appeared on old Mo's face and he calmly said: "I'll take both blades for fifty thousand sempets, do you agree?" He spoke as if he had already bought them.
Stroph didn't think long, and immediately replied, "All right, but would you be so kind as to tell me how the price was affected by the information about the provenance of these blades?"
The old man was greatly surprised, it seemed that Stroph was asking something incredibly obvious and foolish. "Boy, don't you know that anything related to the Inner Circle in the slums is valued many times more than anything else?" Old Mo said nothing more, and only took the two azure blades and carried them away somewhere.
Stroph was about to say that he'd forgotten to pay him, but at that very moment a notification came on his bracelet about fifty-thousand sempets refill.
His destination was a huge store with a big round sign in the shape of a red scope.
Inside he saw a variety of pistols, machine guns, rifles and so on. Stroph decided to go straight to the salesman and ask to see more high quality weapons, because everything in here could hardly be called decent enough, well, of course, if you compare it to the "Last Light".
"Hello, I'd like to buy a sniper rifle, but I'd like to look at something better, I have money".
Stroph had already understood the main rule of Terein or maybe of all slums in general, if you have money, many doors become open.
The salesman wasn't the least bit confused by Stroph's words and only replied with a smile, "I see, please, choose where you want to go" After these words, an information window appeared before Stroph's eyes, which offered three options, or rather three passes.
As Stroph understood, there are several varieties of weapons in this store, which you can only look at if you pay the right amount of money.
Naturally Stroph chose the most expensive pass, he wanted a good and powerful weapon that would help him earn a lot of coins and points.
After Stroph had paid as much as five thousand sempets for the pass, the salesman's demeanor changed noticeably. He leaned heavily and his tone became much more respectful, "Sir, please follow me." They took the lift down to the lowest level. But to Stroph's surprise, this was not the end of their journey, after one lift, another followed, which brought them down only one floor, but as Stroph could see, they needed a special card to ride the lift.
Eventually they came to a small room containing about twenty sniper rifles, each housed in a special capsule, like a rare historical exhibit.
"Please, look around, the prices and characteristics of the weapons are written on the screen on the capsule. When you are ready to buy anything, call me." After these words the man went back, leaving Stroph alone. The man wasn't worried about Stroph stealing or breaking anything, for trespassers were dealt with very quickly and easily here.
After the salesman left, Stroph began to look at the rifles. For each one he used the Estimate, and chose the most suitable option, the priority, of course, was damage, but rate of fire, accuracy, and magazine size also mattered.
The sniper rifles here were made of rare and unusual materials, as that one which was Stroph's final choice. It was a rather long and large sniper rifle made mostly of some kind of black wood, but the wood was not at all unusual. It had many blue cracks in the shape of lightning bolts. From the information provided by the store itself, it was made from the bark of Thunder Trents. Stroph didn't know what these creatures were or how strong they were, but the damage was incredible and not just the damage.
[Sniper Rifle - "Thundering Roar"]
[Rarity - rare]
[Damage - 47]
[Magazine size - 3]
[Skills - none]
Seeing such an incredible figure as 47, Stroph's eyes widened, sniper rifles certainly should be powerful, but he did not expect that much.
After all, judging by the system's estimate, 47 damage, meant that it could kill a monster of rank five. But the price was also incredible, 180 thousand sempets, for that kind of money you could buy a penthouse and a couple of slaves!
"Well, nothing to do, good things cost good money" Stroph didn't want to part with such an impressive sum of money, but he couldn't let his greed deprive him of such a weapon.
But just as he was about to call the man and pay for his purchase, one of the three white straps stung him on the arm.