The Archangel of Death - Chapter 63

63: Shopping 63: Shopping Welcome to Kaneki_ and thanks for the golden ticket.

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===== Chapter 63 “So what you mean to say is that you hired mercenaries to clean up the dungeon but after clearing the first floor they never showed up and ran away with your money?” I asked, compiling the explanation given by the dungeon master.

Apparently, the dungeon master, the people who manage the dungeon matters, hired a group of mercenaries to clear the dungeon of the overflowing slimes since it hadn’t been cleaned for some time.

But the mercenaries, after clearing the first floor, leaving only a few alive to reproduce, never returned on the second day.

Obviously, the money they took wasn’t returned as well.

Now there were two points to focus on in this story.

First, the corruption of the dungeon master.

He must have been given funds every month to clean up the dungeon but did it only when the number of slimes got too overbearing.

Second, he tried to use us.

He didn’t tell us about the dungeon circumstances when we entered.

He couldn’t risk his corruption being exposed by letting us know so he let us just venture in and let nature take its course.

[Fancy words for he tried to kill you] ‘Of course.

He tried to kill us.’ Now if it had been anyone else, there wouldn’t have been so severe consequences but you won’t find this group anywhere else.

An imperial prince of the strongest nation.

A princess of the strongest kingdom.

A noble of the empire.

And last but not least, and the most important one of us all, the saint of light, the holy saint, Alicia.

I may only belong to the empire and so does Rose.

Similarly, Laura may also only belong to the kingdom.

But when it comes to Alicia, entire humanity is involved.

I doubt he knows all of that since he pulled this stunt.

I don’t like it though.

I may have mentioned before but I don’t like being used.

And this isn’t like Allen, who only wanted a title.

We could have died because of this sh*t and he is just sitting there, recounting the story like it’s a fu*king tragedy and has nothing to do with him.

Like it was just an unfortunate incident, a stroke of bad luck and we should all move on.

“How could you ju—” Alicia began to complain but I interrupted her with my arm extended in front of her.

“We’re leaving.” I simply said.

Maybe it was the coldness in my voice that Alicia slightly trembled.

Still, she respected my choice and chose to let go of this.

Of course, I didn’t.

===== “Since we are already here and it is just the second day, why not explore around a little and then rest in an inn?” I proposed as me and the girls left the dungeon master’s office.

“That’s a great idea!” Laura exclaimed joyously.

Alicia and Rose didn’t seem to object so we headed straight for the dungeon market.

Although not as big as the real market of Bellator, it was still close enough to the dungeons so the ingredients, monster pieces, and crystals here were fresh from the dungeons.

We looked around and I bought a few things for the girls.

I may be usually stingy with spending money but when it comes to women, I don’t hold back.

Not because I am trying to impress them with my wealth, they already know I have a lot of it.

I do that because their happiness doesn’t amount to a few pieces of paper or in this world, gold.

Rose subtly took a fancy to a dagger that was larger than usual.

Almost like a short sword but smaller than that.

I didn’t fail to pick that up as my focus was on her and Alicia anyway.

Laura wouldn’t hesitate to ask for anything even though she doesn’t lack money herself.

But Alicia and Rose wouldn’t be so open so I kept my focus on them in case they would take a liking to something.

“Do you like it?” I asked Rose who was a little surprised but once she realized, she tried to refuse, “I just glanced at it, Your Highness.

The dagger you gave me is good enough.” It isn’t.

It was when I gave it to her but now she is a B-rank, and a dagger equivalent to a D-rank weapon wouldn’t be very efficient for her.

When I examined the dagger, it was a B-rank.

I doubt I would have enough gold for it but I did have a lot of materials to give, mainly the slime cores that are sold for a hefty price since mages have a high demand for them.

“Come with me,” I said, dragging her inside the shop.

She kept on refusing but I didn’t listen and dragged her inside the shop.

“What is the price for that?” I asked the shopkeeper.

He smiled and after rubbing his hands together, replied, “Young Master, this dagger was made by a master craftsman using high-grade Qilin cores.

It has lighting properties imbued in it so its attacks deal lightning damage as well if mana is supplied into it.” He gave a brief description of the dagger and although he was exaggerating a bit, the description provided by the system was somewhat the same.

“What is the price?” I asked again since that was the only thing he had forgotten to mention.

“Just for you, Young Master, it is only 100,000 gold.” He replied with his flattering smile.

The price sounded fair since I had seen B-rank artifacts being sold almost at the same price in the Flame Dragon auction.

Rose, however, was shocked to hear the price.

“Your Highness, I really don’t need it.” She tried to explain but I wasn’t going to listen to her.

Putting aside the fact that she had taken a liking to the dagger, it was also a good dagger to teach her the assassin technique I was thinking of.

Instead of replying to the shop owner, I simply waved my hand and a few slime cores appeared on the counter and I asked, “Do you take other means of payment?” He was astonished to see so many slime cores at once but he wasn’t overly surprised.

He replied, “Although I do Young Master, these wouldn’t be enough to pay for it.” Of course, they were only C- in rank and I had only put on about twenty of them.

instead of replying, I pulled more, increasing their number to a hundred.

It still wasn’t enough but I was trying to gauge the price of the cores.

This time he was genuinely surprised.

“Young Master, where did you get so many of them?” He couldn’t help but ask in his surprise.

I only raised my eyebrow at him which was all the answer he needed.

“Young master, on average, these cores are sold for 300 to 500 gold depending on their concentration.

Since they are C- in rank, I don’t doubt the mana concentration so they would each be sold for 500 gold.” He again gave a lengthy explanation which was once again fair.

Not once had this guy tried to rip us off and I liked it.

So as a bonus, I waved my hand again and a hundred and ten more cores appeared bringing the count to 210.

This time, he wasn’t surprised but panicked and hurriedly closed the shop front so no one from outside could see it.

“Forgive me, Young Master, but slime cores in such a large quantity are often troublesome.” He explained his abrupt actions.

Figures, slime cores are in high demand by the mages and they would be willing to pay above market price for them.

But something so precious also comes with the risk of invoking human greed so he couldn’t let anyone find out.

“You have 210 and to pay for the dagger, 200 would be enough.” He counted the cores and stated.

I nodded and replied, “The rest are for your troubles.” He didn’t show modesty and simply accepted them with gratitude.

“Many thanks, Young Master.

Please, have it.” He grabbed the dagger from the wall and respectfully presented it to Rose.

Rose hesitatingly took it but the moment she did, the dagger strongly resonated with her as small electrical currents formed around her.

I decided to check that later and simply asked her to give it to me so I could store it in the inventory.

After that, we left the shop.

I thought of selling the rest of the cores as well but I doubted he would have the resources to buy them.

Also, I had another use for them in mind than simply selling them.

“Let us eat,” I said as I spotted a luxurious restaurant some distance away.

The girls had enough of shopping around so they agreed.

The lunch itself was quite good, although very expensive.

After that, we went for a little more sightseeing and shopping but rarely bought anything.

Once done with the day, we found a luxurious inn and rented a room for each of us.

The day was at an and my original revenue of about 100,000 gold was now down to 40,000 and some.

But every moment of it was worth it.

The girls enjoyed themselves deeply and the earlier incident from the dungeon was forgotten.

And as far as money was concerned, I was about to gain more of it.

Not from a business or selling the stuff in my inventory, but an old method called robbery.

Of course, robberies are often accompanied by deaths since the ones being robbed usually protest and unfortunately die in the process.

===== Jonathan Heim was an old dungeon master.

He had been managing the slime dungeon for thirty years now.

He was a lascivious man who was a frequent red light district visitor and indulged himself in all kinds of pleasures.

When one works on something for such a long time, they find loopholes in that job from where they have an opportunity to make a profit.

Jonathan was in his fifth year on the job when he found out that the dungeon management of the slime dungeon didn’t matter much.

So he used that to his advantage.

His pay wasn’t that exorbitant but it was above average than many.

But seeing the resources used to keep the dungeon empty going to waste, he devised a plan and with the money he would get to get the dungeon cleaned, he would hire cheap mercenaries to clean it up.

It was a cheaper and more confidential alternative so no dungeon break occurred on his watch.

That was so until recently.

He ended up spending a little more than usual on gambling and got into some trouble.

He had a few months to pay the debt back so instead of using the dungeon funds to clean the dungeon, he started to collect money so he could pay his debt once he had enough.

Alas, the month he had enough money, he found out that the dungeon was on the verge of breaking and if he didn’t do anything about it and after the dungeon break, an investigation was held, his debt would be the least of his problems.

So he decided to give up a small amount of money and hired another group of mercenaries than his usual at a very cheap price.

Unfortunately, they ran away after facing the overwhelming number of slimes and his refusing to pay them fairly.

Still, they had somewhat halted the dungeon break.

He was considering another group of mercenaries when a group of children showed up.

He had no right to stop them.

It had never been a problem before since no one came to this dungeon but if he denied them entry, and they filed a complaint, an inspection may be issued and he couldn’t afford that so he decided to let nature decide their fates.

He knew they would die considering the overwhelming number of slimes.

What he didn’t expect was for them to clear the second floor, halting the dungeon break even more.

“They were my blessings in disguise, it seems.” He chuckled as he remembered their faces when he told them his story.

“Now all I need to do is clear the third floor.” He thought inwardly.

It was just then that he heard a screech but it was so inaudible that instinctively he ignored it.

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