The merchant guild hall was lavish to say the least. It was humungous, big enough that Lev had to question why it was so big as he walked down the main hall.

  Since the illusion armor had been discarded, he got more than a few stares. Walking by Sherron's side attracted a lot of attention for obvious reasons.

  Nobody blocked their path, or even tried to talk to them. Lev was expecting such treatment to feel cold or distant, only to end up liking the lack of social interaction.

  "We greet the Exalted," the receptionists bowed in unison.

  Sherron just nodded. "Is Dennis in?"

  "I will call him immediately," said one of them women, and left with barely controlled steps. Lev tried not to smile at her wobbly legs.

  He followed Sherron to the side and sat around one of the tables in the waiting area. He looked around, finding half the hall fashioned into a lounge, whereas the other half was empty to allow for the huge crowds to move without obstructions.

  The backside had two hallways going deeper and three large rooms with their doors closed.

  "Where are all the stores and the like?"

  Sherron glanced at him. "Underground."

  "How do I get access?"

  She smiled. "Take a guess?"

  Lev let out a mock sigh. "So hungry for resources. People these days…"

  Further interaction was cut off when a strong aura approached them. Lev beheld a man with shoulder-length black hair. Standing taller than Sherron, he looked like the spitting image of a businessman in his black suit.

  His eyes though, were smiling with an almost childlike joy.

  [Merchant - ???]

  "Welcome to our guild," Dennis proclaimed and bowed, the motion considerably less deep than everyone else. "How may I be of assistance today, Exalted Sherron?"

  "I'd like to browse your personal collection. Would you be up for it?"

  "Of course," Dennis said, glancing once at Lev. "Follow me."

  Lev followed them both upstairs, curious about the history between the two. They seemed sort of friendly, or at least Dennis seemed to be genuinely happy to see Sherron.

  Going up three floors, Dennis eventually led them to a spacious storeroom. It was filled with everything Lev could imagine could be sold.

  Weapons, armors, paints, paintings, trinkets, equipment, cores, threads, metals, materials, crystals, etc.

  Lev was impressed. Whoever this fellow was, he seemed pretty wealthy.

  "How is it?" Dennis leaned in and asked Lev, no doubt looking for praise.

  "The collection is awe-inspiring," Lev replied, overplaying it a bit. "Must have taken a while to gather all of this."

  Dennis seemed satisfied with his reaction as he replied. "Indeed, young man. I have been collecting unique resources for centuries. The most valuable ones aren't even present here."

  Thought so, Lev thought while playing his part of an excited young man. The reaction was not entirely fake.

  When the doors finally closed and all the privacy wards came alive, Dennis' bearing changed. His shoulders relaxed as his smile became more genuine.

  Dennis looked at Sherron with a smirk. "Is there a need for congratulations?"

  "Of course not," she replied, exasperated. "Lev is Alec's disciple. You can deduce the rest."

  "No way, that old coot? Thought he only ever drooled over barriers," Dennis voiced, lost in thought. Lev couldn't stay quiet after that.

  "You clearly don't know him well enough, then."

  Dennis instantly looked at him, a smirk back on his face. "Oho? What makes you think that?"

  "I never found him to be a crafting addict. You can deduce the rest," Lev cheekily replied, easily ignoring the aura intentionally leaking from the merchant. It didn't hold a candle to Orianna's, let alone Sherron's.

  "Definitely his disciple," Dennis chuckled. Lev was confused but didn't ask further.

  "Enough of that. What kind of equipment were you looking for, Lev?" Sherron interjected

  "First to sell the cores, but you brought me here directly," Lev replied. "I need a lightning converter and a fire converter. Both of them need to be able to handle large amounts of channeling."

  "Instant or continuous?" Dennis questioned.

  "Both."

  His eyebrows rose at the request. "That will be a custom order. What is your budget range?"

  "Depends on the cores I plan to sell. Can you give me an estimate of their value?"

  "Sure, follow me."

  They arrived at a large empty table in the corner of the room. Dennis summoned a soft and enchanted sheet of paper and draped it over the table before motioning Lev to summon the cores.

  Lev started with each of the normal golem cores from his second and third delve.

  "Golem cores," Dennis noted. "These are useful because of their long lifespan and decent conductivity. How many do you have?"

  Cores appeared by the dozens. Dennis had to blink a few times before giving an estimate.

  "Forty-five gold for the bunch. Most of the value comes from the boss' core."

  Pretty good. Too good, really. Why is the monster market deliberately inflated so much?

  The only reason he knew of was to make basic necessities cheap and easily accessible. It made enough sense for him not to question it. Much.

  "Who would be buying these?"

  "Hmm? Oh, that's my price."

  Lev nodded. "Go ahead, then."

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  While the previous cores vanished, Lev summoned the cores from his first golem dungeon delve. Dennis perked up quite a bit when he noticed the cores exhibited minor properties.

  "No questions," Sherron shot him down before he opened his mouth.

  The merchant looked like he had swallowed a lemon but went with the order. Before Lev summoned the boss' core, he looked at Sherron for permission. Getting a small nod, he put it on the table.

  "I… have so many questions," Dennis voiced, rubbing his forehead. "Lesser properties on a golem core are so extremely rare. Nobody has ever found golems outside of dungeons, so this core might be one of a kind."

  "Must be incredibly valuable, then," Lev quipped with a smile.

  "It is," Dennis replied, missing the joke or perhaps not willing to take it lightly. "I don't know how to price it. In all fairness, you shouldn't be selling this for coin in the first place. I am down to trade it for some equipment of value that you consider fair."

  … Something so good came out of that shit delve? Damn.

  "That sounds feasible. I need converters and something to wear under my barrier armor. What is the best you can offer in that regard?"

  Dennis thought for a moment. "Nothing that would match the core's value."

  "Runes," Lev added without hesitation. "I am willing to trade for useful runes as well."

  Sherron nodded by his side, approving. Lev took that as a sign to press on.

  "Of course, they need to be suitable for my class. Specifically, I want obscurement and stealth runes and scalable formations for different items."

  "The latter is simple. The former however, will be a pain to acquire."

  Lev spoke before he could continue further. "You can add the previous cores and these into the mix as well." He summoned all the cores he had harvested from the mistcrawler dungeon before things had went to shit.

  "Mistcrawler cores," Dennis observed, not pointing out the missing boss core. "The normal cores combined are worth a sizable amount of wealth. I will look into rogue runes in the upcoming days, so let us decide what equipment you want."

  "Fire and Lightning converters. Something to filter air and keep extreme temperatures at bay."

  Dennis blinked. "That is pretty simple. What kind of enchantments do you want on the equipment? The material will be decided by that."

  "Wait, I almost forgot. How much is a healing mana converter worth?"

  "Quite a bit. It will take a chunk out of the runes you can acquire."

  Lev hesitated. The healing converter was a must-have, but runes would stay with him forever.

  "Replace the formations with the converter. Does it come in a fixed shape, or can I have one built?" He eventually replied.

  "We can have one built," Dennis waved off his worries. "So, three converters, something to wear under armor with the enchantments you mentioned, and stealth runes. Do you consider that a fair price?"

  Lev looked at Sherron, who just looked back. It seemed she wanted him to take the lead on this one.

  "What do you think?" he asked Dennis, who smirked.

  "It is not fair yet," Dennis simply replied.

  "What if we add in the formations again?"

  "It is somewhat fair, now."

  Haggling. Exactly what I wanted to avoid.

  Lev rubbed his chin. "The core you see, is one of a kind. Not only was the monster obscenely strong, but it was also one hell of a mage. Regardless of what you use the core in, very few things could ever match it, especially because of its dual properties. I'd say there is still a lot of room for exchange."

  Monarch help me, I feel slimy.

  Dennis looked on with a smile. "You bring up good points. What more do you think can be added to the exchange?"

  Just like that, he was stumped again. There was nothing that would help with mana overuse and mana poisoning, and neither could he buy any weapon stronger than his class skills.

  Relying on such methods would not only reduce the quality of his evolutions, it also went against Lev's goals. Converters were a necessity, so he couldn't forgo those, but he refused to rely on other external tools to grow stronger.

  The healing converter was an exception. There would be no point to all his efforts if he just perished, unable to heal himself.

  I mean, it won't be long till I run into something similar. With my recent rewards, the fight should go very differently.

  "How far does your reach extend?" Lev bluntly asked.

  "… Everywhere? Why does that matter?"

  "I will return with more things to sell later. You can put the remaining value in my tab or something."

  Dennis looked at him incredulously before laughing heartily. Even Sherron was shaking her head with a smile.

  "Damn, kid. It has been a while since someone has subverted my expectations so thoroughly." Dennis smiled at him. "Deal. I'll be waiting for new, exciting things."

  Lev tilted his head a little. "What were you expecting me to ask for?"

  "Coins or a storage ring."

  "But I summoned all those cores in front of you?"

  Dennis shrugged. "I just have a hunch that if the ring was borrowed, you wouldn't hesitate to get your own."

  … True enough, I guess.

  ****

  "Do you think I was lowballed in the deal?" Lev asked after they returned to the bedroom. The location was a large mansion in a corner of Windkeep's residential area, and it looked phenomenal with its blue and white coloring. It was Sherron's.

  "Dennis is smart," Sherron replied, getting ready to leave. "He knows you fought that boss and brought it down. It will not take him long to realize you are also a solo hunter. Try making unreasonable demands next time, and you will see. He will fold quite a bit."

  "Makes sense," Lev answered and hugged her. "I'll be here for the next few days if you want to visit."

  "I will. There is a practice room in the basement. The controls should be simple so you won't be bored."

  Lev smiled. "I already planned to make use of that."

  Several minutes later, Lev was alone in the mansion and preparing to test his much-improved attributes. Stargazer in hand, slashes rained down on the metal pole dummy.

  His physical strength had shot up considerably. Despite the minor increase, every little bit helped his armor manipulation. Lev had always used his body in tandem with his mind to get more physical attributes, but his hopes had been dashed by all the titles he had obtained.

  Training for attributes after attaining a class was a matter of years. Years that he was not willing to wait. While Lev hadn't benefited from the exercise in terms of attributes, he made it a habit to push his body regardless.

  Ringing impacts echoed in the underground room as Stargazer smacked into the metal pole without a single scratch on either.

  Lev simply pushed his body and mind to the limit in terms of speed before adding flight into the mix. Unlike before, his movements only got better.

  Hehe, this is fun, Lev thought as he spun in a full circle and swung Stargazer at the pole before his right leg followed with a whoosh. It crashed into the pole with a metallic thud. The force of his kick alone was enough to break through concrete walls on Earth.

  … Ouch. Impacts still hurt a lot.

  He didn't have any plans to fight using his limbs, so that was fine. Stargazer and barriers would be the way to go from now on.

  Enhancement formation formed on his armor after a few minutes. Lev had to fully focus now to learn the ins and outs of it. The formation remained hard to master, still. He could use it reliably but the actual enhancement was incredibly basic.

  The intensity of his attacks turned a notch higher. Stargazer's blade started to show signs of strain and small damage with every hit. Lev repaired the damage, not stopping his single-minded assault for even a single second.

  The third rank of Heavier Lifting joined in. Lev was spending enough mana to bottom out in less than half an hour, yet he was ecstatic. The sheer power packed in his physical attacks was astounding, and it wasn't even the focus of the class.

  Ten minutes later, his arms felt like jelly when he stopped. His mana was already below half, most of it hogged by the enhancement formation as Lev regulated more and more mana into it.

  The result was the barrier blade on Stargazer shattering. He had stopped in shock when his repairing speed had been outpaced by his strikes. Only then did he realize the painful state of his body.

  Taking the refillable water bottle out of his ring, Lev drank his fill and settled down in a corner for his mana to regenerate.

  Entering in meditative state, Lev thought to his next steps. He had enough practice to not lose sight of his regenerating pool while thinking about other things.

  The last wave was over two months ago. That worries me. I would've left already if it wasn't for Sherron or Hakim's presence.

  Waves in windkeep were frequent. Normally, there was a wave every three weeks or so as monsters rushed in from all sides. Most of them were easy to put down but things got dicey to the west.

  Dreadwoods were unpredictable at best. New types of monsters were discovered in there even today, and the waves coming from that region only got more difficult because of that.

  That was exactly what worried Lev the most, too. He was already attracting things beyond comprehension. Dreadwoods had been mostly left alone by humans because the monsters in there were especially harrowing, but now they could be on the move.

  His limbs itched to move again and get stronger when the sight of the chaos core came to the forefront of his mind again, immobilizing him. Lev forgot to breath for a while before he shook himself out of the frozen terror. Shudders ran through his body as he took shaky breaths to calm himself.

  While the chaoswalker had gradually become less scary in his mind, the dread from the chaos core remained just as strong. Lev was able to feel a single hint of an aura from it before he threw it away, and that was enough to lock him in place every time he remembered. The aura was undeniably hostile, and that terrified him. He had taken great care to not let anyone notice his state.

  Supportive as they were, Lev refused to let them see him at his lowest, getting paralyzed randomly because of some stupid memory.

  He was stronger than that. Had to be.

  The pit still called to him. He was sure to find answers in those depths. To that end, he had to be stronger. The strongest to ever exist.

  Lev didn't even know why he believed that fact. It was simply true.