A Stroke of Luck
Marcius was laying on his bed while browsing the system 'Shop.'
He currently had 800 bounty he gained from killing Felix. So, he wanted to see if he could buy some interesting things. Besides, he didn't have any time to study the system functions in the last few days because he was busy with all the work and training. Now, he had a little time to rest before his next big plan began.
In the system shop, Marcius could see a lot of interesting skill books, artifacts and weapons.
He could see cheap items like modern firearms, bombs, bulletproof vest and some lowest tier of magical artifacts from other worlds. And he unfortunately noted that even the cheapest price item, a modern pistol, costed 15 bounty points. Of course, some items could have been cheaper, like pills of various kind. But all of those pills have to be bought in batches and it made them pricier.
And he also noticed some of the expensive items. Like 'Seed of Chaos' at 720,000,000 bounty points, or 'Frozen Heart of Dragon Emperor Ryal' at 500,000,000 bounty points.
Most of the items at the top had been grey out, so that Marcius couldn't even read their names. The highest price item he could see is 'Dimensional Shard' at the price of 3,700,000,000 bounty points.
After looking around for a while, Marcius decided to just forget about items at the higher spectrum of the list.
Although, he did find something interesting.
They were 'Scout Drone' and 'Obsidian Edge.'
Scout drone was the product of a civilization which combined magic with technology. It came with a high-tech looking tablet through which he could control or watch the surveillance process. It had very good quality cameras and sound-recording system. It could turn invisible and intangible using magic. It ran indefinitely using a magic core as battery. It even had a certain level of programmed intelligence.
Information was key and if Marcius could spy around the city and his enemies, he would have a huge advantage against anyone. The drone was the size of a small fly, and it could guarantee to reach anywhere.
And the other item 'Obsidian Edge' was a black long sword with stylish cravings. It was said to be forged by mixing the chunks from a meteor with various strong metals. It was described as nearly indestructible by physical means.
He could use it as a temporary weapon before he could cultivate and bond with a spirit weapon. Or he could even upgrade the 'Obsidian Edge' with magical means and bond with it.
Form Joseph's memories, he could think of several methods to upgrade a weapon into magical one.
There were several strong weapons in Rubrum from what he remembered, but he couldn't obtain any of them in the immediate future.
The scout drones were pretty cheap because they were purely for surveillance purposes. Each costed 75 bounty points and he bought six of them. All six of them were automatically connected to a single tablet which was given free-of-charge.
The sword costed 250 bounty points and after he bought all the desired items, he was left with 100 bounty points.
He sent three drones into the city, one drone into the compound of Argus family and the last two into the premises of Sergia clan. And he commanded them to spy any movements and actions until they found something suspicious or interesting.
He also tested his new sword by swinging it around and found out that not only the sword was very light, it was also extremely sharp.
He was so going to upgrade it into a spirit weapon.
Even if he later found some more powerful weapons, he could easily figure out a way to allow himself the usage of more than one spirit weapon.
Life was good.
*** *** ***
Marcius looked on towards the stone boulder in front of him.
"Haaa!" He shouted as he tried to cut it in half with his new sword.
The obsidian edge cut through the stone like a knife would through butter. It was a clean cut.
Marcius lightly touched the blade of the black sword and it was still as sharp as ever.
Today, he was testing his newly acquired weapon. But he was not using 'Movement of Gaea.'
The techniques he was using were 'Red Serpent Slash' and 'Seven Circles Position.' Those were the techniques original Marcius practiced. And unlike 'Movement of Gaea' the two techniques were pure martial arts. They couldn't be performed using spirit energy.
'Red Serpent Slash' was an offensive technique which reminded him of a samurai sword draw. It targeted the weak points of enemies by striking them with single strong sword slashes or thrusts.
'Seven Circles Position' was a movement technique similar to 'Movement of Gaea' but instant of speed, it focused on positioning.
Marcius again took an attack position as he put the sword back into the scabbard. And then he sprung forwards and struck. This time, the target was a huge tree and it was cleaved into two halves right from the middle.
"Nice sword. And good techniques."
Marcius sharply turned around to see a young girl around his age standing not far behind him.
"Who are you?" He questioned warily. He didn't even notice that she had gotten this close.
"Oh, hi! Please do not mind me. I'm just enjoying a good show." The girl replied with a smile.
Now that he looked more clearly, he could see that the girl was really pretty. She had bright blue eyes, a well-defined nose with sharp jawline. Her smile was pretty and, her skin took a darker shade but it just made her look more exquisite.
When she spoke, Marcius could notice that her voice was richer than the natives of Mediolan.
"Are you a member of Aemilia clan?" He questioned the girl again.
"No. I'm here on business actually." She replied still smiling. And then the smile faded as if she had been startled by something.
"Sorry to cut the conversation short. But it is time for me to go." The girl continued as her smile returned.
"See ya later, cute boy."
And then, the girl vanished out of existence. It was as if she was never there.
"What the hell." He muttered. "Is she a spy? No, if she is a spy, she would be a very stupid one to show up just like that. She said she is on business."
"Who is she…" Marcius murmured but only the wind could hear his words.
*** *** ***
As Marcius walked along the corridor of lord's keep, he still couldn't shake the feeling that he should recognize the girl from earlier, but his memories came up empty.
He was heading towards his mother's office.
'Is she someone from I read from the novel? She seems really familiar.' He thought.
He arrived at the destination and knocked twice on the door.
"Who is it?" Helen's voice sounded from the inside.
"It is Marcius, mother."
"Come in."
His mother was, as always, working at her desk. When he went in, Helen looked up.
"Just so we are clear, I'm still mad at you." She started.
"For the soul medium?"
"For the soul medium." His mother confirmed.
"And I had apologized many times." Marcius replied with a bit of frustration.
"So you have had." Helen shrugged. "Let's just both assumed I forgive you for the moment. And we can carry on with the conversation."
Helen handed him some papers.
"We got some professional opinions on your potion formula. It works just like you described. If we can mass produce the potion, it will be a huge boon for our clan."
Lady Aemilia continued as Marcius read through the documents.
"And that is where the problem lies. The Aemilia clan do not have enough alchemy personnel to mass produce the potion. We had to find a suitable organization to collaborate with."
"Blue Star Trade Guild." Marcius read out the name from the writings.
"Yes. They are a credible organization which mainly specialized in potion and pill business. They also trade in other goods, but that is beside the point."
"They are a trader guild. How will they mass produce green blood?"
"They have an entire branch-hall dedicated to alchemy. As I mentioned, they are very specialized. They are also the main supplier of 'Heart Pill' in Mediolan."
"The healing pills?" Marcius questioned.
His mother answered with a nod.
"They even visited our lord's keep this afternoon to discuss business."
"Wait… heart pill, Blue Star Trade Guild… they are run by Sabbargh family, right? The owner is Dina Sabbargh."
"So, you have heard of them."
"A little."
Now, Marcius remembered why he was familiar with the little girl from earlier. According to novel, Sabbargh family would play a vital role in the upcoming events.
"They are also business rivals of Argus family. Once we work together and they started selling green blood,"
"They will gain a larger hold on the market than Argus family." Marcius grinned.
"Killing two birds with one stone." Helen added with a similar smile.
"And on that note, I need you to negotiate with Sabbargh family."
"I mean… I can do that. But why me?" He asked.
"Apparently, they are impressed with your formula and want to meet the genius behind all this. If you can negotiate on our behalf, I think we will gain better benefits out of this deal." Helen replied.
"I understand, mother."
*** *** ***
When Marcius arrived back at his room, he sat down on a chair and reflected on his great luck.
'Blue Star Trade Guild, Sabbragh family, Dina Sabbargh and her daughter Karla Sabbargh… Well, the next part of my grand plan just got a lot easier.' He thought with a faint smile.
"Yup. Life is Good."
*** *** ***
Author Notes
MidnightMK here!
I hope you enjoy this chapter. See you in the next one!