*Ding*

Skinning successful:

+ Coral Claw x2
+ Crab Meat x6
+ Radiant Eyes x2
+ Coral Carapace x3

By the time Abel finished skinning this monster, his double EXP buff had come to an end. Either way he was pretty much out of consumables now so he had to head back to the city anyway. After packing up all the loot, he slowly started navigating his way out of the dungeon.

He came across several monsters on his way out but he would detour around them when he could. Overall, he had battled 5 Lobster Clawguards and 2 Crabby Scuttlers but he was extra careful when fighting the latter due to his lack of healing supplies.

It took him close to 3 hours just to get out of the dungeon, the sun was hanging high in the sky as it was past noon in Veridia’s time zone. He had gotten slightly lost on his way out, even with the aid of his self-drawn map. All the passageways looked identical and he had to reverse his taken path to get out but he eventually found his way and took in the salty smell of the ocean once more. This time he took out the Nereid’s Mask after taking off his armor and jumped right into the ocean waters.

As soon as he dove down, he felt a surreal feeling, he could breathe normally as though he was on land except he wasn’t. His mind took a few seconds to comprehend the strange contrast of breathing without any diving equipment. He didn’t understand how the mask worked, he guessed the magical gill-like openings in the mask acted like real gills and filtered the oxygen from the water but he didn’t spend too much time thinking about it. As long as it continued to work then he didn’t care.

He got his bearings and orientation in order before he started swimming towards the coast line. This time around he spent some time investigating the reefs, hoping to find some radiant pearls but it seemed like luck wasn’t on his side. By the time the underwater coral gave way to clear sands, he hadn’t found a single treasure. He brushed aside his slight disappointment and dove upwards when he edged closer to the beach to take off his magical accessory. After placing it into his spatial bag, he started freestyle swimming to the sandy beach.

The players that were there a day ago seemed to have gone elsewhere as the beach was completely deserted upon his arrival. After reequipping his armor and sword, he started jogging his way back to the city. Thankfully, he had an adventurers badge on him so they didn’t charge him 5 silvers upon entry.

He decided to offload his loot and stock up on some supplies first. He needed to get a lot of stuff in preparation for his quest but he needed to get some money first. Although he still had 1 and a half gold on him, he needed to get a lot of consumables.

After checking around the many different shops, he eventually sold off the majority of monster parts at a well-known chamber of commerce – Golden Tides Trading. It was the same company that those mercenaries he ran into belonged to. He had checked at various stores and Golden Tides Trading gave the best price for his loot. In total, he made a whopping 3 gold and 37 silver coins with the Radiant Eyes alone fetching 15 silver coins per piece. He sold off all the monster parts except the meat as he intended to use it to level up his cooking skill.

Adding on his prior savings of 1 gold and 40 silver coins, he had a grand total of 4 gold and 77 silver coins. He then purchased 100 minor healing potions and 10 lesser-grade healing potions for 1 gold and 50 silver coins. He also stocked up on some high-grade bandages but they were a paltry sum in comparison, 100 high-grade bandages cost only 80 silver coins. He had spent nearly half of his savings on just healing supplies!

His heart was bleeding tears of blood at spending so much on consumables but he knew he couldn’t afford not to. He didn’t want to place himself in a similar situation like in the dungeon earlier, where he had to detour around monsters because he didn’t have any healing supplies on him. Additionally, he doubted he could even do such a thing when he went out on the monster expedition later on. This was an expense he couldn’t run away from.

‘I still have quite a few mana incense sticks but I should get some minor-grade mana potions and I still need to get some pots and pans for cooking. I should also get some whetstones and make use of my Weapon’s Enhancement Skill.’

The Weapon’s Enhancement skill required whetstones to actually use on bladed weapons. While it could be applied with only mana to other weapons such as bows or hammers, to make full use of the skill for bladed weapons required the assistance of some form of honing agent. He hadn’t used the skill yet because he was too cheap to buy something he felt he had no need for.

His attack damage was already pretty high and he didn’t care for a small boost of 10% but if he could apply this skill onto the soldiers’ weapons then it might earn him more credit and favorability while also increasing his skill proficiency at the same time. It was hitting 3 birds with a single stone; he would practice his skill, earn better rewards in his quest and increase favorability with the NPC’s.

Luckily, this chamber of commerce dealt with all manner of goods so he found some minor-grade mana potions and bought 10 of them for 50 silver coins. They were even more costly than the lesser-grade healing potion but they could help him out in a pinch if he ever ran out of mana mid-battle. Unfortunately, they didn’t sell whetstones so he planned to get some from the blacksmiths guild. It was on the way to the auction house anyway so he swung by and purchased 100 whetstones for 10 silver coins, each one only cost 10 copper coins.

When he finally reached the auction house, the sun was starting to set in Veridia so he logged off for a bathroom break and a quick meal before hopping back on to check out his current consignments. Frankie and Melly were at work so he fixed himself a sandwich and logged right back into Realm Quest.

As soon as he walked into the auction house, an attendant came up to him but he just flashed the token he was given and was led to the reception desk.

“Good day sir, how may I be of assistance today?”

“I’m here to check on a prior consignment. I also plan to leave some more items to sell.”

He planned to auction off the Coralheart Pendant he had gotten from that treasure chest along with the Bladeslinger Daggers. He still planned to use the short bow and arm bracers but he no longer had a need for those level 5 weapons. As for the Flameforged Longsword? He intended to give it to Frankie.

“Certainly sir, can you please show us your consignment token?”

After receiving the token, the desk attendant placed it on some magical runes that flashed with light. It seemed to be some sort of magical scanner as a holographic projection appeared between them. Abel could see his items, its current status-whether it was bought out, still getting auctioned or was still active. He could also see the time stamps for bids made on his items, it was quite a simple and easy to understand interface.

“All of your items were purchased with the buy-out option sir. After deducting the auction house commission, the total comes to 2 gold, 50 silver and 80 copper coins.” The attendant handed over the specified amount and put the token away.

He had made back what he just spent and then some, making the ache in his miserly heart lessen significantly. Abel was honestly surprised his goods were purchased right away. Although he knew the Eagle Beak Dagger would be a must have for every newbie rogue, he didn’t realize how rich the newbie blacksmiths were!

‘I should pump out some more blueprints… there’s still that Ottoman Dagger that was a hit back in the other Earth as well as the Jian, Dao, Katana and Roman Gladius that would surely sell well. I can even experiment with different metals to see if I can make higher leveled version of them and that’s just an insignificant total of the different blades I have in my memories…’

“You said you have other items you wish to consign?” The attendants question pulled Abel out of his musings, reminding him of his current task.

“Yes, but I would like an appraiser to see the market potential for these items.”

“Certainly sir, just follow along the same path you took last time and one of our appraisers will be with you shortly.”

Abel thanked the attendant and headed to the back where he had met that terse appraiser the other day. He hoped he wouldn’t run into her again, although the middle-aged woman wasn’t rude, no one would enjoy someone else talking to them in such a way. Unfortunately, Abel seemed to be destined with this middle-aged woman that suffered from tight-ass syndrome.

“It’s you again. What do you have today? More cheap daggers.”

“Take a look and tell me what you think.” Abel replied while pulling out the pendant and 2 daggers.

“Hmm, this pendant is truly special. It seems to be the work of sea nymphs, you should place its buy out option at no lower than 3 gold coins. The daggers are a little worse, perhaps you can sell them for 18 or 20 silver coins if they are placed together as a set.”

“Very well. Please place the pendant on the regional auction while the weapons are to be sold locally. Their duration should be for a week, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to come again considering I’m going out of the city. With any luck, I’ll be back after a week.” Although the woman was concise, she did her job well enough with sufficient professionalism so Abel still replied courteously.

After accepting the consignment, he got another token and left the auction house behind him. He still had to purchase some other goods like pots, pans and some more seasonings. He wasn’t sure whether the soldiers would provide these goods but either way, he could always keep these things for his own use.

He started shopping around the many different stores and purchased a set of different sized pots, a few pans and some more supplies like salt, firewood and other goods. He also got another spatial canteen, similar to the one he currently had so that he could have a sufficient amount of water on him. He still remembered how old Gallopington had drunk half his water in a single day so he wanted to be prepared for all situations.

Once he had everything squared away, he made his way to the army base and chose to log out on the street beside it. The next time he logged in, he’d head straight inside and get started with this quest!