abcnovels
Chapter 8 Faker's Earring
Chapter 8 Faker's Earring
"So, Vincent Dihart, a student of the Academy. What do you want from my shop?"
From his tone, I knew that he was interested in me. Not a romantic way of interest, but he was curious about my identity and about how I found out his name.
Although he was a money-grubber, I could trust him with a secret. If I couldn't trust him to guard a secret of my real identity, I could trust no one in this world.
He was such a man. When he was told a secret by someone that he showed interest in, he would guard that secret.
There was only one way to make him spill the secret, and that was to give him information about a certain artifact that he had sought for a long time.
Currently, only I knew the location of that artifact, and I had no plan to tell him until at least five years. And in those five years, I would be strong enough that he wouldn't even think of crossing his path with me.
"I need a few things from this shop. Firstly, a mask that covers the lower half of my face. Secondly, I need a book to learn about Enhancement. Thirdly, give me Enhancement dust. Also, give me the Faker's Earring."
When I told him the last item that I wanted to get, Park Injun's expression changed into a surprised one. He certainly had never thought that I wanted Faker's Earring.
It was an earring that could hide one's status as an Awakener. It worked by hiding Awakener's Mana from the other Awakener, so the one who wore the Earring would feel like a normal person if checked by the other Awakener.
A high-ranking Awakener could sense Mana in person.
This Earring was rare to the point that even a high-rank Awakener wasn't able to secure this Earring. However, Park Injun managed to get one of this Faker's Earring.
"You are truly… mysterious. How did you know that I have this Earring? I guess it's also a secret?"
"Correct. Don't worry, though. I will put the Earring to great use."
"Hmm…" Park Injun put his hand on his chin, "I don't know whether you are telling the truth or just a confident scammer. But… I will trust you this one time." He then smiled before rummaging the shelf behind him.
When he touched the shelf behind him, the space distorted a little, and Park Injun's hand was sucked inside the shelf.
'Woah, being able to see that with my own eyes is truly amazing.'
The shelf that was located behind Park Injun's chair was called Greed Shelf. It was an artifact that could store anything inside another space.
At first, I wrote about Park Injun having a warehouse that was enlarged by space magic behind a door behind his chair or a magic bag that could store anything that was hung behind him.
However, those were clichés. So I made the shelf itself that was enhanced with space magic around it to store things in another space. And voila, it looked amazing.
After moving his hands for a few seconds, Park Injun then smiled and pulled his hand. He pulled out a book that was around 100 pages at first glance with the words 'How to enhance items for an idiot.'
He then put his hand inside the distorted space again before pulling a black earring and a black mask that was made from metal.
With a grin on his face, he put the items on the table before extending his hand that was holding a paper.
"That's 50 grand in total. Transfer it to my account here."
"Sure."
I snatched the paper from his hand, pulled out my phone, and transferred the exact amount of money that he told me about.
"Also, where is–"
Ting—!
He put his hand in the pocket and pulled out a phone before grinning happily.
"I got the money." He turned to me, "Glad to have business with you. Because you looked like a loyal customer, I will throw an expansion bag for free. The Enhancement Dust is also in that bag, I will give you 250g of it for free."
He put a black cross bag on the table without saying anything more.
That was nice of him. An expansion bag was a bag that was enhanced with space enlargement. Usually, it was used by Awakener to store their loot from the dungeon.
The one that he gave me was the lowest-ranked one, but it was still worth around five grand. Not only that, he gave the Enhancement Dust that cost roughly around 100 USD each 50g for free.
"What a thoughtful person. I will gladly take this present. Thank you."
"Hahaha, it's not a problem. However, don't forget to text me about the location of [Napoleon's Sword]. Here is my business card."
He handed me a black business card with a white lining. I took the bag and the business card before shoving all the items that I bought earlier inside the bag.
To be honest, I never thought that he would give me his business card this fast. He was known as a person who only gave his phone number to the customers that he liked the most.
'Well, it's a good thing for me.'
"I will text you later. Thanks for everything."
"You're welcome. Come again!" As he said that, the black veil that covered the window of the store was lifted, and the scenery turned normal again.
Because I had nothing else to do here, I walked out to the store.
'Well, let's learn Enhancement first.'
***
"Vincent Dihart, a student from the Academy, huh?" Park Injun muttered as he looked at the door that had just been closed by his customer, a boy named Vincent.
There was a strange smile on his face. He then pulled out a phone from his pocket and turned it on before searching a 'Merchant Store' website.
It was a hidden website that was only known by some awakeners. Someone with an unknown identity operated the website. No one knew the website's designer or something; it just popped up out of nowhere.
However, this website was the safest and the most trustworthy place to find something. From Assassination, bounty, hidden dungeon auction, selling items, and even information. All of those activities could be done on this website.
Park Injun was one of the website's members with the highest rank.
He immediately visited one of a certain thread on the website. It was a thread posted by someone with the nickname 'Darkest Secret' that sold information on this website.
"Hmm, should I do it or not?" Park Injun hesitated a bit to contact the Darkest Secret.
"If I investigate him and he finds out about it, then his trust toward me will plummet to the ground…"
The boy that he met earlier intrigued his interest. He wanted to know where the boy had found his name that even Thomas Evan, the guild master of rank 1 guild in the world Sacred Relic, didn't know.
"Hmm…" He grunted. But then, he put his phone on the table again before surrendering his back on the chair's backrest.
"Let's just ask him later. Maybe if I give him some item, he will tell me about it? That way… I can forge a relationship with an interesting boy too."
His lips curved into a smile, then Park Injun's figure changed back into the old man that Vincent saw when he first entered the store.
***
[01.00 PM.]
[Dorm, Vincent's Room]
"Kukuku, let's get to work. First, the Faker's Earring."
I took out the Faker's Earring from my bag that was given by Park Injun and looked at its description.
_____
[Faker's Earring]
[Null Attribute]
Effect:
– Fake
Hides Mana of an Awakener.
_____
The Faker's Earring only hid Mana, but my purpose was not that. I wanted to hide my Talent and if possible my status, not only my Mana.
So, for now, I took out the book 'How to enhance items for an idiot.'
When I read the title again, I frowned a little.
"I know that this book teaches me how to enhance because I mentioned this book once, but… the title is too much."
Although the title sounded stupid, the book did its job.
"Well, let's not think about the title. I need to learn enhancement today, then I can fiddle around with Faker's Earring effect."
S-Rank Enhancement Talent was the highest one, and I didn't know how far I could go. My novel had no character with this Talent because even A-Rank Enhancement Talent was already broken.
"Let's get to work. I only have a month before Zaiden got awakened. I need to make my second identity known to the world by the time he leaves the Academy."
Reincarnator or not, he was still Zaiden, the protagonist of my novel.
He was destined for greatness. An Extra like Vincent, like me, had no place in the story. However, I had no intention to stay silent.
For once, I wanted to go back to my own world. This world was fucked up, so I wanted to go back to my peaceful Earth.
Because he had already got an item in the Academy, he was already stronger in this half-first of the story. So I could ignore him for a while. However, that didn't mean I would let him get all the hidden items.
I needed those items to stay alive myself.
Saving the world was important, but that would mean nothing if I died while trying to make Zaiden stronger.
Setting those aside, I didn't know what would happen in the future as the story had already derailed from the original one.
I needed to get stronger to survive in case Zaiden couldn't save the world.
"Sorry, Zaiden… but I have no intention to die."