[Flame Gem (Rare): A gemstone capable of absorbing fire. When worn, it reduces fire damage. Fire damage taken -80%! (Absorption limit applies)]
"A rare-quality item?"
Kurose Akira picked up the ruby with delight. This trip had turned out to be incredibly rewarding!
"Let's head back."
"Mm!"
After slipping the ruby into his pocket, Kurose Akira immediately headed toward the teleportation gate. The environment here was harsh—he had no desire to stay even a second longer.
As white light flashed, Kurose Akira and Yvessa returned smoothly to the guild.
"You should go take a bath first. I'll buy you a new nun's habit," Kurose Akira said to Yvessa.
The guild had bathing facilities for adventurers, and the trading mall also offered basic items for purchase.
An ordinary nun's habit only cost five copper coins.
"Is that really okay? Won't it trouble you?"Yvessa was a little overwhelmed by the kindness, afraid of imposing on him.
"Don't be so polite. You performed excellently today," Kurose Akira replied with a smile, his tone sincere and full of praise.
A rare-grade weapon and a rare-grade gemstone—together they were worth at least several thousand copper coins.
And all of it was thanks to Yvessa defeating that level-three Fireburst Rat leader.
"Is that so? Then it seems I've satisfied you quite well, Mr. Kurose Akira."Yvessa smiled happily. "In that case, I'll go bathe first. Please wait for me a moment."
"Mm."
Yvessa immediately headed into the inner bathing room. She badly needed a comfortable wash to cleanse away the dust and exhaustion left by the battle.
Kurose Akira, on the other hand, had no such concerns. He sat at the bar counter and first purchased a nun's habit identical to the one Yvessa had been wearing earlier from the system shop. Since he already knew her measurements, there was no need to ask—he simply placed the order.
After that, he took out the Flame Gem from his pocket. Since no one was selling such an item in the trading mall, it couldn't be appraised directly.
After some thought, he concluded that an 80% reduction in fire damage was only useful in specific situations.
If the price was right, he didn't mind selling the gemstone as starting capital.
After all, Yvessa's character quest required a large sum of money.
He copied the Flame Gem's information and pasted it into the world chat, adding a line afterward:
"Selling cheap. PM if interested."
The moment the message was posted, it sparked heated discussion and attention among players.
HandsomeGuyA: "That's a rare elemental gemstone!"PasserbyB: "This thing's worth a lot! Too bad the effect is limited. If you can gather all five elemental gems, you can fuse them into an Elemental Pendant!"BigShotIRL: "Elemental Pendant? That's an epic-grade item that reduces all elemental damage! Worth at least dozens of gold coins!"PrettyBoy: "Too bad elemental gems are insanely hard to collect. Only three have appeared so far."GoodSamaritan: "A single elemental gem is worth at most 50 silver coins. Flame Gem has higher versatility, so it should sell for around 80 silver."
…
"Eighty silver coins?"
Kurose Akira's eyes gleamed.
In this world, the currency exchange rate was 1 gold coin = 100 silver coins = 10,000 copper coins.
Getting a Flame Gem worth 8,000 copper coins from a beginner mission was indeed a massive haul.
If he could obtain the other four elemental gems and fuse them into an Elemental Pendant, its value would skyrocket dozens of times over!
The only issue was that a single elemental gem was hard to sell.
After all, its effect had clear limitations.
Just as Kurose Akira was considering how to handle the gemstone, a private message popped into his view.
"Hm?"
He opened the chat window.
Red: "Can you sell me the Flame Gem? I'll offer 80 silver coins."
The straightforward offer made Kurose Akira slightly curious.
"May I ask—are you planning to fuse an Elemental Pendant?"
Red: "No. I just happen to have a mission involving fire terrain."
A fire-terrain mission?
Kurose Akira pondered it. Indeed, in such missions, a Flame Gem would be extremely useful.
Although commission quests were random, he couldn't guarantee that he'd never encounter a fire-terrain mission in the future. The Flame Gem's value would always shine at the right time.
After thinking it through, he replied, "I can rent you the Flame Gem. For 1,000 copper coins."
Red: "Rent?"Red: "…"Red: "Fine. But aren't you afraid I won't return it?"
"Trade me 8,000 copper coins first. I'll return 7,000 to you later."
Red: "Deal!"
[Player 'Red' has initiated a trade!][Trade successful!][Flame Gem -1][Copper Coins +8000]
After the transaction ended, the other party immediately closed the chat.
Kurose Akira smiled faintly.
Suddenly holding such a large sum of money made his heart race, a strange sense of exhilaration welling up inside him.
Sure enough—money really did bring peace of mind.
"Mr. Kurose Akira?"
Just as he was basking in the joy of newfound wealth, Yvessa's voice drifted out from the bathing room.
At the same time, the sound of running water reached his ears, making his imagination involuntarily wander toward the scene inside…
Ahem.
"What is it?" Kurose Akira asked.
"Do you have a bath towel?"
"Wait a moment!"
Kurose Akira immediately bought a towel from the shop, then walked to the bathroom door and knocked lightly.
The door opened a crack. A rich, exotic fragrance mixed with rising steam rushed toward him.
Yvessa hid behind the door, shyly extending her jade-white arm to take the snow-white towel from him.
"Thank you."
After the brief thanks, the bathroom door closed again.
Kurose Akira didn't think much of it and was about to turn and leave—
When he suddenly remembered that Yvessa's character quest required deeper understanding. Casually, he asked, "Yvessa, can you tell me why you joined the guild?"
As he spoke, he also submitted the completed quest.
[Copper Coins +50, EXP +100!][Gained one free trait refresh opportunity.]
With the two commission quests and the experience gained from killing the Fireburst Rat leader, Kurose Akira's guild experience pool now held 350 EXP.
Enough to raise Yvessa to level three.
As the thought crossed his mind, he was already taking action, helping Yvessa level up.
"My reason for joining the guild…"
Inside the bathing room, hot water flowed over Yvessa's smooth, jade-like skin. She tilted her head slightly, gazing at the light above. Faint reflections shimmered in her clear eyes, as though countless unspoken thoughts were hidden within, yearning to be voiced.
After a moment of silence, she spoke softly.
"The nuns at the church are troubled by money. I thought that if I could earn some funds—even if it couldn't fully fill the gap—I could at least help ease their worries."
Though she said this, she didn't reveal the full truth to Kurose Akira.
She had once accidentally overheard the church's upper management planning a filthy transaction with wealthy merchants of the town—sending the nuns to the merchants' estates for so-called multi-person confession prayers.
Fortunately, two highly respected elder nuns intervened in time, and the plan was halted before it could be carried out.
But the church's ongoing deficit, combined with recent events, had forced it to bow its head once more to the merchants' guildmaster.
Which meant that the filthy deal might be revived.
To stop it, she had signed a contract with the world itself.
She became an adventurer serving a guild created by a "player." However, in her world, the existence of players was unknown—they were simply referred to as guildmasters.
"I see. Then roughly how much funding do you need?" Kurose Akira asked.
"About fifty silver coins."
"Fifty silver? That's not too much. As long as you work hard here, you can earn fifty silver within ten days."
Kurose Akira was confident he could help Yvessa earn fifty silver coins in ten days. And he wasn't worried about her leaving either—adventurers who defied their guildmaster's will and left on their own would suffer punishment from the world itself, a burden most could never bear.
"Only… ten days?"
At his words, Yvessa's legs pressed together slightly, her delicate body trembling.
Fifty silver coins was an entire year's income for the church—and in Kurose Akira's guild, it could be earned in just ten days?
That was far beyond anything she had imagined.
And just as astonishment filled her heart, a beam of white light descended from above, gently cascading over her skin. It nourished her soul while bestowing a surge of power.
[Your adventurer Yvessa has advanced to LV3!]