SSS Awakening: I Can Create Skills By Will

Chapter 149: The Price of Strange Things

Elena looked at him for another moment before her expression softened.

"So..."

She leaned forward again.

"Did you bring anything interesting this time?"

Arthur noticed the slight curiosity in her tone.

She knew he had gone on a joint mission with a silver squad. Normally that meant most of the loot would be divided among the team.

So she probably wasn’t expecting anything too special.

Still, the way she asked showed she hoped for a surprise.

Arthur’s smile widened a little.

That was enough to catch her attention.

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"...what did you find?"

Arthur reached into his storage device.

"Well... something like a coincidence."

He pulled out a small dark core and placed it gently on the counter.

Elena froze.

Then she leaned forward quickly and grabbed it.

Her eyes widened.

"...you’re kidding."

She turned the core slowly in her fingers.

It looked almost identical to the one from before.

Elena looked up at him.

"Are you some kind of treasure hunter?"

Arthur laughed.

"I wish."

She shook her head slowly while examining the core again.

"You just happened to find another one of these?"

Arthur shrugged.

"Something like that."

Elena kept staring at him as if trying to read his face.

Then she sighed.

"Seriously... how do you keep finding these things?"

Arthur lifted his hands in surrender.

"Luck."

She didn’t believe him.

Her eyes said that clearly.

But before she could question him further, Arthur reached into his storage again.

"Oh right. I brought the usual stuff too."

He started placing other items on the counter one by one.

Monster cores.

A few materials.

Some mutated fragments from the dungeon creatures.

The pile wasn’t small, but it also wasn’t as impressive as what he had brought in earlier missions.

Elena noticed that immediately.

"Hmm."

She started sorting through them with practiced movements.

"I guess that makes sense."

Arthur leaned casually against the counter.

"Why?"

"You went with a full squad this time."

She glanced up briefly.

"Loot gets shared. You don’t walk away with everything."

Arthur nodded.

"That’s basically it."

Elena continued examining the materials.

"Also... I heard that dungeon didn’t spawn huge numbers of monsters."

Arthur thought back to the fights.

"Not really. Mostly small groups."

She nodded.

"That matches the report I heard earlier."

Her fingers paused on one of the cores.

"This one has a trace of mutation."

Arthur leaned forward slightly.

"Good or bad?"

"Good for selling."

She placed it in a separate pile.

"Mutated cores usually fetch a better price."

Arthur watched her work.

She sorted quickly and efficiently.

Some items went into the regular pile.

Others into the mutated pile.

Elena glanced at him again.

"So tell me something."

Arthur tilted his head.

"About the dungeon?"

"Yes."

She tapped the mutated cores lightly.

"These traces didn’t appear out of nowhere."

Arthur understood.

This was how she gathered information.

People like her rarely entered dungeons themselves.

Instead they learned through explorers.

Arthur didn’t mind sharing.

"It was mostly ogres."

Elena nodded slowly while writing something down.

"That’s what we expected."

"But the groups were larger than usual."

Her pen paused.

"How large?"

"More than five in many cases."

She looked up immediately.

"That’s already unusual."

Arthur continued calmly.

"And the second class ogres appeared more often."

Elena frowned.

"Second class?"

She knew exactly what that meant.

A second class ogre was much stronger than the regular ones.

Most squads struggled even against one.

Arthur leaned slightly on the counter.

"We also ran into multiple second class ogres at the same time."

Elena blinked.

"...multiple?"

Arthur nodded.

Her pen stopped moving completely.

"How did your squad deal with that?"

Arthur shrugged lightly.

"We managed."

She stared at him for a moment.

Then shook her head and continued writing.

"Anything else?"

Arthur thought for a moment.

"Two special guards near the boss."

That caught her attention again.

"What kind?"

"One long range ogre."

Arthur described it briefly.

How it used stones like a catapult.

How the attacks came from far away and forced the squad to move carefully.

Elena listened closely.

Then he mentioned the other one.

"A lean ogre. Faster than the rest."

He explained the way it moved.

Its close combat ability.

The strange pressure it gave off compared to the normal monsters.

Elena looked more interested now.

"That sounds unusual."

Arthur nodded.

"It was."

She scribbled more notes quickly.

"And the boss?"

Arthur leaned back slightly.

"That one was bigger."

He described the throne.

The gravity field.

The pressure the monster released.

Elena’s eyes widened slightly.

"Gravity manipulation?"

Arthur smirked.

"Something like that."

Then he casually placed another core on the counter.

The boss core.

It landed with a soft clink.

Elena immediately picked it up.

Even without activating any detection tools, she could feel the difference.

A faint pressure lingered inside the core.

And beneath that...

A trace of tainted mana.

Her eyes slowly lifted toward Arthur.

She stared at him.

There were too many questions behind that look.

Arthur knew exactly what she wanted to ask.

How did a bronze explorer end up bringing a boss core from a mission led by a silver squad?

How did he keep finding valuable things everywhere he went?

Arthur simply waved a hand dismissively.

"Relax."

Elena narrowed her eyes.

Arthur grinned.

"I was lucky."

She didn’t say anything.

He added casually,

"Oh, and I think the squad liked me a little more than usual."

Elena gave him a long dead stare.

The kind that clearly said she didn’t believe a single word.

Arthur laughed.

"Hey, don’t look at me like that."

She sighed and shook her head.

"It’s not my job to question explorers."

Then she returned to sorting the items.

Arthur watched quietly while she calculated the prices.

After a few minutes she finally looked up.

"Alright. Here’s the breakdown."

A/N:

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