Wait a sec for the poll before you read, come do it in the middle of the chapter.

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  “Well, the item is unique, items that are legendary or unique are powerful one of a kind items, while everything is technically unique, each sword a blacksmith makes will be different in some small ways, but these items are pretty much non-replicable, not even a magic core can replicate them, if that happens it’ll create a shadow of the item, but it’s of a much lesser quality.”

  “To give it a price I would say 100g, but seeing as you’re just starting off I can give it to you on loan, you’ll not have to pay now, but interest will accrue every year at 10%, you can give back the item for 100g, but you’ll have to pay off the interest first, this can be done at any shop associated with the merchant’s guild.”

  1 gold was 100 silver, 1 silver was 100 copper.

  Well a debt that big so early wasn’t something that interested me, so I began to take off my Nemean ring.

  “This doesn’t deal interest me, you can have your ring back too.”

  “Sir Ezekiel I can assure you this deal is fair, with your talent you’ll easily be able to make 110g before the end of the year, and you’ll only have to pay off the interest if don’t want to keep the sword.”

  “Still it’s a no”

  “Have I done something to offend you Sir Ezekiel?”

  “Well I think honesty should be the start of any healthy business relationship, my master told me all about your merchant’s game you know.”

  That same glint appeared in his eyes once more.

  “Oh, so you were Sir Redgrave’s rumoured apprentice, then I must have you even more, I’ll sell you the sword for 1 copper, that way my house will be your patron but you can consider the sword as a gift.”

  “Just that? Dishonesty is something you punish and if I wanted a weapon that could fight undead I’m sure the other houses would oblige.”

  “Indeed so what are you suggesting?”

  “Give me the sword and let me choose any one thing from your inventory, I’m sure in the future you’ll make more money than whatever one thing I take.”

  “Hah, okay then but you’ll have to play my game.”

  A sly grin appeared on his face.

  “Are you a gambling man Sir Ezekiel?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Then you’ll enjoy this, I’ll pull out my 3 most valuable items and 3 of the items I picked up in my travels that aren’t worth much, you’ll only be able to see what they look like, whatever you take will be purchased for one copper, the sword will be a gift, but only if you choose one of the treasures, if it’s not you can still get the sword on loan, do we have a deal?”

  “Mmm let me take one of the dud items, if I take something good and we have a deal.”

  “That’s fine.”

  I handed him a copper and he began to take items out of his backpacks, the first was a tanto, it was still in the sheath that had a dagger belt, but it was pure black with gold decorations and ornaments, it seemed to scream style and class.

  The next item was a hanya style mask, but the mask seemed consist of very high quality materials the teeth looked to be ivory.

  A small item was pulled out of one of his pockets this time, it was an acorn, but it was a grey metallic colour on the bottom and the top was a darker greyish black colour.

  Then from his bag he pulled out a book covered in gold filigree with a ruby gem in the middle, the book gave off a golden orange glow and seemed to hum with power.

  Next was a pair of red plated gauntlets, they seemed to thud when he put them down and the tips of the fingers were decorated with gold.

  The final item was an orb, it was very similar to the one during my trial of magi but it seemed like black smoke was inside the glass constantly changing patterns.

  I tried to inspect them and this is what I got back.

  Well that wasn’t helpful, either he had a way to hide the information or the system wasn’t letting me see the data.

  All of the items seemed to have their own merits, but one in particular called out to me.

  “I’ll take this one.”

  “Oh ho ho, why that one?”

  “Instinct I guess.”

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  Go do the poll, dw it’s just a fun personality test, you can see who would take the same item as you.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

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  “Why don’t you have a second look at the items now?”

  I had taken the acorn, it just seemed different from the other things, My first instinct was the gauntlets since I could use them with my claw, but it’s good I didn’t take them since it would be a long time before I could use them and I wasn’t even a fire mage, yet it seemed to increase mana cost for all spells.

  That orb though…

  “You were going to give me a doomsday weapon for 1 copper?”

  “Bwa ha ha, if you chose it, I am a gambling man after all.”

  “How did you even get such a thing?”

  “Well my family has its ways, but let’s just say I won a bet with an elder lich and got him to seal his most useful spell for me in an orb I had.”

  “This lich isn’t trying to take over the world or anything with spells this powerful?”

  “Nah, not just necromancers become liches, he became one to protect his race and study magic forever, he’s doesn’t really involve himself in day to day affairs, only if his entire race is threatened will he appear, besides it’s not even certain he’s the most powerful being in our world, the spell itself might not even be that strong, it will have its own weak points, for example if it could only summon elementals at level 50 it would only be good for killing small villages, though this would require casting the spell to confirm.”

  “We also agreed you could have one of the duds, which do you want?”

  “I’ll take the dagger it looks nice.”

  “I guess for a blessed one it’s not completely worthless, enjoy and here’s the sword.”

  I wore the tanto on my waist, the dagger above my right hip, I switched the sword on my left hip for the blacksmith’s folly.

  “So what exactly does this ‘stone’ do?”

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  Gj those who chose a treasure, better luck next time to those who didn’t, chap a bit early because I’ve got a cold. ?