SWNOVELXO Chapter 53 - The Playboy (1)
Chapter 53. The Playboy (1)
At Yuri’s quiet mumbling, the woman who called herself the shopkeeper blinked in surprise.
“You, did you come here on purpose? Do you even know what this place is?”
“I heard you can buy some good stuff here?”
“…!”
The woman’s expression turned into one of shock.
In the meantime, Yuri approached the display case.
A large display case filled with countless items.
Yuri examined a few of them.
High-Grade Bone Clan Wound Recovery Potion: 300,000P
Low-Grade Mana Enhancement Elixir: 2,500,000P
Gold Dragon Plaque: 5,000,000P
Platinum Dragon Plaque: 15,000,000P
Seeing the items and their prices, Yuri’s eyes darkened.
‘This isn’t a discount sale.’
Judging by the prices and items, it was clear that this was not a special discount sale but simply a special sale.
Yuri turned his head.
“Shopkeeper lady.”
“Coco.”
“…?”
“My name is Coco.”
“Alright, Coco lady.”
“…”
“Lady?”
“…”
“…Miss Coco?”
“You called?”
Only then did Coco respond with a wide smile, and Yuri let out a faint sigh.
“Sigh… So, are all these the items you have? What about the special discount sale items?”
“You really… knew exactly what you were coming for, didn’t you?”
A strange light flashed in Coco’s eyes.
‘This kid… How?’
It was definitely the time when the Dragon Plaque Changing was happening.
Yet here was a cadet who should have been in the Forest of Beginnings, standing in the mainland, and not only that, he had sought out the special discount sale?
It was an odd and intriguing situation.
Rustle.
Coco, with a half-burnt cigarette in her mouth, reached out her hand.
Seeing Yuri tilt his head in confusion, she smiled and gestured with her fingers.
“Your Dragon Plaque.”
“…?”
“Show me your Dragon Plaque. I need to confirm if you’re really a first-year before I decide whether to sell you anything.”
“Ah!”
At her words, Yuri hurriedly fumbled for his Dragon Plaque.
As soon as she saw the plaque he pulled out from his chest, Coco’s eyes widened once more.
“…The Black Dragon Plaque?”
The Black Dragon Plaque engraved with the number 50.
Seeing it, Coco immediately realized who the boy in front of her was.
“So, it’s you…”
The disciple of that eccentric old man.
Coco swallowed her words.
“This should do, right? For identity verification.”
“Yes, it certainly does.”
Nodding, she pulled out a watch from her pocket.
Click.
“It’s 11:55 PM… A little early, but oh well, fine.”
Having checked the time, she sent Yuri another smile.
“Normally, the special discount sale starts right at midnight and ends in ten minutes, but how about we open it a little early today?”
To be honest, there was no need to even say ‘today.’
From what she knew, this was the first time a customer had shown up at the first-year special discount sale.
Winking at Yuri, she pulled on a golden rope again.
Thud.
At that moment, a loud noise rang out as the display case for the special sale items receded.
Clank, clank, clank.
Soon after, a new display case took its place.
If the previous display case was simply made of wood, this one was made of metal.
Moreover, it was shining brightly, made of a golden, glittering metal!
Yuri’s eyes widened in surprise as he asked, “That… Is that all made of gold?”
“The packaging for good items should be expensive and pretty, right?”
Coco described the dazzling golden display case in that way.
“Alright, you have exactly 15 minutes from now. Go ahead and choose!”
At her words, Yuri started moving quickly.
How much had he struggled for this very moment?
He had no intention of wasting even a single second.
He swiftly approached the display case and examined the items.
‘There aren’t that many things here.’
If the special sale display case had been packed with items, the special discount sale case had far fewer.
Only about ten items were placed there.
Even the grades varied widely.
‘If the special sale items were mostly mid-grade to high-grade… then the special discount sale items range from low-grade to top-grade.’
The items in the special discount sale had a much wider range of grades compared to the special sale.
And the most significant difference between the two was the price.
Low-Grade Bone Clan Wound Treatment Potion: 300P
Top-Grade Bone Clan Wound Recovery Potion: 5,000P
Top-Grade Bone Clan Fracture Recovery Potion: 5,000P
Low-Grade Mana Enhancement Elixir: 30,000P
Gold Dragon Plaque: 49,999P
Platinum Dragon Plaque: 99,999P
Recalling the price of the same items in the special sale, Yuri clicked his tongue.
‘No wonder everyone talks about the special discount sale.’
The discounts were beyond imagination.
At this rate, it was practically giving them away for free.
‘If I could buy things like this every year…’
And as if reading his thoughts, Coco smiled and said, “By the way, you can only buy these items at these prices during the first-year special discount sale. You won’t even be able to see them at this price from now on.”
Yuri nodded, thinking, ‘Of course.’
As he scanned the items, something caught his eye.
Bone Clan’s Secret Technique: 300,000P
An item with one more zero than the others.
It was none other than a pendant.
A silver metal chain.
A transparent, rectangular crystal the size of a thumb.
And inside the crystal, a sloshing deep green liquid.
Seeing it, Yuri asked, “What is that?”
“Who knows? What could it be?”
In response to Yuri’s question, Coco shrugged.
But Yuri noticed it.
The slight twitch of her lips.
Sensing there was something more, Yuri subtly probed further.
“Could you explain what it is?”
“I’m just the seller. I don’t give explanations.”
“…Aren’t sellers supposed to explain things diligently?”
“That’s for those who are desperate to sell. I don’t care if I sell it or not.”
She had a point.
It was the cadets who desired the special discount sale items.
Frankly, even if the Cradle decided not to hold a special discount sale anymore, the cadets wouldn’t be able to complain.
Knowing this, Coco was able to act so boldly in her sales.
Throwing her finished cigarette into the ashtray, she took out a new one, lit it, and took a drag.
Inhale.
Sizzle.
“If you’re curious about what it is, buy it and find out for yourself. As a cadet of the Cradle, that’s what you should do.”
Exhale.
“You have ten minutes left.”
Blowing out thick smoke, she glanced at her watch and urged him to make a decision.
Yuri tried to ignore her and fell into thought.
“Hmm…”
Whether it was the special sale or the special discount sale, all the items had straightforward names.
Which injury they were good for.
How effective they were at healing wounds.
The level of mana increase and other such details.
The grades and names were all straightforward.
It was as if to ensure there was no confusion about their usage.
However, that item with a price tag of 300,000 points only had the name “Secret Technique” attached to it.
“A secret technique, huh…”
A secret, something passed down in secrecy.
Yuri stroked his chin.
“The Bone Clan… So it’s a secret technique of the Bone Clan?”
The Bone Clan, descendants of ancient dwarves.
Among the descendants of other ancient species, they were relatively well-known to ordinary people.
No, more accurately, it was the Bone Clan’s skills that made them famous.
The four skills that spread the name of the Bone Clan far and wide.
Metallurgy, Alchemy,
Poisoncraft, and Pharmacology.
As Yuri recalled these, his eyes brightened.
“Then that pendant itself is the secret technique?”
Was that crystal pendant a secret technique made using the Bone Clan’s metallurgy and alchemy?
“Or perhaps…”
Yuri’s gaze shifted to the liquid contained within the pendant.
“Is it that liquid?”
Yuri had a hunch.
Perhaps that liquid was indeed the Bone Clan’s secret technique.
But what troubled him was figuring out exactly what that green liquid called the “secret technique” was.
“Poison? Or medicine?”
The legendary poison that was said to have killed dragons, passed down by the dwarves.
The Bone Clan’s poison was the inheritor of that legacy, and their medicine was developed through extensive research to handle that poison.
“Even if the legend isn’t true, the Bone Clan’s poison is certainly valuable. And if that liquid is medicine…”
No matter what its effect, if it was a medicine created by the Bone Clan—
And if it was labeled as a “secret technique,” it would hold astronomical value.
“Then, there’s no need to hesitate.”
Yuri extended his hand.
“I’ll take that one.”
Coco snorted in response.
“Did you read the price correctly? It’s 300,000 points. Do you even know what points are?”
300,000 points.
That wasn’t an amount that a mere cadet would typically have.
At her ridicule, Yuri silently placed a wooden box on the table.
A wooden box he had carefully brought all the way from the Forest of Beginnings.
Yuri…
Crunch.
Stepped on it without hesitation.
As if it were no longer needed, he crushed it with a satisfying stomp.
The wooden box shattered into pieces.
Rustle.
Yuri pulled out a pouch from the shattered box and placed it on the table.
“There’s a total of 231,500 points in here. And…”
Yuri then took out ten 10,000-point tokens from his pocket.
Ten slender wooden tokens strung together, each worth 10,000 points.
He tossed them onto the pouch.
Thud.
Clink.
“That makes a total of 331,500 points.”
“…Huh?”
“The Low-Grade Mana Enhancement Elixir… and the Bone Clan’s Secret Technique.”
Having said that, Yuri took out three 50-point tokens from the pouch and slipped them into his pocket.
He had calculated everything down to the last point, not wasting a single one.
Then he extended his hand toward Coco.
“Give it to me.”
“……”
“Quickly.”
Seeing him confidently waving his hand as if urging her to hurry up, Coco was momentarily speechless.
Ten minutes later.
“See you around.”
As she watched Yuri waving his hand as he left, Coco muttered to herself.
“Duran, Duran… You fool, why on earth did you put that in there? Tsk, tsk.”
At her scolding, somewhere far off in the Forest of Beginnings, someone sneezed loudly.
“Achoo!”
Hoooh…
A long breath escaped from his mouth.
In the cold air, the exhaled breath turned white and dispersed into the surroundings.
At the same time, Yuri’s half-closed eyes opened wide.
Flash.
His golden, tiger-like eyes gleamed with light.
After a moment, Yuri stood up and rotated his shoulders.
Crack, crack.
His shoulders rotated smoothly.
When he lightly bounced on the spot, his body felt so light it seemed as if he might fly away at any moment.
That wasn’t all.
His head, which had been heavy from overexertion, now felt refreshed as if he had gotten a good night’s sleep.
His body was in such good condition that it brought a smile to his face.
The reason was simple.
“Wow, this potion is amazing.”
It was because he had taken the Low-Grade Mana Enhancement Elixir he bought from the special discount store.
The effect was truly astounding.
“It’s perfect for recovering from fatigue.”
Of course, the elixir’s effects weren’t just limited to relieving fatigue.
If that were the case, it wouldn’t have been named a “Mana Enhancement” elixir.
Yuri gently touched the area near his navel.
“It’s definitely bigger.”
If his mana core had been the size of a walnut before, it was now the size of an egg.
This was why he was even more amazed.
“This… is just a low-grade potion?”
What if it had been a mid-grade potion, or even a high-grade or top-grade one?
How much larger would his mana core have grown?
“The old man always said that simply having more mana isn’t necessarily better.”
He repeatedly emphasized that what mattered was magical power.
Magical power, which refers to the strength one can exert with a unit of mana.
Johan had said that achieving 100 tasks with 100 units of mana was less valuable than achieving 100 tasks with just 1 unit of mana, as the latter held far more potential.
Yuri agreed with that sentiment.
But even so, the total amount of mana was still important.
Johan wouldn’t deny that either.
“In that sense… I should keep taking these elixirs regularly.”
The exhilaration, fullness, and vitality that came after taking the elixir.
And the sense of accomplishment that came from increasing his mana!
He wanted to experience it again.
“Sigh… I think I might get addicted.”
Or perhaps he was already addicted.
“If this is what a low-grade enhancement elixir can do…”
Clink.
Yuri took out the pendant hanging around his neck.
“I wonder what it will feel like to drink the so-called Bone Clan’s Secret Technique?”
His eyes sparkled dangerously as he stared at the deep green liquid sloshing inside the transparent crystal.