Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1274: A hundred thousand eggs to see

Entering the “Eggcelent Beasts”, they stood in a wide showroom. Beast eggs of various colors and sizes were displayed in glass cabinets. Bigger exemplars were displayed on nests covered by cages or barriers.

There was also a display similar to the egg gacha stalls, with many eggs of similar size and color. A lucky draw of unidentified eggs, that could be hatched and raised as pets or mounts. At the bazaar, the prices on these ranged from one and five silver coins.

But this was like the premium gacha. The case here showed the proud price of 3 gold per egg but guaranteed that the beasts inside would be at least uncommon medium-grade beasts. In exchange for the steep price they guaranteed a minimum of quality, the only problem was.

“What are uncommon medium-grade beasts?” Seth asked the girls, slightly confused. They had no idea what the grades mentioned were supposed to be. The only classification Seth knew from the system was elite and boss for beasts, which gave a rough estimate as to how much stronger they were compared to their basic species or beasts in the surroundings.

“I looked into it at the bazaar,” Fin said smugly and was about to say something when she was suddenly interrupted by a friendly voice.

“Hello, is this your first time egg hunting? May I help you with anything?” a clerk suddenly appeared beside the trio, who were still musing over the egg display. He even had a nameplate. It said Eggdar.

“Hello…Eggdar?” Seth greeted him awkwardly after reading the name. The man just smiles wryly.

“Actually, my name is Edgar, but the owner is quite… egg-centric.” he introduced himself. His face was quite strained, having a hard time pushing out the pun and keeping his professional salesman smile.

“…Don’t tell me he forces you to explain that name like that, too,” Mina mumbled, seeing the man visibly suffer from the wordplay. He just nodded, not refusing to say another word on that topic. Maybe there were more prepared sentences, and he just tried to spare them.

“Anyway, you just asked what an uncommon medium-grade beast is. If this is your first egg hunting, would you like me to explain the basics?” Edgar offered. Seth glanced at Fin and judged that whatever she was about to say was at best 35% true.
“Of course, I would be thankful if you could do that. So what is up with this medium grade?” the blacksmith asked friendly.

“Well, it isnʼt weird that you donʼt know about it, if this is your first time, as the grades were set up by the egg traders and not the system, “ he explained friendly.

“The traders created the grading?” Seth asked the clerk curiously. On what basis did they judge the ranks?

“Yes, as you may have noticed, the level of monsters often doesn’t correspond with their actual strength the way it does for players. Two monsters on the same level could vastly differ in strength; the only thing they have in common is that they are stronger than players on the same level. This is why we beast traders came up with a grading that reflects the power of a beast when it is grown up, based on average player levels,” the man explained proudly.

“And what about the uncommon?” Mina asked.

“It’s what class of player it would correspond to. So, an uncommon medium-grade beast would correspond to a lv.50-75 player with an uncommon class, once it is fully grown. That is of course the base beast, without the nurturing of the pet system,” he explained professionally.

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“That means any of these eggs will grow to be at least equivalent to a lv.50 player,” Mina wondered. This kind of level meant next to nothing to them now, however, it was a great deal, even for that price.

3 gold was not as much money on Urth as it used to be and a beast like that was a better investment than some items at that price. Even if they still had to spend time and money to raise the pet, depending on how far they intended to go, it was a great investment, especially if you got something better than the lowest guaranteed outcome.

Patiently, Edgar continued to explain the grades to them. There were just five. It went Lowest, Low, Mid, High, and Highest. The first four separated the levels from lv.0 to lv.100 in steps of 25. The Highest grade was for all beasts who naturally grew past the strength of an ordinary player and may even have the chance to become Legends.

“Oh, so that is why the stalls at the bazaar were so overrun,” Fin mentioned, remembering the displays there advertising that there was a low chance to pull a highest-grade beast. On the other hand, those places did not have any guarantees.

“We, here at Eggcelent Beasts,” he shuddered saying the name, “…Do not engage in such fraudulent practices. Those snake oilers probably never even saw a highest-grade beast, much less the egg of one. Even we have only 4 such eggs. Most of their wares are low or lowest-grade and not even worth the pittance you pay for them,” Edgar said upset. It was clear the clerk had an opinion on the people at the bazaar.

“Aha, sorry, I got a little caught up. Since we went over the basics, are you looking for something specific or do you want to try your luck?” After the salesman provided them with the needed knowledge to understand the sheer quality of good and fairness offered by Eggcelent Beasts, he was ready to sell them something.

Seth glanced at the lucky draw display and mused for a moment. Most of his enhanced luck was specialized in crafting, but even without that, it wasn’t low. With Fin in the party, it was boosted, too.

“Let’s choose five of these, each. I’m sure Evan will be able to use them well,” Seth suggested. Even if they all pulled the worst possible eggs, which he doubted considering his own and Fin’s luck, the chosen of Hermes was probably able to make use of these.

Maybe Evan could become another money-making pillar for Minas Mar, providing not just a greater variety of pets and mounts to Minas Mar, but maybe even expanding into selling them themselves, adding pet eggs to the product range of the Turquoise Anvil.

“Alright!” Mina, the one with the lowest luck attribute among them said pumped. Although she didn’t have the most fortune, she liked gambling. Fin also enthusiastically started scrutinizing the eggs, to choose her five.

“Don’t worry, after we choose these, we would like to see those highest-grade eggs you mentioned,” Seth told Edgar, who seemed a little solemn that all his effort ended in people just choosing some of their cheapest products. The mild dejection switched into an utter display of shock, so fast Seth almost had to laugh.

“Don’t worry, we have the money,” the long-hidden alter ego of Mr. Moneybags resurfaced, as Seth finally had the chance to squander gold in person. Mr. Moneybags had to play second fiddle to the blacksmith at Erka’s shop, but here he could splurge. Seth had several thousand golds on him, and Fin and Mina would not leave without a highest-grade pet egg.

While the girls took their time, looking for the eggs that spoke to them, the blacksmith simply went by colors he liked. He chose a black one with a shiny shell, a light green one with a gradient to white, a midnight blue one with red specks, an icy blue one, and one that looked like an ordinary chicken egg.

It took a while longer for the other two to finally make their choices. While the fairy had a similarly colorful collection as Seth, Mina had managed to choose 5 almost identical beige eggs of similar size.

“Would you like for me to identify them for you? It is an additional 50 silver per egg for identification,” Edgar offered them the identification service. Seth suspected that he understood why the “Eggcelent Beasts” still offered the lucky draw, despite being such a high-class store.

From a business perspective, these eggs probably cost the store one gold on average. Estimating the actual cost of identification at 25 silver, that meant they would have to spend a quarter of the buying price on identification, with the risk of identifying them as something not worth their time.

Like this, they could probably make a profit and push the cost of identification onto the customer.

“Sure! Let’s see what we got before we buy some more;” Mr. Moneybags said with a smile. Seeing what they pulled was the fun about gachas and just 50 silvers per egg more would not hurt him.