Kill The Old Ones!

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The new gear Ren bought still looked simple on the surface.

It’s mostly cloth armor this time, along with a few solid components here and there. It’s practical—weightless, flexible, and self-cleaning. No odor sticks to it either.

The cloth was made from scales and tendons of the Horned Sky Serpent—a creature with a draconic ancestry. It’s basically a snake that could fly. It has a small pair of wings that could produce a surprising amount of force to lift the snake and allow it to glide to the skies. It could swim in waters and burrow underground.

What makes this material special is that it has a high reactivity to chakra—well, energy, more like. It depends on who’s using it.

It has to be soaked or exposed to a specific type of energy first, though, to develop its bias. The length depends on the age of the serpent and how long it has been since it was harvested.

Horned Sky Serpents are mostly demonic rather than draconic. That means their bodies are saturated with demonic energy for the most part and a bit of draconic mana as well.

While the serpent is still alive, or while its corpse is still intact, the bias remains that way. If somebody wants to convert that, the materials have to be soaked for a long time with the specific energy signatures for the final product. This is where the cost of the material starts fluctuating after considering the age of the serpent.

The one that’s on Ren’s gear was taken from a 10,000-year-old Horned Sky Serpent.

No, it didn’t live for that long. Their age is just a measure of their strength and evolution. It’s like progressing through the martial realms. If the age of the serpent were to be translated into that, it’d be somewhere around the 4th to 6th transformation of the Inhuman Realm.

Not bad at all.

The tendons and scales of the Horned Sky Serpent don’t just allow energy to move through unobstructed; they also amplify it a little bit. Also, the longer it’s worn, the better it becomes.

Old Sam has something to do with that part. The skill of the smith who forged this material allowed it to preserve some of its essence even after it was transformed.

It’s no wonder it became one of Old Sam’s most valuable and treasured crafts.

The few solid components of the armor were there to seamlessly connect the material and offer a bit more protection to the exposed parts. With the way it’s forged, Ren wouldn’t have to go looking for a new armor set until he reaches the 9th transformation of the Inhuman Realm.

By the way, this costs 500 million credits, and that’s after the discount.

Old Sam practically slashed the price in half for Ren. His reason was because Ren had been a loyal and faithful customer.

He’s probably referring to the way Ren sells dungeon materials to the shops that Old Sam owns. Old Sam himself was never in the plaza, but he did own several shops in there, and that’s where he gets materials for the things he crafts.

Ren specifically seeks out his shops to sell materials, sometimes even taking a loss himself. He didn’t do it expecting anything in return; Ren doesn’t even care that he’s losing on some of his sales; he just wanted to unload the materials since they’re clogging up his inventory.

As for why he sought out Old Sam’s shops? It’s out of familiarity. Plus, the old man picked some really good spots for his shops. They’re practically the first of the many shops one would see the moment they step out of the archways.

But it turns out that that’s not how Old Sam saw it.

Old Sam and his employees recognize Ren. He’s known to dump pools of resources daily after his runs. His transactions are always smooth and easy. He barely looks at the receipt and just leaves once he is done. He never caused trouble either, and he’s always polite to talk to. He didn’t have the airs of those who came from important backgrounds.

That’s why every employee of Old Sam likes him. They could even recognize him beneath his disguise because his style of unloading resources didn’t change.

Obviously, this reached the ears of the old man. It’s also the reason why he welcomed Ren in his shop like a proper VIP, unlike how he does with Alex.

Anyways...

Ren was originally prepared to pay a billion credits for this armor. He wasn’t ignorant about the estimated price of such equipment. So when he heard that low price, he instantly knew that Old Sam was taking a massive loss.

He argued, of course. He didn’t want the old man to take a loss. Business is business; friendships are friendships. Those two things should never intersect.

But the old man explained his reasons and, in the end, managed to convince Ren, but under the condition that there’s no next time. If Ren ever comes here again to buy new gear, there won’t be any discounts anymore; he pays the full price.

Old Sam agreed, annoyed but also fond of the kid’s firm attitude.

He also bought an axe for Charles, which he sent to him via system mail. It’s a 300-million-year-old great axe that was much better than the one Ren broke. It has the same weight, length, and grip as the one that Ren broke in their fight. But the materials were far better. It’s sharper and more durable.

This one should serve Charles well until he reaches the late transformations of the Inhuman Realm.

Ren also bought a pair of gloves.

Well, ”gloves” might be an understatement to describe it, but if the world system were to be asked, it qualifies as a pair of gloves.

They looked like gauntlets, actually...you know, things that Ren shouldn’t be able to use with his aberrant martial physique?

This one reaches up to his elbows. The protections resembled stacked metals, forming the pattern—but not the arch—of an armadillo’s shell.

When Old Samn presented this to him, Ren was first skeptical. Old Sam should know that he couldn’t use weapons, even gauntlets for that matter since they’re considered one.

But Old Sam said they were gloves. Ren held it, squeezed it, and felt nothing. The accursed tattoos on his arm didn’t cause any reaction. He didn’t feel pain, nor did he see any lacerations either.

He’s skeptical even after wearing them. But to his surprise, nothing. Nothing happened to him. His arms didn’t bleed, and it sure as hell didn’t start falling off.

They were really a pair of gloves. He really shouldn’t have doubted Old Sam’s intentions.

It’s a nameless pair of gloves. Old Sam’s intent when making them was to make them a pair of gloves using materials commonly used for weapons. And that intent was infused into the piece, producing something like this.

[Compact Stone Gloves] is what Ren decided to call it. Because even though the material followed the pattern of an armadillo’s shell, its color, hardness, weight, and texture felt like wearing sewn rocks.

The best part? Ren could infuse Black Adamantium chakra in these gloves. They turn like refined obsidians when he does so, and their hardness and durability skyrocket.

Ren couldn’t wait to bash some skulls with this.

He paid 250 million for these, which is the proper price, with no discounts. Ren likes them already and decided to wear them as he left Old Sam’s shops.

Those who are searching for him wouldn’t guess that he would wear something that closely resembles a weapon, especially knowing where he comes from. So this serves as another layer of disguise on top of the ones he already had.

Ren definitely spent a lot of credits today, but to be honest, Ren didn’t even feel that pinch.

He’s earning a lot of credits on a daily basis, and he won big on the betting pool during the tournament. Ren had billions of credits to spend, and he’s not going to run out anytime soon.

Besides, this was normal. The stronger Ren becomes, the more he earns from dungeon exploring. But at the same time, his expenditure also increases.

At some point, Ren would have to waste billions of credits on a daily basis. It’s not going to happen anytime soon, but eventually, it will happen.

That’s what it takes to continue pursuing the path of martial arts.

Fortunately, Ren was really good at making money. And since he’s been going solo, he doesn’t have to share profits with anybody. His gains were purely his. Not even the clan will tax him from that.

When he returned to the clan, Ren could still feel the presence of the vultures nearby. However, he did sense that most of them were losing patience.

They’ve been here all day and haven’t gotten a single glimpse of him, so they must be incredibly frustrated.

Well, he supposes that they will be even more frustrated if they knew that their chances of meeting him after this day just shrank even more.

Because Ren bought a shortcut to the plaza that skips the commuting part.