Prince of The Abyss

”Come on, one coin, and I’ll sing you a special song!” The bard said, leaning forward in Aether’s face. He pulled back, frowning. ”I told you, I don’t have money, so leave me alone.” He rolled his eyes, leaving before he could respond.

’Annoying, the Merchant ward really feels different... is it because I’m not wearing my uniform?’ Looking down at his clothes, he wasn’t wearing anything special, just a blank black tee and some larger grey jeans... and some cat pins from Sena that had somehow remained in his hair. He felt weird always walking with his Academy uniform on, so he had just... um. borrowed some from the other students.

’Can’t get rid of old habits that hard.’

But with these new clothes, he felt as if people treated him differently; they approached him more, they weren’t scared. Everytime had come into the Ward in his uniform, or with other students, most of the nobles stood alone, but now, with some normal clothes, people didn’t say sorry when bumping into him. Strange, how even a transfer student from the Withered was treated better than some normal Blue Rose person.

’Just goes to show the influence of the Academy in this district.’

He didn’t mind; rather, he wasn’t going to make a fuss about it. Actually, he liked it; this way, people actually paid less attention to him, even if it felt like it was the opposite. Since people spoke to him more.

But even if they did. ’They will just forget it; I’m just one of the many people they approach.’

Bad for them; he really had nothing to do with them. He had another business to handle. Aether stopped walking as soon as he reached the blacksmith. The places where relics are made, and where you can also sell materials.

...

Yet as he went inside, the usual person sitting behind the desk wasn’t there anymore. Instead, there was a boy, someone who looked his age. His hair was luxuriously brown, slicked back so that it wouldn’t get in his face, and yet, it still found a way to enhance his beautiful blue eyes. His face had a big scar going across his nose. Alongside many freckles.

His skin was like the color of an almond, and he was wearing some sort of blacksmith apron over a white shirt.

As soon as he saw Aether enter, he staggered into place, stiffening like a brick.

Aether tilted his head, approaching the counter. ”Who are you? Where’s the old man?” He had come to the blacksmith once in a while... not to buy or sell anything, but rather to beg for some relics, but he got none. But what he did get was a connection. The owner knew him quite well, and he liked him; he found his effort funny.

The boy chuckled. ”H-He is on vacation at the moment. I was hired to take his place.”

He sighed, a bit annoyed, but as he looked over the boy, something caught his eye. A bracelet... with a Withered flower. His eyes widened as he stared at it.

The boy noticed instantly, going to cover it, putting his hand behind the counter. ”So u-um, what can I help you with?”

’He’s from the Withered, huh? Impressive, at such a young age he managed to prove himself enough to get permission to work inside the Blue Rose... probably for hardly any money, and doing a lot of work under the scenes. But still. Impressive nonetheless.’

Judging by his reaction, he hadn’t taken this job on that long ago; he might even be his first customer. Being in the Blue Rose meant that he was going to have to serve Nobles, which was probably why he was so nervous; after all, if something happened and he angered the customer, who knew what was going to happen to him. It was probably why he didn’t want people to see his bracelet...

’I do wonder, is he forced to wear it, or is it a memory for himself to remember where he came from?’

Aether smirked. ”I’m here to sell some materials if you don’t mind.”

The boy quickly shook his head. ”No, not at all, please, show me.”

Opening the Codex, he summoned all the materials he had gained from the Guardians, leaving only the relic from the white stag from Demon of Dread. He didn’t have a clear reason why... maybe a bit sentimental, but also because it was from a Trial, and his first.’

The boy stared as all the relics found themselves on his table. His mouth opened slightly.

Laughing, Aether looked at the boy. ”So what do you think? What can I get from all of them?”

The boy was a bit nervous; it was a lot of relics for his first job. ”I’ll first have to check their rank and class, so if you excuse me...

”Of course,” Aether said, waiting for him to check everything.

From what he heard from chatting with the smith before, a Reader Fragment is worth two bronze coins, and the rank multiplies it: at fragment it’s x1, at Echo it’s 2x, at beast x4, and it keeps going up at the same rate. At least that is for the Reader class; when it comes to the Seeker, it starts from four, but the rank multiplying is the same. But it didn’t double; you see that when you went to Bearer. You multiply by all the classes before. So it’s four multiplied by four, and then again by 2. So rather, it’s the last class’s number to the power of two multiplied by all the others before it. Meaning that a Harbinger Titan material would be...

’524,288 bronze, 52 gold, 42 silver, 88 bronze, pretty good for just one material, but at the same time, but its also the hardest to aquire, so it isn’t like it doesn’t make any sense.’

Most materials have the rank and classes of the beast they were given from, so only the strongest can get a material like that.

’Speaking of it...’ He remembered something. ’The material from the white stag, it was a Seeker class while it had been a Reader, and it also didn’t have a rank...’ Aether stared blankly, confused.

’What?’