"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Arthur asked, amazed by the view around him.
"No, young master, it isn't."
Lucien replied dryly.
"No, it actually is."
Both Arthur and Lucien were in a marketplace.
Well, it wasn't exactly a marketplace, but because the participants for Lavender Academy's entrance exam were arriving, the path was filled with vendors hawking their goods.
"Lucien, we'll split up."
Arthur said, earning the boy's attention.
"How come?"
Lucien questioned.
"If you see anything I'll like, buy it for me, also buy some things for yourself."
Arthur was already moving into the crowd near the marketplace.
"You only get to use 100,000."
With those words, Arthur was gone.
'He better buy some skills; I take it that he'll need them.'
In the game, Lucien was forced to sell his sword—the only item of worth that he had—to gain admission, that was because Arthur refused to do so, even though Lucien was the reason he still had some of his money in the first place.
Art had realized that no matter what he said, no matter what he did to prove his innocence, people would never believe him.
They would always take him for the trash who tried and failed to rape the princess, even though he never did such.
It was when he arrived at the academy that he chose to play villain. Which, unironically, made Lucien hate him more.
"That bitch is lucky that she didn't come to the academy."
Arthur murmured, his hand tightening into a fist.
Most royalty did not attend the academy, they were trained personally by the current head to become a worthy successor.
The rulers sent their other children to attend, though rarely.
"If she did, I would make sure to kill her."
The only reason the Central Monarch sent his own heir to attend was to keep an eye of the activities of the Academy.
The fourth prince was attending because it was recently found out that he was adopted, of course, it was the prince himself that brought it to light.
Why? Because he wanted to greet his dear older brother.
Arthur Kaiser Kurobane.
"I'd like to withdraw."
"How much, sir?"
"250k."
"That'll be 20,000."
The transaction was quickly done and Arthur walked away.
'I can't help but feel I've been scammed.'
He mused.
Nevertheless, Arthur still continued on his way.
'What I need now are pills and skills.'
It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for.
"I'll take one of each."
Drugs.
One healing pill to well.... heal, one essence pill to restore his essence and one reflex pill to boost his reaction time.
"Scratch that, just give me two of each."
The pills weren't very expensive considering that they were low—grade pills.
One was just 10,000.
"Ten thousand for each, consume all at once and you'll be drunk."
The merchant warned as he handed it to Arthur.
Arthur nodded, his expression betraying his surprise.
'He actually told me that.'
Did the merchant not know him?
"Excuse me, can you point me in the direction of a shop that sells skills."
Surprisingly, the merchant did.
The merchant did not show any disgust.
The merchant did not show him kindness, but he didn't show him disgust too. Just business.
When he had been recently disowned, he was used to seeing the thinly veiled disgust of everyone around him, the only reason they bothered to try to hide it was because he was awakened.
'Now that I think about it, no one is staring at me or laughing behind my back.'
He thought.
Art walked absentmindedly.
'Never mind, not like that was really the pressing matter.'
It took him a while to reach the shop, but while walking, he did buy some more things.
Anything that caught his fancy ended up in his possession.
"Thankfully, everything here is related to combat one way or another or I'd be screwed."
Art breathed a sigh of relief as he finally located the skill shop.
"Good morning, sir, how can I help you?"
"I need an offensive skill, a defensive one.... No, scratch that, give me two offensive skill, two defensive, and one buff that increases speed."
'I'm so bad at decision making.'
The merchant quickly brought out two golden bars, two silver bars, and one copper.
"This one." The merchant said, gesturing towards the first golden bar.
"Don't worry." Arthur interrupted the man before he could say more.
Then, he brought out the golden card from his pockets.
"Open."
The card was commonly used to measure the progress of awakeneds.
But it could also be used for appraisal. Not the appraisal of items, not anything you could think of. Rather, it could only appraise things that had essence in them.
The golden, silver and copper bars were all crystallized essence, though, this carried something more in them.
________________
[Name: Flame Arrow]
[Skill Type: Attack]
[Skill Rank: None]
[Description: Summons a bow and arrow made of fire.]
________________
________________
[Name: Masterful Offense]
[Skill Type: Attack]
[Skill Rank: R3]
[Description: Increases the speed and power of your attacks for five minutes. Additionally, it has a cooldown of 20 minutes.]
________________
[Name: Essence Barrier]
[Skill Type: Defense]
[Skill Rank: R3]
[Description: Creates a barrier made of pure essence to block attacks.]
________________
________________
[Name: Tempered Stone]
[Skill Type: Defense]
[Skill Rank: R3]
[Description: Turns your body into stone to block attacks.]
________________
________________
[Name: Greater Reflexes]
[Skill Type: Buff]
[Skill Rank: R3]
[Description: Boosts your reflexes and reaction time for 2 minutes. Additionally, it has a cooldown of 5 minutes.]
________________
"...."
"...."
"...."
"Sir, did you find anything you liked?"
"Fuck."
Arthur cursed as he stared at his options.
He was bad at choosing.
All these looked like great skills, in fact, they were better than most of the skills he was given before he was disowned—all except Masterful Offense, that thing had an atrocious cool—down time.
Not only that but one of them didn't have a rank, meaning that he could keep on using them as he grew stronger.
Skills were equipped, they weren't learnt.
And once you left the rank, you couldn't use the skills that belonged to your former rank.
But skills with no rank didn't have such a drawback. These were mostly skills that came to be naturally.
"How much for all of them?"
Arthur questioned.
"150,000, sir."
The merchant replied.
Arthur nodded and began doing the mental gymnastics.
"I withdrew 250, I spent 60 on drugs, 50 on jewels.'
"Oh, I don't have that, I only have 140,000."
Arthur replied when he was done.
The merchant took one look at the golden card, one at his face, and one at the skills on the table.
"....Okay."
The merchant finally said.
'He looked hesitant for a moment.'
The merchant counted the money, then slid the bars forward.
Arthur waved a hand over them.
Instantly, they disappeared in a dazzling blue light.
"Wait...."
Arthur said, as if suddenly realizing something.
"Yes?"
"I want to buy more."