Northern and Ellis continued to follow Hao, silently at first.
But after Northern noticed that they kept going deeper into the forest rather than going out of it, and Ellis seemed to have no idea what was going on, he decided to speak up.
“I’m sorry, where are we going again?”
“Shut up and follow me.”
“Yeah, but the way back to the castle is back… this should only lead us out of the capital, I guess?”
“I said shut your mouth.”
Northern frowned slightly.
‘I’m really beginning to have my fill of this man…’
He decided to just walk silently… for now.
The forest only grew thicker as they walked within it.
Northern could have sworn he never ever thought the forest was so large.
He had just made a presumption that it was a small partition that separated the northern border of the city from whatever lay beyond.
Lotheliwan is a kingdom with four cities, including the kingdom capital. It was situated in the southwestern edge of the continent of Stelia, although it was still barricaded from the oceans by a massive canyon.
The inter-cities were surrounded by thick forests, which was a quite weird and concerning terrain structure considering the presence of a canyon at their southwestern edge and a vast desert to their northeastern side.
The three of them trekked silently, Ellis and Northern following Hao from behind.
The walk took quite the time, almost stretching into an hour before they eventually reached a clearing, which was occupied by a wooden hut.
Northern skeptically looked around, then hastened his step to match Hao’s.
“Look, I get that we are trying to have a transaction and you have something special for me. But I’m beginning to second guess your intentions. This place is looking very shady.”
Hao stopped and turned, casting a stern glare at him.
“There’s nothing shady about this place. And this is my main item store.”
Northern and Ellis looked at him in a little bewilderment mixed with confusion.
Then Northern spoke:
“Why would you separate your items? You don’t trust the castle?”
“The number one code of a trader is not to trust anybody. Moreover, your friend here and his past boss have really done some trashy things to me.”
Ellis lowered his head in defeat.
“I am very sorry, sir. I was forced, and it was all his command.”
Northern exchanged his eyes between the two of them, blinking first, then a small smile formed on his face.
‘Whatever it is, it looked like they’ve sorted it out.’
Since Ellis and Hao came together, it was safe to assume that they could have trashed whatever was between them.
The way Hao spoke also gave away the fact that he probably understood Ellis’ predicament.
‘I’m still curious though, but I guess that can wait.’
Hao trudged forward with a serious face.
“If you are bringing us here, does that mean you trust us?” Northern intoned, walking behind the short man.
Hao gritted his teeth a little.
“Don’t kid yourself. I’d never trust a shady kid like you. I just owe you, and I gotta pay what I owe.”
Northern’s brow furrowed slightly in confusion.
“Owe? You don’t owe me anything though. Wasn’t I the one that wanted to conduct a transaction?”
Hao smacked his lips and ignored Northern.
They finally got to the entrance of the hut. The man bent down and used his hands to separate the loam and dug through.
After digging for a while, he stood up with a rusting key in his dirty hand.
‘Wow, he’s quite thorough…’ Northern watched in silence as the man plunged the key into the keyhole on the door and made some very confusing twists.
Then the door clicked and creaked open.
Immediately, they were assaulted by a cloud of dust, that caused them to take a couple of steps back.
Hao, however, went in regardless, walking through the assault with apathy.
Northern and Ellis quickly followed. Northern summoned the white orb of light, but before it could finish weaving itself into existence, Hao clapped and immediately, the entire place birthed a warm radiance.
Everything became illuminated.
Northern’s orb of light still ended up adding a slight glow to the warmth of the room.
“Woow…” Ellis couldn’t keep his mouth closed with what was unveiled before his eyes.
The interior was an array of shelves, and in those shelves were different boxes. The boxes aside, there were smaller wooden hangers that held different necklaces, rings, and gauntlets.
To another side, swords and armor hung on the wall, filling the space with a war aesthetic glamor.
Although all these things were also coated by dust, they still shimmered with an alluring radiance.
Northern couldn’t take his eyes off the necklaces. The swords too were nice.
Even though he had Mortal Blade and Soul Taker, he didn’t mind adding these ones to his collection.
He just wanted to have them all.
Their silent moment of adoration was put to an abrupt stop when Hao slammed a box on the table that sat in the middle of the room.
“Here is what I have,” he announced.
The two of them turned around.
Hao then slowly opened the box. Immediately, a subtly silver glow entered Northern’s eyes so much that he had to close them for a moment before opening.
“This is a Heroic rank item. A charm item to be precise, with six orders.”
Northern’s mouth fell open. freёwebnovel.com
‘Even Night Terror armor is four orders.’
This meant whatever this item was, it outdid his Night Terror armor, which was Heroic rank and order IV.
‘An order VI item… wow, I can’t wait to see what it does.’ Northern’s eyes gleamed greedily.
“Before I show this to you, however, I want to propose something.”
Northern was already licking his lips inwardly, but had to pause and stare at Hao… who was looking like he was about to be dubious.
“What? Are you trying to change your mind?”
Hao sighed and responded:
“No, this item is too much of a prize. Sometimes I don’t want to part with it. If you’ll be making a decision to take it, I’ll be exchanging it for all your items. Deal or no deal?”
Northern erased the greedy gleam from his face and glowered at Hao.
“Why? Do you know the potency of the items I have with me? Why would you make such a suggestion and expect that I accept it?”
Hao smiled, his smile, however, wasn’t anything short of hideous. He had a bony and strong face; that smile could scare away a monster, in fact.
“You’re talking like that because you don’t know yet. When you own it, you’re going to thank me heavily.”
Northern skeptically looked at Hao for a couple of seconds.
‘I guess he is trying to establish an agreement since you can’t see the info about an item until you own it… but that’s not the case with me…’
Northern looked down at the silver necklace.
Immediately, its details originated before his eyes. Northern’s mouth fell open; he almost let out a loud gasp.
‘Crazy! This is crazy!!’