“Thanks for giving me some sugar, aunt Nina. Have a safe journey and see you soon!”
Eren said this and went to take a seat at the same sofa they had their first ‘encounter’ on. He was looking at Nina who stood there with a blank look on her face.
Nina quickly gained her wits and processed what had just happened. Eren had manipulated her into kissing him and encashed on it hard.
Nina rushed to Eren to pull his cheeks as a punishment for his manipulative act. But when she approached his face with her hands, he just showed her the spot that she had just mended with her spell:
“Aunt Nina, do you want to injure me again only to mend me back with your spell?”
Eren smirked at Nina while saying that. He had a good move to save him from her constant nips from now on. Injuring himself to get his hands on this trump card was worth it.
“Little rat, you took advantage of me!”
Nina stood in front of Eren and looked at him scornfully while having a pout. A pout on a mature woman like her still looked surprisingly cute. She had managed to own that pout with her gorgeous face and her temperament.
Eren took her hand in his and said:
“Aah! I already said this, right? Whether you take advantage of me or I take advantage of you, we both shouldn’t mind the other doing that. At least I didn’t. Why are you getting angry then?”
Eren caressed her hand again to pacify her while he said that. He had tried to pull her to his side, but she didn’t budge from her stance. Eren knew he couldn’t make her do something that was against her wish with his rankless status. There he had to nudge her towards him by holding her hand and caressing it.
‘I’ve made a huge mistake yesterday. This scoundrel will forever hold that against me from now on.’ Nina thought to herself. But she also couldn’t help but find some truth in his statements. Therefore her mood lightened up a little.
The caressing of Nina’s hand was working but it wouldn’t stay effective for long. That’s why Eren decided to pacify her some more by complimenting her.
“Aunt Nina, I like the rose accords in the scent that you wear. It suits you fine as well. But…”
“B..but what? Say it quickly? I have to make some preparations before going on a mission.”
“But I think there’s one more EDP that will suit you even better. Its name is Be Erna Soliflore.
I found out about perfume when I accidentally visited a perfumer’s shop once. I immediately knew it would be an ideal choice for you when I tested it. I will get it for you when the shop opens.”
Eren was trying to change the subject for the better. Then he remembered Nina liked wearing perfumes with notes of roses. What would be a better way to pacify a scorned woman than gifting her something she likes?
“Hmph! Alright.”
Eren kept talking random things to her while sending ninja compliments her way. Nina finally let go of her short lasted pout and smiled mirthlessly at him.
“Little rat, I see that you’ve got a glib tongue. I had told you we should wait till you grow up a little, but this incident was my fault for being swayed by your act. Rest assured though, I’ll be careful henceforth and treat you like the little devil you are.
I’ll have to prepare for the mission now. Don’t worry about me. I’ll prioritize my safety above everything else during all times.
But I need some potion related ingredients urgently. So I might go to the city of Laurel after I’m done with this assignment. Assume that I’ll be out for almost a week.
You stay put during that time. Don’t go outside too much till the Osan woods disturbance settles down.
And make sure you take care of the elementary potion delivery. We have all the raw ingredients ready that can last us for almost a month. That’s it. Do this much perfectly, and I might bring you something good from the city of Laurel.”
Nina still pulled Eren’s cheeks lightly while saying that.
‘Just bring me dat ass!’ Eren said to himself while nodding externally.
Nina left the shop after a while. Eren closed the door behind her and traced his lips with the tip of his finger. He smirked lightly before shrugging his shoulders. He wasn’t disappointed in his slow progress with aunt Nina.
‘Eren, your patience will achieve more than your force. One step at a time.’ The teen said to himself while making his way towards his hidden treasure. Eren had hidden the ID stones of his victims in the backyard, away from aunt Nina’s prying senses. He retrieved those stones and went back to his room.
Next, he called Reen up. She immediately transformed into her original form and stuck to his chest, spreading all over his torso. Only one emotion dominated her mind right now that she kept on shouting in Eren’s psyche repetitively.
‘Hungry for days. Starving for centuries. Famished for an eternity.’
Reen’s definitions of her hunger’s severity and duration kept on getting larger and more intensifying than the last thought. It took her a while to calm down. Eren said she’ll have her food by evening today. Only then did she regain her composure.
Eren was rankless till now. He couldn’t access the ID stones’ storage spaces even if he wanted to. But that didn’t mean that he was out of ways to achieve the same results. He had Reen. A starving C Rank demon beast with her ample mana sense, who’ll do anything for him as long as he keeps on feeding her.
First, Eren asked Reen to create an isolating shield with her mana sense to block any outgoing mana waves. Although unlikely, the ID stones might have a tracker inscribed on them that would let someone else track the location of the stone from a remote distance when he tries to activate it or access the storage space inside.
Eren knew about these things beforehand. Therefore, he already employed Reen to take precautions. Next, he made Reen use her mana sense to access the storage space of a random ID stone. He instructed her to take out all the stuff from within it.
After checking the content belonging to the first ID stone, Eren asked Reen to do the same process with the rest of the samples, one by one. When he was done with the last ID stone, the teen found out that he had struck rich. But there were also some concerns.
Eren found out he was now the richest teen he knew of in both his lives with loads of Extols laying in front of him. He could surmise that there were around 100 Extols that he was now the proud owner of.
Extols are non-elemental gems with the purest of mana contained within them. They can be man-made or be found in nature. Since the cost of manufacturing the Extols would normally be the same as their original value, there was no use counterfeiting the items.
The gems are used and employed in various ways. They are incorporated in making inscriptions, arrays, weapons, artefacts, potions, scrolls, and other various items and accessories, which are widely used by hunters, adventurers, potioneers, inscribers, weapon masters, and artefact makers.
That’s why Extols has been used as the most common form of currency across many kingdoms and empires. Since it had many uses, its value never depreciated over time. The currency was mainly used by ranked entities when they were dealing with other ranking personnel or buying ranked products.
Extols could be exchanged with the kingdom’s currency and vice versa in the kingdom’s banking establishments spread across various cities and a few popular towns. Typically, the exchange rate would fluctuate among the kingdoms depending upon their respective financial conditions. But typically, even a single Extol would be sufficient for a normal, rankless person to spend more than a few months in complete leisure no matter which kingdom they belonged to.
Eren never thought that he would be having these many Extols this early in his restarted life. The sum must be close to Nina’s annual income, more or less. Furthermore, the various storage spaces also contained the money in the form of the kingdom’s currency. Eren figured that he wouldn’t require aunt Nina to sponsor him for a few years with this much amount of the kingdom’s currency alone.
Eren continued looking through his loot for the time being. Apart from the 100 Extols, he was now the new owner of some weapons, scrolls, potions, and a few artefacts he wasn’t aware of how to make use of. Eren could infer they all belonged to the F Rank, only their tier differed.
Stored within the ID stones were also random, rank-less items such as clothes, accessories, and even personal hygiene products belonging to both genders. But Eren didn’t pay them much attention.
But the most important and concerning thing within those rankless items was a palm-sized, wooden-like token that had unique insignia etched on it along with the word Osan written below it. It was a city lord’s token. That could only mean one thing.
Eren had killed someone belonging to the Osan city lord’s family!