Are you serious...?

"...sooo… hey, how about we call Zane to check his level?"

"I think that's a great idea, my lady. Mister Zane!"

Melinda stood up and proposed after swaying back and forth for a few seconds, and Adrianna bowed her head and agreed before walking to the door and calling out to the monstrous servant.

"...yes…?"

A few moments later, the ten-foot-tall Zane leaned down and stuck his head inside the shop, supporting himself on his elbow.

"...why are you so tall...?"

"I'm in the middle of checking something out. Don't mind it. What's the matter?"

The gold-haired girl asked, witnessing a rather peculiar sight, but the black-haired giant simply shrugged off the question with some basic explanation and changed the subject.

"Suuure... Well, this item shows one level. Adi is 56, and I'm 49."

Melinda raised her brow but didn't linger on the topic and declared, showing off the glowing marble in her hand.

"Oh… you are way too close to the limit…!"

"Yeah, tell me about it... Now, your turn!'

Zane furrowed his brows and pointed out, which made Melinda let out a depressed sigh before perking up and passing the monstrous servant the orb.

His current size made the item look tiny, but despite the size difference, after holding it for a while, Zane also got his reading.

"Level 52. Yeah, it makes sense. The bigger the level difference between a monster and the character, the bigger the multiplier of the experience points."

"Pretty nice~"

Melinda nodded, pointing out while taking back the marble from the satisfied-looking Zane.

"Noble guest, her is… PERSEVERANCE HAVE MERCY…!"

"..!"

Just then, the shopkeeper returned, holding something, but ended up crying out in pure terror at the sight of Zane. He even threw the item straight up before falling to the floor in shambles.

"...and with that, I'm back to my business…"

Zane murmured, backing off so fast in such a slithery motion that the scene looked like it was taken right out of a horror flick.

"Mister, don't worry! That was my other servant. Well, a bodyguard of sorts. We ere just checking his level too… I hope it's not a problem…?"

Both girls hurried over to the fallen shopkeeper, and Melinda explained apologetically while Adrianna was helping him stand up.

"I'll leave the level checker here."

"!!!"

The gold-haired girl added, placing the glowing marble with the number 52 still perfectly visible on its surface, which one look at made the shopkeeper's face turn a bluish green.

"P-please excuse my rudeness…!"

Adrianna helped the shopkeeper to the chair behind the counter while he continuously apologized in a worn-out voice.

"No problem! Well then, what's the artifact you wanted to show me…?"

Melinda was the one to respond and ask curiously, picking up the large black bracelet that looked just like an old-school prisoner's shackle, only without the chain attached.

"The item… r-right… Right. The item."

The man nodded while doing his best to calm down his exasperated breath, taking the shackle-like item from the gold-haired girl.

"This… this item is a memento of olden times when slavery was legal in the Emeraldios Empire. Of course, although still relevant in some forms, those practices have been severely discouraged by the government. Leaving us with this."

"..."

The shopkeeper began explanation and immediately casuied Adrianna to look down at him as if he was a piece of filth for trying to offer something like that to her lady.

"It's an EXP shackle. An item will take over and store all of the experience points from the monster killed by its wearer. Owners would put them on the slaves to gather experience points for them by facing dangerous beasts… I-I mean…!"

The man continued, but the moment he noticed the maid's glare, he flinched and cowered.

"S-since the item not only stores the experience points, it can also give it back! It's a very useful item that has been widely adapted by the high nobles hiring adventurers to gather the experience for them so they could level up in the safety of their abodes! It's a popular and well know item that currently carries little to no stigma! I swear! I swear on goddess Perseverance."

The shopkeeper hurriedly explained while raising his arms defensively over his head as if expecting to be assaulted.

"That..."

"!!!"

Melinda breathed in and muttered, causing the shopkeeper to tremble and pray for his soul.

"That's so much better than what I had in mind! This is absolutely amazing! Perfect! No, even better than perfect! It's fantastic!"

"...! H-huh..? Ah! Thank Perseverance! I-I mean..! I'm glad it is to your liking, noble guest!"

Melinda cheered in amazement, causing the shopkeeper to let out a grateful cry before shaking and nodding his head with the most innocent smile he could muster at that stressful moment.

"Please, take a look. Now it's open…do you see this latch? When it's like this, it secures the whole thing, and you lock it with this key, and it begins to work, harvesting all the mana coming its wearer's way. After unlocking it, it can be removed easily. For it to give the experience points back, you just have to wear it and then move the latch the other way around like this. That will push out all of the harvested experience points, most likely leveling the wearer up. Its only demerit is that the amount of experience is fully dependent on the person who got their experience hijacked, so only their multiplayer will be counted. However, I've heard about some adventurers who use that demerit as a function to get more experience points while fighting the same type of monsters without losing the multiplier from their lower level!"

Encouraged by the positive reaction, the shopkeeper showcased the shackle bracelet's user manual using himself and his wrist as an example.

"It has no side effects except for its intended use, so I swear that this one will meet your expectations!"

"...this one...?"

He declared a bit too eagerly, making Adrainna furrow her brows, sensing something suspicious.

"I'm taking it. I definitely must have this! How much is it?"

Even so, Melinda wasn't bothered by the wording and asked the shopkeeper with her eyes sparkling.

"N-noble guest! I-I wouldn't dare to ask such generous contributors for my shop to pay for this! C-consider is a gift! I insist!"

"!!!"

The man shook his head again, close to panic, and pushed the EXP shackle and its key into Melinda's hands, causing the girl to blush from elation.

"A-are you sure about this?!"

Melinda gasped, but even so, she was already putting the EXP shackle on her free wrist and activating it, just as she had been shown moments earlier.

"Of course, noble guest! Of course! Everything for such a great contributor!"

The shopkeeper called out, thinking only of the mountain of money he believed he had scammed the gold-haired girl for the greedy necklace.

"Huehehe~! If you say so, I see no reason to reject your generousness, mister!"

Melinda cackled in a rather unrefined manner, making Adrianna send a scolding glare her way.

"I-is there something else that you need, noble guest?"

The shopkeeper added, fully convinced that he got himself indebted to the gold-haired girl and he would never be able to offer her enough to leave him be.

"Now that I think about it, yes… Do you have a large, sturdy bag? It can even be a sack or something similar, but it has to be big."

"I-I'll get something like that right away!"

Melinda took her eyes off the item that was saving her some major issue without erasing the growth and only postponed it and said with a big smile that caused the shopkeeper to rush to the back again.

…

"I know about that item - it was taken out of the game in the early stages of development because it was too overpowered, and beta testers exploited the living shit out of it." 

A few minutes later, Zane pointed out while crouching by Melinda and Adrianna after listening to the hooded girl gushing about the EXP bracelet.

"And what's that for?"

He added, pointing at the neatly folded sack in Adrianna's arms.

"Oh, you know. Even more exploiting~"

Melinda chuckled and grinned as she watched her monstrous servant stand up to tower over everyone.

"You're still not done with whatever business you have being this tall?"

"I am, but we're going hunting and there's no reason to deactivate it now, right?"

Melinda added as Zane's height caused a bit of a stir by the city gate the trio was going through, but he danced around the subject again with the most innocent expression he could make.