83 Ch 81 – The Power of Money

"That would be 1 Gold and 20 Silver please," Lute said, his body currently sitting down on a wooden chair while a crude stall was set up in front of him, an assortment of potion vials and materials lined along in a neat pile was seen. Beside him, the masked man Kira was standing still, his eyes closed while the soft winds made his black cloak flutter.

"Here you go, wish you the best of luck on your business, Lute-san!" the man in front of him said, handing out the needed money as Lute said his thanks while grabbing the money.

"Whew, we're almost there, Kira-chan. We're almost at the grand milestone of making 100 Gold or 1 Platinum in a single day," Lute said, he then leans back on the chair as he moaned from satisfaction.

In response, the masked man beside him only nods his head, seemingly ignoring Lute's existence as a whole.

"Sigh, you're always so quiet, it makes me look insane you know? But being insane does have its merits, like having each day be fun as heck," Lute muttered, his absentminded eyes staring at the potions over his stall's table. Red potions, blue potions, green potions, pink potions, all kinds of potions were being sold for quite a cheap price of 10 Silver coins.

"… How far are you from reaching 5000?" Kira finally talked; his soothing voice similar to a calm lake entered Lute's ears.

"If we get 100 Gold today, I can bump it in one go and finally reach the second 5000," Lute yawned, his eyes squinting while slight tears formed from his yawn. The pleasant winds inside the kingdom continuously assaulted them like a weak river of soothing breezes.

"That's good, with that, our earnings should go up by 20% if your calculation was correct," Kira said, his eerie black eyes finally opened as two more customers walked up to them, both being young girls who continuously took glances at Lute.

"H-hey mister, how much is your potions?" the girl with the taller height asked, a sword hung at her waist while also wearing leather armor, her long blond hair was also tied into a ponytail, and her green eyes matched with the color of Lute's special product.

"All of my potions cost exactly 10 Silver, no more, no less. But for such beautiful young ladies like you two, I can bump it up to 11 Silver for each potion," Lute said, his body leaning forward and flashing a bright smile at the duo, his soothing voice instantly charming the two.

'This is too easy.' Lute thought as he watches the duo grab four stamina potions which are his special product, four health potions, and two regeneration products, another one of his special creations.

"1 Gold and 10 Silver please," Lute said, stretching his hand out as the shorter girl with nearly the same appearance as the taller girl and only having shorter hair and a bow behind her back hastily took out the required money.

As their hands touched, Lute intentionally grabbed her hand a bit tighter, his smooth hands playing with hers made her face blush harder while the taller girl, probably her older sister, glared at her younger sister.

"Thank you for the transaction, have safe adventuring you two!" Lute waved his hand high in the air, saying his goodbye to the two while tossing the money into the pile below him, a whole pile of gold and silver coins could be seen.

"Whew, being a merchant is so tiresome! But your efficiency at alchemy is really great, Kira-chan. It's even above mine!" Lute said, his head turning to Kira as their two eyes interlocked with each other. Kira's apathetic eyes met with Lute's shining violet eyes making them look like water and oil, one was cold while the other was full of vigor.

"Sigh, you really should look more… happy, Kira-chan. You always look so cold and distant when I'm your closest friend at this point! Now it looks like you're my guard, though it kinda is like that considering I'm a mage," Lute said, his gaze turning back to the front as a fat man suddenly walked up to his stall, wearing a luxurious suit and a monocle over his left eye.

Watching silently, Lute analyzes the man who inspected his wares with condescending eyes, as if indicating: "Heh, what a crude stall. Though I can perhaps use them to make a large profit if I get this kid's recipe."

'Hey! I know the stall looks like it was made out of trash, and frankly, it indeed was, but we put our heart and soul into setting it up!' Lute grumbled in his mind as the man adjusted his monocle, and then the man turned his head to look at him in the eye.

"Hello there young man-"

"No, I'm not selling my potion recipe," Lute said with a monotonous voice.

'Sigh, I've been dealing with these money-grubbing bozos for the past week already! Just you wait, once I get a proper system up and running, my money would be overflowing!' Lute thought as the man looks at him with angry eyes.

"Hey man, I'm just not willing to sell it, okay? Me and my friend here have been trying to make this potion for a long time already, and we just want to keep it to ourselves. Is that okay with you?" Lute said, his eyes turning a darker shade as the man who was glaring at him suddenly calmed down.

"Sigh, fine. But if you are willing, we can make a partnership, we can discuss the details later if you want to," the man said, handing out a card from his pocket and turning away, leaving Lute who took a swift glance at the card with nonchalant eyes.

'Eh, decent at most. I'm waiting for the truly big guys to make their moves, and I can coerce them into a partnership where they'll do all the work while I sit back and rack up my money, and in turn, my personal strength.' Lute thought, his eyes staring at the blue sky above them in boredom.

(A Few Hours Later)

As both Lute and Kira look at the sky that has turned orange, they saw the setting sun disappearing away into the horizon.

"184, 185, 186, 187! We really did it, Kira-chan! 100 Gold in one day!" Lute said after counting the money they earned in the tray he grabbed from the ground below him.

"Mmm," Kira nods his head, his hand swiftly grabbing the tray and dumping it all into a pouch to store the money.

Soon, the two started to pack their crude stall and walked home. From passing by customers which Lute greeted with a wide smile, or fellow adventurers who praised the two and Kira remained silent as always. A certain dynamic was formed without anyone noticing how sudden it was.

And that certain something was how Lute and Kira instantly became friends. From just barging into the Adventurer's Guild and both instantly becoming C Rank Adventurers by showing the split head of the Alpha Orc into starting a business together, nobody even noticed how abnormal that speed was. And it was all attributed to Lute's and Kira's personalities, or their personas.

"We're home!" Lute shouted to nobody in particular while opening the wooden door to their rented house, it was just a normal house that can be rented in the Pendragon Kingdom. It was relatively average in size, having three bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a basement.

As Kira entered the house, he puts his hand over the wall and flicked a switch which caused the magic circle above them to suddenly light up, illuminating the whole room by just using a tiny bit of mana and magical technology.

"Ngh, I can finally have 5000 on that certain broken stat!" Lute shouted in joy as he hopped on the couch in the middle while Kira tossed him the money pouch, he then swiftly catches it with one hand and prop it down on the wooden table in front of him while taking out his wooden staff which was hidden below the couch.

Meanwhile, Kira just went to lean back on the wall and silently stare at Lute whose wooden staff started to glow with a white light on the tip.

"[Buy Stat Point: 100 – Luck]" Lute said as his white cloak fluttered with the strong winds emitting from the flash of white light that covered the pouch of money in front of him, instantly, the swirls of mana around the room gathered around Lute in a vortex as reality seemed to have changed upon casting his spell. The threads of fate and destiny have vastly changed as Lute's luck largely fluctuated.

"[Status]" Upon chanting, Lute's violet eyes gleamed for a split second as a floating translucent screen appeared in front of him, which only he was able to see.

[Strength: 1000]

[Agility: 1000]

[Vitality: 1000]

[Intelligence: 2500]

[Spirit: 5000]

[Luck: 5000]

[Money: 87 Gold]

"Whew! I finally have 5000, Kira-chan!" Lute groaned, his body letting go of the staff weakly as beads of sweat fell down his forehead.

'After mastering the essence of Sacrifice and putting a value on money, I am able to manipulate reality around me like values in a system. A god-like feat of magic, I suppose.' Lute thought, his chest heaving up and down while Kira only nods his head, closing his eyes once more as the scene suddenly cut to a horrid view.

Burning houses, dead villagers, wolves, and beasts chewing down on their dead corpses. A scene of death and destruction was seen while a young child could be seen standing alone, his body dripping with blood as a knife was being held by his right arm.

"Poor child, to face such a cruel fate, I wonder what could have caused this tragic tale?" a white body of mist suddenly swirled in front of the child, forming a humanoid silhouette that caught the child's attention, his despair-filled eyes regaining a spark of hope, and perhaps a chance at vengeance.

"P-please help me!" the child shouts, his legs trembling in fear as the white miasma in front of him chuckled.

"Why should I help you, child? I shall gain nothing from helping you, in fact, I'm currently very weak right now," the white miasma said, its body quickly turning into a dark gray color as the child's body shook.

"I-If you make me get stronger, I'll help you heal your body! You're wounded right! Then let me help you!" the child shouted at a last desperate attempt, and the spirit only looked at him silently.

But the silence was broken when the boy heard a low growl beside him, his eyes quickly darting to the lone wolf in front of him, its body battered and filled with cuts along with burns, but its predatory eyes caused the boy's body to halt in fear.

"Oho, well well well. I finally got it, if you are able to kill this wolf, I shall lend you my power," the dark gray spirit said as the boy's eyes became brighter, the despair slowly got replaced with insanity, the insanity he needed for victory.

A fierce fight ensued, man and beast traded blows with one another. A weak young child against a damaged lone wolf, their surroundings surrounded by howling flames and strong gusts of wind.

But as if luck itself favored the boy, the howling flames were pushed upon the fury body of the wolf, instantly covering it in blazing hot flames, its body burning to death in an unfortunate, torturous way.

"I-I did it!" the boy said, his body dropping down to the ground with a heaving chest.

"Well color me impressed, you did do it. Though unfortunately, you shouldn't trust a spirit colored a dark color, most likely, they'll be evil," the spirit cackled, its body of gas entering through the boy's chest and his originally despair-filled black eyes turned a deep abyssal color.

'To reach the peak, one must be willing to commit heinous crimes to reach the level of cheaters. My sins might be innumerable, but unrivaled might can deal with any punishments I will face!' the boy thought, his dark eyes glinting while the souls around the area gathered around him like a vortex, the originally dark gray spirit residing within the boy turning into a brighter color, while the impurities all the other souls hold got fused with the dark gray spirit, turning into an unexpected development.

AN: This is 2108 words, you're welcome.

THE FUCK?! A system?! How does Lute have a motherfucking system, eh? Well magic is a thing one can exploit with enough mastery, experience, and knowledge. And who the fuck managed to implant and hack a system, a being who has experience warping reality for more than a thousand years? Motherfucking Freidrich Braun.

And remember, I'm an unreliable narrator, and Lute is a very deceitful POV, so yeah, those stats are definitely fake, in fact, I probably won't even reveal his true stats in either forever, or maybe after Arc 2.

Writing is hard, so send me some power stones you leech.

(July 8, 2022 – 226th day of writing)