Chapter 28: Meeting and Approval

Dungeon, 1st Floor, Atlantis City, Blacksmith Crozzo Store.

*Ring!*

The doorbell rang followed by an open entrance. Anita, who was currently cleaning every piece of equipment in the store, immediately stopped the activities and turned to greet the guests who came to the store where she worked, "Happy— Oh, aren't you the one who came here before?"

"I'm back again" Rayleigh immediately greeted politely, "I came to buy some equipment and also wanted to make an upgrade to the equipment owned by me"

Anita was immediately happy to hear this and immediately put down the feather duster held by her then walked towards the administration table with Rayleigh following her.

"What do you want to do first, sir? Do you want to buy the best equipment or do you want to upgrade the weapons you have? Is it possible that the sword is the one you want to upgrade?"

"Yes. This sword is what I want to upgrade" Rayleigh nodded, "Young lady, how much does it cost to upgrade in the absence of iron ore?"

"The price for upgrading a weapon depends on the quality of the weapon and the level possessed by the weapon, sir," Anita said politely, "The better the quality possessed by the weapon, the more expensive the price that must be paid by an adventurer and also the higher the level possessed by the weapon, of course, the price to upgrade the weapon will become more expensive too especially if they do not have the materials for their weapon upgrade"

"What about a sword of normal quality with the equipment level is level 1? How much will it cost to improve the quality of this sword to the level of +7?"

"A normal quality sword with a level 1 equipment level? If a sword of normal quality with a level 1 equipment level to be upgraded then the Master does not have the iron ore needed. Upgrading to level +2 costs 20 bronze coins, upgrading to level +3 costs 40 bronze coins, upgrading to +4 costs 60 bronze coins, upgrading to +5 costs 80 bronze coins, upgrading to +6 costs 1 silver coin, and so on. The higher the level, the sir only needs to increase the cost by 20 bronze coins"

Anita paused and continued, "If the sir wants to upgrade the sword that the Master has to the level of +7 and corresponds to the quality of the sword and the level of the sword that the Master currently has. The sir has to prepare a fee of 4 silver coins and 20 bronze coins"

"4 silver coins and 20 bronze coins?"  Rayleigh was quite surprised to hear the price paid by him, "Only now do I feel that money is something very important. Just to upgrade the sword alone is enough to consume. Is it possible that the remaining money can help me to buy the necessary equipment?"

*Ring!*

Simultaneously, the entrance of the Blacksmith Store returned.

"Welcome to the Blacksmith Crozzo Store! Please let the guests take a look in advance at the products we sell! If there is anything needed please—"

"Rayleigh?!"

A woman's voice instantly attracted Rayleigh's attention in her current state of thinking. Anita, who had previously wanted to politely welcome, immediately stopped when she saw that the woman who came knew the old man who was currently her guest.

Rayleigh immediately turned his attention to the voice calling to him and found Hancock, Sandersonia, Marigold, and Solome already there and staring at him.

"Oh? Hancock" Rayleigh immediately smiled in greeting to them, "You two too, have you completed the mission you have?"

"Sure" Sandersonia nodded with a smile, "We just finished the mission and it just so happened that we came here wanting to sell some of the items we got and bought equipment to complete the overall equipment we have"

"Selling items?" Rayleigh asked in confusion.

"We previously carried out a mission to destroy the Bandit Camp and get enough treasures from the camp after successfully defeating the bandits who were there" Marigold immediately replied, "Some items we have selling in the Alchemist Wiz Shop that Shakky told us before. We came here wanting to sell iron ore and also some other equipment that we got from the bandit camp."

"Iron ore!"

The look in Rayleigh's eyes instantly became excited to hear this. This is the thing he is looking for. As long as he gets this item, the cost of upgrading his equipment will be directly reduced by half.

"How much iron ore do you guys have at the moment?" Rayleigh asked back excitedly.

"We got quite a lot" Sandersonia replied, "At least more than 25 iron ores were obtained"

"25?!" Rayleigh's breathing became quicker and looked at them eagerly, "How about you guys give a little for me? I need it at the moment"

"You need it?" Hancock asked, raising her forehead, "What do you need this stuff for?"

"I came here for two purposes. The first purpose is to buy some equipment to improve my status then the second purpose is to upgrade my equipment mainly for the sword owned by me at the moment to improve my strength" Rayleigh sighed, "However, due to the unavailability of the main materials for equipment upgrades, the price paid by me is also the full price. On the other hand, if I have the main materials for the upgrade of normal quality equipment, the price paid by me is only half the price"

"How much money have you raised, Rayleigh?" Sandersonia asked with interest.

"7 silver coins. Everything is obtained from the results of the mission carried out"

"7 silver coins? Then, how much do you have to pay to upgrade your weapons?" Marigold asked with interest.

"4 silver coins and 20 bronze coins" Rayleigh immediately answered him truthfully, "Although there is still something left. I'm not sure I can be enough to meet my needs to buy equipment after this" Rayleigh sighed, "It wasn't until this time that I felt that money was something very important"

"How much do you need to help raise your sword to level +7?" Hancock asked calmly.

Hancock didn't feel at a loss to give some of his items to Rayleigh especially Rayleigh once saved them. In addition, at this time they can be said to be quite rich. Although they will soon realize that they are currently very poor.

"How many?" Rayleigh was taken aback by this question and immediately turned to stare at Anita, "Young lady, how much does it take to upgrade to +7?"

The gazes of Hancock and her two sisters were directly thrown at Anita.

"Each upgrade requires a different amount, Mr. Rayleigh" Because Anita had previously heard the name from Rayleigh through Hancock, Anita directly replaced her previous call to make it easier to communicate, "Every time it upgrades, there will be an increase in iron ore. For example, to upgrade to +2 only requires 1 iron ore equally. While the increase from +2 to +3 requires 2 iron ores. The higher the increase in the amount of iron ore will also increase. Let's just put it this way, every time the upgrade requires an extra one more iron ore" Anita paused and continued, "If we take the previous example with Mr. Rayleigh wanting to raise his sword to the level of +7, it means that it requires 21 iron seeds"

"21 iron seeds?!"

Rayleigh was surprised by the amount needed. This is because the iron ore owned by Hancock and his two sisters currently only amounts to 28 pieces while he needs as many as 21 iron ores to be able to upgrade to the +7 level for his sword at a half-price discount.

"Hancock, what do you think?" Rayleigh asked calmly even though he at this time had no hope.

"I can give it..."

Rayleigh's eyes lit up instantly when he heard this.

"However... I hope you can help us in our next mission" Hancock immediately continued.

"Your next mission?" Rayleigh immediately asked and continued, "Is it related to the underground maze information collection mission?"

"How did you find out?" Hancock asked, raising her forehead, "What did Ars say to you?"

"yes" Rayleigh nodded, "Ars said this to me even though he said that the mission you guys took was a pretty interesting one"

"Quite an interesting mission?" Marigolds murmured.

"What does he mean by that interesting mission?" Sandersonia asked strangely.

"I don't know either" Rayleigh shook his head, "However, since it is a mission that Ars said is quite interesting. Surely this mission is not an ordinary mission and there must be something related to this mission that makes it so interesting that it gets the attention of Ars"

Hancock thought for a while frowning and then asked, "Then..."

"Don't worry" Rayleigh immediately interrupted the conversation from Hancock, "Ars had previously advised me to come with you guys on this mission. I feel that this mission you guys are taking on also has the benefit of me learning a little bit about the underground maze. Actually, after finishing my business here, I will find you guys to talk about this. But, I didn't expect that you would offer me this thing"

"Does that mean you're going to come with us on this mission?" Sandersonia asked excitedly.

"Sure" Rayleigh nodded, "Regarding the matter of the invitation to enter the party. It's better to do it later"

Before Marigold would say that, Rayleigh had already cut it first.

"Why?" Marigold asked in confusion.

"Right now you guys are carrying out another mission. If I join together in this party, the mission reward will be shared with the four of us. That's not fair because I didn't have any contribution to the mission you did before" Rayleigh said seriously, "Regarding the invitation to enter, we can talk about it after the three of you get rewarded for the mission you did before."

Marigold finally came to her senses with this. Hancock nodded immediately and had no problem with this.

"Sonia, you can hand over the 21 iron ores needed by Rayleigh" Hancock immediately gave his order.

"Fine, elder sister"

Sandersonia went straight into her storage room and immediately took out the 21 iron ores needed by Rayleigh. All the iron ore is placed on a table right in the middle of the room.

"You can use this, Rayleigh"

"Thank you very much" Rayleigh was very happy to see the iron ore in front of him and immediately said, "My suggestion, you better not sell the iron ore you have. Every time you guys get it it's better saved. That will be very helpful to improve the equipment you have. The level of equipment level and also the quality, the greater the costs that must be incurred. With the presence of this iron ore or other main material, the cost can be reduced to half the price."

Hancock and her two sisters were quite surprised by this information and immediately put it in his mind then nodded.

Rayleigh then immediately turned to stare at Anita back who was smiling at him, "Is Mr. Rayleigh still with his previous decision?"

"Sure" Rayleigh nodded, "Use that iron ore to upgrade my sword level. The current price has been reduced by half, right?"

Anita nodded, "With the use of that iron ore, Mr. Rayleigh only needs to pay us a fee of 2 silver coins and 10 bronze coins. Does Mr. Rayleigh want to pay directly or later?"

"In person"

Rayleigh immediately took out his 3 silver coins and immediately handed them to Anita. Anita quickly returned her change to Rayleigh.

"How long will it take for my sword to finish upgrading?" Rayleigh asked with interest.

"Mr. Rayleigh can come back to pick it up around 4 o'clock or 5 pm" Anita immediately replied to him, "Around that time Mr. Rayleigh's sword had been successfully upgraded"

"Around 4 or 5 p.m.? Does that mean we have to carry out that mission at night?" Sandersonia asked calmly.

Hancock frowned upon hearing this.

"We must not carry out missions at night!" Rayleigh immediately said sternly: "The monster territory at night is a more fierce territory than during the day. Ars also reminded me before, if you want to do a mission, do it during the day. By the time has entered the night, the monster's strength has increased by 2 to 3 times compared to its current strength"

"2 to 3 times..."

Hancock and her two sisters instantly fell silent when they heard this and could only take a deep breath.

"That's right what Mr. Rayleigh said" Anita who had just picked up the iron ore using her storage equipment instantly got into the subject of their conversation, "I'm sorry to get into your conversation. However, I recommend not going to the monster zone at night. In addition, the strength of the monsters there has increased compared to when they were daytime. There are also a lot of them. As long as you don't have the strength to be sure that you can survive there, you'd better postpone the mission you are going to do today and do it tomorrow when it comes in the morning."

Anita then immediately looked at Rayleigh, "Mr. Rayleigh, please the sword you want to upgrade"

"Eh," Rayleigh instantly came back to his senses then immediately handed his sword to Anita. Anita then looked back at them, "I went back to hand over the order from Mr. Rayleigh to our Blacksmith. Please feel free to browse our products. Our store has complete products. Of course, if you want to ask for your weapons to be made, our store accepts the request"

Hancock and Sandersonia were immediately happy to hear this. This is the thing they have been looking for all along.