Naïve

'This one will do for now.'

His recent earnings would almost all be drained, with the dagger costing 1 F rank beast core and 20 gold, making Alex cringe when he saw the price. But not nearly as much as when he saw the prices of the other weapons in the store.

With his decision clear, he took the dagger over to the counter to finally make it his own.

"So you chose the weakest weapon in the store huh? Well, a weak weapon is better than no weapon I guess."

'At least I'm making some money today.'

"That'll be 120 gold for one F rank dagger."

'F rank… So I guess weapons here are also classified by ranks too.'

Alex nodded at Morlock and handed over his last one remaining beast core and 20 gold.

Morlock was inwardly surprised and slightly raised his evaluation of Alex when he handed over a F rank beast core instead of 100 gold. Not many adventurers were willing to part with their beast cores so easily, most would much rather pay in gold even if they had to go into debt for it.

"By the way, why do none of the weapons in here have labels for their ranks, only for their prices?"

Alex questioned Morlock on the one thing he was curious about when he heard that his own dagger was F rank—he had realised weeks ago that he was just a country bumpkin in this city who knew nothing. Alex knew that if he wanted to survive and climb the ranks in the Primordial Expanse, he had to at least know the common sense of this world at the same level of the natives who lived there.

"Look around you kid, do you see anything special about any of these weapons? No? That's what I thought."

"Every weapon in this shop is an F rank weapon, the weakest one is in your hands, while the most expensive one is an F+ rank."

'What?'

Alex was thoroughly confused by what Morlock had told him.

Every weapon in this entire store was F rank? Not a single one of them went above or below that rank?

"Why do you only sell F rank weapons here, why not sell E rank weapons too? I'm sure there are more than enough E rank adventurers in this city for you to make a profit on them.

Morlock looked closely at Alex for the first time since he had entered the store. When he noticed the still vaguely visible black lines showing through his skin, he understood.

"Since you are an outsider I will answer your question, this is common knowledge among adventurer's anyway."

"I am actually an adventurer too, an F+ rank one at that. Now what do you think will happen if I suddenly start selling E or D rank weapons in my store? I would be robbed or disappear mysteriously within the same week. You must be delusional if you think this city or even the Primordial Expanse as a whole is a prosperous place where every human is united against the beasts."

"No, humans are far from united. You may think the cities are the most peaceful places you can be in this realm, but they are just a less dangerous version of the wilderness. Some even consider them to be more dangerous than the wilderness—humans are much more cunning and evil than beasts can be."

"However, that is just the more sinister and depressing reason why I don't sell higher rank weapons. I just simply cannot afford them. E rank weapons require E rank beast cores to purchase, D rank adventurers and above no longer care about gold and only deal in beast cores."

Alex felt his entire worldview he had built up over the last month shift after listening to Morlock. He had been too naïve this whole time. His focus had been on the danger beasts posed to humans and he had subconsciously disregarded the selfishness of humans.

He thought back to the words of the middle aged police officer right before he had been transported to the Primordial Expanse.

'You might meet other humans, you can choose to work with them but you may also have to kill them.'

The truth had been laid out for him right from the start, he had just been too blind to realise it.

'I've been a complete idiot this entire time.'

Just going around town asking the most basic questions that everyone young and old would know already painted a target on his back. Someone with no common sense like him would be the easiest to trick.

"Thank you for making me realise this, truly. I don't know what kind of trouble I might have gotten myself into if I hadn't known this sooner."

Alex awkwardly thanked and slightly bowed towards Morlock, who shrugged it off.

'I am a businessman, if it weren't for that beast core he gave me I probably would have left it down to fate. Others wouldn't be as kind as me to help him.'

"Yes, yes you would have realised it later on anyway. Now go on out with your weak ass dagger, I have other business to tend to."

Alex smiled as he walked out of Morlock's store holding his first ever weapon in the Primordial Expanse.

He was significantly poorer, but it was worth it now that he had increased his combat power by another notch with this weapon.

He was right back where he started when he first entered the city, only he was now confidently strong enough to take on more missions, maybe even take on more F+ rank beasts!

Though he'd have to find those stronger beasts on his own since the adventurer guild wouldn't allow him to take on missions above his own level unless he proved he possessed the strength to do so.

His previous kill on the Sleeper had been largely down to luck, while his kill on the huge rabbit was a mixture of luck and making use of his past experience.

'It's about time I find some more rewarding missions.'