28: The Merchant (2)

"Me? I'm The Merchant."

Corey looked at the man who claimed to be the merchant with suspicion.

He could not identify whether the man was actually the merchant or not since iiuminox didn't describe his appearance to him.

Although Corey did not know how the merchant looked like, he had a way to figure out his identity.

'Record'

Corey activated his talent skill to see the name and level of the suspicious man in front of him but when he willed for his talent skill to be activated, he saw nothing on his left eye.

"Huh?"

Corey exclaimed subconsciously making the merchant to think he had never heard about him.

"You've not heard about me young boy?" The merchant asked with surprise in his tone.

He expected Corey to have heard from him since his shop was located near this place and most people who come here are people who look for him.

Meanwhile Corey still confused about the reason for his ability not working, willed for it again.

'Record'

Corey tried again but he got nothing in response which caused him to frown.

'Is it broken?'

Corey thought but later dismissed that absurd thought.

Can a skill ever be broken?

Corey then tried to think of what could be wrong or what could make Record not respond to him.

He then turned towards the man who claimed to be the merchant.

'Is it because of him?'

Just as Corey had this thought, the merchant seeing Corey look at him with a confused expression became sure that the young man had never heard of him before.

Knowing this, his eyes shined.

'Fresh prey.'

He cleared his throat and mind after this thought entered his mind and then put on an amicable smile.

"Since you've not heard of me. I'm The Merchant and I'm a trader. I sell different goods and also information. Anything you want, I have and as long as you pay the right price, you can get it." The merchant paused then looked at Corey who had a dazed look in his eyes.

'Ehn ehn. You're shocked about my words right? All your valuables will be mine.'

The merchant thought evilly not knowing that the reason for Corey's dazed reaction as he looked at the merchant was not because he was stunned by the merchant's words.

No

It was because Corey just remembered the description of his talent skill, Record.

[RECORD: A passive skill which records everything in front of your eyes into your brain. You can view the recorded events anytime and the skill analyses the stats of anybody as long as the difference in tier is not greater than 1. The longer the time of record, the more detailed the statistics of the individual.]

As Corey remembered the description down the last dot, he suddenly realized why his record ability was not working.

It was because the man in front of him was higher than Tier 1.

This was the main reason for Corey's dazed expression.

The highest being or beings he had faced were Tier 1 beings but now he was facing somebody who was probably a Tier 2 being or higher.

Just the thought of it made Corey to gulp subconsciously.

Meanwhile the merchant already thinking of ways to rip off Corey, spoke.

"So young boy, will you follow me to my shop?"

Corey looked at the merchant who invited him to his shop and nodded his head in response.

He currently did not have any doubts that this man was the merchant because he didn't believe that there was somebody in their academy who was already higher than tier 1.

And if there was, the person was a cheat.

The merchant oblivious to Corey's thoughts smiled an amicable smile and jumped down from the building. He looked at Corey with a smile then spoke.

"Come on then. Follow me."

The merchant turned to walk but then stopped after Corey replied.

"I'm not going yet. I've not gotten my soul stone from black smiley."

The merchant turned and looked at Corey with a baffled look.

"Black Smiley?"

Corey just pointed at black smiley's corpse causing the merchant to be stunned.

"Well it is black and also smiles." The merchant muttered then looked at Corey who walked to the corpse then started dissecting it.

'Is giving the monsters weird names his way of coping with the apocalypse?'

The merchant muttered as he observed Corey cut open the black smiley's chest precisely and better than some people he had seen outside of this world.

'At least his way of coping is better than most.'

The merchant thought then rested his back on the wall of a building as he watched Corey dissect the corpse.

Using more than two minutes to dissect the corpse because the anatomy of the black smiley was different from a normal one, Corey finally pulled out it's soul stone.

Just as Corey was about to put the soul stone inside his bag, he saw something red beside the body of the black smiley.

He moved closer to see what it was and then he saw the object which had a red glow on it.

It was a pair of fingerless gloves. They were black gloves with a design of a red creepy open smile at the palm of the fingerless gloves while the fingers of the gloves had white skeleton fingers designs at the back of the gloves.

The gloves looked ominous in Corey's eyes.

But despite it looking ominous, Corey picked it up with his right hand and waited for the Universal System to tell him what it is.

[RED GRADE GROWTH ITEM IDENTIFIED]

[DO YOU WANT TO OBTAIN OWNERSHIP?]

As Corey looked at the notifications on the translucent screen, he noticed a different word which he had not seen before.

'Growth item?'

Corey wondered, then looked at the merchant who was still waiting for him.

'Guess I'll just ask him later.'

Corey thought then gave the order to obtain ownership.

The moment he accepted to obtain ownership of the gloves, the gloves glowed red for a few seconds before receding entirely and it became like a normal glove that just had creepy designs.

Corey picked it up and wore the gloves then pulled up his status window.

He looked at the equipment section then looked at the new addition.

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[EQUIPMENTS]

Ghost Reaper- Red Grade

Ghost Cloak- Red Grade

Ghost Gloves- Red Grade (Growth Item)

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Corey tapped on ghost gloves to see the definition.

[GHOST GLOVES: A growth item that has the ability to harm ghost like entities that are not above Tier 1 and also provides good grip on objects.]

Corey's eyes widened as he saw the description.

The ghost gloves was in Corey's eyes, better than ghost reaper.

Ghost gloves could harm ghost like entities that were not above Tier 1 but ghost reaper could only kill ghost like entities below tier 1.

Not only that, ghost gloves was a growth item which if Corey guessed correctly could increase in grade.

It was an item Corey was satisfied with.

Corey looked at Smile Reaper in his hand then frowned. He could see a few chips and nicks on it.

'I'll need a weapon.'

Although it saddened him that he would eventually stop using smile reaper since it was his first weapon, he had already decided long ago to get a different kind of weapon if possible since he was starting to see the disadvantages in using a dagger, but all of that was for the future.

Corey pocketed Smile Reaper and put the soul stone in his bag after putting it in his mind to look for a new weapon if possible.

He got up and looked at the merchant who was yawning.

"I'm ready, let's go."

Corey said and the merchant at first startled but then clapped with joy.

"Great. Let's go."

The merchant said and walked with Corey following behind.

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[A/N: This chapter is the normal chapter for February 28.

I'm only owing you guys one more chapter which is the normal chapter for March 1 and i'll write it after I wake up.

It's 12:41 A.M here and I'm so tired.

Have a great day/night.

And thanks for reading.