Possibility of Trade

As Kayn and Charlotte stepped into his home and the door was closed, she immediately stopped following him and narrowed her eyes.

"Are you really the same Kayn? Your progress is just too fast. You were just at the beginning of the 4th stage when I met you before, but the quality and quantity of mana you radiate now suggests your core has made significant improvements."

"Whelp, you just confirmed to me that the new spell I'm practicing doesn't work yet." Kayn said with disappointment.

"Though I guess it could be your eyes are just too powerful, I'll have to work on that. To answer your question, yes, same person. I just improve my core differently than most do. When I was a child, I found a book mentioning another realm's mages who could cultivate their cores to increase their strength.

"It was more of a child's dream after I had read that, but eventually I developed my core and began to work on my own techniques and was able to make my own core cultivation technique.

"At first my progress was slow and dangerous as cracks could appear on my core. However, over time and with alterations and improvements to my technique, I was able to increase the rate at which my core expands.

"I would stipulate I'm probably the only person in the world capable of this because of my unique core though. While others have to wait and let things progress naturally, I'm able to force it a bit by cultivating using my technique." Kayn smiled as he revealed his secret to her.

This information wouldn't hurt him at all if she knew. She was already at the peak of the world, so he didn't think she would covet such information, and his thoughts were soon confirmed.

"That's amazing! You becoming stronger by the day will also increase the chances of success for the mission! I've told the others I had a reliable ally I was working with, and you just proved my trust in you was well placed. Also, as with your other secrets, this will also be kept between us, so worry not."

Charlotte clinched her fist in excitement. She was initially worried that Kayn wouldn't be able to take on the contracts that he would eventually need to in order to really learn who the traitors were, but now her fears could be eased a little as he was improving by small amounts whenever he cultivated.

Kayn's expression was rueful though as her definition of 'significant improvements' was what he estimated as a whopping 2% progress in four months towards the 5th stage. At this rate it would still take him 16 years to reach the fifth stage.

That was far too slow for his plans. Even if he increased the amount that he circulated his Void Star technique, that number would only increase to maybe 8 or 9% per year, which was still 10 or 11 years more. He decided to move improving the technique to the top of his list after last night.

He most likely would have to take risks like he initially had, but that didn't matter. He could always heal back damage, even if he had to go back to his self-harming experiments, it wasn't an issue.

Kayn led Charlotte to the living room where they both sat on opposite seats and she took a bag out of her dimensional ring before placing it onto the table in between them. 

"This contains the majority of the artifacts that I don't use but have collected over the years. If you were not aware, artifacts are given a tier, similar to spells. There are a total of five commonly known tiers, though I can confirm the existence of a sixth tier. Most of the items in this bag range from tier 3 to 4, though there are a couple of tier 5 items.

If you are having trouble making a selection, I can give you a brief overview of the items you have interest in and their approximate tier. Depending on what you select, I may offer for you to take two items as you are taking risks that you don't need to by doing this for me."

Kayn nodded before grabbing the bag off of the table and pulling out items one at a time, laying them on the floor while simultaneously sorting them by the grade his Analyze skill showed him.

Inwardly, Charlotte was surprised as Kayn was accurately sorting items into the different tiers as he pulled them out of the bag. She didn't know if he was using a skill, had discerning eyes, or it was just a coincidence.

Kayn sneaked a glance at Charlotte's expression and guessed that his assumption was correct. His Analyze skill's grades were equivalent to the tiers. Tier 1 was common grade, 2 was uncommon, 3 was rare, 4 was epic, 5 was legendary, and lastly, he could only guess that tier 6 was ancient or some other grade he hadn't seen before.

This made him wonder what tier a celestial grade item would be as it was definitely above the ancient grade.

He wanted to lay everything out before he read their features as the grade of the item would help him determine if it was worth taking two rare grade items or one legendary grade.

The bag was a spatial bag, it also had a lot more room than his own spatial pouch. Once Kayn had finished pulling all of the items out of it, he was almost overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of items laying on the floor of his home.

After going through several of them, he discovered that he actually had either duplicates or equivalents to some of these items already in what Yvaris Earthborn had left behind in the Villa's treasury. However, they were mostly rare grade items, with only a couple being epic grade, and no legendary grade.

He directly placed any item he had an equivalent of back into the bag and began sorting out the others once more. What he was really in need of was a set of armor or clothing that had high defensive capabilities, was flexible, and would help him remain silent or concealed.

While there were many useful items, none of them matched what he was actually looking for. Yvaris had left behind a full set of plate armor as well as a scale armor which were both legendary sets that would be great for heavy hitters, but they didn't suit Kayn's style.

"Charlotte, I was wondering if you by chance had or knew anyone that had a clothing set or armor that has defensive capabilities, is flexible, and helps with concealment, in my size of course. I would be willing to purchase or trade for it if you have one or know where I can get one. I'm not short of money."

An expression that looked like she had given up appeared on Charlotte's face as she sighed. "I kind of thought you would ask me that, though I was hoping you already had that covered. I do have one set, but it's precious to me. I have never used it as it doesn't match my fighting style or aesthetics.

"But honestly, it's perfect for you. I won't just give it away like the items in front of you though. I will only trade you for spells that I don't know or artifacts that can equal this set's value."

As she spoke, she pulled a pure black box out and opened it for Kayn to see inside. Inside laid a long sleeve shirt, pants, half-robe with hood, bandolier with ten throwing knives, leather boots, sleek full finger gloves, two leather vambraces with in intricate wing designs on them, and a sash that would function as a belt. Every aspect of this set was pure black, even the throwing knives.

Looking at the box with the items inside, he honestly would have thought it was empty if there didn't happen to be any light inside the room.

"This entire set was made from the body of my best friend who died in a battle. Her dying wish was to have anything remaining of her be used to create something to protect those precious to me or myself.

"I refused at first and kept her body inside of special casket that stopped her decomposition, but over the years the guilt built within me and I sought out the best craftsman this world had at the time.

"Know that unless you can provide me with something worth at least this much, I will not trade it to you. Honestly, I would need more than its actual value in worth as it has significant personal meaning to me." Charlotte told Kayn with an expression that told him if he pulled out even one thing that was lacking, she would immediately refuse him.

Kayn used his Analyze skill on the items inside the box and his eyes almost burst out of their sockets as he didn't know how or what he could provide her that was equal to this set of gear.

[Item set: Garments of the Shadow Phoenix (Ancient): A set of equipment made from the flesh and blood of the Shadow Phoenix, Zillah.]

Kayn hadn't even had a chance to look at the options of the individual pieces before Charlotte closed the box and gave him a look as if asking him 'well?'.

"One moment. I need to check my storage." Kayn pondered on what he could give her, but he didn't even know what she would want as she didn't seem to be lacking anything. He walked out of the room before entering his own before summoning the Wanderer's Villa so that he could explore the treasury and library in order to find anything she might want.