Chapter 62

Chapter 62 - Bull's Septum Ring

“I’ll take it!” Mei said, skipping over to Saya. “Adam, pay the woma... uh... leaf sheep?”

Adam rolled his eyes and handed Saya a small bag of coins. Despite being sized for her miniature body, it contained over one million Game Coins. Well, technically, it didn't contain any coins at all. The bag simply acted as a physical transfer device, essentially a credit card disguised as a tiny coin pouch.

As soon as Saya placed the bag inside her inventory, the coins transferred from Adam’s account to hers.

Her body immediately began to glow with a deep green light, and the name tag hovering above her head changed from Intern to Senior Employee.

“Oh, I ranked up!” Saya said excitedly. “I forgot my standing in the agency rises with each successful transaction. And since this was such a large one, I directly jumped three ranks!”

“What does it mean to be a senior employee?” Adam asked curiously.

“Many things. For instance, I get my own shop window, I can give discounts, and I can sign long-term contracts!”

The little leaf sheep vibrated with barely restrained excitement, sending her bushy leaves swaying in every direction.

“What do you have in your shop?” Mei asked.

“Technically, nothing.”

“Nothing?”

Saya nodded.

“Yes. To acquire items, I need to either find them myself, buy them, or be commissioned.”

“I get the first two, but what do you mean by commissioned?”

“Hmm... If you tell me what type of item you want and pay me a fee, I can draw items from random boxes with a high likelihood of finding the item you’re looking for. The amount you pay determines how likely I am to find something suitable.”

“Like loot boxes?”

“Yes, except you’ll need to buy the item afterward. At a discount, of course.”

“Hm...” Mei tapped her chin thoughtfully. “So, if I asked you to find an item that makes me invincible, could you do it?”

“Uhhh... no.” Saya shook her head. “It has to be within reason. Also, I only have access to Super Secret Rare boxes at the moment, and I’m limited to six draws per day.”

“Can you find me an item to break a curse?!” Granessa suddenly asked, her usual composure cracking as hope briefly overwhelmed her fear.

“Sure. Oh, but what is the rank of the curse?”

“Mythic.”

Saya stared blankly at her.

“I can only draw Super Secret Rares...” she said slowly. “However, I might be able to find something that can suppress your curse. Though, it would probably be better to check the VVVIP shop first.”

Granessa immediately turned toward Adam with a pleading look.

He didn't hesitate. He navigated through the drop-down lists until a page filled with curse-breaking and curse-suppressing items appeared.

There was an item capable of breaking a Mythic curse.

Unfortunately, its price was so high that the full number couldn't even fit on the screen.

More importantly, it cost more Game Coins than they currently had.

Granessa's expression fell.

“What about this one?” Mei asked, pointing at a strange item that resembled the brass nose ring worn by a bull, except this one was made of pure gold.

Bull’s Septum Ring of Aggression and Suppression - (Legendary)

The nose ring of a very aggressive minotaur named Bull. He used magic to create it, imbuing it with his innate nature while attempting to suppress his aggressiveness. Instead, he created a nose ring that boosted his aggressiveness while suppressing curses.

Effects:

Whatchu Lookin At?!: Attack anyone who locks eyes with you for more than one second. Attack strength is boosted by 5% per second of eye contact.

Curse? What Curse?: Lowers the level of existing curses to the lowest possible level.

Bonus Effect: If you attach a tether to the ring and give it to someone else, you can negate the negative effects of Whatchu Lookin’ At?!. However, you must follow their commands without question as long as they are in possession of the tether. (Tether does not restrict movement in any way for either party.)

Price: 19,846,121 Game Coins

“Why does the price seem so random?” Mei asked.

“That is a consigned item,” Saya explained. “The price was set by the owner.”

“That price will actually put a dent in our savings. A small one, but a dent nonetheless,” Adam said. “But if you want it, it’s yours.”

Granessa frowned as she reread the item's description. Her eyes lingered on the bonus effect for several seconds.

“Should I give the tether to Mei or Adam...?” she muttered quietly.

She glanced at Mei.

Mei smiled innocently.

“Definitely not you.”

“Hey!” Mei shouted, offended. “Why not me?!”

“You’ll make me do strange things. Like putting on a dress and makeup.”

“I... would probably do that,” Mei admitted. “But I’m telling you, you’d look so cute in a dress!”

“Not happening.”

“So I’m buying it?” Adam asked.

Granessa nodded. “But you better not give Mei the tether.”

“Uhh... I can’t promise that.” Adam scratched his cheek. “She can be very... persuasive.”

“If you give her the tether in exchange for sex, I’ll hate you for life.”

“That isn't what I meant...” Adam said quickly. “She might beat it off me. ...Wait, no, that doesn't sound right. She might take it by force is what I meant.”

“I won’t,” Mei said, raising her hands innocently. “I promise.”

Granessa narrowed her eyes and stared at her suspiciously for several seconds. Mei maintained her innocent smile without blinking.

Eventually, Granessa sighed and nodded.

“Buy it, please.”

Adam handed over another coin bag. This time, when Saya deposited it into her inventory, his coin count visibly dropped by a chunk, finally falling to a number he could actually count to: nine hundred ninety-nine trillion and some odd amount.

Most of their fortune had come from a combination of Lord of Flesh and Hatshepsut, with roughly a thirty-seventy split between the former and the latter. Bakari had only contributed about a billion or so.

Hatshepsut dropping so many coins actually made some sense when they accounted for Anubis’s descent and the fact that they had technically defeated him by forcing him to retreat.

Lord of Flesh was a little harder to explain. He had actually been much higher level than what the tutorial displayed. The level shown had been technically glitched due to the difficulty modifiers, which caused enemies to scale to Mei and Adam’s levels plus fifty percent.

Even so, it was still an absurd amount of money.

It was an amount of coins that shouldn't have been possible.

Then again, there were still items in the shop with prices they couldn't afford. So perhaps their fortune wasn't quite as ridiculous as Adam had originally thought.

Adam glanced away from his coin count as Saya brought over the large golden nose ring.

It was easily a hundred times her size.

Despite having a large head proportionate to her body size, there was absolutely no way the nose ring would fit through Graneesa’s septum.

Fortunately, the moment she took it from Saya, the nose ring shrank on its own.

Granessa slipped it into her nose and pierced herself without so much as a flinch.

Adam winced anyway.

Strangely, a video feed popped up on a system screen immediately after she equipped it.

It wasn't a live feed, but a prerecorded message from the item's previous owner, Bull the Minotaur.

The minotaur looked exactly as Adam would have imagined, aside from the thick, black-rimmed glasses perched on his face.

Those were a little strange.

He must have bad eyesight.

That was the only explanation Adam could come up with.

“Hello, thanks for purchasing my septum ring. That... sounds kinda strange, doesn't it?” Bull chuckled awkwardly. “Uh, just to be clear, I never actually wore it, so it's clean. However, because it has such an embarrassing side effect and bonus effect, I decided to throw in this item as compensation.”

A massive pair of black bull horns floated out of the system screen and into Granessa's hands.

Bull’s Horns, Replica - (Ultra Rare)

Thanks for your purchase!

Effect:

Bull Charge: After staring someone in the eyes for more than three seconds, stomp your feet on the ground twice before charging forward at mach speed, crossing any distance in an instant. Deals piercing damage which ignores fifty percent of the enemy's defense wherever the horns strike.

Granessa equipped the horns, and with the nose ring already in place, she suddenly resembled a cross between an orc and a minotaur.

If she combined that with her massive flaming battleaxe, she would really sell the image of an orc-minotaur hybrid.

Before anything else, Granessa conjured a magical tether. She attached the metal clip to her nose ring and then handed the other end to Adam.

Adam stared at the tether for a moment.

For some reason, several strange thoughts immediately entered his mind.

What if he accidentally tugged on it and ripped her nose ring out?

What if she got a boyfriend in the future? Should he play the role of her father and give the boy her hand in marriage?

Or...

Would that make him a cattle farmer selling a cow instead of a daughter?

No, wait.

A daughter instead of a cow.

Adam's thoughts began spiraling completely out of control. He could only blame Mei for infecting him with her goofiness.

He turned toward Mei and shook his head.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing. Nothing,” he said, continuing to shake his head.