Cursed Immortality

Exasperated, he closed the alliance market since there was no physical material on sale there. So, he opened the exchange market and finally saw many alchemy ingredients and finished products on sale posted by other alchemists.

Although most of the alchemists sell their goods to the market, they keep precious products to themselves and then sell them to the exchange platform for ZC.

Because they couldn't get ZC from the common market, and not all the customers were rich enough to cough up one billion gold coins. So, this place was the best because any alchemist was a walking tycoon especially reserved members of the alchemy guild.

Moreover, only an alchemist knows the actual value of rare materials, and all of them need high-level materials to continue their research and increase their skills.

So, whenever a precious material appeared, many tried to buy it, and that's why the Guild had installed a particular function called 'Item Auction.'

It was pretty simple to use, the interested buyers could place their bids within the time limit of the auction item on the post, and when the time ends, the highest bidder would be eligible to buy that item.

Whether it's the seller or buyer, after a successful auction, they can't back down, or they will be punished according to the alchemy guild's rules. That's why no one dared to mess around because the Star IDs were like their identities, and without one, you would never be given access to any high-end place.

Jacob was quite pleased with this function since he didn't need to negotiate with the seller and could buy the item directly as long as he won the bid. Furthermore, there was an 'anonymous function' for both buyer and seller.

'This Alchemy Guild is quite considerate. Even I started to think the alliance is really a place for brutes.' Jacob snickered as he suddenly thought of materials required for the Blood Insect Enslavement Ritual Array.

One by one, he tried searching the materials to see if anyone was selling them. However, he didn't know what these materials looked like yet since he was still far away from completing the encyclopedia.

But it didn't mean someone else won't know, either.

However, he could only sigh ruefully when he didn't find anything and after thinking about it. He wrote a post with the five materials' names under anonymity and posted it in the exchange market.

He will later check if someone responded to it and then close the star network since he wasn't interested in anything else for the time being, especially in rare plains!

This time, there was no more disturbance, and he was again absorbed in reading.

Three days passed since Jacob was just sitting at his table without moving an inch. He didn't feel hunger or fatigue, just a little bit of mental exhaustion.

But it was far better than paying attention to his surrounding and reading at once. Furthermore, he was already half done with Universal Magical Materials (Type-1), and he had already spotted the Rainbow Star Dust and its picture.

However, his focus was broken when he heard footsteps approaching, and his eyes narrowed!

Thereupon, 'Knock, knock…' light knocks rang on the apartment door.

Jacob could hear the heartbeat of this person. It was pretty fast, and he was somewhat familiar with its unique rhythm.

He closed the virtual book and headed toward the door before opening it.

Rita appeared in a pink dress, flaunting her elvish charm, looking absolutely stunning. Her lips curled slightly when she saw Jacob's masked face and said, "Senior Grandmaster, how have you been?"

Jacob didn't want to indulge this woman as he was pretty busy in his own study, so he annoyingly asked, "I'm fine. What do you want?"

A hint of resentment flashed past Rita's beautiful eyes when she heard Jacob's dismissive tone. She pursed her lips and said, "Can't I be here to visit a fellow gunsmith?"

"You didn't inform me. So, you're disturbing me." Jacob said matter-of-factly.

Rita was even more annoyed, "How can I inform you when you blocked my ID?" She spat resentfully.

Realization dawned upon Jacob, 'So, she tried to find my ID, but she couldn't because of my privilege, and she assumed that I had blocked her.'

He knew Rita had already given him her star ID, so the fault really lay on him this time, so he didn't argue with her anymore.

"I might've pressed the wrong button then." He shamelessly stated as he had no plan of telling anyone about the privilege system of the star network.

'Like hell, I believed you.' Rita thought as she glared at Jacob but didn't reveal her thought.

Her lips twitched slightly as she said, "It can't be helped, then. As for a reason for my visit, the first thing is I want to inform you that the magic smith workshop has been arranged, and you might be able to use it as much as you like." A hint of pride appeared in her beautiful eyes.

'Oh, I almost forgot about that matter. But do I really need to ask for a favor anymore with my current identity?' Jacob thought as this really wholly left his mind since his identity was now vastly different from three days ago.

He can easily gain access to any facility in this building as long as he shows the corresponding rank's grandmaster level badge.

Still, it might be too cumbersome since these guys would definitely make a fuss if he told them his identity as a permanent member. So, he wanted to hide it as long as possible and even leave without telling anyone.

"Alright. Since this is the case, then I'll contact you in a week." Jacob nodded and was about to turn around, "Wait!" when Rita quickly stopped him.

"Is there anything else?" Jacob looked back and frowned.

Rita was speechless and had the urge to kick this dismissive guy in the guts. She pursed her lips and said, "Don't you want to know why you could be given a free pass to the facility?"

"Why?" asked Jacob.

Rita curled her lips, "It seemed Senior Braylon had taken a keen interest in you. He is coming here tomorrow from the Dark Inner Circle of the Dark City to meet you!"