Undying Warlord

The Trading hub was located outside their base. There had been a small security building between the alloy factory that was used by Old Jeff and all the training Ascenders, and the toy factory that was renovated to become their base.

The security building was a three-story tall building and Dilan was able to see and perceive many busy assistants bustling through the shops.

Two Tier-1 Ascenders guarded the trading hub to make sure that nobody would steal things. They looked a bit bored but Dilan ignored this with a faint smile.

'Looks like nobody ever tried to steal something,' He merely thought before he averted his focus to all the items that were exhibited in the trading hub.

"Sir you cannot enter the shop with your appear–...B-B..Boss…How can I help you?!" The female assistant, who saw him walk in, thought that Dilan was an ordinary customer at first. Only when she saw his face did she realize that it was their Boss.

Dilan looked down at himself and quickly noticed that he was still covered in dirt, bits of flesh, and blood. He didn't want to dirty the goods around him, which was why he left the shop at once. With a single jump, he caused the ground below him to crackle as he jumped on top of the building, where he changed his clothes quickly.

Afterward, he landed on the ground again with clean clothes. He wiped his face and tried to wipe away all the blood but that was easier said than done.

The Tier-1 Guards flinched and went into a combat stance when Dilan landed on the ground. They looked at him dumbfoundedly before their mind comprehended what was going on.

They went stiff and hurriedly saluted toward Dilan.

"Boss, you are here!"

Dilan nodded at them before he entered the shop once again. The female assistant rushed to him while tidying her clothes.

She halted two meters in front of them and clasped her hands lightly before she bowed to him.

"Boss, how may I help you?" She asked while trying to stop her voice from shaking.

"I want to exchange my Essence crystals and I need 44 Bronze Essence crystals with the Lightning attribute for now," Dilan answered, ignoring the woman's nervosity. He smiled gently to calm her but that didn't really seem to work.

"O-of course, Boss! I will show you all the Lightning attributed Essence crystals we have!" She hurriedly exclaimed before rushing to the back of the room. With quick movements, her hand reached out to a few boxes. They were neatly labeled and stacked in rows and inside them, one could see Penta-Item pouches.

'We should try to find items similar to the Penta-Item pouches sooner or later,' Dilan thought, clearly understanding that they lacked a good storage space to store all kinds of items.

The female assistant rushed back to him after she went upstairs for a few minutes. Another woman followed her but she didn't say anything. Her eyes gleamed brightly as her gaze was fixated on Dilan.

"Every single Lightning-attributed Essence crystal in the trading hub's possession is stored in these Penta-item pouches," the female assistant said hurriedly as she pushed them in Dilan's hand.

Dilan looked at the female assistant skeptically. However, she was not able to endure his gaze and hurriedly hid behind the other woman.

"Am I that scary?" He mumbled to himself before he shook his head to discard this thought, "By the way, is that how you normally treat your customers? I mean do you hand them everything they need and simply walk away? Shouldn't it be a bit…different? I mean I could take out more and higher quality Essence crystals without you guys noticing," Dilan asked, feeling genuinely curious.

If that were to be the case, the customer service would have to be remodeled. The woman who had been quiet for the entire time shook her head as she began to explain,

"Boss, this is just because you are our leader. You don't need to worry about someone stealing anything from us. I'm a business major and the others working here are also experienced in selling goods. You could say that this is preferential treatment because everything in the base belongs to you, either way…everything!" The woman stressed the word 'everything' twice. Dilan understood the hidden intentions beneath her words but he couldn't care less about that.

"Alright, then stop with the preferential treatment and give me the normal rates. I want to see how the trading hub works," Dilan said calmly as he handed the Penta-item pouches over to the woman before he walked over to the counter.

The silent woman looked at Dilan with a faint smile until she went back to the counter as well.

'He is really different from other men. Usually, everyone feels proud about what I said but he couldn't care less…' She thought before she appeared at the counter opposite Dilan.

"You wanted 44 Lightning attributed Bronze Essence crystals, right?" She asked in a completely different tone to what she had used while talking to him before. The woman sounded professional, which was something that caused Dilan to nod approvingly.

"Right now, I only need that, yes," He answered as he looked at the woman, who began to calculate something.

"One Lightning attributed Essence crystal is worth 6 ordinary Essence crystals of the same quality and tier, and the service fee for this exchange is one Bronze Essence crystal. That would be 265 Bronze Essence crystals," The woman looked up and informed him after she calculated the final price.

After hearing the offered price, Dilan revealed a batch of Tier-1 Essence crystals. "I have no idea how high the exchange ratio is but I don't have Tierless Essence crystals." He stated honestly to which the woman nodded her head in understanding.

She picked up one Bronze Tier-1 Essence crystal and returned a few Tierless Silver Essence crystals, and a handful of Bronze Essence crystals as well. Dilan still wasn't aware of the exchange ratio but it didn't really matter.

The Lightning-attributed Bronze Essence crystals were much cheaper than he could have hoped for. A 6:1 exchange ratio for rare Lightning attributed Essence crystals was exceptional in his opinion, even more so because he thought that his ratio would be around 15:1.

No sooner was the deal done, Dilan absorbed the Bronze Lightning Essence crystal immediately. When all Essence crystals were absorbed three notifications popped up in front of him.

[-[Thunder Step] Tier-0 ★★★★-

Upgrade requirements have been met!

1) Get struck by lightning (5/5)!

2) Absorb <Lightning> attributed Bronze Essence crystals (50/50)!]

[[Thunder Step] Tier-0 ★★★★] has been upgraded to [Thunder Step] Tier-0 ★★★★★! Congratulations!]

[-[Thunder Step] Tier-0 ★★★★★-

Upgrade requirements

1) Get struck by lightning (5/25)!

2) Absorb <Lightning> attributed Tier-1 Essence crystals(1/1000)!]

Dilan smiled a bit odd when he looked at the updated upgrade requirements. They were somewhat annoying because the requirements went from a difficulty of 1 to 100 real quick.

But it was not as if he could do something against it, which was why he smiled a bit weirdly at the woman in front of him.

"How many Tier-1 Lightning attributed Essence crystals do you have in the trading hub?" He asked while trying to sound unbothered by it.

"Eh…there should be around one…or maybe two hundred. Do you need them, Boss?" The woman asked eagerly, ready to serve Dilan at once and please him.

"I wish to take all Tier-1 Lightning attributed Essence crystals, and I would like to create a mission as well," Dilan replied while accessing the storage ring where numerous Essence crystals and corpses were stored.

More than a thousand Essence crystals of Ordinary, Bronze, and Silver Tier-1 monsters appeared in front of the young woman, who tried to control herself.

"You…are really the only one, who treats Essence crystals so lightly…as if their value is equivalent to that of pebbles scattered on a gravel path…" She mumbled and Dilan just smiled in return without offering an explanation.

The Essence crystals were truly of no use for him. He would have to absorb the Essence of tens of thousand of Silver Essence crystals to level up once. Instead of forcing himself to level up, he would rather improve his stats by fighting monsters and Ascenders, who were at a higher level. Their Essence was more valuable to him, and his stats increased much more when he defeated those, who were supposed to be stronger.

When Dilan finished the deal, he received a total of 185 Tier-1 Essence crystals. He absorbed them immediately before he left every single Essence crystal in his possession behind for the trading hub to use to purchase the Tier-1 Lightning Essence crystals he asked for in the mission.

Missions were something individual Ascenders could create in the Trading hub. There was a bulletin board that many Ascenders would regularly read through every day to figure out what missions earned them most.

They wanted to amass more funds to purchase equipment that was perfectly suited for them, including ability crystals, and other miscellaneous items.

The trading hub was thriving and it looked like things were getting a lot easier thanks to its existence.

However, there were always people who felt discriminated against. After all, those who didn't work weren't favored by the regulations and system Sven had imported!

**

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