Chapter 54. Wealth

“So, how much exactly are you looking to sell this for?” The appraiser said, eyeing the acorn in his hand.

“I dunno; I suppose that depends on what you can give me,” Abe shrugged, not wanting to let on he was aware of its value. He didn’t trust the guild, and he tried to keep a low profile with enemies already after him. Hopefully, they wouldn’t make too much of this if he were just another naive Reaver.

The appraiser's eyes glimmered, and his thick lips curled into a smile, “I could sell it for you, but auctions take so long. You might be waiting months for your payout, maybe longer. However, If you wanted to sell it to me, I could have your coin ready by the time you return to reception.”

“Really?” Abe raised a brow. “And how much would you buy it off of me for.”

“Hmm, well, a treasure like this,” he hummed. “I’ll need to make a profit for myself, so, umm, ah... if I’m putting down money. How about 50,000 ducats?”

Abe gritted his teeth, holding back his rage at the insultingly low amount. He had to remind himself that he was just a nobody trying to get by in the Vale. Drawing suspicion was far worse than getting ripped off when he had so many acorns stashed away.

“Something wrong?”

“No,” Abe coughed. “It’s just that the dreamer I pried that from seemed very attached to it.”

“Oh, well, it is valuable,” the robust appraiser said, narrowing his gaze on Abe. “Maybe I can help you out. I’m a bit of a softy for young Reavers like yourself. Don’t expect such generosity all the time, but I’m willing to help you out this once. How about 75,000 ducats, and that’s my final offer.”

Squeezing his hands into fists, Abe nodded. It was still a huge sum of money and more than enough to buy a small deathly orb and fill it with energy, which he needed to do as soon as possible.

Cool it, Abe. The longer I go without an orb, the higher the risk of someone sensing the acorns is. I’ve got plenty more to sell if I manage to make it out of this alive.

“Something the bother? This is a great–”

“I’ll take it,” Abe said, raising his voice.

“Good,” the appraiser said, nodding slowly and turning to his desk behind them. Taking a scroll from a cupboard, he scribbled on it momentarily and waved Abe over. “Please, sign on the dotted line.”

Abe eyed the contract of sale for barely a few seconds and signed his name.

“Perfect,” the large man nodded, raised a hand over the scroll, and blue light hummed from his hand, forming a circle of runes that danced around the scroll for several seconds. “The contract is bound and passed onto our reception staff. They’ll be waiting to transfer your money to your trusted banker by the time you reach the lobby. Now, is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No, that’s it,” Abe nodded and turned for the door, reminding himself that he had made the right decision not to argue longer than necessary with this thing.

With no desire to drag things out, Abe went across the Necropolis and purchased an orb. Even a small one that would only power a small Astral vessel cost him 30,000 ducats and another 2,000 to fuel it with deathly energy drawn from the Vale. Still, he wasn’t overly concerned with how much it cost and hastily returned to his hideout. 

“So far, so good,” he grunted as he reached the small room he squatted in.

When he returned, the same bald zombie leaned against the wall beside the door.

“Good job,” Abe said, throwing a small pouch of ducats to the zombie he had withdrawn when buying the orb. “Keep it up.”

“Yes,” the zombie groaned.

Twisting his brow at the walking corpse of few words, Abe opened the door and passed inside.

There were millions of energy signals throughout Lantern, so spotting anything specific from far away was hard. Still, if someone powerful enough to read them came wandering down this alley, they would instantly spot Abe’s acorns. However, with the orb generating power, the room would give off a particular type of energy that would mostly cloud the dreamer energy flowing from the acorns. It wasn’t perfect, though, and could be seen through if someone got close enough or focused hard enough. Also, it would be at least a little suspicious to have an orb giving off deathly energy in a place like this since the poverty-stricken inhabitants would have little use for one. Still, it was less suspicious than a couple of dozen small but extremely dense dreamer energy signals, especially in a place like this.

Placing the orb on the floor, Abe pulled at its deathly energy, and soon, the power flowed freely from it. Even without the orb being put to a task, its store of deathly energy would only last maybe a week with its current output.

Reaching into his pouch, he took out the black acorn. He had cast his eyes upon it a couple of times while sailing through the Vale but had wanted to keep his mind on reaching Lantern alive and, as such, kept it to the back of his thoughts.

Having achieved some degree of safety, he could stare into its abyssal, colorless tone that seemed to catch no light. He rubbed it with his thumb and channeled deathly energy into the acorn, and his eyes widened as it grew a little.

Focusing on the tiny treasure in his palm, Abe tried to funnel more deathly energy into it, but nothing happened.

“How about,” he mouthed as he sent dreamer energy and a combination of the two flowing into it. It grew a little again but quickly stopped and had only increased in size by about 20% by the time he had tried channeling energy in all the ways that he could.

“Maybe it needs to rest,” he mouthed as he stared into it. And his mouth slackened as he watched the orb’s energy signal mutating. 

It had always been strange. An acorn made of and containing dreamer energy that felt as if it should be an entity of deathly energy, but this was different. It was changing, taking on the properties of Abe’s deathly energy, but he realized it was more than that. It was actually trying to imitate his energy. 

“Amazing,” he mouthed. It wasn’t quite there yet, but since its growth seemed to have limitations, he figured changing its energy to replicate his own might take time as well.

Returning the acorn to his pocket, Abe eyed his surroundings. He had planned to return to Miss Nia’s domain quickly, but that no longer seemed possible. 

There was no way he wanted to risk traveling with his treasures in their current state.

If what the sporeling store owner had said was true, then the value of his black acorn would be massively reduced after it had bonded with him and turned into a piece of armor. And if he could find a buyer for the other acorns that would hopefully not rip him off as much as the guild, he would be a lot safer when trying to find a ride home.

But perhaps his new friend could help with that.

Abe stepped back out into the alley, but instead of a single zombie, he found dozens of the groaning monsters swaying toward him.

“S-sorry,” the bald zombie muttered.

“What’s all this then?”

“They saw what you paid me… They’re looking for work.”

“They are?” Abe’s brow rose, and his lip curled into a grin. “Fine by me.”

Abe's thoughts were going through a few things. Firstly, he couldn’t just ask for people looking to buy Dreamer artifacts; that was a surefire way to get himself into trouble. However, that didn’t mean he couldn’t use these willing zombies.

Firstly, he needed as much privacy as he could possibly get. Luckily, this little alley within the Necropolis seemed to house only the weakness and poorest undead, and he doubted any of them would challenge him, not that dealing with such bottom feeders would be much of an issue.

“I want you to seal off the alley,” Abe said, pointing down the alley toward where it connected to a street that ran through the underground city. 

“Seal it?” One of the zombies groaned and turned its head.

“Yes. With bricks if possible,” Abe took out another pouch of ducats and threw it to a nearby zombie. “You’ll all be paid for your efforts. Just make it as strong as you can. And if possible, make it blend in with the street.”

The zombies seemed confused, some even scratching at their heads—no doubt wondering why anyone would care to seal off a worthless place like this, but the moment a few of them began to wander off to complete the task, the rest followed. 

I doubt they’ll build anything particularly strong, but I’m not trying to build a fort here, just a barrier that might dissuade casual meandering.

The next part of his plan involved buying another deathly orb. He needed to leave the one he had near his stash, but he also realized that if he wanted to safely sell off the acorns, having his own ship would likely be beneficial. That way, he could plan trades away from the streets and alleys without bringing a potential buyer back to his hideout or stepping into a potential trap. He could also use it to return to the domain when ready. Unfortunately, it also meant raising more coin to buy an Astral ship.

Sighing, Abe went back inside to collect an acorn. He obviously couldn’t take it back to the Reavers since they would realize something was up when a random wight turned up to sell a second living armor acorn. But what about the Slayer’s Guild?

Abe glared at the acorn in his palm and clenched his fist around it. Even if he could transform himself into a sporeking, he had joined the Slayers Guild in Old Silveroot’s domain and then proceeded to steal the bounty of a lifetime from him.

“This is a terrible idea, isn’t it?” He grunted and made for the door.

His inner voice was screaming at him to abandon the reckless idea, but he had no one else to take its place.

I wonder, does she think I’m dead? She would have checked, wouldn’t she?

Abe felt a special bond between him and Miss Nia, but he couldn’t forget how easily she threw away Elisa, who had been severed for so long. If she could do that, he would surely be replaceable as well. It wasn’t a thought he wanted to dwell on, regardless of how much it made sense. Ultimately, he knew he had to make his way back to her, one way or another. And these troublesome thoughts only served to confuse him.

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