8 「Appraisal」 (1/2)
Entering through the main northern gates of the Fortress City, Cipher took in the rich European architecture. The last time he had seen buildings like these was the last time he was in Germany. Their old historic buildings were a treasure to see.
The tip of his tongue painted his lips as he looked over towards his companions. A small smile creeping across his lips. ”I used to live in a place similar to this, but a bit different.”
They blinked up at him for a moment, the nostalgia on his face was something new they hadn't seen on him. To be honest, it was kind of refreshing.
Peter still didn't really like Cipher, but at least he wasn't capable of remembering certain things. Some of his memories had been tampered when he had changed his 'data' earlier.
”That's uh... That's pretty awesome.” Ninya gave a humble laugh, ”Were you wealthy or something?”
He shrugged slightly, ”I left the country I lived in when I was young. After my little sister was hit by a car—carriage.” He rolled his jaw slightly at the remembrance of his sister. The female Guardians he had designed for his world were modeled after her face in some way or another.
His little sister was five years younger than him and he adored her. She'd be eighteen by now if she hadn't died. He let out a quiet sigh and scratched the back of his head.
Peter blinked a few times hearing him talk about something person. This was probably the first thing he had shared with them pertaining to his life before coming here. Was he opening up to them? ”Hm..”
”Is.. is that why you're helping me... us, find my sister?” Ninya asked looking up at him with a sympathetic smile.
Cipher just had this look on his face, ”Could be.” He was being roundabout again, not directly answering her question. He was keeping her guessing.
Ninya didn't know whether or not to thank him, but it was clear as his smile was rejuvenated.
”Lets go to the Guild,” Peter said as he was already walking away from the group, glancing subtly over his shoulder.
Dye and Lukrut rushed after their leader while Ninya stood by Cipher, looking him over for a moment.
”Are... Are you okay?”
”Yeah, I'm fine.” It was clear he wasn't alright. Now that he was thinking about his sister, he was just seeing her face in every direction. Like it was been burnt into the pupils of his eyes.
Closing his eyes tightly, he opened his eyes slowly. Quickly he found a strange emotional calm rushing through his system. While he still had those thoughts of his sister, the times when she smiled and laughed when he said a corny joke.
He started to clench his jaw and raise his head a bit as he turned to walk.
Ninya just watched as he followed after her friends. She could see he wasn't alright, but she wasn't going to speak up. For she was positive he didn't want to talk about it or let it be real.
Soon enough she caught up with her friends and Cipher.
As he entered the building, he took in the lively details of the place. It reminded him of the Carne Village with the dark wood floors and the various people standing around.
His eyes trailed over to the job board and narrowed his sights on the high tier jobs. Hardly any of these jobs involved exploration, or actual adventuring. There seemed to be a number of gathering missions and monster exterminations.
While a bunch of the jobs there may be an easy way to gain coin, they weren't really important.
He could trade in low leveled items he kept since his early days in game for actual spending money. He had plenty in his inventory as of right now.
The question was though, where would he sell the items? He pursed his lips slightly when he followed Peter up to the front counter. He hardly paid attention to what the man was saying to the woman behind the counter, but he soon gestured for the Lich to come up.
When he did, his eyes locked with gaze of the woman's who was observing him.
”Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild. Peter says you're interested in joining us. Do you have an Entry Fee?” She asked as she leaned forward, looking over him.
Ninya almost immediately slipped passed him and placed five silver coins for the entry fee and five coppers for the literacy test on the countertop.
”You're paying him back,” Peter exclaimed seeing his friend pay for the man.
”Uh-huh,” Cipher didn't really care what Peter said, but he was going to pay her back. There was no reason for her to pay for him. He could've come up with the money quickly. If anything, created it from the copper ore in his inventory.
As the woman shuffled a piece of paper in front of him, a literacy test, she leaned back a bit to observe him. Curious of how well versed he was in the language since he was dressed more like a nobleman than an adventurer or street rat.
Reaching into his inventory, causing a visible dimensional tear in the air, he plucked out a finepoint pen. The woman behind the counter almost had her jaw drop seeing something again to dimensional storage. A rare ability amongst those who had talents in magic.
Giving her a quiet glance, Cipher grinned as he could hear other people talking.
”Did he just pull a pen out of thin air...?”
”Pretty sure he did.”
”How'd he do it?”
”Where'd it come from?”
”This guy, what is he?”
Leaning over the counter be started doing the test. While he didn't appear to be rushing through it, he was definitely not going slowly.
As he finished he left the pen on the counter.
The woman reached over and plucked the pen off the counter and observed it. ”「Appraisal Magic Item」” the spell she cast caused her eyes to widen before she looked over at him.
This pen he had used had a large amount of condensed Data back when it was still in a game. It was enchanted with a modified version of the 「Time Stop」 spell which would freeze everyone except for its owner in time. So even if someone else activated the pen's special ability, they'd freeze if they weren't the owner.
”Where did you get this?” She held the item out, pointing it at him.
Cipher reached over and plucked it from her hand and tilted his head, ”The Internet.”
”The... the Internet? What's an internet?”
”Exactly.”
A playful look was on his face and the woman just huffed. She then collected the test and looked it over before placing the copper ranked plate onto the counter for him to take.
As the Swords of Darkness and Cipher began walking away from the counter, he chuckled a bit.
”What's an internet?” Ninya asked with a brow raised slightly.
”Think of it as a network of magical energy particles flowing in the air,” Cipher replied with a sarcastic tone before lightly placing a hand on the top of her head.
Blinking, not entirely understanding the way he obtained the item from such a concept. Glancing away from him with a pink tinge developing on her face. She reached up and put a hand on his to nudge it off her head.
”Don't insult his intelligence,” Peter gave him a bunch on the arm, but it was like planting a fist on the face of a fleshy steel wall. Slowly retracting his fist, he looked at his hand and then to his arm. ”The heck are you made of?”
Cipher just looked over at him like he was an idiot.
”Why I 'outta...”
Lukrut was looking over Ninya for a moment, most particularly looking over her face. Why was she blushing? Embarrassed? He was growing curious of this, but that was until he heard a ripping sound.
”You okay there Ninya?”
”I'm.. Fine. Why do you ask?”
”Your face, hehe... It's red.”
”Re-red!?”
”You getting a rash or something?”
Peter walked over and elbowed his friend in the back of his head, ”cut it out will you!?” He'd laugh, quickly getting over his friend's antics.
In his hand was a job waiver which he would hand in to the woman at the front counter. ”We'll be taking this quest. Do you mind?”
The woman nodded as she watched Cipher put the copper rank badge around his neck. ”It's appropriate, as long as you're with him, as are the rules.”
However when she went to collect the waiver, Cipher swiped it from her hand, looking over it for a second before handing it back to her. ”Sorry, just needed a glance.”
With that the Swords of Darkness were making their way out of the Adventurer's Guild when over a dozen horses could be heard galloping down the streets.
Turning his head, Cipher rested his eyes of Gazef who came speeding over and hopped off his horse as he reigned it to the side.
”Sir Cipher!” Gazef called out as he came walking toward him in stride. Placing both hands on Cipher's shoulders, the man stared right through him with this excited look in his eyes. ”That potion! Just a nip healed all my wounds!”
There was hardly a scratch on the man, one could hardly even believe he had been in battle. His armor was still in tact as well. Though Cipher already knew, the potion had likely restored the data pertaining to his armor.
”I'd like you to come with me to make more of these if you possibly can.”
”Uhm...” Cipher looked at the man's arms on his shoulders. This man of authority wanted something from him.
”I can pay you, reward you, as you'd like.”