Chapter 43 : Chapter 43
Chapter 43 : Appraisal
Dressed in a simple T-shirt and jeans, Sal stepped into the workshop.
It was ambiguous whether he had to wear the school uniform even on weekends, but he much preferred wearing the newly made suit over that dull gray outfit.
The gloves felt almost like a second skin, so he felt reluctant to take them off even when showering.
Suddenly, Sal wondered if Hannah felt this way when she wore her gauntlets.
Upgrade promised to teach him how to utilize the gloves.
Sal was excited at those words, half with anticipation and half with curiosity.
However, the workshop he entered after opening the door was completely different from its usual calmness.
Dozens of students were gathered around the workbenches shouting, running around, and making a chaotic bustle.
Sal craned his neck and looked around to find familiar faces, but most of them had bewildered expressions.
A familiar voice called out towards Sal, who hadn't even fully cleared the workshop entrance yet.
“Salvatore! There's an empty seat here, hurry over!”
Josh's voice rang out clearly even amidst the noisy atmosphere.
Sal spotted him waving his hand frantically from the other side of the workshop.
At that moment, several heads turned towards Sal, and among them were gazes filled with blatant disgust.
Sal hesitated for a moment whether to ignore him and go to his own seat, but eventually folded that thought and walked towards Josh with a quiet smile.
Josh pointed to the seat next to him and said happily.
“I knew you'd come! You missed the upstairs tour... but you can do it if you wait until the bearded mister comes back. He was wearing an apron, I think his name was Porge.”
Josh pointed to the elevator next to them and chattered ceaselessly.
“Professor Upgrade is sitting over there! She's busy right now so we can't talk to her much. Isn't this place totally awesome?”
Sal quietly looked towards Upgrade.
She was looking at him with a painful smile.
Sal almost laughed but felt a strange camaraderie.
It felt like their sanctuary had been invaded.
Sal turned towards Josh and forced a smile.
“Thanks, Josh.... Really, thanks. Actually, I came to do some appraisal work. Try to earn some Q-Credits.”
With those words, he tried to sneak away, but Josh didn't stop talking.
“Seriously? How did you earn that in just a week?”
There was a hint of suspicion in his tone.
Thinking Josh would surely jump to conclusions, Sal leaned in slightly and lowered his voice.
“We did a tour on the first day, remember? I went over to the crafters then and did a few appraisals for free. I asked if they had any leftover work, and they entrusted it to me.”
Sal twisted the truth a little, but it was enough for Josh.
He looked at Sal with wide eyes.
“That easily? Are there people looking for restoration work too?”
Sal shrugged and pointed towards the crafters.
“You never know unless you ask. At least you'll get noticed. Appraisal is a hard-to-find Skill, so I was lucky too.... Restoration is a really decent ability. My mom is a restorer. You could make proper money among crafters. Things they ruin while crafting, you can restore them to their original state.... For a fee.”
At those words, Josh finally seemed to realize the value of his ability.
With a look of disbelief, he scanned the room, his eyes seemingly imagining a future full of Q-Credits.
Sal quietly waved his hand and headed towards Upgrade, and Josh didn't even properly notice him leaving.
As Sal approached her workbench, Upgrade grumbled in a low voice.
“Did you tell these kids to come here?”
Sighing, she nodded towards where the students were sitting.
“Kids who know nothing are sitting there shouting about their dreams. It's a total mess.”
Finally looking at Sal, she sighed once more and said.
“Did you see my message?”
Sal nodded and smiled.
“Thank you so much for recommending me for the Accelerated Course. I don't know exactly what it is, but it seems very important.”
Upgrade stretched and let out a weary breath.
“Don't mention it. But you know... if I drag you into that room and have you appraise that cool sniper rifle, those brats will make up all sorts of rumors, but I'll bear it.”
A playful smile spread across her lips.
“The Credit Floor will extract your worth, but we can worry about that then.”
Sal headed for the room without much hesitation.
Upgrade was following just a few steps behind.
“Should I wink at those kids or something?”
Upgrade muttered softly, teasing Sal.
“Should I put my arm around your shoulder once?”
By the time she had made one or two more playful suggestions, they arrived in front of the room.
Sal raised both hands to stop her.
Upgrade paused for a moment at Sal's gesture and sent him a questioning look.
Sal wiggled his gloved fingers and smiled.
“If I do the appraisal for you first, please teach me how to use the gloves after that.”
Upgrade fell into thought for a moment, then tilted her head and countered.
“Appraisal first. Then get coffee from Alex... and then the gloves. How about that?”
Sal accepted obediently.
In fact, he was craving that alchemy coffee right now.
It seemed Alex wasn't wrong when he said it was addictive.
Upgrade continued as she walked to the other side of the table.
“Unlike someone, I didn't get enough sleep last night, you see....”
Upgrade bent down and picked up the shirt and pants that had been carefully crafted last night.
Sal reached out to take them, but she suddenly stopped and grinned.
“Appraisal first. Then clothes. Then coffee... and only then gloves.”
Sal stared at her for a moment, and Upgrade burst into laughter and shook her head.
“I must have lost my mind a bit from lack of sleep.”
Sal pointed to the sofa next to them.
“Get some shut-eye there while I do the appraisal. The longer we stay here, the more fabulous the rumors will become, right?”
He concluded with a laugh.
Upgrade threw the clothes onto the table without hesitation and threw herself onto the sofa.
“I'll just rest my eyes for a moment. Make sure to wake me when you're done. I want to hear everything.”
Before Sal could reply, Upgrade was already asleep.
Even without using the blanket folded on the armrest.
Sal carefully unfolded the blanket and covered her with it.
He couldn't believe he hadn't even known her for a week.
Upgrade had already entered deep into Sal's life.
‘If not for Upgrade, I wouldn't have been able to create the Mythos Crafter ability, nor would I be standing here right now.’
Sal's gaze turned to the Legendary Grade sniper rifle.
He couldn't believe the fact that he had led the creation of this weapon.
Of course, he wasn't naive and knew well that it would have been impossible without the capabilities of Martin, Gosha, and Upgrade.
But this was a masterpiece born from the parts he complemented with his ability and the design he created.
Activating his eyes, Sal began the appraisal.
Seeing the document waiting for his feedback, he went straight to work.
Work that usually took a few minutes took nearly an hour this time.
Appraisal was similar to reading a book.
Because every item contained its own story.
If someone without Appraisal ability saw this weapon, they would only be able to read information like materials, composition, attributes, quality, and crafting level.
But Sal's eyes saw something deeper than that.
It could be called an essential understanding of the item's Essence.
Rare Grade glowed blue, Epic glowed purple, and Legendary glowed orange.
When he first appraised this rifle, Sal saw colors clashing with each other within it.
Sal stared piercingly at the weapon until it vomited out all its secrets.
‘Range of virtual bullets, impact force, damage figures....’
He quickly wrote it down.
Recoil was significantly reduced compared to before, and the scope was capable of tracking targets by Essence Signature.
There were three firing modes: silent, explosive, and Essence link mode.
Surprisingly, this weapon seemed to have gained a self-cleaning attribute during the evolution process.
The fire rate also increased, and every shot was judged as a critical hit.
Sal turned the weapon this way and that, examining it from all angles to find even a single scratch, but no flaws were visible anywhere.
His eyes repeatedly checked the same information, and finally discovered an element that wasn't visible before.
Sal didn't miss it and immediately recorded it in the document.
It was difficult to completely specify the details due to the lack of a reference point, but Sal tried to interpret what the rifle was telling him as accurately as possible.
If he knew more about firearms, he could have analyzed this information much more precisely, but for now, he had to be satisfied with what he could verify.
Even after continuing the appraisal for nearly 20 minutes more, Sal had no choice but to admit it.
“Unbelievable.”
This weapon had absolutely no downsides or flaws.
Sal couldn't gauge if even a Mythos Grade item could be superior to this weapon.
He looked at the sniper rifle in awe amidst the silence for a moment.
The appraisal was finished, and now he had to submit these results to the Credit Floor and Vanessa.
As that thought occurred, he fell into a dilemma about whether he should go meet her directly as Mythos.
And he wondered if he should just ask her to handle everything related to the item transfer.
Looking back, Upgrade was still sound asleep without moving an inch.
Turning his gaze to the table, Sal saw the new uniform lying there and was tempted to change in this room.
Of course, this was a terrible idea.
‘If Upgrade wakes up, she'll tease me for the rest of my life.’
But the moment he picked up the shirt, Sal ignored the warning ringing in his brain and quietly went to the other side of the table to change clothes.
His heart pounded and countless anxieties swirled, but Upgrade didn't budge.
The moment the shirt touched his skin, Sal inhaled in surprise.
The shirt contracted along his chest and fitted his body perfectly.
Even when he stretched his arms up and moved his body this way and that, there was no discomfort at all.
It was like clothes custom-made for his body shape from the start.
The pants also fit his waist and legs perfectly.
‘At this point, don't they have a tailoring attribute or something?’
Just like the gloves, these clothes felt like part of his body.
There was no feeling of sudden strength surging or Essence pouring out.
But it was clearly visible to his eyes.
The shirt, pants, and gloves were connected as one by invisible circuits of Essence.
Just as he was about to continue the appraisal of the clothes he had just put on, he felt a vibration in his jeans.
Sal rummaged through his pants pocket and took out his tablet.
As he opened the screen, appraisal requests that had poured in due to the dungeon clear success arrived one after another.
He was about to head to the Credit Floor, but at that moment, Upgrade's figure caught his eye.
He wanted to avoid Vanessa coming and seeing Upgrade sleeping.
In the end, he decided to postpone the report for a while.
He also wanted to repay Upgrade for letting him sleep the night before.
Since Upgrade had the card key that could open the door, Sal quietly dimmed the lights and locked the door.
Outside, the students' commotion was getting worse and worse.