Chapter 109: The Hook
There is no SSS Appraisal. Not in the way Elisser thinks.
What I have is [Link]—a passive detection skill that reads the true soul of an item. Stats, hidden properties, flaws, the whole ledger. It’s not appraisal. It’s something older. But the output looks identical to what an S-tier appraiser sees, and that’s all I need.
"Well. Let’s see what this child has to offer." Elisser walks toward the table. Her cane clicks against the stone floor in a slow, unhurried rhythm. She’s already decided I’m wasting her time.
"I’m at your serv—"
"A test." She cuts me off. Her hand dives into an apron pocket and emerges with three objects. She drops them onto the table between us.
A red crystal wrapped in thin metal bands, shaped like a cut gem the size of a walnut.
A compact karambit knife, the blade curved like a talon, the handle etched with small runes that glow faintly under the blue light.
A metal star—a shuriken, four-pointed, each edge so sharp it looks like it could cut the air just by sitting still.
"Appraisal classes are rare." Elisser closes her eyes and exhales through her nose. "SSS? I doubt it. Come on, boy. Tell me." Her lips curl into a thin, knowing smile. "Which one of these is broken?"
"May I touch them?"
"Whatever you want. It won’t make a difference."
I reach for the crystal first. [Link] activates the second my fingertips make contact. The data unfolds inside my head:
[Name: Heart of the Drowned Sun]
[Rank: D — Coral]
[Type: Pyromancy Stone]
[Durability: 50/50]
[Passive Skill — +10% casting speed]
[Hidden Skill — Salvation of the Drowned
: If the caster extends casting time by 20%, the next cast is incantation-free.] Perfect condition. Common item with a hidden passive most appraisers miss. Clever design.
I move to the karambit.
[Name: Tide’s Claw]
[Rank: D — Coral]
[Type: Karambit]
[Durability: 8/50]
[Active Skill — Hook Break: light bleeding on piercing strikes.]
Low durability. Standard active. Nothing hidden.
Finally, the shuriken.
[Name: Wavebreaker Shuriken]
[Rank: D — Coral]
[Type: Shuriken]
[Durability: 49/50]
[Active Skill — Wavebreak: consumes minor OXI; blade vibrates on impact, amplifying damage.]
[Hidden Passive — Cannot be repaired.]
Three items. Three conditions. Three possible answers.
And Elisser is watching me like she already knows I’m going to pick the wrong one.
Fine. Let’s give her what she’s expecting.
"The broken one is the shuriken," I say.
Elisser’s face collapses.
Her shoulders drop. Her grey eyes go flat. The anticipation drains out of her like water from a cracked cup, and what’s left is pure, uncut disappointment.
"I knew it." She gathers the three items and drops them back into her apron pocket one by one—crystal, karambit, shuriken. Each one landing with a small, final clink. "Another boy with a tongue bigger than his brain."
She turns. Her cane hits the stone.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
The sound is slower now. Heavier. The walk of someone who already got what she came for: confirmation that her time was being wasted.
Boris opens his mouth to say something. I hold up a hand to stop him.
Rhayne’s fingers tighten in the back of my shirt.
Elisser reaches the doorway at the back of the workshop. Her free hand rises to push past the beaded curtain.
"The crimson crystal... that’s what you wanted me to say."
The cane stops.
She doesn’t turn around. She just stands there, one hand on the curtain, her back rigid.
I keep going. Speaking to her spine.
"A common appraiser would say the karambit. Durability eight out of fifty. Obvious answer. Wrong."
A long pause.
She turns. Slowly. Her grey eyes narrow, locked on me now with a focus that wasn’t there before.
"A qualified appraiser—the level you were expecting—would say the crystal. No visible active skill on a Rank-D pyromancy stone looks like a missing enchantment. Defective by design."
She walks back to the table. Doesn’t sit. Just stands there, her hand resting on the edge.
"Also wrong," I say.
I pick up the red crystal. Hold it between my thumb and forefinger. Then I turn to the nearest guard—a wiry man standing against the wall, a faint heat shimmer around his hands that I clocked the moment I walked in.
"You’re a fire caster. Aren’t you."
The guard blinks. "Yes, sir. How did you—"
"Use this." I toss him the crystal. He catches it. "Small flame. Palm of your hand. And when you finish the incantation, keep chanting. Don’t stop. Extend it beyond the completion point."
The guard looks at Boris. Boris nods.
"Oh fire that guides me through the shadow of the deep..." The guard’s voice is steady. A small sphere of orange flame blooms in his right palm. Fully formed. Complete cast.
I circle my finger.
Keep going.
"...turn everything to embers!" He completes the extended incantation, a full beat longer than necessary.
He blinks.
"The stone—" He looks at the crystal in his other hand. "It finished the spell for me. Before I was even done—"
"Now cast another. Left hand."
"Oh fi—"
A second fireball blooms in his left palm. Instantly. No incantation. No delay.
The guard stares at his hands. Both of them burning. His mouth moves but nothing comes out for a full two seconds.
"Salvation of the Drowned." His voice cracks on the last word. "It—the hidden skill. It activated."
The other guards along the wall have stopped breathing. Boris is leaning forward, both elbows on the table, his jaw slack.
I turn back to Elisser.
"Nothing is wrong with the crystal. It’s a Rank-D item hiding a hidden passive that rewards patience. Most appraisers never find it because they give up cataloguing at the visible skill layer."
Elisser is staring at the crystal in the guard’s palm. Her grey eyes have gone wide—actually wide, for the first time since she walked in.
Then she turns those eyes on me.
"If the crystal isn’t broken," she says, and her voice has lost every trace of the dismissive edge from earlier, "what’s wrong with the shuriken?"
Bingo.
I hooked her.