Chapter 177: Private Request
He let out a soft laugh, then thought about the other thing he’d heard, the special function unique to the Dimensional Exchange.
’You can sell things there.’
The product listing feature.
Register unwanted spoils or artifacts for sale, and hunters from other countries, or someone from another dimension entirely, could buy them.
Once an item sold, half the final sale price was paid out to the seller.
’A fifty percent cut is a little steep, though.’
They might as well be highway robbers.
But there wasn’t much he could do about disliking it.
The only way to offload goods without the Dimensional Exchange was to meet a buyer in person and trade directly.
’And more than anything...’
Even at a rate that predatory, being able to unload spoils he had no use for was already a blessing.
Walfred had things like the [Legion Commander’s Baton] and the [Kraken’s Heart] sitting around doing nothing, and he wanted them gone as soon as possible.
’Hope it opens soon.’
He might even find something useful for the White Whale hunt. Carrying that bit of anticipation, he headed back to Coral Cave.
A short while later, near the shelter entrance where Elsa was busy chowing down on snow, he spotted a familiar face.
"Oh, Uncle!"
His one and only niece, Jenna.
Sitting beside Elsa, she noticed him approaching in the distance and waved.
Walfred asked with a startled look.
"It’s freezing out. What are you doing outside?"
"Being stuck in a cave all day was getting stuffy."
Jenna smiled sheepishly.
Her cheeks were red from the cold. Walfred immediately stripped off his winter coat and wrapped it around her.
"Ah, I’m really fine..."
"I’m not, so deal with it."
"...You are unbelievably overprotective."
Jenna stuck out her lip and grumbled.
But she clearly didn’t mind his fussing, because a bashful little smile broke through soon enough. The two of them chatted for a bit while watching Elsa munch away.
The topic was how the Brooklyn Girls’ Academy students were doing.
With the Coral World refugees arriving at Coral Cave en masse, the girls from the academy were all together again.
"Oh, right. Turns out there’s one more girl besides me and Alice who Awakened as a hunter."
"Really? Who?"
"Her name’s Avery. I don’t know much about her."
Jenna smiled awkwardly.
As if to say they weren’t especially close.
"But from what I heard secondhand, she has some super rare attribute. Nature attribute, I think?"
Nature attribute. Compared to fire, frost, wind and the like, it was quite scarce.
The only nature attribute hunters Walfred knew of were Helen, the administrator of the Savannah shelter, and Ruby, who had been burned alive by Edward.
’Then again...’
In terms of rarity, Jenna was no slouch either.
Dream attribute. From what he’d found on the Community, there were fewer than five dream attribute hunters in existence.
And even among those, nearly all had skills that put people to sleep or controlled someone already sleeping. Not one of them could see the future through dreams.
While he was still sorting through those thoughts...
"...Uncle."
Jenna suddenly spoke up.
There was worry on her face.
"It’s today, right? The fight with that giant monster coming toward Key West."
"Yeah, that’s right."
Walfred nodded.
Jenna made no attempt to hide her concern as she spoke, almost pleading.
"If it looks dangerous out there, you run. Immediately. Promise me."
"Jenna."
"Other people’s lives matter too, I know. But the most important person to me is you. So promise me. If it gets dangerous, you’ll run."
Her eyes were full of real fear for him.
Faced with that serious expression, Walfred let out a soft laugh and ruffled her hair.
"All right. I promise."
"Good. That’s all I needed."
Maybe his firm answer put her at ease.
The anxiety finally faded from her face and a faint smile took its place. Then Walfred, watching her, suddenly sighed.
"Honestly, I’m more worried about you."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Jenna tilted her head.
Walfred’s gaze traveled over the accessories hanging off her from head to toe.
"I don’t think that’s quite enough."
Rings, necklaces, bracelets.
Every one of them a high-grade defensive artifact bought from the hunter shop. They were more than sufficient to stop any ordinary attack, but Walfred clearly wasn’t satisfied.
"If I’d known, I would have gotten a few more..."
"No! Stop. This is plenty."
Jenna said it in near panic.
She was already wearing more than a dozen artifacts. Even so, Walfred didn’t bother hiding his lingering dissatisfaction.
’Leaving Elsa with her would settle it, but...’
That wasn’t an option.
Elsa was irreplaceable firepower in the operation. On top of that, using [Ice Shatter] required her to be at his side.
’I wish I had a bodyguard I could trust.’
Then he could rest easy.
Just as that thought crossed his mind...
Crunch!
Footsteps pressed into the snow.
A presence not far off. A moment later, a composed voice reached his ears.
"Pardon me."
At the familiar voice, Walfred and Jenna turned at the same instant. The figure that came into view was a woman in her late twenties.
Elma, the S-rank water attribute hunter.
"Oh, Chief! Good morning."
"Good morning, Jenna."
Elma returned the polite greeting with equal courtesy. Then she turned to Walfred.
"Hunter Walfred."
"What?"
"Would you care to take a walk?"
"...Out of nowhere?"
"Yes. The weather looks nice."
What kind of nonsense was that?
Walfred scowled.
Still, he didn’t need to ask what she was really after. With the hunt ahead of them, she clearly had something private to discuss.
"Go on, Uncle."
Maybe Jenna picked up on it too.
Reading the room, she stepped back, pulled Elsa into her arms, and waved them off.
"I’ll stay here with Elsa."
Elma caught the courtesy and dipped her head in thanks. With Jenna saying that much, there wasn’t any getting out of it.
Walfred heaved a sigh.
"Fine. Where do you want to go?"
"Anywhere is fine."
"Then let’s head to the parking lot."
"Yes, understood."
She nodded readily.
And so Walfred set off with Elma toward the parking lot in front of the caverns, where he’d been testing his skills earlier.