Game of the Universe: Zenith

Arthur grinned and reached under his shirt as he pulled out the slim, dark-leather [Deadshot] book.

The attendant’s eyes widened slightly before narrowing again.

She looked at him, then John, and then back to the book. Her tail swished once before she gave them a curt nod.

"Very well. Please follow me."

Her steps were soundless against the polished stone as she led Arthur and John toward one of the private rooms at the very end of the second floor.

She stopped in front of a plain wooden door, pushed it open, and gestured for the two humans to step inside.

The room was square, its walls the same pale stone as the hall outside, only smoother, as if polished to a faint sheen. A wide table of dark wood stood at the center, with four sturdy chairs around it, two on each side. On the ceiling, a panel of soft amber light glowed faintly.

"Have a seat. An appraiser will arrive shortly," the attendant said.

Arthur didn’t stand on ceremony. He took a seat on one of the wooden chairs, feeling the cold wood under his palms, while John dropped casually into the seat next to him, his forearms braced against the polished tabletop.

The attendant grimaced at the sight, but she just shook her head and turned to leave, closing the door behind her and letting the room settle into silence.

...It didn’t take long for the door to open again.

A tall figure draped in white linen stepped inside, its back ramrod straight, its every movement slow and elegant.

But what drew Arthur’s eyes was the creature’s face: the muzzle and ears of a hound, the neatly trimmed fur, those dark, steady eyes. Pride radiated from its posture, yet when its gaze settled on the two of them, its expression softened into something almost welcoming.

"Hello, dear customers. I heard you have a skillbook you wish to sell?" the creature asked warmly.

Arthur nodded and turned his eyes to the small leather book on the table before handing it over.

The dog-headed appraiser stepped forward. His long, furred hands lifted the book with deliberate care, his eyes bright with eagerness.

For several seconds the room stayed quiet, but Arthur could see the dog’s eyes flicking rapidly left and right, most likely reading the system prompt in front of him. Then the creature’s tail gave a subtle twitch.

"Deadshot, huh? Not bad. Not bad at all."

The appraiser rubbed his chin, as if pondering something. But the hesitation lasted only a few seconds before he set the book back down and continued with a smile,

"Our auction house can give you eighteen hundred base stones for this skillbook. Let me know if you wish to sell it or not."

Arthur felt his eyebrows lift. Eighteen hundred elemental stones? That was far more than he’d expected, especially when most of the skillbooks the attendant had shown them sat in the twelve-to-thirteen-hundred range. Skills like [Berserk] that were closer to two thousand were clearly outliers.

But the dog didn’t offer an explanation. He just stood there, waiting for an answer.

Arthur turned to John, who grinned and raised a thumb, as if to say "Let’s do it."

The dog smiled again and turned to the feline attendant standing behind him. "Go and fetch eighteen hundred stones for our customers."

The attendant nodded and slipped out of the room. A minute later the door opened again, and she returned with a small leather pouch. It looked plain, almost unremarkable, right up until she loosened the drawstring.

Elemental stones spilled out, far more than had any business fitting into something that small.

It was a storage bag! Both Arthur and John caught it instantly.

The feline moved with mechanical precision.

Handful by handful, she placed the stones neatly across the table as their pale-blue and red glows shimmered against the polished wood, forming a tiled floor of frozen fire.

Arthur leaned back, taking everything in the sight. A few of the elemental stones were oddly colored, clearly neither water nor fire. When the last one was placed, the feline straightened her back and said,

"Please count them."

Then, without waiting for a response, she turned and offered the [Deadshot] book back to the dog-headed appraiser.

John barked a laugh and waved a hand dismissively as he said,

"No need. Just keep eleven hundred from this pile and bring me the [Roar] skillbook. We’ll take the rest."

The feline’s eyes narrowed slightly, her tail giving a single twitch upon being ordered so blatantly. But after a moment, she simply nodded and left the room once more.

The dog-headed appraiser grinned, his posture straight as ever as he held on to [Deadshot] and said,

"Dear customers, if that is all, I’ll take my leave. However, should you find any more skillbooks, please remember that our Golden Oak Auction House is always open."

With that, he turned and walked out, leaving Arthur and John behind.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Then, John let out a booming laugh, loud enough to bounce off the stone walls until it felt like the whole chamber was shaking with it. He leaned forward and pounded Arthur’s shoulder with excitement, grinning at the rows of stones still glowing across the table.

"Haha, bro, who would’ve thought that [Deadshot] would fetch this much, right? We even have seven hundred stones left! Not bad."

John’s eyes were bright as he looked over the pile. Then his gaze moved back to Arthur and continued,

"Still, you should store those away. Or... you want me to call that cat back and have her fetch you a pouch?"

Arthur looked at John in surprise.

Store those away?

Just a glance at the table in front of them and Arthur could tell what John was thinking.

But why? They had a surplus of stones, so by all accounts they should split it down the middle. That was how parties worked. It wasn’t that Arthur had no greed in him at all, but it just didn’t feel right to take everything for himself.

John must have caught the look in his eyes, because he snorted and waved a thick hand as if brushing the thought away.

"Don’t overthink it. This is nothing. I already got the skill I wanted, so I’m satisfied. You keep the rest. If anything, you did me a favor by letting me trade this for [Roar]."

He glanced at the pile of stones, then back at Arthur, and continued,

"Besides, what we got wasn’t a Warrior skillbook anyway. By rights, we should’ve just sold it and split the profit. Letting me trade it for a Warrior skill was already more than I could ask for. If anything, I owe you one, so don’t make me feel bad here."

John looked at him with an intense stare, and Arthur could only nod, which set John off into another wave of hearty laughter and another slap on his shoulder, this one almost hard enough to break their chairs.

"Haha! That’s right. That’s how brothers should act. We can’t be reserved around each other."

Before Arthur could respond, the door of the private room opened again, and the feline attendant walked in, holding a slim book in her hands. John was already on his feet before she reached the table.

He took the book from her with both hands, cradling it as though it might disappear if he loosened his grip. Then he gave the attendant a firm thumbs up, and jerked his chin toward the table as he continued,

"Ah, right. While you’re at it, can you bring my partner here a pouch? He’s got seven hundred stones to carry, and I’d rather not see him walk out of here stuffing them in his pockets."

The attendant gritted her teeth and even let out a low growl as she glared at the crude man who’d been ordering her around this whole evening. If not for the extra points she earned working in the tutorial, she’d never have given an inferior species like that the time of day.

Still, she walked to one corner of the room and pulled a small, empty pouch from what looked like a hidden compartment, before dropping it on the table in front of the two humans. Then, with a huff, she turned and left, muttering, "I won’t see you off... dear customers" on her way out.

Arthur could see the satisfied grin on John’s face as he watched the attendant’s disappearing figure.

Then he turned his gaze back to the table, to the rows of elemental stones still glowing faintly on the polished wood.

Arthur swept them into the plain little pouch one handful at a time.

By the time the last stone dropped in, the bag was filled to the brim, the drawstring barely closing. Seven hundred stones was a lot to cram into something this small, and the knobby weight of it only made Arthur want one of those storage bags even more.

Still... Seven hundred elemental stones. Added to the close to six hundred he already had and he was now well past one thousand. No, not just one thousand, but thirteen hundred stones. That was how much he’d made in two days.

He let out a breath slowly, letting it sink in.

Arthur knew he and John had gotten lucky landing two skillbooks in a single day, but it was still an incredible haul.

Of course, they’d come close to dying more than once. They’d also sunk an unhealthy amount of time into Zenith today, and whether it was the Goblin Shaman or the Mountain Howler, both had been strong enough to send them straight back to level 1.

...But they’d succeeded.

Looking at the three pouches full of elemental stones on his waist, Arthur could only smile at how far he’d come.

Gathering six thousand stones by the end of the month no longer seemed as impossible.

Maybe... just maybe, it was doable.