The Discarded Son's Skill Market

The beautiful garden, located somewhere in the city, fell silent when the sound of his footsteps faded away. The wind blew strongly, tossing the cherry blossoms this way and that and swaying the leaves on the trees, branches and all.

Zaid’s hand held the fruit firmly, and his gaze was fixed on the old man’s eyes.

He realized too late that it had been a test for him. If he’d known it earlier, he would have chosen to dodge it or simply let it hit him, because now he felt that the other man had seen right through him in some inexplicable way.

It was as if a simple gesture of picking up a piece of fruit had revealed his greatest tricks up his sleeve... Zaid felt a chill run down his spine.

"You don’t need to get so nervous, little Gio. I was just testing something I noticed."

"Even if you say that, it doesn’t make me feel any calmer. I just felt like I was completely exposed in front of you."

"Hahaha." The elder burst out laughing. "Well, maybe this is the first time you’ve gone through a test like that. Can you throw it at me again?" He pointed at the fruit.

Zaid looked at him and nodded thoughtfully. Without giving it much thought, he planned to throw it back at him the same way it had come to him. However, he stopped himself mid-thought.

He paused for a few seconds before adjusting his grip on the fruit. Then he threw it back at him.

The old man caught it with a smile. "You realized you’d been tested by the way it was thrown, but your instinct told you that was the best way to throw it back. However, halfway through, you realized that doing so might reveal more information to me—because perhaps that was my intention—so you decided to change the trajectory."

After pausing to look at the fruit, Anhur continued. "The movement of your fingers was a single motion, but it was extremely precise. I must say, little Gio, that you have an unusually high Sense."

’So what he saw was the Sense, huh.’ Zaid didn’t react, but inside, his mind was a chaos of thoughts.

All it took was a thrown piece of fruit and a request for him to see it so clearly. However, he didn’t need to acknowledge it. Because it hadn’t been confirmed yet.

"I guess experience has taught me that." Zaid laughed with a slightly mocking tone when he mentioned "experience." What kind of experience could an 18-year-old possibly have?

Anhur nodded. "That could be. Even though you’re young, it’s not impossible that you’ve spent the last few years in portals. Your actual age would surely far exceed your current age, but I’ll rule out that possibility because you would likely have died. You’re weak, after all."

Zaid didn’t reply.

"Just as Lodrey said, you have terrifying precision. He was only referring to daggers, but now I see it applies to everything. That’s only possible with a high-ranking Sense." Finally, Anhur stood up and walked toward Zaid.

"I won’t ask you about it; it’s none of my business to know your secrets. However, walking around out there with that talent and not being able to control it is more dangerous than saying it out loud. You could be chained up and taken away as a slave if someone with bad intentions sees you," said Anhur, pausing as he patted him on the shoulder.

"Actually, I’ve thought to myself that having you as a slave wouldn’t be so bad." He made a tasteless joke that made Zaid feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Will you teach me how to control my Talent, Elder?" Zaid asked, curious.

Anhur shook his head with a chuckle. "No. Here, I’ll teach you how to be a Hunter."

"To be a hunter?"

"A full-fledged one."

"Someone strong?"

"Maybe, depending on how you look at it."

"I don’t get it."

"That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? They don’t bring in students who already know everything." Anhur walked past him. "Follow me," he said.

They walked toward the bridge and crossed it to the other side. Just as Zaid thought they were going to enter the halls there, Anhur turned around and walked toward the part of the fountain where you could walk.

Then he walked across it and made his way across the entire fountain with Zaid following behind him.

The water splashed a little on the bottoms of their pants, but neither of them minded. While one was wearing a white and yellow suit, the other was wearing a blue, white, and gold suit—quite flashy for a mercenary, but it served as his perfect disguise.

For Zaid, who usually wore unfashionable and overly modest clothes, wearing flashy outfits was unusual, even back in his days as Zachary. That’s why, now that he was a mercenary, his best outfits were the ones that looked a little flashy.

Few of those who knew him would recognize him, although so far he hasn’t run into any Zacharys. He doesn’t find that strange. Those guys usually don’t care about anyone below their station, though it’s still odd that none of his younger brothers had come looking for him.

Haven’t they heard?

’That would be weird. They have informants everywhere, and Luke and Robinson suck up to them whenever they can.’

Well... it didn’t matter anyway.

Zaid cleared his mind of useless thoughts, even though what he was doing right now didn’t seem to make much sense either.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that Anhur himself had asked him to follow him and had then insisted that he do so, he would have stayed up in the tree, waiting for him to finish his walk around the fountain. In any case, Anhur wasn’t going anywhere.

However, as he walked around the fountain and the pond, he took the opportunity to look closely at the interior while his mind wandered.

There were fish here—very beautiful and colorful. They weren’t ordinary fish. They were fish from the rivers that flow through dungeons. Their bodies were brimming with energy. Eating them would give you enough energy to last several days, during which you wouldn’t even need to sleep.

The old man had quite a few of those fish here. Each one was incredibly expensive, just like anything else taken from a dungeon.

When he realized this, Zaid frowned and looked at the fruit tree. Now that he thought about it, that tree also produced fruit with a great deal of energy.

I had seen those fruits before abroad, and they were exorbitantly priced. Each one cost over a million dollars, although for that kind of transaction, dollars weren’t usually used—instead, Energy Stones from Rank B dungeons or higher were used.

This is because they possess such a massive amount of energy that it could rival several of those famous energy stones used only by the powerful.

That fruit tree also originated in dungeons.

And the fruit was like a cross between a mango and a pineapple, with a very distinctive and delicious flavor. Thanks to the immense amount of energy it provided, this flavor became even more intense. Eating one of those was just as good as drinking alchemists’ potions to replenish energy—with the added bonus that these fruits are incredibly delicious, whereas alchemical potions taste like nothing.

Everyone preferred the fruits, which is why they were more expensive than the potions themselves.

But that was beside the point. The main question was, where did Old Man Anhur get all those amazing things?

From the looks of it, the wine he was drinking was made from those very fruits. A fruity wine made from high-quality fruits wasn’t cheap. Abroad, it cost several Energy Stones...

’It’s really rich, but with trees and fish like that here, I guess it makes sense.’

Although now that he thought about it, he found himself wondering more and more who this old man was. Why was he so carefree?

Somehow, that made him respect him, even though Anhur hadn’t said a single word.

After walking around the shelf a few times, Anhur returned to the first tree, but he didn’t sit down.

"What do you think of aimless walks?" Anhur asked suddenly. From the tone of his voice, it seemed as if he were trying to teach him something. But given his almost nonsensical question, it didn’t seem that way.

Zaid thought about it for a few seconds before answering. "From a medical standpoint, there aren’t many walks that are pointless. They all help you. Your heart works better and your mind clears up, so it works better, too. From my point of view, I suppose walking aimlessly or without a specific destination is a waste of time."

"I didn’t know you knew anything about medicine," said Anhur.

Zaid laughed. "I used to read a lot of books when I was little."

Anhur perked up his ear and "looked" out of the corner of his eye, though he still didn’t open his eyes—he didn’t even open them to walk.

"Don’t you do that anymore?" he asked.

Zaid shook his head. "I haven’t read in years."

Anhur nodded slightly. "Reading will open your mind to understanding the world and other people. You should start reading again. In this day and age, when almost no one reads, it’s the best way to set yourself apart from others," he advised.

Although he noticed that Zaid was a little reluctant—since he, like many others, also believed that reading in this day and age was a waste of time—Anhur didn’t make much of it and continued speaking. This time, he focused on his answer to the question.