The Stonehearted Knight-Chapter 439: Plus one tier

Hex rolled the membership token between his fingers, pondering his choices. With his tier, he didn’t need to visit the Oldest Store physically anymore. He could if he wanted to, but it wasn’t required.

’I have roughly half a million left from the first payment. Plus the forty thousand from the money we received in the past round.’

Hex calculated his wealth. There was a time in his life when half a million would suffocate him with pleasure. Now, however, it wasn’t enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.

"Luckily, I have you guys to help me out." His eyes moved away from the stacks of coins to three silvery plaques, with a single-clawed dragon engraved in it.

They were thick and heavy. The silver would fetch a nice price on itself but its worth lay in what it represented.

These plaques represented the Merchant Union’s credit, each being a million Wrixian coins worth. The more claws on the plaques the higher the value.

Like the winner of the jackpot. That guy took home five plaques with two-clawed dragons. Five times two-clawed dragons. Oh, how he wished he was the one winning that price. Five tokens of ten million credits. Fifty million. Only thinking about it made his heart beat quicken.

’Stop thinking about it. Be happy with the three million you won.’ The money came from the bets he placed. Each of the eight games ended as he suspected. If he only placed more money....

’Stop it!’

He admonished himself. Regrets never helped anyone. He had money. And the tier. It was time to invest into resources.

The token of the Oldest Store was engraved with winged shoes for some reason. It was a special token. It appeared normal. Hex doubted many could sense the intricately weaved Space fabric within it.

’What craftsmanship. I suspect only someone at the Enlightened stage with a profound insight into the Space element could have created this.’

The owner might be the one who created it. There was no doubt about his abilities. Hex would have loved to get pointers from such a person but he wasn’t going to ask. He rather not invite more curious eyes on him than he already had.

He pricked his thumb and allowed a drop of blood to fall onto the token. The blood flowed into the engravings, causing it to vibrate.

The vibrations became faster and faster. At a certain point it floated off his hand and started to spin in the air, twisting space itself.

Hex had been attentive from the start. He sensed the space contort. The fabric of space woven into the token pulled the space into itself, creating a door of sorts.

’No wonder these tokens aren’t given willy nilly. The force behind the contortion could tear a Refined Knight into pieces. Even Transformed Knights might suffer if they didn’t take precaution.’

It wouldn’t harm him, though. Not much at least. His physical powers surpassed most Transformation Knights plus he had mastery over the Space elements.

When the speed with which the token was spinning reached its peak, the door turned stable.

Despite how much he wanted to observe and inspect the process, Hex knew it wasn’t the appropriate moment to do so. With a quick step he entered the door.

The interior of his customized space inside the Oldest Shop hadn’t changed even a little bit. He truly had reached the shop just by activating the engraving on that little token. Hex knew his own mastery over the element hadn’t reached such a level. Not yet.

He looked around. The shelves were there, as were his stuff that came with the upgraded room. ’Something is off. What is...’

"No one will welcome me?" That was it. From his very first visit up to now, each time he heard the voice, welcoming him and taking his requests into consideration. This time everything remained silent.

’Don’t tell me something happened to the shop owner.’ Hex tried to activate his Space elemental circle on the back of his hand, trying to sense the exit. If something happened, he first needed a way to escape.

"Stop polluting my fabric."

With a start, Hex turned and stood face to face with the owner. He wasn’t alone, though. A small white rabbit lay on his shoulders. His shoulders. He kept forgetting the true identity of the man before him. Him. A Saint wasn’t called a he but a He. Capital letter He. Don’t forget it. Please.

"Sorry. I was just trying to learn a few things."

A lie. He couldn’t confess being on the verge of tearing through the fabric of space to get away from this place.

"By almost destroying my construct?"

Well, Hex should have expected his lie to be caught. The owner didn’t appear angry about it. Sure enough, he...He smiled after a second and gestured to take a seat.

"I won." Hex began with the reason he was here. Truth be told, he hadn’t expected to be welcomed by the owner. The voice would be enough.

"I heard. As promised your tier will be increased by one."

"And my reward?" Hex remembered being promised a reward after each round.

"Reward?" The owner asked with a frown. Hex replied with a frown of his own. Was the owner about to retract his promise? Fine by Hex. He would prefer the man didn’t act as if he never knew anything about it.

He seemed to have guessed the thoughts welling inside Hex. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"I seem to remember promising a reward based on an achievement in said round. You won. But there was nothing spectacular about it."

He couldn’t refute the owner. He had won easily. His team had lost more time on figuring out the exact situation with the vines than on the match. A negative of being the first to battle in the last round.

’I had hoped for a freebie this round too. It’s hard to achieve anything with the opponents I am facing at the moment. None poses a challenge. Only Sven unsettles me. And Althea makes me conflicted. Well, never mind. Having an extra tier is good enough for now.’

"Plus one tier it is then," Hex said, accepting the best bit of his deal.

"So, what are you going to buy this time?"