"Your necklace." Mauve said, pointing at his chest. "Not the fang one, the other."
Grey looked down at his chest and pulled up an item he had basically forgotten about. The Loop Necklace.
After his Abilities reached a certain point, it had stopped being effective—though that wasn’t much of a surprise.
It was only a Rare item and it was only a Proving Class one as well. Its description claimed that it could improve Skill learning, which Grey had learned since then was actually very different from Ability learning.
Skills were what he could download from the Blood Witch’s Tome, but Abilities were what he could stack into his Frames.
—
Name: Looping Necklace
Rarity: Rare
Accepted Type: Recursive
Restricted Type: Linear; Branching
Description: An auxiliary item of focus and precision. Reinforce muscle memory and smooth the transition of evolution.
Abilities: Gain one additional stat point for every 10 received. Skill learning +100% up to Level 20. Skill learning +50% up to Level 40. Skill learning +10% beyond Level 40.
—
The oddity about this necklace, though, was that Skills shouldn’t have "Levels". Once they gained Levels, they were technically Abilities at that point.
But Grey didn’t care to figure out the tiny little intricate details of it all. He just felt that it was a shame that May had to die for such a worthless item.
Well, maybe it wasn’t worthless and his own talent was just too great. At a certain point, a mere Rare item couldn’t improve his own comprehension ability anymore.
"What about it?" Grey asked.
"That’s the item that got her killed, right?" Mauve asked.
Grey’s eyes narrowed, but he eventually nodded. "Yeah, it is."
Grey didn’t elaborate, but Mauve also didn’t seem interested in asking. The difference didn’t matter to her.
Now that Grey thought about it, though, this item was the most important one of their Tutorial. Why would Joaquin get something as valuable as a treasure that could form a Harmonic Stat, while this necklace had become useless to Grey in such a short time?
He had just never really thought about it because his Tutorial also had the Prometheus Ring, which, all things considered, was far more valuable than maybe anything else in any other Tutorial.
"I saw reference to it in a library in Giyoto’s brownstone. I have information on an Instance that it might be related to. If you can use that necklace, you must have a Recursive Frame, right?"
Grey blinked and then chuckled. "You’re sharp, aren’t you."
Mauve didn’t react with any emotion at all when she heard this. Her expression was covered in a business-like veneer, not much unlike Breejah after she realized that he wasn’t interested in her own honey trap.
But the difference between Breejah and Mauve was that the latter had come prepared. She would use her beauty if she had to, but it was only a single tool in her toolbox.
Breejah had taken the wrong step forward first.
Mauve seemed to be taking all the right ones.
In reality, no matter how horny Grey was, he would never in his life trade a sexual favor for anything. He wasn’t even sure if his dick would get hard at that point.
90% of the thrill of getting with a woman was her enthusiasm and the chase. If he had to strong-arm her into it, let alone the fact he wouldn’t be able to look his grandfather in the eye, he wouldn’t even feel like a man.
That said...
’Fuck, she’s hot.’
The more of this side of Mauve he saw, the more attracted to her he was.
"I can give you all the information about the Instance I found if you agree to help us. You only need to represent us in a short tournament. It shouldn’t take more than a day and with your power, I doubt the others will dare to make a big fuss of it."
Grey chuckled. "A tournament, huh? It has been a bit since I’ve been in one."
He had been in a few martial arts tournaments before, mostly for judo. He preferred kicking and punching, but unfortunately if you didn’t have grappling skills, you weren’t going to last long in an MMA ring.
"Yes. Winning this will benefit you in more ways than one as well." Mauve said seriously. "If you take a leadership position, you won’t have to be as hands-on as you’re assuming you might have to be. You can leave it to someone you trust or wash your hands of it entirely. Your existence as a figurehead is all we need, and the proceeds that come with that will be very lucrative.
"Even if the items in the ruins don’t mean much to you, if we sell them on a large enough scale, it will still mean millions if not tens of millions of credits that you will be able to pocket without doing anything.
"In addition, if there are any items that take your fancy, then you can simply pluck them from the pile."
"Even if that item is you?" Grey asked with a quirk of his lip.
"Yes." Mauve said seriously again, not missing a beat.
Grey laughed. "You’re sexy as hell, you know that? But I do have a question of my own."
With a flash of his hands and a turn of his palms, Grey pulled out a worn little piece of something. On one side, it looked like an incomplete list, and on the other side was an incomplete map.
Scribbled at the bottom of both was an interesting little label.
"Silver Moon Wolf."
There was a slight jump in Mauve’s brows that she quickly came down from.
Grey grinned. "It seems that I was right. They are related. Alright, in that case, I’ll come with you."
This item was none other than the one that had drained Grey of all his resources. It was just a small clue about something that might be related to a Recursive Frame, and conveniently Mauve’s information lined up with it.
That would certainly save him a lot of time.
Plus... the other half of her proposal was very interesting.
Not the honey trap part of course, he was a gentleman. The money without raising a finger part, though... now that he could get behind.