Sometime later...
Levi treaded along the pavement on the side of Nocturn City’s most populated street... The Main Hub’s 1st District.
After spending a few hours checking the listed properties and doing his research, Levi realized that the market was way too overpriced... which explained why many properties were still listed until now.
Even though he had some discounts applied, Levi didn’t want to get scammed... hence, he dropped looking for a property like a commoner and started using his reach.
The first thing he did was check the Black Slime Syndicate’s board for hidden listed properties by Noble Houses or other owners... Instead of buying straight from Nocturn’s Administration, which always had fixed prices, he believed that he could reasonably negotiate with his peers.
Unfortunately, most of the listed properties were either in a Province, Border, or the Desolate Void... yet, they were just as expensive as the listed ones in the market, with a few exceptions.
Levi ignored these listings and filtered the search to the ones in capital cities... to his utmost surprise, he found barely ten listed properties! Most of them were residential, not business-oriented.
That’s when he realized that the Noble Houses would rather sell their own territories or their housing properties when in despair than give up on business-oriented properties in capital cities!
These findings made him recognize the opportunity he had more than ever... instead of giving up on the Black Slime Syndicate network, Levi changed his approach.
He checked for rumors or news of Noble Houses or Rifters struggling financially to maintain their properties in capital cities... he knew that the upkeep of such stores was in the hundreds of thousands of credits quarterly... (taxes, workers, and such).
Since the Noble Houses spent a lot of effort on protecting their pride and image in public, Levi assumed that there must be some Houses struggling privately, but maintaining a rich facade.
Levi’s assumption proved correct... after scrolling dozens of tabs, Levi finally landed on a freshly added, reliable piece of information for sale. Its title was enough to make him take a risk and buy it.
-A Noble House has been officially put on a Final Demotion Timer...-
After purchasing the information and reading the juicy details, Levi was delighted to find exactly what he was looking for... an active, non-listed store in Nocturn’s Heart City’s Main Hub. It wasn’t the only property in their possession, but Levi ignored the rest.
Without further ado, he did some research on the House and the store... only then did he go out and check it on foot.
It took him about ten minutes to cross through the busy, rowdy streets... usually, this kind of business would annoy him, but when considering being a store owner in this exact location, he couldn’t be any more pleased.
Soon, Levi arrived at his destination after spotting a giant sign that read: The Zen Relic .
’Hmm... the store is indeed in a slump... is it really due to the rumors?’
Levi was slightly taken aback to see that the interior of The Zen Relic remained impeccably well-kept, yet empty, avoided by customers as if it were a quarantined area.
The marble floors were polished to a mirror-like shine, while the wooden shelves were free of even a speck of dust.
Rows of glass display cases lined the walls, housing tens of low-grade artifacts... glowing orbs, basic enchanted weapons, and some decent totems. The store looked great, but its beauty was tarnished by its mediocre quality of items.
’Its stock isn’t fit for such a high-volume zone... still, there should be some customers interested.’
Levi held his chin thoughtfully while walking in the direction of the door... of course, he was wearing an owl mask that hid his facial features above the lips to maintain his anonymity.
The moment Levi stepped inside the store, he met a lone staff member leaning heavily against the main counter... her eyes affixed sluggishly at the ceiling, appearing more like a prisoner counting down the minutes than a clerk waiting for a sale.
Her appearance resembled Jojo’s contracted nightcrawler... a humanoid goat with white silky fur, light makeup, and tiny horns. She wore a slightly baggy uniform, resembling a yellow monk’s robe that gathered at the waist with a simple fabric belt.
Despite the prestigious House insignia pinned to her chest, the coarse material and the way she slouched made the outfit look more like a servant’s tunic than a professional uniform.
"Hello, I am interested in a purchase."
Levi greeted her calmly, his voice pulling her back from her daydream... the clerk’s mouth widened a little in bewilderment for a moment before swiftly curling into a welcoming smile.
"Cough, please, sir... tell me what you have in mind?"
She quickly stepped to the shelves and extended her hand towards a row of artifacts.
"Artifacts? Our collection might not be the best, but we guarantee its quality."
Levi went to the shelf and stood next to her silently... then, he pointed his finger at a silver pistol with triple barrels linked to a rotating small platform, which also chambered the bullets. The design was on point and looked neat.
"Great choice, sir."
The clerk swiftly took out the pistol from its glass container... then, she handed it to Levi with both hands while sharing its details with a hint of desperate zeal.
Levi nodded in understanding once in a while, but his focus had long since retreated from the conversation, diving instead into the silent world of frequencies and spirit.
As he heightened his spiritual senses, the pistol’s physical shell faded away, revealing the artifact’s anatomy hidden beneath the steel.
In Levi’s vision, the weapon transformed into a complex map of light... hundreds of pin-sized spiritual dots sparkled like a miniature galaxy across the slide and frame, leaving Levi a bit awed.
’It’s a flawless network of spiritual anchor points... such perfection,’ Levi murmured inwardly as he traced his fingers along the anchor points, the foundation of the spiritual reinforcement.
They were connected by a dense web of razor-thin lines, forming a spiritual circuit board... as he kept tracing the flow of energy, he couldn’t help but marvel at such flawless technical work.
As his finger landed on the trigger, he found a cluster of dots... Levi figured out that it was the "Switch" to activate the spiritual coating.
When the clerk saw this, she swiftly shared their signature family technique that had once made their artifacts always sought after.
"Once you press the trigger while focusing your spiritual energy on the cluster, the bullet will be coated in a concentrated spiritual energy... it will allow you to hit one’s subconscious barrier as well as his physical body, even if you weren’t a Psych Specialist."
She showed a slight proud smile for a moment after noticing Levi’s silent appreciation of their craftsmanship... But it didn’t last.
"Excuse me, but I have heard some bad rumors about the reliability of such an addition," Levi asked calmly while returning the pistol. "There are many claims that your reinforced artifacts are prone to cause spiritual backlash once the spiritual coating is activated... Is any of it true, or just some baseless rumors?"
The clerk’s expression was drained of light at the realization that Levi wasn’t an ignorant customer who stumbled upon their store.
Of course he wasn’t... Levi had done some decent research on the Zen House and their artifacts store.
What he found left him confused more than surprised.
’Damn it, damn it... just when I thought we were about to make a sale... what do I do now? Do I just tell him the whole truth to save the sale? What more do we have to lose...’
She knew that her family was already on its last legs the moment the System had put them on a Final Demotion Timer... What they needed now was money, and as much of it as possible, to maintain their noble estate territory.
Although selling Levi one artifact wouldn’t do much, she hoped that a single sale might snowball to more if Levi was willing to speak highly of their store.
Reputation was everything in the Boundless Expanse, and once lost, it was very, very hard to reclaim it.
"The rumors are... partially true." The clerk let out a long exhale... then, she showed a bitter smile and added, "We have sold a couple of hundred artifacts that have turned out to share a faulty spiritual coating... many Rifters have suffered from a severe spiritual backlash after overusing the spiritual coating."