Merchant Of Yliaster

"Do you have any missions that will require me to go into a rift?" Maxwell asked with expectation. Considering that this was one of the greatest organizations in the city, Maxwell doubted that they wouldn't have such a mission.

Dave squinted at him, holding his gaze for a few seconds before he chuckled. "I do, but you don't look like the type required by the job," he said, chuckling like this was a funny joke. It was a disturbing sight to see the apathetic man laugh.

"Is it an escort mission? Maxwell asked, interested. While Drakhabgar gave the feeling of not being able to protect someone, if the mission was good enough, Maxwell wouldn't mind adding that to the persona.

"It's an escort mission, but I find it unnecessary, really. These rich people are just weird. Here are the details." Dave said, and words appeared on a paper on the table. Maxwell admired the phenomenon as always, as the pure mana and soul energy was handled with a precision no mortal could achieve on their level.

He picked up the paper before reading the details, and he was surprised when he saw the client. Apparently, certain someone from House Leyn wanted to enter the rifts, and it had been quite easy to buy a spot for the incredibly rich family, but they had another concern. While the family was rich, they still didn't have any high-level combatants they could spare.

This meant that they were searching for a particularly strong mercenary whom they could send into the rift with their family member. Maxwell had strong suspicions about who this member could be. Immediately after seeing his brother's artifacts, I now have a mission about him. Is this fate? Maxwell thought sarcastically.

"I assume rifts differ from each other?" Maxwell asked, receiving a confused look from Dave.

"You mean to tell me you have reached where you are without going into one? I thought you were a noble in disguise or something?" Dave asked, looking completely intrigued for the first time in the small frame of time Maxwell had known the man.

"If I were, that would be a bad way to address me, wouldn't it? But, yes, I just killed a lot of things." Maxwell answered, his mask smiling at Darve creepily. This was the only person Maxwell actively tried to scare, but the guy seemed even more incapable of the emotion than Bob.

"As long as I don't say anything against the king himself, I should be fine. You are shocking, though. How do you even find that many high-level enemies to kill?" Dave asked, but seemed to realize he was not behaving in his usual way quickly.

"Oh, sorry about that, I guess you wouldn't hide your identity if you could answer that," he added before clearing his throat, preparing like he was going to make a long explanation. Maxwell just kept staring at the man throughout everything.

"You see, there are many rifts in the kingdom, and they are the hottest potatoes in it for the time being. While there is no certain way to measure the strength levels of the worlds beyond, the newer rifts almost certainly open to stronger worlds, while the worlds beyond the older ones slowly get stronger like us." Dave said, and glanced at him to see if he had anything to ask.

"..." Maxwell was not sure what the man expected, but the things Dave said were pretty simple.

"Okay, your client wants to enter a relatively new one, so the information we have on the rift is quite limited. All we know is that the world beyond is not quite as green as this one, and there are no humans as far as we can tell. Actually, the latter is true for all rifts, but I figured you wouldn't know that." Dave explained.

So the system doesn't use sentient beings against each other, but beasts against sentient beings? Maxwell found calling only humans sentient after knowing Blueberry quite offensive, but it was a way to address humanoid creatures, he supposed. He was really curious if these worlds had their own rifts. If they had, Maxwell could see himself going through them again and again before he reached a world truly beyond powerful.

He was curious, and the possibilities made his heart beat faster. It was not even about the power he could gain from the endeavor. Just the sheer number of different worlds he could see was very exciting.

"When are we going?" he asked.

"I take it that you accept the mission, then. The mission has no time specified, as they were waiting for a suitable mercenary to turn up. I figure they won't waste much time now that they have found it." Dave said, before opening one of his numerous small drawers. None of them had labels, but the man seemed to remember the location of everything. He took out a small object before throwing it to Maxwell.

"They turned in this with the mission. It's a family emblem, it gives you permission to enter the inner city." Dave said, his face souring a bit. It was not hard to see that he didn't subscribe to the belief that nobles were better than regular people.

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"Thanks," Maxwell said, glancing at the emblem he was holding. It was a sword emblem, but instead of a shield, the sword was interlocked with a giant gold coin. Considering the family and the heirloom Darve carried, the emblem made a lot more sense than one would think at first sight.

"I'm off then," Maxwell said and got up. He didn't bother to hold up appearances before this man, as he could detect no malignancy from the man's soul. To be fair, he detected a lot less compared to a regular person.

Dave seemed to lose interest in him immediately as he started to read whatever obscure topic he was reading about.

Maxwell was soon back in the forest, as he wanted to try improving the things he bought before actually going on the mission. Trying to do that with Darve would only serve to reveal his identity, as the man had seen him do that before.

He took out the ring first, examining with his senses. The ring was simple enough, as the artifact consisted of a crystal loop covered by metal. Maxwell could also faintly feel that the mana was actually quite happy staying in this loop shape.

He guessed that the shape somehow stabilized the space inside, but that was just a theory for now. He focuses on the ring and got to work.

First, he started by infusing the outer metal shell with metal mana, as he didn't want it to break due to his later infusions. When he was done with that, he started to infuse the core inside with space mana. He was not doing anything complicated, but the amount of mana he was using was truly terrifying for regular mages.

A cyclone of space mana formed around him as he injected it all into the space ring, causing it to release a dark blue glow momentarily. When he felt that the material couldn't take any more mana, he stopped.

He supposed he could try a couple of other things, but he doubted that they would have a notable effect on the ring. He observed the new artifact.

Empowered Space Ring - Tier 2+

A space ring crudely crafted by an artisan with a space-affiliated core. It was later enhanced by The Merchant, greatly increasing the quality of the material and the artifact.

The size of the space inside is greatly enhanced.

Effects are almost permanent.

Maxwell could feel that the ring had around two cubic meters inside. Being able to connect to it simply using mental energy was a bit weird, as there was literally nothing on the ring that would facilitate that, but he wouldn't complain that the System was finally helping him on something.

He quickly transported most of the heavy things in his satchel to the ring before putting it back on. Even with just this, his speed would probably increase by a lot.

Next, he took out the chestplate he bought to examine the rune on it. On the front of the chestplate, he could see a rune burned into the material the chestplate was crafted from. It had some pure mana trapped inside, probably to make the rune give its effect for all elements. This, though, would greatly limit the boons the armor piece could give.

He focused on the rune, slowly memorizing it, and he found the complexity similar to the amplification rune. After he was sure that he had learned the rune, he slowly formed it using pure mana before him, but the effect was not clear.

He changed the mana type into water, and he immediately felt that his lips were getting drier. It was as if the humidity in the air disappeared.

Runic Formations Subskill Unlocked.

Rune Of Reduction:

Reduce the physical counterpart and the effects of the infused mana type greatly. If the infused mana type exceeds the potential of the target, the target disappears.

This is terrifying. Maxwell commented as the system acknowledged his attempts. The rune was terrifying because Maxwell could use this with literally anything, and Maxwell had much more mana than normal people. If he could use this rune properly, Maxwell could potentially inhibit any attack thrown at him.

This, though, was a bit unrealistic. Maxwell knew that the attacks would arrive much faster than how fast he could focus that much mana in a real fight, as people's skills were system-assisted, while he did everything himself. He figured he could create a shield skill, but he doubted that it would be enough.

Still, the possibilities were endless with the rune. It was obviously the opposite of the amplification rune, but to a degree, it was much more terrifying. Maxwell could just make someone's blood disappear with this skill, and that was much more terrifying than just making the blood increase in volume.

Maybe people with sufficiently strong physics would survive the latter, but no one Maxwell knew would survive the former. He also got a couple of other notifications.

Magic Theory Leveled Up 95→97

Mana Infusion Leveled Up 90→91

Runic Formations Leveled Up 32→36

Title: "Scholar" Acquired.

Scholar:

Once can be a fluke, the second can be chance, but you consistently learn new things. One would think that you were trying to understand the world.

Good luck with that.

No need to be so salty about it. Also, why didn't I get this before? Maxwell contemplated. It was probably due to the nature of getting the information. While he knew a lot about science due to getting a formal education, he didn't really extract that information from things as he did now and once before on the satchel.

He was not sure when the third time was, but the system seemed to have waited for that until it gave him the title. It felt a bit ridiculous, as the title was simple enough, but Maxwell couldn't care at the moment.

He had a rift to enter.