Chapter 83 | 250,000 Dollars!
"The more you struggle..."
With that she turned around and left. Her hips swaying seductively in the afternoon sun.
Dexter inhaled sharply and decisively turned away.
"Vixen."
He exited the Hero Association. He didn’t even inquire about Fiona, Gregory, Lena or Marcus, he simply just left.
Once he was a comfortable distance away, he pulled out his phone and opened the map application.
The screen loaded a detailed layout of the surrounding area, his current location marked with a small blue dot. He zoomed out slightly, scanning the nearby streets and districts.
He needed to find a market. His eyes immediately landed on a location.
Stargate Central Market.
Distance: 2.3 kilometers.
Dexter nodded. ’Its within walking distance’
Perfect.
He still needed two necklaces.
If he returned home with a gift for only Mira...
He had a feeling surviving another dungeon would somehow be easier than surviving Lyra and Selene’s jealousy.
He set off at an easy pace, his phone tucked back into his pocket, and allowed himself to take in the city as he moved through it.
The district surrounding the Hero Association building was unlike anything he had seen in the quieter parts of the city.
The buildings here were tall and modern.
Massive billboards clung to the sides of the tallest structures, advertising everything from high end relic dealerships to serum clinics to luxury fashion brands that Dexter had only ever heard about in passing.
Dexter found himself stopping more than once. He stared at a billboard for a relic manufacturer that depicted a warrior encased in a futuristic glowing combat armor, it looked very masculine and attractive.
Dexter sighed and continued walking.
He enjoyed the walk through the city, forgetting the pain he was feeling at the moment.
By the time he reached his destination, he was satisfied with the sight seeing and he stepped through the entrance of the shop.
Thw shop was massive. It was a single, large establishment that dealt primarily in relics.
The interior was spacious and dimly lit, with display cases lined up in neat rows along the floor and mounted on the walls.
Each case held items categorized by type and tier.
Simple relics like Type 1 relics occupied the front of the store, like basic mana conductors and low grade enhancement trinkets.
Further back, the items grew more complex and more expensive.
Type 3 relics sat behind reinforced glass with individual price tags that made Dexter’s eyebrows rise slightly.
The type 4 and type 5 relics were kept in a sealed section at the very back, visible only through a transparent barrier.
Dexter moved through the displays with a specific goal in mind. He was looking for a necklace.
Specifically, a necklace similar to the one he had given Mira.
He had not planned to buy matching jewelry when he gave Mira hers, but seeing the way the Lyra had looked at it, he felt like he needed to.
He searched every display case on the floor.
But nothing matched. There were necklaces, certainly. Pendants, chokers, chains adorned with small relics. But none of them was the same as the one he gave Mira.
He walked to the clerk’s desk. The clerk was a young woman with a patient expression and a name tag that read Elise.
Dexter pulled out his phone, then turned the screen toward Elise.
"Have you seen anything like this in your inventory? Or something similar?"
Elise leaned in, studied the image carefully, and then shook her head. "I am sorry, sir. We do not carry anything like that. The design is quite specific. It looks like it may be a custom piece or from a specialized dealer."
Dexter frowned slightly, thanked her, and left the store.
He stood on the sidewalk outside and looked around.
The advantage of being this close to the Hero Association building was that the surrounding district was packed with specialty stores.
Relic shops, art galleries, fashion boutiques, serum clinics, and medicine shops lined the streets in both directions, each one competing for the attention of the licensed heroes and wealthy patrons who frequented this area.
He spotted a medicine shop two blocks down and entered it.
The woman behind the counter was middle aged her eyes scanning Dexter as he entered.
Dexter approached the counter. "I need a month’s supply of Ice suppressant serum. The high quality version, not the standard grade."
The woman raised an eyebrow slightly but did not comment.
She turned to a locked cabinet behind her and retrieved a small box.
"This is the premium grade," she said, placing the box on the counter. "2000 dollars per vial. So 60,000 dollars total. However, we do offer a slight discount for full month purchases. 59,500 even."
Dexter’s eyebrows trembled. He bought something worth 60,000 dollars and all they removed from discount was just 500 dollars? Was the discount even needed?
With the compensation he had received and the monthly stipend for ranking in the top ten, he has about 250,000 dollars but right now 60,000 was gone already.
The cheaper suppressants were unreliable, and he was not about to compromise on something Seven needed.
"I will take it," he said.
As the woman began processing the transaction, Dexter’s thoughts drifted to the pain he was feeling and trying to block out.
He had been managing it since the past days, pushing it to the back of his mind.
He contemplated on buying pain relief for the girls to relieve himself.
He was considering asking the woman for a mild pain reliever when a notification chimed softly in his mind.
DING!
A familiar notification echoed inside his mind.
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[Endurance Buddha Scripture has advanced]
[Second Layer Iron Bones Completed.]
[Third Stage Golden Organs Unlocked.]
Rewards:
→ +100 Strength
→ +100 Agility
→ +100 Physique
→ +100 Mana
═══════════════════
Dexter froze.
His muscles trembled as a surge of power flooded his being, within seconds, his body trembled as his strength increased even further.
His body felt light and impossibly dense at the same time, as though every cell had been replaced with something fundamentally better.
Then the sensation faded, leaving his body warm and tingling.
The pain was still there too. But it was different now. As if the Gold Organ stage had created a layer of separation between the pain and his awareness of it.
He could still feel it if he focused on it, but it no longer demanded his attention.
He looked at the woman behind the counter, who was waiting with a packaged box and a receipt. He had been standing in silence for several seconds.
He shook his head slightly. There was no need for the pain relief after all. He was used to the pain, and now, with the Golden organs active, it was even better.
He paid the thirty thousand, took the packaged box of eye suppressant serum, and left the medicine shop.