Chapter 176: Herta 3
The extra Chapter will be done soon, about half an hour since I haven’t really managed to finish it because I kept erasing sentences. I feel like it’s not good, and before I realized, it was almost 12 Lol
I decided to stick with what I’ve written, anyway.
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To Herta, this was truly a mind-blowing catalog, because in her universe these beings are at the very top of the pyramid of power, the all-powerful, mysterious and incomprehensible beings the Aeons.
But in this place, they are merely a commodity to be bought; it was almost insulting how easily they could be acquired.
The more she thought about it, the more she realized the scale of what she just said before, of wanting to know the secrets of the place.
Because right now, she finally knew how ridiculous it must have sounded to the owner of the shop.
Making her, who was completely confident in herself, falter for a moment, but quickly got over it.
Because in turn, she had another impossible goal to reach, making her truly happy, because what scares a genius is knowing that there is nothing to learn anymore, and that was the greatest fear.
Questions and more questions were more important than the answers themselves, because inevitably there is always an answer.
But the lack of questions means everything has now been answered.
It was truly a nightmare; now that she knew that the Aeons themselves weren’t the end but merely a stepping stone to a new prologue, it made her very happy because there were more questions after she obtained the answer.
Then she stared at the cheapest Aeon she could buy, exactly 10,000,000 M.C. Not as a servant nor a pet, but a companion.
Herta doesn’t really have a problem with this, as long as she could study it, but the problem is that its conceptual power was so utterly disgusting and ridiculous that she might as well pick a better one.
[ Aeon Of Shit ’Tae’ ]
[ Companion Contract ]
[ Price - 10,000,000 M.C ]
Herta’s face changed into disgust, like she smelled something foul; she couldn’t fathom how something like this could manage to become an Aeon.
If she truly bought this, she might as well kill herself because even she has standards.
Then her eyes shifted to the other Aeons on the list, several of which were familiar to her.
[ Aeon Of Elation ’Aha’ ]
[ Companion Contract ]
[ Price - 1,000,000,000 M.C ]
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[ Aeon Of Hunt ’Lan’ ]
[ Companion Contract ]
[ Price - 800,000,000 M.C ]
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[ Aeon Of Abundance ’Yaoshi’ ]
[ Companion Contract ]
[ Price - 900,000,000 M.C ]
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[ Aeon Of Erudition ’Nous’ ]
[ Companion Contract ]
[ Price - 800,000,000 M.C ]
And the top-tiered Aeons’ price exploded exponentially.
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[ Aeon Of Nihility ’IX’ ]
[ Companion Contract ]
[ Price - 10,000,000,000 M.C ]
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[ Aeon Of Preservation ’Qlipoth’ ]
[ Companion Contract ]
[ Price - 6,000,000,000 M.C ]
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[ Aeon Of Finality ’Terminus’ ]
[ Companion Contract ]
[ Price - 100,000,000,000 M.C ]
"Tsk, as expected of Finality..." Herta wasn’t surprised by this exponential increase in price, because the Aeon of Finality is undoubtedly universally recognized as the strongest despite not being around.
The concept of Finality itself was enough for anyone to know it’s the end of things.
Not to mention the contract of Aeons becoming her servant cost twice as much as the companion contract, and the pet contract is even more so.
Still, what surprised her was that the quantity of Aeons with the same concept she could buy is basically infinite.
Which means all of these Aeons in the shop have unlimited duplicates.
It was a truly scary concept, but it didn’t make her discouraged; instead, it made her very excited, because she is essentially chasing an endless pool of knowledge that she would learn through eternity.
A source of infinite, unending questions that she would answer.
Then, looking back at the digital screen, staring at the aeon cores for sale, they were more expensive than an already existing Aeon.
Because it’s essentially an item that makes you an Aeon directly, no complex philosophical enlightenment, just a direct ascension to that path.
It was underwhelming and quite boring, frankly.
Herta wasn’t interested in shortcuts; there was no sense of achievement. If she wanted to become an Aeon, she would rather do it with her own abilities.
Although she was only interested in analyzing this core and could potentially make her research into becoming a self-made Aeon faster than buying an already existing Aeon.
But she couldn’t afford it, not with her money remaining zero.
Then she looked back at the shop owner with a new light, as he may as well be a being more powerful than Aeons.
But that still didn’t change her attitude; she was more respectful than before, albeit unnoticeable to most people.
"How do I earn the shop’s currency?"
The shop owner answered with a smile. "That’s simple; you can exchange anything you deem valuable for M.C."
Herta raised a brow at that. "Anything?"
"Yes, anything. Your talent, your wisdom, your skills, your knowledge or your soul itself." He said with a calm look on his face.
Herta couldn’t help but let out a low laugh. "That sounds like a devil would say."
"That’s Emiya."
"Who?"
"Hey!"
Herta shifted her attention to the person who replied, who was the man whom she met first upon arriving in this place.
He had the look of annoyance and helplessness after being called out by his boss.
"Really? He’s the devil?" Herta blinked as if she was seeing him for the first time.
"Actually, Satan, trust me, if you know his previous job, you’d think of him as the devil too." He sounded amused by that.
Emiya, who was grumbling at his boss’s teasing, didn’t seem to disagree. It made her wonder what kind of job this person used to have for the shop owner to call him a devil.
For this being to call him that, he must have been so evil.
But Herta didn’t dwell much on this issue, as it doesn’t really have to do with her; what he did wasn’t something that affected her.
She only cared about her own interests; as for the others’ past, she couldn’t care less.
"Whatever, so I can exchange anything for M.C yes?" Herta clarified.
"That’s correct, but let me warn you that you should only exchange something that wouldn’t make your existence miserable, let’s say, such as your sense of self." He warned.
Herta rolled her eyes at that; she wasn’t stupid, okay? That’s basically an insult to her.
"Say, if I exchange a copy of my knowledge, would that be possible?"
"Yes, but that would cost less."
"Hm, indeed, but regardless, I don’t want to lose all of my knowledge, only selective ones, I suppose. Alright then, I decided to exchange a copy of everything I know and some other knowledge that I want gone and can’t be bothered to care about, since I can just re-learn them later if I have some use for it." Herta decided.
"Well, just in case you wanted to back out, are you sure about this?" The owner asked.
Herta didn’t back out and just answered. "Yes, exchange it already."
Then, in a blink of an eye, suddenly she felt like something inside her memories was taken away from her, like a missing piece that she couldn’t quite remember what it was.
Unlike the Garden of Recollection Memokeepers, this one doesn’t shy away and lets her know that her memories have been taken.
Unlike those thieves who hide inside someone else’s consciousness and steal someone’s memories without permission.
Though she never experienced it herself, considering she specifically made a measure of defense against these types of entities.
So she never had to worry about others looking through her memories because it’s almost impossible to break her defense.
Then she looked through her M.C balance and was surprised to see the amount; it’s definitely more than she expected.
After all, she only exchanged a copy of her memories and other unimportant things.
[ Herta ]
[ Multiversal Credits Balance - 3,300,000 ]
Although she couldn’t buy an Aeon as a companion, there were still a lot of things she could buy in the shop, for example, magic.
That’s right, despite her achievements in the world of science, she was someone who pursued magic through scientific means.
Which is why she dressed like a magical girl.
Now that she had a chance to become a real magician, she was naturally excited.
To begin with, she wasn’t expecting to buy an Aeon on her first visit as she was unprepared, but for her next visit she would prepare her valuables, and it should be enough to buy her an Aeon.
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A/N: Guys, which anime character should visit the shop next time?
To be honest, I’m leaning towards characters who have cruel fates and make their lives better by going to this shop and buying things.
My best candidate is Riku from No Game No Life: Zero, essentially Sora’s past self.
But if you have better suggestions, feel free to do so; however, I would only add them if I have prior knowledge about their series and character because I don’t want to write an empty hollow.
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[email protected]/charlottes143