Chương 11: The Nether-Realm Marketplace

[Outstanding Debt paid.] [Transaction Details: 500 Credits and 1 Ounce of Unrefined Iron Ore.] [The Outstanding Debt has been cleared. The Penalty of the Revocation and 10000 credit fine have been permanently canceled.] [Class Initialization Complete.] [Welcome to the Nether-Realm MarketPlace, Undead Factory Trader.] Arthur read through the details. He noticed that the one-ounce Unrefined Iron Ore debt was paid. However, the ore was still whole in his hand.

'Was the System generous about its debt, even bypassing it?' Arthur thought. He checked the ore. There, he saw a perfectly smooth, round indentation roughly the size of a large marble had clearly vanished from the surface of the jagged rock. In reality, the System wasn't generous at all. It was precise about the debt payment. It had taken what it required and left out the rest of the ore.

'A very genuine system. Not so much generosity of giving the whole 1 kg ore to the system,' Arthur inwardly remarked. With that debt settled, the System finally initialized. Somehow, he could feel it through his physique. Noticeably, the 1 kg of Iron Ore on his hand felt a little lighter now.

"Status," Arthur muttered. He wanted to check his attribute details. Once the translucent window opened, he immediately noticed two tabs on it. One was Personal Details, and the other was Nether-Realm MarketPlace.

[Personal Details] Name: Arthur Purchase Age: 15 Class: Undead Factory Trader (SSS-Rank) Standard: Alpha Core Layer: 0 (0/500) [Affinity] Elemental: None Physical: None Weapon: None Craft: None Special: None [Innate Abilities] Contract a Worker (Undead Division): Summon and permanently contract laborers from the Nether-Realm. [Active Contracts] Worker 1 [Permanent]: Coburn (Jack of all trades) Arthur first checked his current personal details. A majority of the attribute details were basic, and a few were none.

In order to get strong, he needed to start absorbing Cores from Dungeon monsters. His current Standard was Alpha. In order to move to Gamma, he needed to complete the Core Layer. There were a total of seven layers of Standards. An Awakened had to go through each Core Layer. For example, upon completing the Alpha Core Layer, the next Standard would be Gamma. When that layer completed its process, it would engulf the Alpha, and so on and so forth.

Eventually, when one completed seven layers of Standards, they would obtain an enormous power and strength. Some even called those people gods of the Gate Descended Ariety world. It was a power no one could compare to. However, what the purpose of that power was, he still didn't know; at least to his knowledge. Since that was what this world wanted him to do, he would follow that path. Currently, every Affinity was none. The Affinity he might get was based on the choices Arthur took.

If he wanted a Fire-type Elemental Affinity, he might need to absorb Fire-type Cores dropped by Fire-type Dungeon monsters. It was similar for Physical and other Affinities; it was purely based on one's own choice. Currently, he didn't have any preference. He might need to do some research. Lena from the Old Mining District had a Fire Affinity, which looked very powerful and deadly. Edgar used some kind of Lightning Elemental Affinity as well which used to defeat the Mutated Monster.

The limitation was that one could only possess a single type of Elemental Affinity, and could not possess two types. This limitation fit for other Affinities as well, such as Physical and Weapon. So, Arthur should put a lot of thought into those things. Other than that, he only had one Innate Ability, and it was a non-combat ability. He didn't have any combat-oriented ability. Arthur hoped he would get a combat-oriented ability in the future when he absorbed Cores.

Arthur willed the details of Coburn, and additional details appeared in his vision. [Worker Status] Name: Coburn Designation: Jack of all trades Specialist: Master of None Professional Status: Expert Monthly Maintenance Cost: 1000 Credits Arthur noticed three things mainly on Coburn's status. One was his Professional Status, which showed Expert. That meant Coburn was an expert in every job he did, since his designation was Jack of all trades. However, his Specialist showed Master of None.

This meant Coburn wouldn't become a Master or Grandmaster; he would be restricted to the Expert level. That was good and bad at the same time. It was good because he could do any job, but bad since the quality of his work was bound to the Expert status. At the very least, the maintenance cost was a mere 1000 Credits. It was a steal for an Expert worker that could do any type of work. Because of Coburn, Arthur had earned a fortune. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent.

Report any sightings. However, the last attribute, Monthly Maintenance Cost, confused him. Since Coburn was a permanent contract, why did he need to pay 1, 000 Credits? Moreover, there were no details explaining what would happen if he didn't pay. He would have to keep this matter in mind at the end of the month, just in case a penalty was imposed if he was unwilling to pay the maintenance cost. Once that was done, he moved to the other tab.

[Nether-Realm MarketPlace] He quickly clicked the tab next to his personal details. Once the Marketplace opened, the first thing he noticed was a lot of inner tabs that were categorized into professions. Farmer Blacksmith Carpenter Baker Tailor Butcher Cobbler Trader Alchemist Engineer Others All the professions were top-ten earning professions. He clicked the Farmer tab.

The details of the workers loaded on the page, displaying their expertise, the contract payment Arthur had to pay, and the monthly maintenance cost. When Arthur laid eyes on those details, his heart nearly stopped, his breathing turning rugged. Every single contract on this list would devour the entire fortune Arthur currently held and much more, the maintenance payments were astronomical.

[Worker Status] Name: Eatric Designation: Farmer Specialist: Herbal Farming Professional Status: Grandmaster Monthly Maintenance Cost: 50000 Credits Contract Payment: 100 Theta Standard Cores, 5 Lambda Standard Cores, 1 Kg of Turner Tree Bark (Dried) — [Worker Status] Name: Charming Designation: Farmer Specialist: General Professional Status: Master Monthly Maintenance Cost: 10 ingots of gold Contract Payment: 10 Sigma Standard Cores, 1 Omega Standard Cores, Bottle of Diate Sand — The astronomical amount of the contract payments was breathtaking.

The Cores alone would be enough for him to work his whole life, not to mention the other things like Bark from some tree and Diate Sand. What were those even? Arthur had no knowledge of them.

'Since Coburn was an expert in every profession, he was enough to earn a modest amount of money to live with his family.' That was what Arthur thought. However, before he could come to any conclusion, he noticed a filter which read [Top Ten Workers]. He quickly canceled that filter. Instantly, the page reloaded, and another new set of details loaded onto the page. Only after seeing those newly loaded details did Arthur's heart start to beat normally.

The current page showed workers with low contract payments and modest monthly maintenance payments. [Worker Status] Name: Watts Designation: Farmer Specialist: Livestock Professional Status: Beginner Monthly Maintenance Cost: 2000 Credits Contract Payment: 10 Kg of Unrefined Mineral Ores (any), 1 kg of Alpha Standard Meat, 5 Bales of Chael haystack These payments were considerate. Arthur felt relieved after seeing so many low-demanding workers available.

However, he could understand the demanding payment requirements. The payment was directly proportional to the worker's Professional Status and Specialist, and the tag placed where the worker could communicate. Currently, Coburn wasn't able to communicate. As for the workers that were capable of communication, they demanded even more ridiculous payments.

So, Beginner workers demanded very low contract and maintenance payments, whereas Master and Grandmaster Professional Status workers demanded high standard Cores and different materials. With that understanding in mind, Arthur started to check different tabs and professions for a very long time. There were thousands upon thousands of workers available to contract, but there was a limit to how many contracts he could make because he had very limited resources.

So, he first needed to check if he could earn through these workers. If he could do that, then he would hire more workers. Now, which professions would make him money? He looked at different professions. Every profession demanded something Arthur couldn't afford. Then, he looked at his hand, which was holding the Iron Ore. He could start with Blacksmith since he had already invested in ore. Soon, he moved to the Blacksmith tab and selected a Beginner skeleton worker.