Chương 250: Getting Cores

"Well, you really did a number on this didn't you," Helena said as she examined Damion's armor. The back of the chest piece was nearly nonexistent. The attack from the White Griffin had smashed through his wards and caused the back of the chest piece to explode. Damion was not sure how the Holy affinity attack had managed it, but he suspected it overloaded the artifact.

Since Light and Holy mana could interact with people without causing harm, it stood to reason that those affinities could do the same with artifacts. But just because the affinities did not actively conflict with or damage an object, did not mean they were completely benign. If anyone pumped enough of any type of mana into an artifact, the artifact could be damaged or even destroyed. As far as Damion was able to understand, the White Griffin's attack, after breaking his wards, entered the armor and overloaded it.

Once overloaded, which was easy for a B Rank to do to a C Rank artifact, his armor exploded.

"I don't recommend fighting the B Rank White Griffin in the Holy Forest as a C Rank mage," Damion said seriously. If he had known Phil would have had such a tough time destroying the dungeon core, he probably would have rethought his plan. Perhaps even just camping out in the dungeon for the rest of the week to work on his artifact.

"Fighting any B Rank Demonic Beast when you are at C Rank is not recommended," Helena replied.

"What were you doing in a B Rank dungeon without someone who could handle the guardian?"

"I was too strong for the Wilderness Survival exam area, so Headmaster Sorin arranged for me to go into the Holy Forest dungeon. Took me a few days, but I was able to clear the entire dungeon."

"I didn't see a White Griffin corpse in with all the others you brought out."

"Okay, maybe not the entire dungeon. But you can't expect a C Rank to be able to kill a B Rank Demonic Beast by myself," Damion said, but Phil let out an angry chirp to vent his displeasure at being excluded.

"Two C Ranks like us to kill a B Rank."

"Considering the number of Demonic Beast carcasses you brought me, I was really starting to think you can kill a B Rank on your own. How close are you to B Rank?"

"Close," Damion said with a smile.

"Keep your secrets then. To repair this cuirass, will be 1 platinum. But I recommend you just go ahead and buy a B Rank set of armor if you are close to reaching B Rank instead of fixing this."

"How long will it take to repair?" Damion asked. As much as he wanted to upgrade his armor, he wanted to be able to buy cores more. Every coin he spent on new armor was one less he could spend on cores.

"A few days. This is the Caplan family's work if I'm not mistaken. It is not overly complicated to repair, but I will have to verify the materials and enchantments to make sure it is properly done."

"Can you send it to the school for me? Or will I need to come back and pick it up?" If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"I'll have it delivered to you once we finish," Helena explained. She then looked at her tablet that was flashing with a message.

"Your materials are ready. If you keep all the cores and the Light and Holy materials, minus our processing fee and the cost of repair for your armor; your share comes to 37 platinum and 92 gold coins. Though I would like to make an offer on the Emperor Chalco Beetle's core and the Rhampholeon core."

"Stone and Wood affinity cores, both in demand?"

"Quite. I will offer you 40 gold for the Emperor Chalco Beetle's D Rank core and 70 for the Rhampholeon's C Rank core."

"45 and 90," Damion countered.

"I'll do 45 for the D Rank, and 75 for the C Rank."

"80 for the C Rank," Damion told her.

"Deal."

"Now, how many surplus cores do you have?"

"Surplus? Don't you want Ice affinity cores?

"I'd like to get as many cores as possible at C Rank."

"What affinity?"

"Doesn't matter, as long as they are the cheapest cores you have."

"Your budget?" Helena asked. She knew Damion had a fair amount of money, but she did not want to start pulling out stock only to have to put everything away when he could not afford it.

"With the funds you are holding from the spoils I brought in and my payment card, let's call it, 6, 000 gold." Helena had to stop herself from smiling when she heard that figure. No student, final year or not, should have that much money laying around. Especially, not when that student worked as an adventurer. With that much money the kid could almost buy himself set a of A Rank armor. What did he want so many cores for?

"You aren't planning on reselling these in some other market are you?" Helena asked.

"These are for my own use. I need a bunch for… let's call it an experiment."

"Alright. I can't let you wipe me out, but I'll sell you three-quarters of my stock of common cores from F to C Rank."

"Alright, so what are we looking at?"

"The majority of the cores are Earth, Fire and Water, it will come out to 673 F Rank cores, 231 E Rank, 120 D Rank and 74 C Rank cores. Which puts your total at 2, 475 gold."

"I didn't even spend what you owe me," Damion remarked. At the very least he felt he should spend 13 more platinum coins to get to the 37 platinum he was owed.

"I have some Ice affinity cores, though they won't be sold at basement market prices."

"How much?"

"5 gold for F Rank, 10 for E Rank, 25 for D Rank and 50 for C Rank."

"No B Rank Ice cores?"

"Sorry. The new dungeon is only C Rank, and it hasn't been cleared enough times to start forcing the prices down. Nobles keep buying them all up on the market, keeping the prices high, though I don't know why."

"They probably don't want me using them to grow stronger," Damion remarked. He really did not need the Ice affinity cores to help him increase his magic power and capacity, but they might be good for Phil. The Snow Hawk had eaten a few Ice affinity cores already and Damion was curious what would happen if the Ferocious Beast had a steady diet of them.

"I have 12 F Rank, 16 E Rank, 8 D Rank and 4 C Rank," Helena told him.

"It would be another 620 gold."

"That puts me at, 3, 095 gold. Alright, I'll take all those cores too," Damion said, pulling out his payment card. Helena tapped his card on her tablet and the machinery in the Teft shop's storage room suddenly started moving. Now the transaction was completed, the store was moving Damion's merchandise to a holding area for him to collect. The Ice affinity cores, Damion stored in the same box he had his other Ice affinity cores in.

The Light and Holy cores, he separated into their box and the final batch, a mix of Earth, Fire and Water cores, were deposited into a third box. Finally, he collected a number of containers that had the Light and Holy affinity creature's materials. The containers were separated by material, bones, meat, hides, furs. These boxes he moved into his spatial artifact while the boxes of cores were hidden away in the Magic System Inventory and Damion headed out of the shop.

A short time later, Damion was back on the school grounds, smiling at his gains. Not counting the Ice, Light and Holy affinity cores, he had 1, 118 cores he could trade to the Magic System once it upgraded. Now all he needed to do was let it.