Chương 69: Not Rich Enough

"In a city that is true," Fletcher said to Ethan.

"But here in the wilderness we can't construct such an intricate artifact that can spy into even spatial storages." Damion fidgeted uncomfortably when he heard that the city could spy on even what people carried in their spatial artifacts when going in and out of dungeons. He had no idea such levels of intrusiveness were even possible in this world, and he could not help but wonder if someone somewhere would be able to detect the Magic System.

"How many of these people have ever even been in a dungeon before?" Damion asked.

"How many of them would even know about the security feature?"

"You make a good point," Fletcher told Damion.

"Over half of the people that have gone through the dungeon were going through one for the first time. Being new in a dungeon would mean they might not focus on anything but the Demonic Beasts. And very few mages even know how the detection grid around dungeons work."

"I'll post an updated summary of what to expect in the dungeon and what to look for in regard to rare flora and valuable materials. There is a chance that you all encountered a rare instance of this dungeon, making those finds possible, but it is also possible everyone else simply missed them."

"I'm hoping it is the latter," Theodore said.

"If each time this dungeon is run, you can find those plants. Then this dungeon is going to cause a big drop in the price of healing potions."

"Not as much as you might think, or at least not very quickly," Fletcher said causing the smile on Theodore's face to falter.

"Sure, this dungeon offers most of the plants needed, but not in high quantities. Even if people run it constantly, and find the plants every run, it won't be adding that much to the market.

"Most likely, guilds that employ people to harvest the plants in the wild will just harvest less in the wild and employ people to run the dungeon instead. Lower logistics, no chance of a high Rank encounter. I don't think the market will change that much, at least not for a while." Theodore was silent as he thought about what Fletcher said and how it would impact the potion market. Ethan however, had something else on his mind.

"So, what is our share?"

"Hmmm? Oh, how much will each of you get from this run?" Fletcher asked as he looked to the tablet again.

"The plants, Demonic Beast cores and beast materials comes up to 932 gold. The Aurichalcum has 65 percent purity, so factoring in for weight and purity, at 5 gold per kilogram, that will put its value at 2, 437. 5 gold."

"We get to split, 3, 369. 5 gold, between the five of us!" Damion gulped as he did the math.

"Don't forget the Association's 5 percent fee, which will be 168 gold and 47 and a half silver. So, the amount you all are splitting, is 3, 201 gold and 2 and a half silver or about 640 gold each."

"Is that enough to buy a spatial artifact?" Damion quickly asked, impressed by his own sudden wealth and eager to find something to spend it on. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Don't make me laugh," Theodore remarked.

"You'll need ten times that at least to afford a spatial artifact."

"He's right, Damion," Arica said softly.

"Besides, can you even protect something worth that much? Your payment card is secure, the runes on it prevent theft or forcing someone to payout from their card, but a spatial artifact can easily be stolen."

"I understand. I guess I will have to wait until I am higher ranked," Damion said dejected.

"Or maybe you just need to wait until your seal unlocks. If you gain the spatial affinity, you might not ever need one. After all, for those of us with the spatial affinity our personal storage is only limited by how much mana we have." Fletcher said. Theodore, Ethan and Christine were suddenly listening intently to Arica's master. While they knew a little about Damion's situation, they did not know that he was set to become a mage when his seal lifted.

When Fletcher saw the confused looks on the faces of Damion's teammates, the mage realized he had made a blunder.

"Ah, I see. Yes, it was probably wise not to spread that information around too much. Well, let me see, perhaps your teammates will promise not to spread it around. And as an apology from me, I will show you a spatial magic seal and maybe we'll get lucky, and you will have an affinity for it."

"Don't worry Damion, we won't spread it around," Christine said and then elbowed Theodore who was eying Damion closely.

"Right, we won't tell anyone that you are secretly a mage and not a knight."

"There, see? Everything will be fine. Now for the magic seal," Fletcher said as he held out his hand and a glow erupted from his palm. The glow coalesced into a series of complicated glyphs and Damion took a moment to look at it closely. As soon as he did, he received a notification from the system. Ding {Magic seal recorded} [Spatial Storage - Passive - (F Rank 10 Mana per kilogram stored) Allows the storage of any nonliving physical material in a spatial pocket connected to your magic core.] When Damion saw the notification and that the skill was actually a passive skill, he could not help but believe he would be able to use it. Damion immediately inquired with the Magic System.

'System, am I able to use this passive skill?' {Negative. While this skill is considered a passive skill it still requires Spatial Affinity to use due to its unique properties.}'Well, there goes that dream,' Damion thought as he looked away from the magic seal in Fletcher's palm.

"Sorry, not feeling anything," Damion told Fletcher, who pulled his hand back.

"No matter, the spatial affinity is an uncommon affinity after all."

"I've looked at a lot of magic seals, and none of them have done it. Either my affinity is very rare or until my seal lifts, I can't learn any magic seals."

"An interesting problem. Perhaps I'll discuss it with your teacher, Helga Teft, isn't it?"

"Yes, she's my teacher," Damion answered. It was clear to Damion that Arica had told her master everything she knew about Damion, and Damion did not mind. Though he would have wished to know a bit more about Arica's teacher before this meeting.

"Well, enough of this. Get your payment cards out and let me give you each your share. So I can get back to work figuring out if any of the past groups smuggled high value items out." Each of them in turn tapped their cards on the attendant's tablet. Once they were all paid, Fletcher lowered the isolation barrier around his tent and sent them on their way. The five of them headed out to the waiting area to relax before they needed to head out.

A number of the groups that had already completed their dungeon run were questioning Damion's group on their finds, but Arica just directed them to their group's report. Fletcher had wasted no time in getting it posted for everyone to review. The hope was that it would encourage the groups that had yet to go through their run to find more rare materials, at the very least it would discourage anyone coming across those materials from pocketing them.