Chapter 9

<Item: Dungeon Key>

Description: This small piece of unknown metal unlocks a window to another realm. Many treasures and mysteries wait within that are yours for the taking. But beware, the locals will not appreciate pillaging of their precious treasures. And with all dungeons, the lower you go, the greater the danger, and more tantalizing the rewards.

Item Class: Epic

Item Value: ???

< — >

As she explained it, the system gave Kinsley several artifact-style items every time she leveled. A perk of being a merchant class. Two of them—she was understandably dodgy on the details — had a value in Selve. The dungeon key did not.

When I pressed her for more details, asking her to extrapolate from her highest value item, she begrudgingly revealed that it was likely in the millions. That didn’t really matter, as we had no idea what a single Selve was actually worth, but the number alone made me carefully place the key back on the table.

Internally, I was reconsidering how clever Kinsley actually was, or if, considering the beating she took, I wasn’t the only one with a possible concussion. We were acquainted enough that no one was waving a gun around, but that was it. Maybe it was a harsh line to draw, but if she was stupid enough to be handing out high-end artifacts to random strangers, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do business with her at all. That kind of carelessness could come back to bite me.

Then, Kinsley gave me a smug smile and pulled a binding document out of the air. I read through it line by line, mouthing the words, making sure I picked up every detail. Damn. Assuming the system didn’t go out of it’s way to screw her over, it was both logical and iron-clad. I couldn’t have simply walked away with her system merchandise. Not that I would have.

After I skimmed it fully, I went back over the details. The item in question—The dungeon key—would remain in my possession for a weekly rental of 100 Selve, collected automatically from my balance. There were several other key concessions as well, such as rights regarding any items procured from said dungeon. If, for whatever reason, I could not not make the payments or tried to renege on any of the agreements, the key would automatically be reverted to her and I would be hit with system fees and penalties.

While I read, I noticed some unfilled sections.

“You can use these for sales as well?” I asked.

“Yes. But it makes more sense to just use the trade screen for that. Yours doesn’t seem to be working, so I thought we could use one of my merchant contracts as an alternative. This also allows me to set up agreements and retain ownership, as I’m sure you have read by now.”

“Can you email them?” I asked.

“The magical legal contract? No idea,” Kinsley shrugged. “Wait, why?”

“Just seeing if it’s possible to get a copy for record keeping. But now that I think about it, I’m not sure what I would do with it if I had it.”

This was, of course, a lie. If Kinsley could somehow get her business online, that would solve the majority of problems that came with trading in person. Namely, getting beat black and blue, or worse. It really was only a matter of time before she met the wrong User. There was still a huge elephant in the room on the topic of if what I was considering would actually work. And magic system legalese aside, I wasn’t even sure how feasible it was to create a restricted access market website, firewalled from unauthorized access. You’d need a host site, servers, admin software, and programming help.

By the look of her desktop rig, she might even have some of the skills I needed. The charitable thing to do would be to tell her my plan immediately, make her a partner. But the charitable thing was seldom the smart thing, at least in my experience. If I told her too much now, she might screw something up. With my goal of making enough to get my family out of the city riding on the line, it was just too big a risk to take.

And if you told her now, maybe she wouldn’t need you. You’d be the idea guy who gets left behind. She’s only offering you this deal because you’re both desperate. She has a lot of other options, like lending out that dungeon key for significantly more than she charged you and you know it. But there are other merchants who aren’t children. You’re not the first one to think of this. Don’t keep it to yourself for too long. Figure out a way to do it with her help, but still reap the benefits.

Future plans aside, the current proposal between us was fairly simple. Kinsley would lend me the dungeon key if I signed the contract. She would hold the exclusive option to buy everything I found at a discount. I couldn’t even go to another system vendor without her consent. Since the danger of entering the dungeon was on me, I leveraged that for concessions in my favor. After some haggling, I was able to get her to agree to give me the first pick of any item I found that suited me, since the danger of our little arrangement was almost entirely on me.

“You drive a hard bargain.” Kinsley scowled, then immediately winced, hand going up to one of the many bruises on her face.

“So do you,” I said.

“We have a deal?”

I steepled my fingers. “One last thing. You being a merchant, the way your doors work. The dungeon key. I’m assuming you want to keep all that on the down-low?”

“Really? After all that, you’re trying to blackmail me now?” Her voice nearly broke.

I felt bad. But this was important. “Not blackmail, no. Just a mutual understanding of how things work. There’s a cyber cafe that moonlights as a testing center over on Jefferson, you know it?”

“Yes. Why does that–”

“Of course you do. That’s where your father scheduled you to take the PSAT 10 back in october.”

“I’ve never taken the ten, only the eight-nine–”

I interrupted again. “–and as such, you were freaking out. You’re smart but you didn’t ace the eight-nine, you were too young even for that. And the ten,” I blew air through my lips. “Whew. That affects your chances at admission. Supposedly it doesn’t matter until you’re a junior in high-school. But you know they look.”

Kinsley was silent.

“Maybe you talked to a friend, who talked to a friend, who eventually gave you my number. I let you know I couldn’t really pass as a pre-teen girl and take the test for you, but told you all the right things to say to dad to get him to push it back. He agreed, but only for a year. So you kept texting me questions, I kept giving you pointers, and now we’re sort of friends.”

I saw the moment the gears in her head started to turn. “Because you have nothing to do with any of this,” Kinsley said.

“You kept me in the dark. I just brought you toothpaste.”

“God I could use some toothpaste.”

“Really? There’s none in the store tab?” I asked.

“No. It sucks.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I rolled my eyes. “There’s literally a Walgreen’s every other block and you can basically teleport.”

“They beat the hell out of me.” Kinsley stared at me, incredulous.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Fine. I’ll bring you toothpaste.”

“Thank you.” Said very much like fuck you.

“Uh-huh. Point being, I’m not a User. I know something’s up with you but that’s it, and you called me because you didn’t want to use anyone connected to your personal life.”

“Fine. Are you always this paranoid?” She asked.

“Only when my life’s on the line.”

Kinsley gave me a weird look, but nodded agreement.

A system prompt appeared, startling me

<Quest Received>