18. Aptitude
The National Appraisal Center.
One of the quite famous places in South Korea.
A place where influencers and ordinary people from around the world visit, leaving reviews on the internet, making it a place that everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime.
A place where all the treasures of the world gather.
It was a place with reasons that naturally made it famous.
At the heart of this building, the top floor, the Appraisal Center was bustling with visitors lined up day after day.
These visitors had brought all sorts of mysterious items discovered from across the country.
“Then let’s begin the appraisal now.”
The person opening his mouth in front of him was none other than an appraiser.
The role of an appraiser is to assess the true value of an item and determine its worth.
“…It certainly seems to be a rare treasure.”
The appraiser gazed at the apple for a while, then slowly nodded.
The appraiser in front of me was also a seasoned individual.
She had a history of being a hunter in the past.
“Although it looks like an ordinary apple on the surface, it seems to contain a peculiar mana with mysterious qualities flowing within like mist. It doesn’t seem to be enchanted by magic, nor is it from Dokdo; it appears to be a fruit born with naturally imbued qualities. It undoubtedly holds a very precious inner elixir.”
The appraiser continued speaking calmly without being flustered.
It was a precise judgment.
Even as she looked at the treasure in front of her, her demeanor was anything but ordinary; it was as if she was viewing something mundane in a professional manner.
There was no hint of surprise in her eyes.
Perhaps she had experienced such things many times before.
After all, they were appraisers who dealt with all sorts of rare items pouring in from all over the country every day.
For them, this was just one of the usual occurrences in their daily lives.
Of course, thinking about it, it wasn’t that strange for any rare treasure in the world to take the form of an intact apple.
Items were commonly objects beyond the dungeon.
Anything could emerge from there.
Even if it was said that spoons and chopsticks were enchanted with magic unseen by the hunters of this world, it wouldn’t be too surprising.
It was possible because it was a dungeon.
She glanced briefly and then spoke.
“As of now, I cannot accurately determine the value of this.”
“I-is that so?”
“Instead, I will entrust the evaluation to a senior appraiser. It seems that it will take about two days to assess, but please note that a 3% appraisal fee will be charged to us upon completion of the transaction.”
3%.
It seemed small, but it was a huge amount.
This was also a reason why this building remained a symbol of wealth in South Korea.
“Understood.”
Of course, having already known such basic facts before using this place, she nodded without any concern.
Swish.
Soon, the appraiser handed him a small box.
Curious, he checked inside to find a cloak made of silk.
“However, I would recommend that you wear this ‘Cloak of Concealment’ when you leave.”
“Oh. Do I need to wear this?”
“Of course. It is to prevent any mishaps while the customer is in possession of it. It is to ensure that the identity of the trader remains unknown to outsiders under any circumstances.”
Even the post-processing here was thorough.
The Cloak of Concealment was one of the items found in the dungeon, commonly used to conceal the appearance of the wearer.
In simple terms, it made the wearer invisible.
Perhaps to be free from the scrutiny of surrounding CCTV cameras and people’s gazes.
In this place, they certainly paid attention to customer service in their own way.
Due to its unique nature as an appraisal center, it was a place where public attention was focused.
With considerably expensive items coming and going every day, it naturally attracted a pack of hyena-like bandits lurking around.
There’s a saying that no one has ever succeeded.
By the way, it should be noted that the Cloak of Concealment itself was an artifact.
A magical item worth well over a few million won.
So, the appraiser considered the value of the apple they offered to be at least in a price range higher than that.
“But if I were to return this….”
“You can simply send the Cloak of Concealment by courier.”
Ah, it’s easier than I thought.
I thought there would be some other measures for such an expensive item.
Using a courier seems to be the same everywhere.
Then the appraiser asked,
“Do you happen to have more items like this?”
“Well… I did, but not anymore. Since it was a fruit, I ate it.”
“I see. In that case, it seems you have no further business here, may I call in the next customer?”
“Sure.”
“Before leaving this place, I recommend wearing the Cloak of Concealment.”
Following the appraiser’s advice, they draped the cloak over their shoulders.
“….”
The appraiser, who seemed to vanish before their eyes like erased, gazed at the disappeared regret.
Ring-.
She raised her head and rang the bell.
The clear sound resonated through the room.
“Next customer, please come in.”
…And about two days later.
She, who had been so professional, was astonished when she learned the true value of the item.
***
After returning home, something came to mind for her.
[Congratulations! You have successfully taken the first step as a Clan Deity!]
[You have now acquired the minimum requirements to build a village.]
“What is this?”
A new item had been unlocked.
“…The bathroom menu has opened, hasn’t it?”
Of course, it didn’t mean the entire bathroom appeared.
It simply meant that the items inside were now revealed one by one as products.
[Sink]
[Mirror]
[Toilet]
[Shower]
[……]
For example, a sink and mirror, towels, and a toilet, and so on.
However, as she examined the items that had been revealed for a while, a question arose in her mind.
If you’re going to sell, why don’t you sell them as a set instead of separately?
***
The next day.
As darkness retreated and the day slowly began to brighten, Irina and the two young elves woke up early.
It was to expand the base in the square.
“Cut.”
They diligently started cutting the mushroom pieces into neat squares.
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Soon, mushroom bricks cut neatly like bricks filled the surroundings.
Having experienced it through her past experiences, she knew well that these were materials for construction.
And what to do with them.
Although there was nothing unimportant in the tasks she had to do, this one was particularly important.
In the past few days, she had planted quite a number of mushrooms.
The mushrooms imbued with magic quickly swelled in size, becoming five in number in no time.
And she cut all those numerous mushrooms to make mushroom bricks.
“Hoo-.”
Looking at the numerous bricks, she took a shallow breath.
“Because what needs to be made this time is a barricade.”
Structures for preemptive strikes with a wide field of vision to detect enemies faster and protect allies had existed for a long time.
In that way, the presence of ramparts signaling the superiority of fortifications to allies through high walls was a widely known and excellent structure for humanity, like common knowledge.
For elves specialized in archery, it was undoubtedly one of the things that must be secured first.
They began to continue building effective structures for defense.
The elves piled up bricks layer by layer.
Their appearance was like a small-scale version of a medieval fortification seen in a movie, with a slight difference being that the walls built by the elves were made of mushrooms instead of stones and rocks, and slightly smaller in scale.
Their work, which started early in the morning, continued until late hours.
The wall, which was initially at a low level, gradually began to take on a considerable size.
Han couldn’t help but admire the construction of the wall, which was becoming taller than the elves themselves.
“Surely, if we shoot arrows from the wall, we can effectively block the enemy. One defensive effect will be very certain, right?”
This time, it seemed like they were determined to continue building.
Of course, they had built walls before.
But it was merely at the level of low walls.
There were only a few workers, mostly just Irina.
But not now.
This time, they seemed to have decided to build on a large scale.
They were building walls high enough to look down from above.
In terms of a person, it was a wall of a height that could easily reach 2 meters.
Of course, there were limits to the mushroom material to be used as bricks.
Therefore, it was natural that the scale could not be too large, but at least they were thoroughly blocking the wide street.
“Cut.”
However, unlike Zion, who actively participated in the work and did his part, his younger sister Yumina seemed a bit overwhelmed.
“Haa. Haa.”
While Zion effortlessly carried about three or four bricks, Yumina struggled to lift just one, grunting with the effort.
It seemed even that was hard for her.
“….”
Han, who was watching, blinked.
What to say.
Yumina was weaker than he had thought.
No, clumsy? Or almost sickly.
Is she really an elf?
[Yes, she is an elf.]
“…I know that much. Who doesn’t have eyes, you think?”
[I simply answered your doubts.]
Suddenly, a thought occurred to Han.
He wondered if the system was still watching him from somewhere.
“Hey, System. Tell me honestly. Did you really need to say that? Are you purposely playing word games with me?”
[…….]
It remained silent.
Seems like the right answer was the only answer.
He started to feel like the system was trying to gloss over things more and more.
When he thought about it, this guy seemed to have a limited freedom of expression, but there was probably a clear sense of self implied in it.
Each message seemed to be filled with a strong will, he realized.
“Good job.”
At that moment,
Zion followed Yumina’s lead and diligently chopped mushroom bricks.
The efficiency of their work definitely increased after the siblings arrived.
Compared to when Irina was working alone before, the speed had increased significantly.
“At this rate, we’ll finish the building in no time. It seems that with more people, the efficiency of the work increases.”
“Phew.”
Amidst this, Yumina, with a deeply red face, was seen carrying mushroom bricks.
Her cheeks seemed to be puffed up, either due to the weight or holding her breath.
“She might pass out like this.”
Yumina’s stamina was surprisingly low for an elf.
She would pant heavily after a short run, or stop moving altogether, exhausted.
Honestly, her stamina was quite poor.
The system was the one that resolved Han’s doubts.
[There is a significant difference in individuals even among elves.]
Some are particularly agile and have good physical stamina, while others are more fragile. Yumina, among them, inherited a frail constitution from birth.
‘Frail…’
Although I had already noticed to some extent, hearing the voice of the system directly made me feel a little uncomfortable for some reason.
Instead, Yumina’s magical talent is even more exceptional than here. In fact, Yumina’s ability had a significant impact on the fact that the two siblings were able to chase magic from the distant ice mountain area.
Oh, was that so?