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Book 3: Chapter 45: Masking Devices and Haggling

Lone shook his head. "Nah, we\'re good. Thank you though."

Tayson smiled. "Of course."

He then pushed some of his aura into the plate and it activated the door, making it melt out of existence with a red portal quickly replacing it.

\'Burn everything you\'re seeing magically-speaking into your mind right now, Soph. I absolutely want to learn how to make that door and plate,\' Lone ordered.

Soph replied, \'I already am. You do the same with Enhanced Vision.\'

Lone grinned. With eyes held open wide, the two of them watched the man step through the arched portal. It then vanished, being replaced by a normal door once more.

Lone immediately stood up and walked around the desk. He grabbed the door\'s handle and opened it, revealing just another part of the room\'s wall. He began inspecting every nook and cranny of the door as if his life depended on it. He then moved onto the other two doors in the room.

"M-Master Lone... Should you really be doing that? Um, won\'t it... uh, upset them?" Breena hesitantly questioned.

Without looking at her, he replied, "They didn\'t say I couldn\'t do this, so it\'s on them if they get hot and bothered. I\'m not going to damage it. Hell, for all we know, the door could be pointless and is just for visuals while the plate is everything. I bet there\'s some sort of observation item or magic or something in here anyway. If they want to stop my snooping, they are welcome to. You think they\'d just not keep an eye on us at all times in their business? I would if I was as big and successful as Mason and Sons and I catered to potentially super power individuals."

"I-I see," Breena replied a bit more thoughtfully.

Eight minutes passed with Lone not finding anything particularly incredibly about the three doors. Even Item Examination claimed they were ordinary, only used as a medium for the magic he had seen, but that was only the extent of his own knowledge so he couldn\'t fully trust that to be all there was to this.

Still, he eventually sat back down and waited patiently alongside Soph and Breena.

Three minutes later, Lone\'s entire attention was centred on the door and doorframe that had once more disappeared only to be replaced by a magical red portal.

Tayson stepped out of it, strange plate in hand. As soon as he was through, he turned on his heels and used the plate to close the portal, returning it to the appearance of a normal door.

"That is something special," Lone commented. "I played around with the doors a bit when you left and couldn\'t find anything amiss. Never heard of magic like that. Can you tell me about it?"

Tayson laughed politely as he sat back down behind the desk. "I can tell you the basics. It\'s a mixture of many magics and was prohibitively expensive to set up, though my brothers and father along with me all agreed it was needed for security reasons. Our vaults are quite extensive, after all. And thank you for your honestly. We don\'t mind people prying, but trying to hide it is terrible rude."

"I like to be honest when possible. Shame you can\'t tell me more, but I understand. To business then?" Lone asked.

Tayson nodded. He sucked the magical plate into his storage ring and then from that very same ring did many wooden and metal boxes appear, covering the table in no time.

"We have the trio of items to disguise your physical appearance while making it obvious you are doing so, and we have 47 items that allow masking of one\'s MP, of different varieties. This may take a while to go over each individual item\'s value so I will sadly have to charge you a consultation fee of five silver. Nothing in the face of how large this deal will be, but rules are rules. My time is valuable, I\'m sure you understand," Tayson stated.

Lone nodded, understanding completely. "Here you go," he said, giving the requested money.

"Excellent. Now then, let us begin," Tayson said. He opened one box and picked up a silver brooch from three such brooches, all styled to look like a crow. "This is a \'Yes, I don\'t look like this. Stop Asking.\' brooch. Quirky name, I know, but it is the official one given by the creator of the device. You simply attach it to your clothing somewhere and it will then adjust your appearance to that of a generic member of a few different species. The list of species can be found here and the minutiae of the appearance can be adjusted although the more you do so the more uncanny your appearance shall become if you lack the mental capacity to envision the desired appearance changes."

"Hmm... The requirements to use? And the requirements to see through. You said that was a guarantee, right? But how guaranteed? Is just being looked at enough?" Lone questioned.

"It uses a fixed amount of MP to activate, that being 10,000 and while it is automatic once has been activated, it does need to be recharged at least once every three uses as it only stores up to 32,000 MP. Each activation will last four hours or until it is manually deactivated. It also needs to be repaired once a year as frequent use will degrade what makes it work. We offer that service here. As for how is it noticeable, allow me to demonstrate," Tayson replied.

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He put the silver brooch on his shirt. Lone couldn\'t feel a thing though he was sure Soph noticed the exchange of magic before Tayson\'s appearance became extremely generic, almost forgettably so.

Lone could sense it immediately, as could Soph and Breena. Something about Tayson was just... wrong. It was as if the world was telling him this was not this person\'s true appearance and they knew that he knew that.

"Interesting... so, the price?" Lone asked.

Tayson nodded as he removed the brooch and returned it to its box. "These brooches are rather rare and are in high demand, so one has a market price currently of 17 platinum coins per brooch."

"Fuck, that is expensive. That much for some faulty illusion? Really? How much of that is the mark up?" Lone inquired.

Tayson smiled. "It is not an illusion, it is a disguise, and please do understand, Lord Immortus, many people are incapable of using magic at all, let alone illusion magic or a similar magic that can hide their appearance. The supply does not meet the demand for these items, so while the price is, indeed, very high at a surface examination, many are willing to pay this much for such an item. Shall I move on to the MP masking devices, or do you have more questions?"

"And that marks the last item I have to show you. The total sum of all of these items, assuming you still wish to purchase them all, is 13 ruby-gold coins, 58 platinum coins, and 23 gold coins, rounded down to the nearest gold coin to avoid loose change, for your convenience," Tayson said after four long hours of explanations and inquiries had been exchanged between him and Lone.

Soph was barely still awake, so bored by this interaction was she. Breena was still engaged, however. Lone was happy to see the teen showed some interest in the art of commerce. He was only hoping he wouldn\'t make a fool of himself here as he tried to earn the Haggling Mastery skill.

"That is an insultingly high price, Tayson. I\'m very happy with the service I received here a few weeks ago, but I\'m not happy enough to let myself be taken advantage of. I\'ll do 7 ruby-gold and 40 white-gold. Not a penny more for the lot. Bulk discounts are normal for purchases like this where I\'m from and trust me, I know you\'re still making a profit from this and you\'ll be making a friend of a very powerful and very rich figure. Win-win, no?" Lone asked, an eyebrow raised and his tone entirely serious.

Tayson\'s facial expression changed. What Lone read from it was disappointment that the deal wasn\'t closed at the opening offer, but he also saw a willingness to engage in the game of haggling with the expectation to come out on top.

\'You likely will since I bet you have Haggling Mastery and maybe a few other supplementary skills, but so long as I can earn Haggling Mastery from this too... then I don\'t give a fuck how much this ends up costing me,\' Lone thought.

Tayson stroked his full beard for a moment before replying, "While I can see that my initial offer was quite high when viewed from your perspective, your counter offer is simple too low. While yes, it would still be a profit, these items are not lacking in demand and we are not desperate for funds. We can wait for more generous buyers. That being said, I am open to negotiations. How does 13 ruby-gold on the nose sound? That is over half a ruby-gold off."

"No, come on. 8 ruby-gold. That\'s more than half a ruby-gold coin extra than my first counter offer. Quite generous, no?" Lone smiled.

"12 ruby-gold and a free item examination consultation from my father," Tayson countered with no added fluff.

"9 ruby-gold and this massive fuck-off sapphire," Lone responded as he reached within his Dimensional Storage to pull out the torso-sized jewel. \'I have no practical use for this thing and I can always create another one via Creation Magic if a need makes itself known.\'

Tayson hesitated. "May I examine that?"

Lone nodded. "Please, go ahead."

Tayson\'s eyes began glowing as he muttered, "Item Examination."

Not a moment later, his eyes returned to normal. "... 10 ruby-gold and that monarch sapphire."

"9 ruby-gold and 50 white-gold coins, and the gem," Lone countered.

Tayson smiled and reached his hand over the counter. As soon as Lone grabbed it, the man with a lumberjack\'s beard said, "It\'s a deal."

Lone felt some sort of force coming over him, compelling him rather strongly to honour the deal and have no lingering thoughts to steal back his money or the gem. It was a powerful compulsion but not something that couldn\'t be resisted given Lone\'s experience with scripture magic.

Just as he was wondering if the thing used to apply such an effect was an active skill being used on him or not, a couple of notifications popped up, obscuring his vision.

He put them aside for the moment and smiled. "Indeed it is. It was a pleasure doing business with you."

Lone let go of Tayson\'s hand and swept his palm across the desk, sucking up all of the boxes containing mana masking tools as well as the box with the three brooches to disguise oneself. Of course, all of it went into his Dimensional Storage.

"Likewise. You are a surprisingly talented haggler for one who does not possess the skill," Tayson remarked.

Lone raised an eyebrow. "How would you know that?"

"Ah, well, Haggling Mastery has an effect at intermediate rank that allows you to know if you are dealing with another user of the skill. I\'ll also tell you that at advanced rank that that very effect tells you what rank your opponent has the skill at. According to my father Mason, at expert rank, it tells you their exact level. And, according to The Adventurer\'s Guild, at master rank it will even let you know the rough limits of what your opponent is willing to haggle to," Tayson explained. "I gained a level for our back and forth despite you not owning the skill, so I\'m rather appreciative."

\'He could tell me info from the credit slate without being stopped by contract magic? Must have learned about that from his father or someone else who has the skill at master rank,\' Lone remarked internally. "I\'m happy to have helped. We\'ll be on our way now. I actually spent more time here than I intended and we have some chores to do."

"Of course. The payment, however?" Tayson asked.

Lone nodded, clicking his fingers, making the 9 ruby-gold coins appear on the desk in a pile with a heavy pouch of fifty white-gold coins alongside it. \'Yeah, that\'s a cooler way to withdraw from Dimensional Storage. Bit weirded out by clicking but the rule of cool demands I get over it.\'

"A man of your word. It\'s always a pleasure to do business with the honourable sorts. Until next time, Lord Immortus, Lady Vladimirovich, Miss Redtail," Tayson said with a bow.

\'Lady, huh? So he knows Sophie killed that X-ranker perv,\' Soph commented via telepathy.

Lone left the room with his companions and replied, \'Not too surprising. Anyone with enough money, power, or connections, would know about the C-rank turned B-rank beauty who effortlessly ended the life of someone so conventionally powerful.\'

As they left the building of Mason and Sons, Soph giggled. \'It wasn\'t effortless. It took her a lot of MP, even if she\'ll never admit to that. So... the guild now? Gonna fight Guildmaster... what was his name... Brush?\'

\'Brux, and yes, but first, I have some notifications to check,\'Lone replied.