The result that came out of the examination was exactly what I wanted. The Faker's Earring did its job to hide my Enhancement Talent, and I now have my Awakener ID without any problems.
However, I was a bit confused. The previous guy who had B-Rank Gunmanship Talent got a lot of cheers, but there was not even a single noise when my S-Rank Talent showed up on the screen.
'They must be surprised.'
As I thought that and was about to leave, I heard a loud yell from the side.
"Hey! Do you want to join the Sacred Relic Guild?"
There were murmurs among the people in the lobby as soon as the yell broke the silence.
I stopped my track and looked at the source of the voice. There, I saw a beautiful Caucasian woman looking at me as she took off her sunglasses.
I recognized her. She was Rosa Palaquen, an A-Rank Awakener from the Sacred Relic Guild. She was also a recruiter from the Sacred Relic Guild and would invite Zaiden to her Guild in a month when he registered himself.
So she was already here at this time? And she somehow became interested in me because of my Talent.
Telling her to screw off would harm my image. So I slowly turned around to her and pulled down my hood.
"Yes?"
"Oh…" She let out a surprised voice as she covered her mouth.
I knew the reason why she was surprised. It was because I was too handsome, even though my lower face was hidden with a mask.
'The mask is doing its job wonderfully.'
-----
[Mask of Deceit]
[Null Attribute]
Mask Enhanced by Vincent Dihart
Effect:
- Veil of Deceit
Put an illusion to mask your face.
- Voice Changer
Change your voice.
-----
I didn't change my face too much, just enough to be recognized as a different person from Vincent. If I changed my face too much, many strong people would notice the illusion.
My voice had become deeper too. Looking at the frozen Rosa in front of me, I asked worriedly.
"Are you okay?"
"Oh yes. I'm sorry for that."
"It's okay. For your invitation earlier…" I was about to say I would think about it, but she interrupted me.
"Right! Do you want to join the Sacred Relic Guild? As you know, we are the best Guild in the world. The benefit of joining us is huge, so I can guarantee that you will be satisfied with it!"
She was a bit desperate to invite me to her guild. There was a reason for that, though; the Sacred Relic Guild was now lacking in active Awakeners.
In my novel, they would fall from grace after a certain incident, but that was still a year in the future.
Joining them was not bad, but I had already decided on what I would do as Rai.
"I will think about it. To be honest… I am still thinking about what I want to do in the future."
"Oh, that's fine!" Rosa pulled out a business card from her pocket and handed it to me. "I will leave my business card with you. Please contact me when you have decided on it. I will be waiting for great news from you."
I took her business card. It was a white card adorned with a blue rose, the logo of the Sacred Relic Guild.
"Yes. I will. Please excuse me; I have an appointment with my friend after this."
"Sure. I will be waiting for the great news."
After putting the business card in my pocket, I nodded my head at Rosa and left the building.
As expected from Rosa, she wasn't pushy and knew when to back down. She knew that she would gain my dissatisfaction if she pushed her invitation, and that would lead me to turn her down.
For now, I should really leave this place. I felt a lot of people were gazing at me from behind.
I entered an alley near the Association building, changed my clothes back to the Academy uniform, and took off my mask.
My appearance changed back to Vincent, and I walked out of the alley relaxedly. As I walked out, I was greeted by five people in suits who looked around suspiciously.
From their behaviors, I knew that they were trying to find me to recruit me to their guilds. But I had no intention of joining their guild.
When I tried to walk away, one of them stopped me by putting his hand on my shoulder.
"Hey! Did you see someone in a black hoodie walking through this alley?"
He didn't recognize me. I grinned and pointed to the alley.
"Yeah, he ran away in that direction."
"Oh! Thank you, young man!"
"Let's go! He will not be able to run that fast!"
Those people then ran toward the direction that I pointed. They were fast as all of them were Awakeners.
After losing my pursuer(?), I put my hands in my pocket and walked away while whistling.
"Let's visit Park Injun again. I hope he can get me that weapon."
***
[Park Injun's Store]
"You are here again…"
Park Injun greeted me in his old man disguise while grumbling. "What do you want now?"
"Something. I had sent the location of [Napoleon's Sword]. Did you get it?"
I changed the conversation a little to make sure about Park Injun's ability to confirm my information. If he could confirm the location that I told him about yesterday and somehow be able to retrieve the artifact, I would be able to ask him for a weapon in exchange for information instead of money.
The weapon was too expensive for my current pocket. I only had around three hundred thousand USD left, and I needed that to buy something else from the Awakener Store.
"Yeah, your information is certainly credible. To think that [Napoleon's Sword] is hidden in a dungeon near the Amazon River. It makes me question, how do you know about that hidden dungeon?"
"Hahahaha, I have my way."
He had confirmed it. That was good news for me.
"More importantly, can you get me a weapon? I will pay you with information about another artifact."
A lot of artifacts were of no use to me, so it was better if I sold the information to Park Injun, a collector of artifacts.
If, by chance, I needed the artifacts that were in Park Injun's possession, I could always buy them from him. I was confident that I would have a lot of money at that time.
"Yeah, sure. But I will decide whether I agree to your request or not after hearing what kind of information you give me."
If that were the case, then it would be easy.
I knew a lot of Artifacts that Park Injun wanted to get. Some Artifacts were important to him, but he also wanted to collect some other Artifacts even if he had no use for them.
Among them was an item that was located near Los Angeles.
"Elizabeth Painting," I said calmly, and Park Injun's eyes widened once again.
"You now have my attention…" He smiled and raised his body, "What kind of weapon do you want to get?"
He asked without changing his expression.
[Elizabeth Painting] was a rather useless Artifact, but it held a lot of value for a collector like Park Injun. That was why he was interested in it.
"A bow and arrows. I want to get the [Arash Bow] and Dark Arrows. If the arrow is not possible, then the bow alone is enough."
Park Injun's expression changed once again.
"You are really strange. That bow is no different from a normal bow because…"
"The wielder will die after they use the special ability of the bow once. I know."
Arash, the hero of Ancient Persia. He was the legendary hero who was known as the strongest Archer and brought an end to the war between Persia and Turan.
His bow was a strong Artifact, but it was famous for its special ability that drove the Archer to death when he activated the Artifact's special ability.
"You know about it, and yet you still want it? You are strange. You seem to be hiding something."
"Hahahaha, that's who I am."
I decided to laugh it off, but then Park Injun nodded his head.
"Very well. That bow's value is less than [Elizabeth Painting]. I will give it to you."
"Thanks for that. Also… I hope you can keep my secret from the other people for at least three years."
"That's not a problem. I am not a person who sells my customer's identities. Especially customers like you."
This was why I could always trust the money-grubbing merchants. He then raised two fingers.
"Two days, give me two days to get that bow."
"Sure, I can wait for two days. Now, the location of the [Elizabeth Painting]…"