"Pay me with Arcanium then!" He said with a shrug, ignoring the gazes that were drawn to him.
Liam wanted to turn around to the other young man whose expression turned sour because he couldn't even react to the fact that Liam had indirectly called him out for being a spineless coward.
However, he was interrupted by the murmurs that resounded from all around him.
The people he saved, including some students, were a bit baffled by Liam's straightforward demand.
"Isn't it obvious for someone as strong as you to help us? Stronger people should help the weak and helpless!" A man in his late 50s grumbled all of a sudden.
He too was drenched in water and he looked miserable, but Liam couldn't care less about the man's pitiful appearance.
"If you don't want to pay me, you might as well keep your mouth shut! Don't bother putting up with the act of having gratitude and come over to thank me for rescuing you when you cannot accept that your 'gratefulness' is worthless to me. Your gratefulness cannot help me kill monsters, but Arcanium can!" He said sharply, his purple eyes staring at the man for a moment before he turned his head away in disgust.
The man who was in his 50s was just about to say something when Olivia opened her mouth.
"How much do you want, and how can I transfer Arcanium to you?" She asked without giving it a second thought.
Olivia could tell how valuable Arcanium was and it was certainly the best way to repay her debt to her savior with something that would help him become stronger than offering empty words!
"I don't care how much you give me. You know how difficult it was to kill the rats and how much Arcanium you gained for each kill. Arcanium can be used for everything, so I will let you be the judge to figure out how much you want to give me, and how much you want to save up for yourself," Liam stressed the importance and use of Arcanium once again rather than greedily telling Olivia to give him everything she had.
He had never expected Olivia to simply hand over her entire fortune, to begin with, but he wanted to make sure that she understood the value of Arcanium before doing something she would regret.
"You can transfer Arcanium simply by thinking about transferring it to a specific person. My name is Liam Wandel, so think about transferring Arcanium to me and a notification will pop up in front of you to verify the transfer," He explained while simultaneously sharing his name for the first time with the others.
Everyone, even those who had been angry with him for being greedy and asking for Arcanium if they were truly grateful for him rescuing them, listened to his words intently. They learned a lot from Liam and subconsciously nodded their head in understanding.
[Olivia Jellin(Circleless) transferred 26.7 Arcanium to Liam Wandel(Circleless)]
[Transaction completed. 26.7 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
"That-..." Liam blurted out, unable to hide his astonishment as Olivia interrupted him before he could say anything else, "That's all I have for now. You will get more once I have more!"
Liam was mostly astonished that Olivia had already amassed 26.7 Arcanium, to begin with. Everyone started with 10 Arcanium, which meant that Olivia must have accumulated at least 16.7 Arcanium by herself.
That was pretty impressive and a lot more than he expected from someone whom he had presumed to have been raised in a very sheltered environment.
"My life is worth much more, so don't even think of rejecting my Arcanium!" Olivia pressed on when Liam opened his mouth to say something.
"I didn't plan on rejecting your money, don't worry. I just wanted to tell you that you did a good job collecting so much Arcanium in such a short time." He responded quite calmly before he noted that more people began to transfer some Arcanium to him.
[Transaction completed 0.6 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
[Transaction completed 2.1 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
[Transaction completed 1.3 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
[Transaction completed 0.1 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
[Transaction completed 9.4 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
[...]
[...]
[...]
Liam received dozens of notifications that rang through his head like the crowing of a rooster in the morning…if the rooster were to be IN your head…
This astonished him quite a bit since he didn't expect to receive much from the people around him. That was also why he was dumbfounded to see the transactions ended up increasing his Arcanium by 56.9!
[Arcanium: 121.4]
"...Damn…" Liam blurted out when he took a glance at his total Arcanium. It was very pleasing to the eye.
For a moment, he reconsidered increasing all Stats that were still stuck in [G] to [F], but he also knew that it would cost too much Arcanium. His gains would disappear in the blink of an eye, the moment he increased some of his stats by one or two sub-ranks, especially if he would jump a whole rank from [G+] to [F-]!
An alternative to this was attempting to raise his stats by training hard, or by consuming special items that were far more cost-efficient than plainly increasing his stats with Arcanium.
'Fighting until I am on the verge of collapsing should be enough to increase my stats up to F+...but how long do I have to fight…?' Liam began to wonder.
He was trying to figure out if he should just purchase a weapon with his Arcanium, or if other equipment and goods that increased his stats permanently upon consumption would be better in the current situation. After all, his customized mission had yet to end and it was quite obvious that the situation might suddenly change since the entrances of the gymnasium's outer layer had yet to be sealed off.
While he was deep in thought the young man whom Liam had offended by openly calling him immoral had had enough of the intruder. He ignored the people around Liam, pushed them aside, and stepped closer to him. His hand was still tightly coiled around the longsword which he had purchased in the Arcane Shop after realizing the seriousness of the situation, and he pointed the tip of the blade toward Liam.
The gap between Liam and the blade was less than 30 centimeters when the young man finally halted in his tracks.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" The young man asked sharply as he thrust the tip of his longsword forward so as to intimidate Liam by nearly cutting his neck.
And in response, Liam's eyes turned ice-cold. He pushed the battle-axe upward with ease, forcefully changed the path of the sword thrust and inched closer to the young man, whose eyes widened as he felt Liam's fingers grasping him by the throat.
"If you continue to act like this, I will be your death, kid!"
**
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