I stood in front of the Crystal Store, contemplating whether I should ask the fairies about the Night Crystals.
As things were, they were probably already pretty suspicious of my origin. If I were to ask about even more things that were "general knowledge," then…
"What are you doing?" Yang suddenly asked. "Go inside already."
"Right…" I breathed out. "Yang, can you tell me about the Night Crystal tiers?"
"…Oh," was all that I got as a response. "So that's why you were so casual about handling a 5th-Tier crystal. You basically had no idea what it was worth!"
"Yes, yes," I affirmed.
"All right, let me explain," she began, sounding extra smug. "Basically, there are five tiers in total. You can obtain the first three tiers either by looting Nightmare corpses or mining them. The fourth- and fifth-tier Night Crystals can only be obtained from Nightmares of the fourth category and above."
"I see. How do you recognize the tiers?" I asked after taking in the info.
"It's pretty simple: Colorless means 1st-Tier, purple and blue are 2nd-Tier, green and yellow are 3rd-Tier, orange and red are 4th-Tier, and lastly, black and white are 5th-Tier."
"You said something about the white crystal being a Holy Crystal…"
"Yeah, that's what it's called because of the Prima type it contains. Mostly light."
Oh, great. Now, apparently, there are different types of Prima in the air. Seems like I'll be doing a lot of studying in the academy.
"Hey…" Yang continued speaking. "It's pretty awkward to be standing here. Go inside already."
"Fine, fine," I spoke, though agreeing with her internally. We were getting a few looks from people passing by.
Let me tell you this: Being side-glanced by a freaking orc wasn't something I was expecting to ever experience in my life. Yet, there I was.
In any case, once I was inside the store, I looked around a bit and noted that there were a lot of crystals on display. However, there were no so-called Holy Stones in sight.
I heaved deeply as I walked up to the clerk, who smiled brightly and spoke, "Welcome to the Crystal Palace! How may I be of help today?"
I reached into my jacket. After a moment's consideration, I decided to go with two green crystals and a yellow one, each of which I took out one after another.
"I'm here to sell these," I stated, internally hoping that there was no need for something like identification or verification of the crystals' source.
"Here to sell, yes? Please give me a moment to examine them."
"Take your time," I said, gesturing to him to 'go ahead.'
The clerk proceeded to take each of the crystals and observe them under some microscope-like device.
"These rocks are of high quality. Quite similar to those we sell."
"Glad that's the case," I stated, not sure how to feel about the guy hyping up the store he was working in so blatantly. Or is it his confidence?
I wasn't sure, but it didn't matter much as long as I was being paid fairly for them.
"Sir, the green ones go for nine thousand Kers each, while the yellow one goes for thirty-six. In total, that would be fifty-six Kertons."
I nodded along to the prices with no actual idea about their fairness. I simply intended to depend on the fairy twins to tell me if I was being scammed or not.
Seeing that they had no reaction, I judged the pricing to be fair. Fifty-six Kertons… So, Kerton means a thousand Kers?
Once the clerk saw that I was satisfied with the amount he offered, he proceeded to tap on another device before looking up at me expectantly.
"Psst," Yang began to my right. "Press your Moker against there."
I realized she was referring to a screen on the back of the device the clerk had pressed. It now read: Receive 56,000 Kers.
So, I did as Yang said, which was shortly followed by two beeps—one from the Moker and one from the device on the counter. Both screens displayed a successful transaction.
"You have received the proper amount, right, Mr. Lightburn?" the clerk questioned, seemingly having obtained my name through the transaction.
I took a look at my balance on the Moker and confirmed that it was updated properly before responding affirmatively.
"Great. May I be of further assistance?"
"No, thank you. That's all," I responded curtly.
"You're welcome, sir. We look forward to your next visit!"
"Thank you," I said once more before taking my leave.
Immediately upon stepping outside, both fairies got off my shoulder and flew right in front of my face. The two had fierce and suspicious looks on their faces.
"What?" I asked.
"Seriously? You're not going to explain how you just pulled those out of thin air?" Yang questioned.
"What do you mean?"
"Ugh," she groaned. "I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but we fairies are sensitive when it comes to Prima."
"I see. And?"
"That means we're sensitive to objects that interact with Prima in the air. Night Crystals are no exception."
Oh. Ohhh… I am fucked.
So little time had passed since I'd decided against telling others about my powers, yet there I was, on the verge of being exposed.
The solution? Bullshit my way out of it.
For starters, I began laughing in a condescending manner, which caught the two fairies off guard.
"What are you two trying to say? That I whimsically created the Night Crystals or something?"
"Uh… yeah?" Yang responded, though sounding unsure now.
"Come on, please. I simply have the ability to store and conceal items on my being."
"No way! Are you a descendant of the First!?"
My only response to that was to simply smile without commenting. At times like these, it's better to let others fill in the gaps for you.
"Holy crap, this is historical…" Yang began muttering to herself. Next to her, Yin practically had stars in her eyes as she stared at my face.
I was curious about who this "First" was, but unfortunately couldn't ask about it for now. Though, I did have a guess: First Progenitor.
With the way Yang had made that conclusion after I mentioned what I could do, I realized that "nobles" had powers based on their ancestors'.
Not only that, but the First Progenitor was possibly one with powers related to space. That was no joking matter. I genuinely wasn't sure if I would even survive an encounter with such an entity as I was.
Creating anything was nice and all, but if my opponent could tear through the void and attack me from a point beyond my senses, there was little I could do to fight back—if I didn't die immediately, anyway.
I am weak… I need to get stronger, and fast.
Having found my resolve and goal, I set off to end my first day in this new world by finding a place to sleep.