Sharpening Knife, a universal skill.
Increases weapon attack power by 10%.
At first glance, this passive skill seemed pretty average.
But Elliot knew better—it had upgrade versions, Sharpening Knife II and Sharpening Knife III.
Only by mastering the basic skill could you learn the upgraded versions.
The more you progressed in the game, the more valuable it became, especially since later stages would make it hard to find a copy.
Once, the auction house had sold a copy for 1 million gold coins—worth a hefty $100,000.
To think it would pop up here in the newbie village, in the Skeleton Cave of all places.
The girl's in-game name was SweetKelly.
Such an artistic name.
Elliot was stunned, but kept his face calm: "A level 10 skill? Sure, I'll take it. How much do you want for it?"
SweetKelly sighed: "I don't know. I can't even use the book! Plus, 10% increase is too little, it doesn't seem that useful to me!"
She didn't get it, which was perfect.
Elliot made a distressed face, as if he was struggling with the decision: "You're right, it's pretty useless. By the way, how many useless bones do you have?"
"I have 6."
"How about this: I'll offer you 7 bones' worth of price, and you sell me the book!"
As he spoke, Elliot felt a little guilty but also hopeful.
SweetKelly pouted: "50 gold coins? Boss, give me a little more, I'm not offering a discount!"
Elliot frowned, pretending to be deep in thought, visibly torn.
He muttered to himself, "This book really isn't useful... If I buy it, I'll probably lose out. But you're so beautiful... You must be kind-hearted, right?"
SweetKelly's eyes lit up: "If you say it like that, I'm okay with 8 bones."
"Alright, I don't want to seem stingy, let's make it 8 bones then!"
"Ah, you're such a good person!"
SweetKelly gleefully traded her 6 bones and the Sharpening Knife book to Elliot.
"Hehe, it's my honor to serve someone like you!"
Elliot couldn't help but smile as he thought about how SweetKelly would react in the future when she found out he had flipped this book for 1 million gold coins.
It would probably drive her crazy.
SweetKelly smiled brightly: "You're such a good person. If I have anything good in the future, I'll sell it to you first!"
[Ding, SweetKelly added you as a friend. Do you accept?]
Elliot froze for a moment.
But, in front of her, he couldn't just refuse.
[Accept!]
"Let's keep in touch when we have time!"
After bidding her farewell, Elliot opened his friend list.
[Ding, do you want to delete SweetKelly?]
"Block!"
[Ding, successfully removed friend and added to blacklist!]
Elliot didn't want to be bothered by a woman, especially not when he was focused on making money.
Once that was done, he got up and left the Skeleton Cave.
He circled around the cave and continued deeper into the forest.
As he was leaving, four figures silently followed behind him.
Elliot knew exactly who they were—players who wanted to see what use the "useless bones" had.
In this situation, trying to eat meat alone would be impossible.
So he turned around and called out to them: "Hey, brothers, since you're here, why don't we head out together?"
"Uh? Haha, we're just passing by, same path as you!"
"Yeah, yeah, same path!"
Elliot smiled, pretending not to notice: "Well, since we're all about the same level, let's team up and hunt some monsters along the way to level up!"
"Good idea, I was thinking the same!"
The five of them formed a team, and Elliot didn't have to worry about wild monsters on the way anymore.
The others were eager to get information from him while working extra hard at the monsters.
Elliot didn't even summon his zombie; he didn't need to steal their experience when they were all crowding around him.
"Bro, what exactly are you using all those bones for?"
Just as they were getting close to the mountain range, one of them asked.
The other three all turned to Elliot.
Elliot, of course, wouldn't tell them, and smiled mysteriously: "You'll find out when we get there. How many bones did you guys collect?"
"I got 15."
"I got 24."
"I got the most, 110! Got them for 51 gold coins!"
"We couldn't get that many. Your stall was so fancy, ours looked like we were begging. We're lucky to even get a few!"
"Bro, tell us—what's the point of these bones? You get all the kills, but share a little with your bros!"
Elliot cleared his throat: "Well, I can share, but I have one condition. When we get there, we all set the price at 500 gold coins each."
"500 each? Bro, that's a little too much, don't you think??"
"Will people even buy them?"
"We're only an hour from the Skeleton Cave, 500 each sounds a bit high, doesn't it?"
Elliot chuckled: "500 is indeed expensive, but there are people who will buy them. Don't worry."
"Ugh, bro, you're ruthless!!!"
Soon enough, they reached their destination, a mountain camp.
The camp had dozens of NPCs, more than the newbie village.
A group of players was crowded around the camp, all recently from the Skeleton Cave.
"Look! The merchant is here!"
"Great, damn, bro, we've been waiting for you forever!"
"Yeah, bro, you're finally here, hand over the bones!"
At level 10, these were the top players.
Elliot, still level 7, was surrounded by them.
Elliot smiled: "Of course, I'm setting up shop right now!"
The four merchants who had come with him exchanged glances and set up stalls in front of the camp's safe zone.
When Elliot's golden stall name appeared, everyone took notice.
"500 gold coins?? Why don't you go rob a bank??"
"Uh, you've already said that! He said it's faster than robbing!"
"I just sold them to you for 50 gold coins, and now you're selling them to me for 500? Am I the fool here??"
"That's too much! 500 gold coins, 10 bones for 50 gold coins? Forget it, we're going back to the Skeleton Cave!"
"Bigbucks, you better watch out, I'm coming for you next time."
It wasn't that they couldn't afford it—it was the principle of the thing. Some just couldn't handle the high markup and stormed off.
The four merchants, seeing this, sighed in unison: "Bro, I think we might've screwed up!"
Elliot raised his eyebrows and sat back with a smile: "Don't rush. Just wait. People will buy."
Sure enough.
After the few left, even more players chose to buy from Elliot's stall.
[Ding, congratulations! You've sold 10 useless bones for 5,000 gold coins!]
The system notifications kept popping up.
The four merchants stared in disbelief at their own stalls.
"How is this possible?! Why are they buying it??"
One player answered them:
"This is the place where you can change your class. The 10 useless bones are part of the class change quest. Once you finish, you'll be sent to the big map."
"The real reason is, there are so many players in the Skeleton Cave now, it's hard to even get a skeleton to kill, let alone level up. And they need these bones for their quest."
The top-tier players here had all completed their main tasks, and they didn't want to lose their advantage.
10 bones per person, and in no time, the useless bones were sold out.
Elliot's gold surged again.
He went from 100,000 to 850,000 gold coins.
$85,000 earned in just one afternoon.
Elliot had already made back the money for his helmet.
"Not bad, keep it up!"
Elliot, excited but keeping his cool, closed his stall.
The four merchants who had come with him rushed up: "Bro, wait up!"