Chapter 69: Dragon Scale Flower (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
The owner only wanted a fragment of a regular magic stone. However, Angele didn’t know that magic stones could be broken into pieces. She then asked for Angele’s information and quickly ran out of the shop. Half an hour later, the owner returned with an identity card and a commercial lease agreement in her hands.
She handed the card over to Angele and asked him to sign the contract. The owner left with her crew after everything was done as though she didn’t want to stay here any longer. Angele wasn’t sure if he was ripped off, but he was surprised that he could get the identity card so easily.
Dunleavy told him that a residential permit was hard to get and the identity card that would grant him the right to be a resident here according to the shop owner. Angele knew the magic stone had a high value, but he didn’t expect to get the identity card and the shop with just one piece of the regular magic stone.
Angele put the card and the contract into his bag, and he checked around the shop again. He decided to do some cleaning and he wanted to close the door. Suddenly, he heard people walking towards his shop.
“Get out,” a man yelled. Angele raised his head and saw five strong men standing by the door. They had daggers or axes in their hands, and they were covered in sweat and awful smell.
“Who are you?” Angele scrunched his eyebrows, and he asked.
“You’re the new owner?” The man stepped forward before he asked. His skin was darker and there was a scar on his face. The guy looked tough especially when he kept swinging his axe with his hand.
“Yea.” Angele nodded.
“Good. Do you know the rules?” the man asked.
“Rules? What rules?” Angele scrunched his eyebrows before asking.
“Twenty gold coins per month and the bad guys will leave your shop alone,” the man stepped into the shop as he said.
“Twenty gold coins? Fine.” Angele nodded. He was still a stranger to the place, so he wanted to stay out of trouble. He still needed time to adapt to the new environment.
“Also, since you’re new here, we need to charge you a little extra. It will be a one-time fee. 2000 gold coins.” The man got greedier after seeing Angele agreeing to pay 20 gold coins each month without hesitation.
“2000?” Angele asked with a disappointed face.
“Yea. Why? You don’t want to mess with us.” The man raised his axe and waved it in the air. The other men started to laugh, staring at Angele in mockery.
“Young man, pay the money and we’ll protect you from any trouble, but if you don't…”
“Heh, hurry up!”
“I saw your sword, but you don’t look like a swordsman at all,” they started to yell. 20 gold coins was fine, but 2000 gold coins would be a huge amount to anyone. Those thugs wanted to blackmail him. Angele looked outside through the showcase, unable to see anyone walking by.
“I suggest you guys leave right now and I will forget what happened.” Angele stared at them and said with a deep voice.
The leader hadn’t expected Angele to threaten them. He looked at the sword that was hanging by Angele’s waist carefully and realized the young man probably knew how to fight. The leader saw Angele’s sheath that had some blood stain on it, which made his expression change.
“You little punk! How dare you try to threaten us! Do you know we’re with Roddie’s Sword?”
“Let’s f*ck him up!”
“We need to let him know who the real boss is!” The other thugs didn’t see their leader’s expression, only continuously yelling.
Angele suddenly stepped forward and grabbed someone’s neck. He then threw him toward the wall, which made the man faint right after hitting the wall. The other thugs were still wondering what just happened. One of their members was taken out within a second and the only thing they saw was Angele putting his hand around the fainted man’s neck.
Angele had the speed of a knight, so these thugs stood no chance against him. He wasted no time and put down the other four men left. They rolled around grimacing in pain.
“Give me all your money,” Angele talked to the leader. Angele was trying to stay out of trouble, but since he already beat them up, he decided to collect some pocket money.
“How dare you! You know we’re with Roddie’s Sword, right?” the leader said as he glared at Angele.
“Well, I don’t care. You know you won’t win a fight against me.” Angele said with a mocking tone as he kicked the leader’s waist.
The leader winced in pain as he rolled around. Angele grabbed the black leather pouch that the leader dropped on the ground. There were about 40 gold coins, some silver coins, and some random items inside it. There were also two egg-sized yellow balls which looked strange.
Angele thought they were made from mud and also noticed that the weight of the gold coins here was lower than where he came from. He grabbed one of the yellow balls and squeezed it with his fingers.
‘Umm?’ Angele found something strange about it. The ball had a smooth surface and he could smell the fragrance of herbs from it. It was surprisingly tough, but he got more surprised after figuring out what it was made from.
‘It can’t be…’ Angele thought.
‘Zero, compare the fragrance to the one in the database,’ Angele asked.
‘Comparing,’ Zero reported.
‘Comparing results: Rubra 94%. Viper Skin Grass 79%. Dragon Scale Flower 71%. Lizard Flower 13%.’ It took Zero several minutes to search the database.
‘I knew it… If it really contains Dragon Scale Flower, it must be the real Rubra. Those balls are Rubra, and I can use them to increase my Mentality. Also, if there were Dragon Scale Flowers growing around the city, I will be able to make them by myself,’ Angele smiled after thinking of this.
The leader was lying on the ground, glaring at Angele with hatred, but Angele found him likable after finding the information he needed from the pouch.
“Where did you find this?” Angele asked as he hid his excitement in his mind.
“If you touch my boss again, I will…” a thug lying beside his leader yelled. Angele didn’t want to waste any time, so he kicked the thug in the head. The thug flew out of the door and stopped moving after hitting the ground. Blood was coming out of his head. No one knew if he was dead or alive.
The others were silent after seeing what Angele just did, while the leader looked scared.
“One of my men stole a bag of goods and this was one of the items I found inside the bag.” The leader looked at the Rubra as he said.
“Did you see a flower that has white petals and black pistils?” Angele asked.
“Yes! I did!” The leader nodded his head rapidly.
“Give it to me.” Angele was really excited, but he tried not to show what he was feeling on his face.
“I don’t have it with me… I left it at home,” the leader said.
“Get up everyone. Take me to your home.” Angele looked around. He wanted to make sure no one escaped. Angele wasn’t sure what exactly Roddie’s Sword was, but if one of them called for reinforcements, he could be in trouble.
If he could find the Dragon Scale Flowers, he would be able to craft the Rubra. The Dragon Scale Flowers were the rarest material, but the rest weren’t hard to find. A good amount of Rubra could help reduce the time he needed to reach rank 3 by half and the Rubra would still be helpful even after reaching rank 3.
Angele saw the Dragon Scale Flower once when he was still in the school because one of the masters showed it to them in a class. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have it in the database. Zero recorded the Flower’s properties when Angele saw it in class.
The thugs got up from the ground and one of them grabbed the unconscious on the ground. Angele took his most important bag with him and followed the leader into the deeper alley.
They spent about half an hour in the alley and finally arrived at the leader’s home.
“We are here,” the leader said in a light tone. There were barely any people around, but Angele could see prostitutes with heavy make-ups walking around and he also heard drunken people singing random songs. The ground here was covered with dirt and it was very sticky. The place really stank.
“Move, everyone.” Angele stared at the leader and the other thugs followed them into a small building. The leader grabbed a small bag from his disorganized bedroom and took out a flower that had white petals and black pistils.
“That’s the one!” Angele yelled.
“That’s… what you want?” The leader started at Angele.
“Give it to me,” Angele said.
The leader suddenly looked behind Angele. His eyes were wide open and had a horrified expression on the face. Angele was so excited that he forgot Zero to report if anyone appeared behind him, so he just turned back to check. It was too late when he realized what the leader was trying to do.
The man threw the flower into his mouth and swallowed the whole thing. He had a smile on his face as though he was proud of what he just did.
“F*ck you!” the leader swore and stepped back.
“Kandra, kill him!” he yelled.
A man jumped into the bedroom from the window, trying to attack Angele. Angele saw the flower was gone. He felt the blood rushing into his head, turning his excitement into pure rage.
“No! My flower! You will pay for this! You filthy insect!” Angele felt his temples boiling from the blood.
“How dare you!” he yelled.
Angele had never been so enraged. Even the wizards thought the flower was rare as one Dragon Scale Follow could be made into a great amount of Rubra. It would cost Angele more than a thousand regular magic stones to get it, yet the thug merely ate it in front of him.
Anger boiled deep in Angele, not expecting a thug to have the guts to do something like this. Also, Zero didn’t detect the guy who just jumped into the bedroom. He must’ve hidden extremely well.
“You are going to die!” Angele screamed, and his voice echoed.
‘Elimination plan initiated. Sensory integration enhanced. Targets locked,’ Zero reported. Angele’s eyes started to shine, and the blue flashes produced lit up the whole room.