"So all of this happened because of a fruit?" Reign asked with a confused expression on his face as Beast nodded before taking the fruit out of the inventory.
A white fruit with purple dots on it appeared in the room, and Reign and the others were further confused as they could sense nothing from the fruit. The fruit itself looked weird, but it had no aura or even smell.
"Is it like some incredibly rare fruit that gives you incredible powers once you eat it?" Wolf asked as Beast shrugged his shoulders, completely unaware of what the fruit was.
"The only thing the system has told me is that the fruit is valuable, I can't even get the name," Beast said as he stared at the fruit before smelling it.
"Hmm, let me take a look." Reign said as he used his [ Inspect ] skill on the fruit, only to get nothing but question marks on it.
"No good, I can't get any information either, my skill isn't good enough, or it's me that's too low leveled to get any info."
'Aethion, you know what this is?'
"I have to say that I, unfortunately, do not know boy, I have never seen or heard of this fruit before."
"Tch, Aethion doesn't know either." Reign said as he clicked his tongue before staring at the fruit again.
All of the continued guessing what the fruit might be for several minutes before the door opened and the queen, together with the other Transcendents, entered the room.
They sat down, all of them interested in hearing what Beast had to say about the entire ordeal he had gotten through, only to be met with the same confusion as he showed them the fruit. None of them knew what it was or what it was used for.
"I'm sorry but it seems only the Saint will be able to give you any information about this." The queen said as Beast looked and her and the others with an even more confused face, prompting them all to tell him about what had happened after he arrived on Earth.
"She sent a Saint over?" Beast asked them once again to confirm as he didn't realize the attack would actually cause such an effect. Not only did the god that had given him the mark get very angry about the entire thing, but it seemed that she also used her status to immediately put pressure on the god the Transcendent was serving before sending a Saint to watch over him until he woke up.
"Be careful, however, we have no idea if the Saint will also want to take the fruit, there's also no certainty that he will not downplay its value in order to get it cheaply from you." Eldar suddenly said before Beast nodded at him.
It was about 2 minutes later that the door opened and Orobos entered the room.
He nodded at everybody before looking at Beast, and upon noticing the fruit, his eyes opened wide and his hand shook.
"That, could it be?" Orobos suddenly disappeared, only to appear beside Beast and stare at the fruit, making everybody jump from their seats in fright.
"Oh, apologies, I lost my bearings there," Orobos said as he scratched the back of his head before sitting down nearby.
"Boy, is this what you took on that planet, the item that prompted the Transcendent to attack you?"
"Yeah, do you know what it is?" Beast asked as the Saint sighed with a small smile before looking at him.
"I do, and it seems that the god the steward had visited was truly lying," Orobos said as he stared at the fruit with a passionate gaze.
"This is the fruit of the dead, it is one of the rarest fruits in the entirety of the universe, and finding one is incredibly difficult, so difficult that even gods are unable to find it for centuries or even many millennia."
Reign and the others gulped upon hearing his words as it was only now that they knew just how rare the fruit was.
"Honestly, even though the fruit is very rare and extremely valuable to the right people, it is usually not something that people would go out of their way to find since it's relatively useless."
"It's useless, why?" Beast asked Orobos who smirked upon hearing his question.
"Because if one was to eat the fruit, they would die, even if the person was a god," Orobos said with a smile on his face as Reign and the others felt a chill passing through their bodies as they thought of how they were contemplating whether the fruit should be consumed in order to give them benefits before.
"It can kill gods, is that why it's so valuable because you can use it to assassinate a … god?" Reign suddenly asked, prompting Orobos to laugh out loud.
"No, the value of the fruit is not in its potent killing power, only those that are at the Ancient God realm and above can survive eating it, that is true, but the fruit has one use, at least from what we know of."
"It can be used to boost the taste and potency of any wine in the world, including the extremely rare and valuable ones, making them better, which in turn allows one to sell them for exorbitant prices, not to mention that there are wines that can increase the power of a person, and by putting this fruit inside of it during the fermentation process, it will boost those properties as well."
"Wait, so the only purpose it has is to make wine better, even with the boosting part, isn't that a bit … useless?"
"Hahahaha, well yes, to those that do not like wine or those that do not make wine, this fruit is absolutely useless and will have no purpose other than to be sold, but to those that are in the wine-making business, it is an incredible treasure that can make sure that they will create top quality wine for at least 10 000 years, as that is when the fruit usually losses its powers and wilts away."
"And luckily for you, I am a servant of the Heavenly Charms Mansion, a powerful establishment in the universe that is not only well known for our power, but the wine our master produces as well, we actually have two of such fruits back in the mansion right now, and have had hundreds in the past."
"Hundreds?!"
"How old is this mansion of yours?!"
"How old, I don't know, it has withstood multiple ears, has been around for as long as the inhabitants of the universe can remember, and predates the Alliance even, so let's just say it is quite old."
"And you don't have to worry about me or anyone else trying to take the fruit from you, even if it is quite valuable to us, one fruit of the dead is not something we would kill a mortal in the leveling realm over, not when we can simply trade for it, which is probably what the god that the Transcendent served would have done as well."
"So, how much is this worth?"
"About a planet, give or take," Orobos said nonchalantly as Reign and the others stared at him with their eyes wide open.
"What, I am being honest, this fruit is probably worth as much as an average planet in the universe, I have already told you how rare it is and how much one could get from it, in the long run, we would probably get more value from it than from a single planet."
"You do have to realize that the number of planets in the universe is enormous, it is impossible to count them all, and more are being discovered all the time, so one planet is not as valuable as you would think.
"But I am afraid that I won't be able to give you anything for it right now, the fruit is too valuable for someone in the leveling realm, and if we were to give you anything for it, it would be too powerful for you to use it, and we will not be giving you anything usable in your current realm since your patron does not wish to see you get too confident by using tools to help you become more powerful."
"So, I'm stuck with this?"
"Not necessarily, we can form a contract, one that states that you will be paid for the fruit, but in installments, and the installments will not depend on time, but on what realm you reach, until you finally become powerful enough to get the full payment."
"I do know it might seem disingenuous as if you were to die before reaching the needed realm, we would be getting the fruit for relatively nothing, but I assure you, that is not our goal as there is no need for us to use underhanded methods, it is just the wish of the young miss not to see you fail in the future."
"He is telling the truth, the mansion is much more powerful than you could imagine, a fruit like that is not something they would lie in order to get," Drayce said from the side before going quiet and allowing Beast to think about Orobos's offer.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶