Started with a 10,000x Multiplier in a Game World

Chapter 179: Chapter 179: A Priceless Appraisal

The interior of the dusty and run-down appraisal shop was completely overwhelmed by the intense swirling light of the Celestial artifact.

Clara kept her hands firmly pressed against the sides of the [Helm of the Void-Drake].

Her face was incredibly pale. Beads of digitized sweat formed on her forehead.

The systemic feedback from decrypting a God-tier item was actively trying to tear her mana pool apart.

But the damage didn’t stick.

Every time her health bar flickered downward, the [Ultimate Guardian Halo] of Aura pulsed with brilliant silver light.

The 60% mitigation blunted the neural shock. The massive passive regeneration instantly topped the health of Clara back to full.

Dante stood casually and leaned against the wooden table. He watched the process.

"You are doing great, Mom!" Dave cheered from the corner of the room. He was oblivious to the lethal systemic math occurring right in front of her.

Clara let out a sharp and breathless gasp.

She pulled her hands away from the helmet and slumped heavily against the table. She was completely exhausted.

The swirling galaxies trapped inside the crystal helmet stopped violently churning and settled into a slow mesmerizing drift. The system locks were completely bypassed.

"It is done," Clara panted. Her voice was incredibly weak. "The encryption is broken."

Dante immediately pulled up the system interface for the item.

[Item Appraised: Evil Dragon Helmet]

[Tier: Celestial]

[Type: Heavy Armor (Head)]

[Stats: +4,500 Physical Defense, +4,500 Magical Defense.]

[Passive 1 (Draconic Resilience): Grants the user absolute immunity to critical hits.]

[Passive 2 (Dragon’s Insight): Replaces standard perception mechanics. Grants the user ’True Vision’. Reveals all hidden traps, stealth entities, structural weaknesses, and unmapped geographic anomalies within a 500-foot radius.]

Dante stared at the second passive.

"True Vision," Dante murmured.

It was an incredible tactical upgrade.

His maxed-out Intuition stat was powerful, but it only warned him of immediate danger. It didn’t provide visual data.

[Dragon’s Insight] completely negated stealth mechanics.

If the Blood-Lotus Assassin, had tried to sneak up on him while he wore this helmet, she wouldn’t have been able to get within a hundred yards without glowing like a beacon.

He didn’t hesitate. He tapped the helmet.

It dissolved into a stream of translucent crystal light and seamlessly replaced his current basic Silver-tier headpiece. The massive stat boost applied instantly.

[Participant: Dan]

[Level: 72]

[HP: 17,900 / 17,900]

His health bar didn’t jump back to the absurd 25,500 he possessed before.

But nearly eighteen thousand health points was still astronomically high.

Combined with his absolute immunity to critical hits, he was functionally a walking fortress again.

"Incredible craftsmanship," Clara whispered and stared at the helmet now resting on the head of Dante. "To forge celestial code into armor... the First Cycle architects were gods."

Dante dismissed the interface. He looked down at the exhausted appraiser.

"You did good work," Dante said. He reached into his infinite inventory. "What is your standard fee for a Celestial decryption?"

Clara hesitated. She looked incredibly nervous.

"The systemic baseline for Celestial decryption is typically... five hundred thousand silver coins," Clara stammered and wrung her hands together.

"But given the risk, most master appraisers charge upwards of two million."

Dante didn’t pull out a bag of silver coins.

In the economy of the Zenith Protocol, one hundred copper equaled one silver. One hundred silver equaled one gold.

Gold coins were the highest standard currency. They were used exclusively by the top-tier guilds to purchase endgame assets and secure real estate.

Dante pulled a heavy intricately carved velvet pouch from his void ring. He placed it gently on the wooden table.

It hit the wood with a heavy satisfying clink.

Clara stared at the pouch. "What is this?"

"Your fee," Dante said simply.

Clara slowly reached out and pulled the drawstring open. She looked inside.

She physically stumbled backward. Her hand flew to her mouth to stifle a scream.

"Fifty," Clara whispered. Tears instantly welled in her exhausted eyes. "Fifty gold coins."

To a top-tier Guild Master like Silas, fifty gold coins was a minor rounding error.

But to a non-combat player running a shop in the slums, fifty gold coins was an unfathomable fortune. It was the equivalent of several million Veridian credits in the real world.

"This... this is too much," Clara sobbed.

Her professional demeanor completely broke down. She desperately tried to push the pouch back across the table.

"I cannot accept this. You provided the protective aura. I barely did anything. Please, Outworlder, take it back. If the local gangs realize I have this much currency, they will kill us."

"Keep it," Dante said. He placed his dark purple gauntlet over the pouch to stop her.

He looked around the dilapidated and dusty shop.

He looked at Dave who was currently watching his mother cry with wide and confused eyes.

"Why are you operating out of a ruined building in the lower tiers?" Dante asked. His voice softened slightly from its usual flat and clinical tone.

"You are a Level 45 Master Appraiser. You have the skills to work in the commercial district. You should be working for a major guild."

Clara wiped her eyes, and her shoulders slumped in absolute defeat.

"I cannot work for the guilds," Clara confessed. Her voice trembled.

"They demand exclusive contracts. They require twenty-hour daily login quotas. I cannot commit that much time to the server."

"Because of him?" Dante asked and nodded toward Dave.

Clara looked at her son. A look of profound agonizing heartbreak crossed her face.

"Dave is sick," Clara whispered, and her voice was barely audible. "Not in the game. In the real world."

"He has a neurological degenerative condition. The medical treatments on Veridia are astronomically expensive."

"I log into Overture to appraise low-tier gear to pay for his daily nutrient drips, but I have to log out constantly to physically manage his care."

Dante stood perfectly still.

He remembered the sterile and cold corporate penthouse he had just moved into.

He remembered the billions of credits currently sitting in his secure offshore account. It was acquired simply by hoarding digital loot and bullying other players.

"The major guilds will not hire me because of my erratic schedule," Clara continued. Tears streamed down her face.

"And the independent market in the slums barely pays enough to keep the shop open. If I do not secure the funds for her surgical procedure by the end of the month, the corporate hospital will disconnect her life support."

Dante didn’t offer a platitude. He didn’t tell her everything was going to be okay.

He understood the brutal unforgiving reality of the corporate healthcare system of Veridia. If you didn’t have the credits, you didn’t survive.

He looked down at the fifty gold coins in the pouch.

It was enough to pay for a surgery, but it wasn’t enough to secure their future.

Dante opened his system interface.

He pulled up his private communication channel to bypass the standard regional chat and dialed a direct line to the Astral Emporium.

Sera answered immediately.

[Sera: Dante. Are you back in the city?]

[Dan: I am in the lower residential tier. I need a contract drafted immediately.]

[Sera: A contract? For who?]

[Dan: A Level 45 Master Appraiser named Clara. I want her hired as the exclusive primary appraiser for the Astral Emporium.]

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line as Sera processed the request.

[Sera: We definitely need an in-house appraiser for the massive volume of high-tier loot you keep dumping on us. But why are we drafting a contract without an interview? What are her terms?]

[Dan: Her terms are absolute flexibility. She logs in when she can and logs out whenever she needs to. No quotas. No mandatory hours.]

[Sera: Dante, that is highly irregular. An exclusive appraiser needs to be on call during peak auction hours. If she is not reliable, it will create massive bottlenecks in our supply chain.]

[Dan: I do not care about the bottlenecks, Sera. She is hired. And I want you to authorize a

signing bonus.]

[Sera: How much?]

[Dan: Five million real-world Veridian Credits. Wired directly to her physical account today.]

Sera didn’t argue.

She knew Dante well enough by now to realize he wasn’t making a poor financial decision. He was executing a rescue operation.

[Sera: I will have the contract and the wire transfer ready in ten minutes. Send her to the Emporium.]

Dante closed the interface.

He looked down at Clara, who was staring at him in complete baffled silence.

She hadn’t heard the private conversation, but she could see the absolute uncompromising determination in the eyes of Dante.

"You do not work in the slums anymore," Dante told her flatly.

"What?" Clara stammered.

"Take the fifty gold. Pay your immediate bills," Dante ordered and turned away from the table.

"Then pack up your shop. Take your daughter and walk directly to the central commercial plaza. Look for a massive building called the Astral Emporium."

"The Emporium?" Clara gasped. She recognized the name from the server-wide auction broadcast.

"But that is the wealthiest establishment in the capital! They will not let me through the front door!"

"Tell them Dan sent you," Dante said and adjusted his pitch-black cloak.

"You are their new Master Appraiser. The schedule is completely flexible, and they are wiring five million credits to your real-world account today. That should cover the surgery."

Clara completely broke down.

The exhausted and desperate mother dropped to her knees on the dusty wooden floor and sobbed uncontrollably.

She didn’t try to thank him with words. She was entirely overwhelmed by the sudden miracle that had just rewritten her entire life.

"Mom!" Dave yelled. He ran over and hugged her crying mother tightly.

The little girl looked up at Dante, and her brown eyes shone. "Thank you, Mr. Hero!"

"I am not a hero," Dante said quietly, his voice tight. "I just do not like bullies. Even corporate ones."

He turned and walked out of the dilapidated shop. He left the mother and daughter alone to process their salvation.

He stepped back out into the narrow shadowed alleyway of the slums.

The heavy apathetic weight of the [Asura Vanguard] class that had been clinging to his thoughts since the massacre in the Crimson Canyon felt noticeably lighter.

Helping Clara had anchored his humanity. It proved to himself that he wasn’t entirely consumed by the bloodlust of the First Age.

He took a deep breath of the cool city air.

Before he could activate [Meteor Stride] to return to the Emporium, his private message interface pinged loudly.

It wasn’t Sera or Lila.

[Aria (Little Cutie): Hi Mr. Hero! Are you in the big city yet? I finally finished my super boring starter village quests! I am taking the portal to Aethelgardia right now!]

Dante stared at the message.

Aria. The seemingly innocent fragile girl who had casually handed him the highly lethal and un-cleansable [Bloom of Decay] poison in Outpost 404.

The player who currently held the Rank 2 spot on the Global Hidden Class Leaderboards.

The Soul Weaver was coming to the Capital.

"Perfect," Dante muttered, and a cold smile touched his lips. "The anomaly squad is about to get significantly more dangerous."