Chapter 28 - Vine Stone
As they expected, they heard Alice's voice, "Slee, why are you here? Is Chen Rui upstairs?" Imp's eyes lit up, seeing the little princess actually remember his name. He quickly nodded with excitement, "Master is on the second floor."
Alice skipped up to the second floor and found Chen Rui. "I wanted to look for you, who knew you'd come to me first!" she said happily.
Chen Rui thought to himself, _Who wants to come to you..._ He had been focusing on the Super System for the past two days and suddenly realized he still owed an "interesting story." He quickly shifted the topic, pointing at the "Princess Chess" and saying, "Isn't this Huarong Dao? How did you..."
Alice smirked, "Hehe, am I not amazing? I changed its look, or else it wouldn't sell. You have to learn more." She had no shame in pirating, instead, she seemed proud.
Chen Rui smiled and nodded, "That's right, little princess is indeed amazing." He thought to himself, _Piracy has become even more arrogant than the original, but I'm also technically a pirate._
Alice continued, "Since you're here, come over and help." She raised her storage bracelet and threw out a bunch of items. Fortunately, there were no sexy lace bras like he had seen during their last picnic.
Chen Rui sighed inwardly, _Truly thick-faced..._ He had no choice but to clean and categorize the items with Kia on the ground. Kia had an innate fragrance, coupled with her attractive body and appearance, making her super effective against men. Chen Rui knew that the danger index of this essence-sucking woman had reached rank S.
He focused his mind, looking steadily forward, lest he slipped and had his attention attracted by her. Little loli saw his nervousness and pondered, "Oh right, Chen Rui, I heard that the last time my sister seemed to say that she would grant Kia to you in the future. Are you excited?"
Chen Rui was taken aback, _How does Alice even know this?_ "Princess Royal truly said that?" Kia was stunned. Seeing Chen Rui's nervous look, her red lips pulled out a narrow smile, and she deliberately approached him, "So, by then do I need to call you... Master?"
The word "master" was deliberately lengthened by the succubus, making it euphoric. Chen Rui's face heated up, and he lowered his head more, pretending not to hear. He moved his body sideways, trying to create some distance between them.
"Master, do you not like Kia? I'm so sad..." The succubus slowly moved closer to Chen Rui. As she moved her shoulders slightly, the cleavage between her breasts deepened. Chen Rui trembled, swallowing his saliva with difficulty. He secretly swore, _Femme fatale._
Alice watched the scene unfold, laughing out loud. She had gotten a stool to watch the show, clearly entertained by Chen Rui's reaction. The succubus race was mostly natural stunners, and Kia was one of the best. If it wasn't for Chen Rui's trauma, he could hardly resist her charms.
Just as Chen Rui was about to lose his composure, the prompt in his brain woke him up, "Found convertible substance. Do you want to convert into aura?" Chen Rui then remembered that he had been activating the conversion skill. His attention suddenly fell on the dark purple stone in his hand.
The stone was fist-sized, translucent, and radiating an internal pattern. It looked magnificent, and Chen Rui's eyes widened in surprise.
Chen Rui held the stone, asking Alice, "Little princess, what is this?"
Alice replied, "This is what Joseph gave me. It's called a vine stone, a local product of the Red Spirit Estate." She noticed Chen Rui's interest and thought for a moment before giving a weird expression. "The vine stone has a special function; it seems to be able to... let men enhance that... function. You can't be a man that needs such a stone, right?"
Chen Rui had a cold sweat and quickly threw the stone away. He thought, _No matter how much I want aura, I can't admit that I'm some sort of incompetent man in front of two beauties!_ Kia, who had been teasing him, couldn't help but grin, looking flirtatious. Alice laughed exaggeratedly on the stool.
Chen Rui recalled the little princess's evil deeds when they first met and started doubting. _Although Joseph is the eldest son of the Red Spirit Lord and the financial officer of the Dark Moon City, he wouldn't give such a perverted thing to the little princess, right?_
For the aura, Chen Rui forced himself to ask, "Little princess, what is the actual function of the vine stone?" Little loli teased him a little more before finally having enough. She told him that the vine stone could increase a magician's magic power to a certain extent. It was usually embedded in magic-amplifying equipment, indeed something that "enhanced a certain function."
Chen Rui strongly despised Alice's descriptive ability and asked, "I really like this stone. Can the little princess sell it to me?" Alice saw his serious look, felt bored, and said, "If you really want it, 5 black crystal coins, I've discounted it for you!"
Chen Rui was shocked. "So expensive!" He still didn't know how many auras the vine stone could provide. Before that, the price already scared him away. 5 black crystal coins were almost all of his assets. _Forget it, I'll wait for Zach's free ore first._
Alice laughed like a little fox and said, "I know that my sister awarded you 5 black crystal coins through Aldas." Chen Rui thought, _She even knows that! It seems that little loli is deliberately wanting me to go bankrupt. Indeed a scam shop owner!_
Chen Rui said with indignation, "It can't be Princess Royal asking you to do this purposely, right? I'll go to Princess Royal now and return the reward directly to her." Alice heard that he was going to find her sister and hurriedly stopped him, "I was just joking with you. Why so serious?"
Chen Rui thought, _It seems that I have to use this trick to deal with little loli!_ He was secretly smug, then heard Alice give a speechless new price, "Then let's make it 4 black crystal coins and 99 purple crystal coins!" The difference was just between 5,000 and 4,990.
Chen Rui thought, _It's too expensive. I think I will pass._ It seemed impossible to get the vine stones from the little loli today. Alice said with protruded lips, "Didn't you see everything here is expensive? If it's not expensive, how is it supposed to show my princess status?"
She continued, "However, I sell things based on impression too. If you can make me happy, there is another vine stone here, I can give them together to you." Two pieces of vine stones! Chen Rui was excited. It was just that it wasn't easy to satisfy Alice. In these days, the stocks in his mind were almost emptied out.
Chen Rui pondered for a while and said, "Little princess, what if I teach you how to operate a business to make more money?" He hoped that this would impress Alice and convince her to give him the vine stones.
Alice's big eyes lit up, and then she frowned her cute brows. "Shouldn't business be operated like this? Everyone is doing this. I'm already much smarter than those people." Chen Rui shook his head, his eyes showing strong self-confidence. "Business isn't operated like this."
After a while, the imp, who was waiting downstairs, saw his master coming down and greeted him hurriedly. Chen Rui frowned, "Why didn't you tell me earlier that this shop is opened by the little princess?"
Imp noticed his master's dissatisfaction and said with a pleasing smile, "Wasn't master looking for a store that sells weird stuff? This is the most eccentric store in the city. Especially since master is so close with the little princess, there must be a surprise."
Chen Rui looked at Slee's flattering smile and waved the two pieces of vine stones in his hand. "Vine stone!" Imp recognized them at a glance and exclaimed. "This is very expensive! I remember it's priced at 50 black crystal coins in the magic store owned by Sir Joseph!"
50 black crystal coins! Chen Rui glanced upstairs in surprise. His impression of the blackhearted little princess finally changed.
Chen Rui left Alice's shop. Along the way, when Slee wasn't paying attention, he secretly tried using the conversion skills. The vine stones were indeed expensive magic material. The two pieces provided a total of 230 auras, and the total amount of aura had reached 406 points. It was like a poor peasant suddenly becoming middle-class.
The acquisition of the vine stones ignited a new hope in Chen Rui. He made Slee lead the way to the magic store under Joseph's name to see if he could find any treasures.
The magic store was located in the most prosperous area of the city center, but there were very few customers inside. The reason was simple: it was too expensive. For the vine stones that Chen Rui absorbed, it was far more expensive than the imp remembered. It was 68 black crystal coins each, and there were only 3 pieces. The price of the rest of the magic material was also surprisingly high. It was definitely not affordable for Chen Rui's current financial situation.
It seemed that magicians and alchemists were almost the same; both were money-burning jobs. Chen Rui was disappointed, but today's harvest was rich enough. After this, there would be a constant aura supply from Zach for a long time. He should be content.
When he was about to leave, a voice from the entrance sounded, "Isn't this Master Aldas's human apprentice? Why are you here?" Chen Rui saw that it was a man with a delicate dress. He was handsome with an extraordinary temperament, but there was a slight sinister look between his brows.
The man's appearance was no different from that of a human. Like Athena, he belonged to a great demon with a high-class mutated bloodline, possessing two forms. The man was followed by two great demons, a man and a woman who seemed to be servants. Next to the man, there was also a familiar-looking male great demon looking at Chen Rui with a hostile gaze. It was Athena's pursuer, Dark Moon City's garrison general, Alan.
Slee quickly stepped up and saluted with the intention of warning Chen Rui, "Sir Joseph, Sir Alan." Chen Rui then realized that the handsome young man was Joseph, the eldest son of the Red Spirit Lord; the current financial officer who controlled the economy of Dark Moon City.
"Fuck off!" Alan shouted. Slee was so scared that he hid behind Chen Rui hurriedly. Chen Rui secretly activated his
However, with Ganke's example, Chen Rui understood that being rated at the same level didn't mean that the strength would be similar. Athena once said that within Intermediate Demon, the peak level was at least 10 times stronger than the initial level. This comprehensive assessment was likely to be the same.
There were two great demons behind Joseph. Their strength was D-class, which was quite powerful; whereas Joseph's comprehensive assessment was actually: Unable to determine!