Rayleigh walked into a shop in Rivira.
Although the shopkeeper saw him enter, he only glanced at him, showing no intention of getting up to welcome him.
In this place, even an attitude this awful could only be considered neither good nor bad.
Rayleigh was not surprised by it. He simply looked around the store on his own.
Then he walked straight to the counter and asked, "Are you the one in charge?"
The lazy man slouching behind the counter gave a casual "hmph" in reply, which counted as agreement.
So Rayleigh took out a pouch, held it a short distance above the counter, then loosened his grip and let the heavy bag drop onto the surface.
The weighty sound made the shopkeeper's ears twitch.
In the next instant, he shot to his feet and immediately changed into a flattering expression.
"Customer—no, esteemed customer, what would you like?"
Although the man acted like this, Rayleigh knew it was because the bag contained three times the average transaction amount of this shop.
Five hundred thousand on the surface, one million in Rivira.
If you wanted good service on top of that, then multiply it by three again.
And this was exactly three times that.
"Heh."
Looking at the man's fawning appearance, Rayleigh only said flatly, "Save your excitement for after you can actually get it. I want update potion."
"!?"
The shopkeeper froze.
His face instantly became conflicted.
In that moment, his expression turned unwilling, regretful, even remorseful.
Seeing his face, Rayleigh knew there was a high chance this shop did not have what he wanted.
Even so, he took out a small portion from the pouch and casually scattered it across the counter.
"Consider this information fee. Tell me where I can buy it."
The man curled his lips, suddenly lacking interest.
He looked at the bulging pouch on the counter, then glanced at the "small change" beside it, and his attitude instantly became indifferent.
This was Rivira.
People here would not bend for five bowls of rice, but for fifty pounds of rice, they would abandon their wives and children, or even commit crimes.
To put it simply, the people here only cared about big profits.
The man picked up the benefit money, sighed, and said, "Go to the tent west of Rivira. There's an old Pallum there."
After hearing that, Rayleigh put away the pouch and left without looking back.
The pouch did not contain valis.
Inside were rare materials with high general utility, and every one of them was worth over a hundred thousand.
This kind of thing was the favorite currency of Rivira's crooked merchants.
Compared to money with a fixed value, they could resell those materials at a higher price.
During the best times, adding eighty percent was not strange at all.
A fifty percent markup could only be considered standard practice.
After quickly leaving Rivira, Rayleigh arrived at the black market the man had introduced.
"Kid, where are you from?"
As soon as he approached, several adventurers stopped him.
Rayleigh glanced at them and judged that among them were four Level 2s and two Level 1s.
Seeing this, Rayleigh explained, "The owner of Shop 45 on Rivira's outskirts told me I could buy what I needed here."
"Shop 45?"
"Jimmy?"
"The customers that guy introduces are always trash."
"Tch, whatever. Let him in first."
Seeing that they let him pass, Rayleigh prepared to enter.
But suddenly, they reached toward the Zanpakutō at his waist and said, "Hey, take off your weapons."
As they spoke, they had already made their move.
Rayleigh frowned.
With a slight turn of his body, he avoided their hands, then slapped the sheaths of his swords across their faces.
"Aaah!"
"Ah, that hurts! What the hell are you doing, you—ah!"
Before the man could finish his threat, Rayleigh had already lost patience.
He grabbed the man by the collar, lifted him up, and slammed him hard into the ground.
Bang!
The man was thrown so hard that his head spun and his bones felt as if they had scattered apart.
Just then, one of the others suddenly stopped his companions, looking over in panic.
"W-Wait!"
"This guy is..."
After stopping his companions, he asked Rayleigh, "You... uh, are you Yōtōsai?"
Rayleigh nodded.
By now, he had already accepted the fact that he was rather famous, and he no longer felt surprised every time someone recognized him.
"We apologize for our rudeness. Please enter."
"No need to confiscate my weapons?"
"N-No, there's no need."
Rayleigh did not make things harder for him and directly walked past them into the camp.
Seeing that he had no intention of pursuing the matter, the man let out a breath of relief.
Seeing his reaction, his companions did not show dissatisfaction or mock him. Instead, they belatedly asked.
"That boy just now was Hephaestus's...?"
"Yeah. It was definitely him."
"Did we just get our lives handed back to us?"
"..."
Strictly speaking, that was not wrong.
After all, they were people who could not live under the true sunlight.
Every one of them had committed more than a few crimes, or they would not have hidden themselves in the Dungeon.
Their crimes might not have deserved death.
But if the other party really became unhappy and killed them all, no one would stand up for them. He might not even receive any punishment.
He had only killed a few suspicious people.
And it had happened inside the Dungeon.
Considering that this was a vicious man who had slaughtered hundreds of Evilus members, they did not dare gamble with their own lives.
...
After successfully obtaining the update potion, Rayleigh did not rest and immediately began the return journey.
In total, it took him only half a day to make a round trip to the eighteenth floor, and he did it with ease.
In the past, the most he could have done was return on the same day.
He would never have been this efficient.
Back at home, Rayleigh and Alfia were alone in the same room.
"Mm. So this is update potion, since it's so rare, this is my first time seeing it too."
Alfia held the update medicine in her hand and examined it.
Even as an executive of Hera Familia, this was the first time she had personally touched such a thing.
"How do we use it?"
"It seems to be the same operation as updating ability values. It just requires someone to assist."
"I see."
After listening to Rayleigh's explanation, Alfia suddenly began undressing.
With her back to Rayleigh, she removed her upper clothing without hesitation.
Her smooth back was pale and luminous, seemed to give off a white glow, like a flawless piece of beautiful diamond.
Rayleigh almost lost himself staring.
Hera's emblem appeared on Alfia's back.
Rayleigh opened the update medicine and poured it over Alfia's back.
The sealed sacred text instantly unfolded and mysterious divine letters floated in the air.
Having prepared in advance, Rayleigh awkwardly began interfering with Alfia's unlocked ability values.
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