Chapter 69 – Metal Crab

Dream approached the material shop and went through the door.

*Ding*

A bell sounded as he pushed open the door. Right after entering, Dream could immediately hear chatter.

This shop wasn't an unknown one. Even when he came last time there were at least a dozen people in the shop doing business. 

The shop was actually rather big as it had to fit all the materials and have places for people to buy and sell.  There were more than a few employees, and Dream had no doubt that this place raked in money. Everyone needed materials and this place really did have it all.

"How can I help you sir?"

A lady walked up to Dream shortly after he arrived. 

"Hi. I could actually use your help. I'm looking for Mithril."

"Mithril? Any particular grade?"

"That depends on what you have."

"I see. Come with me."

The lady turned and began walking to the side of the shop. Dream followed.

After going through a door that led into a hallway, Dream was led to a private room.

"You can wait here. Someone will come to help you shortly."

"Thank you."

Dream sat inside the room. It wasn't that big. It had two couches and a table between them for doing business while the rest of the room had a bit of decoration so it wasn't bland. 

'It's nice that they give you a bit of privacy. Now, what were the grades of Mithril?'

[Low, Medium, High, and Pure. I'm not sure what they represent, but obviously the higher the better.]

'Well getting pure silver shouldn't be hard from mining, so it can't be the purity of the silver itself. It's definitely something to do with mana. But ya, I wonder what.'

Dream pondered as he waited. After a few minutes, someone entered the room.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Pardon me."

As the door opened, Dream could see a man come in. He wore a nice suit and had the air of an accountant. At least, what passed for an accountant in this world.

"The name's Ray."

"Dream."

Dream stood up and shook the man's hand before they both took a seat opposite to each other. 

"So I hear you're looking for Mithril, Dream."

"I am. I was wondering the cost per grade. And what grades you sold."

"Well, first thing you should know is that we don't sell anything above high grade. And even high grade we only carry in small amounts. We've also further divided the grades into different levels."

Ray began placing down small chunks of metal on the table. After placing 8 identical chunks down in a line, he explained.

"These are our levels. From lowest to highest is simply one through eight. One is low and eight is our highest level."

"I see. And cost?"

"Take a look first."

Dream nodded and took the lowest grade chunk in his hand. He began saturating it with his mana.

[Yup, this is definitely silver. Though there's something different.]

'Different?'

[Well... It's hard to say exactly. Honestly, the atoms are fine. But I can already tell that it has a much higher tensile strength than normal silver. And this is only low grade.]

'Compared to titanium?'

[If titanium equals 1 strength, then this low-grade Mithril equals 0.5. Check out the others.]

Dream put down the first chunk and picked up the 4th chunk in the middle.

[This one is about equal to titanium.]

'Already?'

[Not only that, but as you inject more mana, it's almost like it gets stronger. It can already hold much more mana than titanium as well.]

'Huh. What about the highest one...'

Dream set the 4th chunk down and picked up the 8th chunk. This was the highest grade. That they sold at least.

[This one equals 7.8.]

'Seriously?! That's quite the jump.'

[I'm still not sure why it's so strong. But either way, if your skeleton were made out of this stuff then you'd never have to replace it.]

'That would be nice. But let's see how much it is first. I highly doubt its cheap.'

Dream set down the chunk and looked at the man across from him.

"How much for level 4?"

"A few gold will get you a few pounds of this. A bit more expensive than titanium at the same strength, but its mana compatibility is higher."

"And the highest? Level 8?"

"That goes for about 140 gold per ounce."

'Sophia?'

[Your skeleton is about 420 ounces. That makes it 60,000 gold worth of that Mithril to get a whole skeleton.]

'And we have how much?'

[Graff gave us 20 plates and a couple hundred gold equalling about 11,000 gold.]

'So not nearly enough. *sigh* Can't be too greedy I guess.'

Dream closed his eyes for a moment before looking back to Ray.

"What about level 7?"

"60 gold per ounce."

[25,000 gold.]

"And grade 6?"

"20 gold per ounce."

[8,400 gold.]

"And how much level 6 and 7 can you produce?"

"Level 7 is rare. But we can produce up to 600 ounces. Level 6 is much more plentiful."

"I see."

Dream nodded and found his range between level 6 and 7.

'Sophia?'

[If you want to mix them, 10,000 gold will get us 50 ounces of grade 7 and the rest grade 6.]

'We'll do that then.'

Dream turned his attention to Ray.

"I want 50 ounces of grade 7 and 370 ounces of grade 6."

"That'll be..."

Ray went quiet as he tried to process the price. Dream did it for him.

"10,400 gold. According to your prices."

"Right. Anything else?"

"I'll take some titanium as well. However much 600 gold will get me."

"I understand. Mind if I see the money you wish to pay with?"

"Sure."

*Clunk*

Dream brought out the box of plates that Graff gave him, which held 20 gold plates. He also brought out a bag with the excess gold coins.

"..."

Ray was a bit surprised seeing the box. He brought the box over and opened it, seeing the 20 gold plates lined up neatly. He took out a plate and brought out a tool, similar to the scanners used by the guards for title plates.

He put the plate inside the tool and the plate glowed, showing some engravings. He took it back out and put it into the box.

"I see. Give me a moment while I have your materials prepared."

"Sure."

Ray got up and walked out of the room, leaving Dream by himself.

'This'll go smoother than expected. No tedious haggling crap.'

Dream thought about how nice it was to just be able to come in and buy what he wanted without having to act like he was on shark tank negotiating a business deal. He was just buying some metal, after all. Ray soon came back in.

"Ok Dream. Here are the Mithril ingots."

Ray walked over to the table and brought out several square boxes. Inside the boxes were neat stacks of Mithril plates.

"We divide our Mithril by 10-ounce pieces. These on the right are the grade 6 pieces and the left are grade 7. Have a look while I verify your gold plates."

"Sure."

Ray brought back over the gold plates t0 himself while Dream spread his mana through the boxes.

[Check. Check. Check. It looks like everything's good.]

'Good. At least this place has the dignity to not try and scam me.'

[Not many people can just spend 10,000 gold all at once. The ones who can are probably powerful, whether influence wise or personally. It would be stupid to risk losing that kind of customer. Or pissing one off in general.]

'True.'

Dream nodded in his mind. Being completely honest, Ray couldn't stop him from stealing everything here. Though the risk would be high, there's a chance he could get away with everything in this shop and leave the city. At the cost of being branded a criminal of course.

Either way, he wasn't a bad person and the business wasn't bad either. If the other party didn't play any games, they could both just have a proper exchange and be on their way. 

"Alright. These plates are all genuine."

Ray spoke up after scanning the last plate.  

"And I see nothing wrong with these Mithril plates."

"Of course. I also have the titanium you requested. It's outside."

"Alright. Then has our business concluded?"

"For the most part, yes. Since you're buying in bulk, I've decided to give you everything for 10,000 gold. You can keep the coins in your bag. As a thank you for your patronage."

"Oh. Sure. Thank you."

Dream took back his bag and put the boxes of Mithril in his inventory. Ray also took the box full of gold plates.

"No, thank you. I'll show you to your titanium."

Ray turned and led Dream outside to the plaza. Sure enough, there were several big boxes filled to the brim with titanium ingots. Dream walked up to them and put them in his inventory.

"Thanks again. You guys made this really easy."

"Of course. If you don't mind me asking, what were your plans for the material?"

"I'm planning to make myself some gear. I happen to be needing an upgrade."

"I see. Well, good luck with your forgery."

"Thanks."

Ray put out his hand for a shake, and Dream took it. They then parted ways and Dream left the shop.

'Sweet. In and out in less than an hour. That's some efficient business. And I got a discount. Didn't have to drain my pockets dry in one go.'

[We can allot the stronger Mithril to more important places in your body like your skull. Other than that, everything else is ready to go.]

'Sweet. Though I still can't believe I'm doing this.'

Dream had a hard time wrapping his head around the concept of building a new body. He wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not.

[Is there something wrong with it?]

'I mean, not really. It just feels weird. Plus, the fact that we even have the ability to pull it off is crazy. I mean, DNA editing, replacing...well my entire body. The precision behind the operation to even edit a single DNA strand, and we're going to carry out body wide edits all at once.'

[Well, not all at once. But I get it. But think of it this way, to edit something small you need to know its there and have the tools to precisely manipulate it. Well, our abilities meet those two requirements. Especially after the class advancement. It was going to take upwards of a month to figure everything out with your samples, but after the upgrade, I was able to do it in the several hours you were asleep.

The reason why other, more powerful people couldn't do this is because they don't have the knowledge we do. We have the knowledge, the ability, and now the materials to carry this out. So as far as we're concerned, there's no reason why we shouldn't. Unless you really want unnecessary ethics to stand in the way of your strength.]

'No, the ethics won't stop me. I'm myself, no matter what body I'm in. Not that that sounds any less weird, but you get my point.'

Dream understood that since they could, there was no reason why not. They had the ability to manipulate materials on an semi-atomic level. Cells in the body were giant in comparison. Not to mention how Sophia probably knew everything there was to know about biology. Taking all that into account, this operation would likely be rather easy for her to do.

'So? Do we have anything else before we start?'

[Well, you should know that the surgery will take longer than previously expected. To be safe, I want to keep you under for around 10 days.]

'10 days? Alright. I'm going to be asleep that whole time?'

[Well...kind of. Anyway, this couldn't be a better time to do this. No threats, no distractions. You'll be able to just hide out for a while and get an important upgrade done.]

'True. Is there anything I should do beforehand? Will I be missing anything after we're done like my sense of taste or smell?'

[Not really. If anything, it's going to feel the opposite, like you should've had it all along.]

'I don't know. It's sounding like I'm going to have to enjoy all the mortal pleasures before I ascend.'

[You're not ascending. You're just traveling a little further down the evolutionary chain.]

'I think, therefore I am.'

[You're not becoming a machine! Well... Fine, that's not a totally accurate statement.]

'Heh. Oh well. I wonder if the tamer is in? I think I'll pay him a visit.'

Dream changed directions and headed towards the tamer who taught him about contracts. Though he has yet to really use it, it was still valuable information. He could also check on the collar.

He walked down a few streets before coming up on the tamer shop. He walked in.

*Ding*

"Coming."

Dream heard a heavy voice come from the back room. Soon, the same 6'5", burly man with a beard came walking out.

"Hel- Dream?!"

"What's up, John. How's the business coming?"

John the tamer froze for a second when he saw Dream before breaking into a wide smile.

"....Hahaha! It's going good! How are you, my little friend?"

John came up and put out his hand for a shake. Dream grabbed it with a smack.

"Haha, I'm doing good."

"That's good! So what brings you to my shop?"

"Well, I was kind of just stopping by. Maybe check on things. Business is good?"

"It is! I must say, your tool made all the difference. It actually works! My capturing speed is leagues ahead of everyone else. I've been bringing in more money than I ever have with all the new customers."

John had a wide smile as he talked about his prosperity. Dream also smiled.

"That's great. I told you the collar would work. But apparently that's not all that's happened with you."

Dream scratched his chin as he felt the aura coming off of John. It was much stronger compared to last time.

"Oh? Sharp eye. Indeed. I have reached class 3! After my many years of taming, I've finally crossed the threshold!"

"Wow. Congratulations. You're now among the top in the world."

"Haha, indeed. Which also means I can go after stronger monsters."

"Going after stronger monsters would require a better collar. Speaking of, you mind If I take a look at it?"

"Of course."

John brought out the collar from his inventory and handed it to Dream. Sophia immediately made a comment.

[Our enchantment on this is trash compared to our level now.]

'Why don't we help out our friend here and get him a better capturing tool.'

[Alright. We can just make another one instead of modifying this one.]

After she said that, Dream put the collar down on the counter next to him. He then took out a piece of titanium and began shaping it.

The raw chunk of titanium morphed into a hexagon plate about the size of his hand. It then sprouted legs and clamps off each side, almost looking like a crab.

When that formed, then came the enchantment. Sophia enchanted it with better code than the collar, as well as a downgraded accumulation technique. It acted very similarly to the collar, just that now it could handle much more mana and operate it with higher efficiency and effectiveness.

Soon, Dream finished and handed it to John.

"Here you go."

"What's this?"

John took the metal device and inspected it. It looked nothing like the collar, so he thought it did something other than taming.

"It does exactly the same thing as the collar, except now you don't need to wrap it around the neck. You can place it anywhere on the body, preferably the head, and it'll go to work."

"Hmm. Let's try it. I happen to have a monster that isn't contracted. Follow me."

John led Dream into the back and walked over to a cage. Inside was a reptile. An alligator looking reptile to be specific. It was very weak and had a small aura coming off of it. Dream could also see wounds on its body. John opened up the cage and walked inside.

*Hisss*

The alligator opened its mouth and let out a threatening hiss. John paid no heed and walked up to it. He pinned down its head and placed the crab device on its neck.

*Hii!! HISSSS*

The alligator sensed the intrusion and began violently thrashing. Though it was still very weak and the remaining strength it could muster would never be able to shake a class 3. He kept the alligator pinned down as the device did its work.

Soon, the alligator stopped resisting. Dream could see the contract seal imprinted on the alligator's head soon after. John got up when it was done.

"...This is amazing. I can see you've improved on your techniques. Whatever those techniques are. And I'm a bit late to notice, but I see that you have class 2 mana levels."

"Ya. I advanced not too long ago."

"Congratulations to you then. Now, about this...thing."

"It's yours. I can always make another one."

"No. I haven't given you a copper for even the collar, not to mention this. What that simple collar has done for me is more than I can pay in gold to compensate for. You know what? I have something. And I want you to accept it."

"No, I don-"

"I'm not asking. Wait here."

"..."

John left right after he said that. Dream sighed.

'I really was just being nice. That metal crab costs me like, nothing. It's not like it's the one used by Bane.'