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A Harem in the Fantasy World Dungeon Volume 5 Chapter 1 Part 18

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist  Editor: Weasalopes

He told the three of us to wait for a moment before he arrives. We all sat on the chairs that have been prepared for the guests, and while Roxanne and I were simply looking around, observing everything that was happening around us, Sherry decided to took out the notebook that she bought for herself with the allowance that I have given her yesterday and started to scribble down in it pretty eagerly. While we were waiting, the color of the wall to our side suddenly changed to black, indicating that a portal has been opened on it, and soon after people started coming out of it which prompted the clerk behind the counter to aske every last one of them what was their business here, and once they have stated it they have been shown to their seats in the waiting room, just like it was with us. So apparently they have to be other customers who came here to do business with their respective brokers, right? Also, it would seem that the wall of the waiting room in the Merchants Guild is yet another place where 「Field Walker」 can be used, so maybe I should start employing that method of transportation to come here from now on as well?

「I am sorry for making you wait. Now, if you would please follow me.」

Luke the Broker has finally arrived, and after apologizing for making as wait for him for so long he guided all three of us to one of the conference rooms.

「I have received your message, Mr. Luke, but just to be sure, let me confirm this with you. You really managed to get your hands on a Mermaid Skill Crystal?」

「Yes. Luckily for me, there were no other competitors for this particular purchase, so I also managed to obtain it at a relatively low price that is actually even cheaper than the usual market price. Is that all right with you?」

「Yes, I see no problems with that. I hope that our beneficial partnership can continue.」

「Thank you very much. So, can I assume that you are interested in buying the Mermaid Skill Crystal from me?」

「Yes, definitely. That is the reason why I came here today, after all.」

「Of course. Well then, here you go.」

Luke the Broker than cast the spell that summoned his Item Box and he proceeded to take out Mermaid Skill Crystal out of it and placed it on the table. I then used my own 「Identify」 spell to see it that was really the item in question, and sure enough, it was a Mermaid Skill Crystal.

「Now then, if it is all right then I will be taking…」

「Before you do that, Michio-sama, there is one more thing that I would like to tell you, or rather, propose to you.」

Propose something? What is he talking about?

「Propose something? What do you mean by that? Is something actually wrong with this Skill Crystal?」

「No, everything is fine with it, so allow me to explain. The thing is, since I was the winning bidder for the purchase of the Mermaid Skill Crystal, as a Broker affiliated with this Merchants Guild I can use the special service offered by the Merchant Guild’s Temple.」

A special service offered by this Guild’s Temple?

「A special service? What kind of service is that, exactly? I assume that it is something related to the item that you won in an auction?」

「Precisely. It is a special appraisal service offered to the winners of the auction that costs ten Nars. And since I was a Broker acting on your behalf, it means that you have access to that special appraisal service as well. How about it? Would you like to go and use the service provided by our temple right now? You do not have to pay for it now, it is perfectly fine to do so after the confirmation process will be completed.」

Luke told me all that as I was practically holding the Mermaid Skill Crystal in my hand.

「A confirmation process?」

「Yes. It is a measure employed to make sure that the winners of the auctions could check for themselves if the items that they have won are genuine or not.」

Aaaaahhh, I see what he is talking about now. Essentially, he is telling me that the Merchant Guild’s Temple can use 「Identify」 on this Skill Crystal for me so that I could have a one hundred percent guarantee that the thing I bought is really what I paid for and not just something extremely similar to it disguised as something else.

Now, I know that this thing in my hand is a Mermaid Skill Crystal because I have access to 「Identify」 and I could check that for myself, but ordinary people cannot do it at all, right? For normal people, the Skill Crystals must look like nothing more than ordinary pebbles, and they would not even be able to tell what type it is or to what monster did they belong in the first place.

So with that in mind, it might actually be a good idea to go along with Luke the Broker’s proposition and have this Mermaid Skill Crystal be appraised in the Guild’s Temple. One of the reasons for me going along with it is of course because I do not want to look suspicious in his eyes, and I kinda do want to take a look at the Guild’s temple to see how it actually looks like inside.

Then again, since I can use 「Identify」 to check the authenticity of every item myself, it would be incredibly annoying to go through with it every time when I would be buying something, not to mention that after a while it would also get really costly. Not after two or three times of course, but you know what they say, right?

Ten Nars here, ten Nars there, and then, before you would even be able to realize it, you would end up with a hefty sum of money spent on the appraisal of items bought from the auctions alone. And if I am to be perfectly honest with you, if I have to pay someone to appraise my items for me, then I definitely prefer doing that myself because then that costs me literally nothing. And right now, when I have already appraised this Mermaid Skill Crystal and I know it is a real deal, I at least am sure that he acquired a genuine article for me and did not try to trick me by getting me some kind of forgery. So….

「I kindly thank you for the offer, but I think that I am going to pass on it this time. I trust you with this one, Mr. Luke, because you do not strike me as someone who would try to swindle your clients with their very first transaction.」

By showing him that I trust him, I might be able to increase his opinion of me as a client. Of course, I have no idea if such a maneuver on my side is going to work or not, but at this point it was a bet that I was willing to make, and everything seems to be showing that it was the right call on my part, because Mr. Luke did not look as disappointed as I thought he would be, but it might be possible that he was only feigning that while harboring different feelings inside of him, but at the current moment I do not have any way of knowing or checking whether that is true or not.

It might be possible that Mr. Luke is not the person that I initially thought he is. It is entirely possible that he might be planning to use me and do me wrong, and if that is the case, then that is all the more reason to show him that I am not someone who is going to be agreeing to each and every one of his suggestions, because that would have been a clear signal to him that I am a person that is prone to being manipulated and led by the nose by others, and I am anything but that.

If there will ever come a time when he tries to deceive me by trying to sell me a forged Skill Crystal, I will know about it immediately and I would be ready to act accordingly, but for the time being nothing seems to be pointing to that. If the need for that arises, I can always ask him to show me around the temple some other time, assuming that he is still going to be willing to cooperate with me to such a degree that is.

「As you wish. I understand.」