"So, are we done here? Or are you planning on staring at that bag until it grows legs?" Moon said, his voice laced with an impatient excitement.

He was leaning against a display of luxury crystal watches, his eyes darting toward the exit as he waited for Verso to get his shopping over with.

But Verso did not move at all.

He was standing near the polished glass counter, his fingers white knuckled as they gripped the handle of a single, premium looking shopping bag. Inside of which were the three outfits Rani had generously picked out for him.

"Five hundred thousand..." Verso mumbled, his voice sounding hollow, like a man who had just witnessed a murder.

He checked his phone’s banking app one last time, hoping for it to be some sort of glitch.

[Balance: 289,000 Credits]

He had effectively vaporized over sixty percent of his net worth in less than twenty minutes.

Back in Meridian City, half a million credits could have bought a small apartment or fed a family for a decade. But here, it bought him some nice hoodies and a pair of trousers.

"Huh? No way you’re actually upset about money, scum!" Looking at Verso’s face Moon understood why the boy was upset.

So appearing behind Verso and he delivered a stinging slap to the back that nearly made him drop the expensive bag.

"You’re a summoner at the Phoenix Academy, for God’s sake! You can just sell the attribute crystals we get from this hunt and make the money back in no time. Stop acting like a beggar, it’s embarrassing."

Verso blinked slowly as Moon’s words sank in and he realized the noble was absolutely right.

Even though he was unable to materialize the attribute crystals he had got in the System Realm into the Physical world, this was not the same for the Academy’s official dungeons.

If he goes hunting in the real world at the dungeons around the city, the loot he would get would be physical which meant that he could easily sell of the things he did not want.

’It’s not like I need them for myself anymore, either,’ Verso thought, a spark of calculation returning to his eyes.

’I’ve already maxed my base stats to twenty. Every crystal I find in a real dungeon from here on out I can just sell for money.’

As he thought about the money he would be able to make from the dungeons, the bag full of expensive clothes did not feel so heavy.

If one mutant attribute crystal could fetch fifty to a hundred thousand credits on the open market, he could rebuild his fortune in just a single weekend.

He straightened his shoulders, a wry smile finally appearing on his lips.

"Fine. Let’s go make that money back." Verso said, turning toward the door.

But just as the pair took their first step toward the exit, a feminine, ice cold voice echoed from the back of the store. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Moon Bloodveil... care to introduce me to this ’friend’ of yours?"

The sound of that voice sent a violent shiver down Verso’s spine.

He froze feeling like he knew who this voice belonged to. His face turned crimson red out of embarrassment as he slowly turned his head.

Standing by the main counter, draped in a coat of silver fox fur that matched the shimmering white of her hair, was the girl he had seen in her underwear from Room 2.

She looked different now. The feeling of vulnerability when she had the laced pink underwear on was gone, replaced by an aura of sheer terrifying elegance.

Her eyes which were, a piercing pale blue, were fixed directly on Moon, but they occasionally flickered toward Verso with a look that he could not quite decipher.

"Oh. Didn’t expect to see you here, Alice." Moon’s voice underwent a jarring transformation.

The carefree, loud mouthed noble was gone. In his place was a man whose tone had gone completely frigid, his posture stiffening as if he were facing some sort of apex predator in the wild.

Moon slightly turned, gesturing vaguely toward Verso without making eye contact with him.

"This is my teammate from the exam. Don’t worry about us and keep doing... whatever it is you do."

Before Alice could even open her mouth to reply, Moon’s hand clamped onto Verso’s shoulder with a grip strong enough to break stone.

He did not wait for any form of goodbye as he physically steered Verso out of the shop.

"Hey, scum," Moon muttered once they had put a significant distance between themselves and the store’s entrance.

"I don’t know how the hell you managed to catch that crazy bitch’s attention, but do yourself a favor and stay the hell away from her."

Verso blinked in surprise, looking at Moon’s tense profile.

’No way that the Moon Bloodveil I know is calling someone else crazy.’ He thought.

Sensing the confusion in Verso, Moon stopped walking, turning to look at him with an expression that was dead serious.

"You really don’t know who that is, do you?" Moon asked.

Verso silently shook his head into a no.

"That was Alice Ragnar," Moon gave the answer to his question trying to make sure that Verso understood who the girl really was.

"The same Alice Ragnar who took first place in the national exam."

Verso stood rooted to the spot, his heart skipping a beat.

The name hit him like a physical blow as he remembered the video that the Jester had played at the end of the exam, where a girl with white hair drenched in blood walked out of the gate.

’Alice... the leader of the team that slaughtered half of their own venue?’ The realization washed over him like ice cold water as he realized how badly he had messed up.

His entire plan for the Academy which was to fly under the radar, live a peaceful life and grow his power silently was officially dead on arrival.

All because he had entered the wrong room and walked in on a random girl. Which now he had just found out, was the most vicious and terrifying monster of his generation.

’I knew it! I should have apologized!’ Verso shouted in his own mind.

He turned back to look at the shop’s entrance but it was too late. The impression had been made, and based on the coldness in her eyes, Alice Ragnar wasn’t the type to forget.

"Get in the car, scum! Let’s head to the dungeon!"