Chapter 88: Chapter 88

’Now let’s start breaking the market.’

With that, Xenos began to hit one shop after another.

His first ’bad intention’ was to break this market!

Using his Beholding Eyes, he searched for whatever Divine Relic that had been sitting on display for weeks, the items that merchants had yet to fully understand.

Most weren’t anything good, truly, but eventually he found something.

A stall that sold what looked like a cracked silver coin.

"Ten silver drachma; it might be useless, but it’s still a Divine Relic."

Xenos flipped it, stared through it, and put ten silver in the merchant’s hand.

"Yeah. I’ll take it."

The merchant quickly put the drachma in his pouch, afraid that Xenos would take it back.

"You realize this thing enhances any fortune spell cast within its radius, right?"

Something that he certainly wouldn’t~.

Leaving the poor merchant in a daze, he walked ten paces to the next stall and tossed the same coin on the counter.

"I’m selling this for one gold."

The merchant blinked.

Divine chains materialized from above, latching onto Xenos.

"I swear a Rune Oath that this Divine Relic, Coin of Tyche, amplifies a bearer’s fortune spells."

The man’s eyes went wide as the chains disappeared.

And just like that, profit was made.

’I’ll be so rich by the end of this~.’

Next, Xenos found a bronze mirror with faint etchings along the rim.

The vendor said it could reflect one light spell away from the user.

It was actually capable of returning any Element directed at it, as long as the user bore that same Element as a Rune.

He bought it for thirty silver and sold it for sixty.

The markup wasn’t as high as he’d like, but that was to be expected.

Even though they had hidden or extra functions, most of these Divine Relics weren’t all that good, the cooldown and required conditions making it too bothersome to be actually useful.

Still, he continued, and it gave him an addictive rush, even better than the system’s ’experience’ screens.

No doubt if it were anyone else, they would’ve lost themselves in this.

Thankfully, Xenos had a lot more self-control than the normal man.

He wouldn’t spend nearly the entire day doing this, right?

Xenos went at it until there were no more stalls to check out.

A snail that could channel whispers over long distances and into a specific area?

He bought it for thirty, bought another for the same price, and was about to sell them as a set for ninety, only to change his mind and pocket them into his inventory.

Both snails could talk directly to each other.

It was a mobile phone.

Xenos had to keep them.

But that was an uncommon sight.

Because, well, most of those he sold were like the Lantern of Eos.

A small, soot-stained lamp that one old merchant claimed was "too dim to be worth lighting."

What he didn’t know was that the lantern’s flame grew brighter the more its bearer wanted it to be dimmer, acting much like Arc, a tsundere Divine Relic. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel✦fire.net

When Xenos lit it and the entire stall turned daylight white, the poor man nearly fainted.

He paid two silver coins for it and sold it for fifty.

Up next was the Hourglass of Antheia, cracked and leaking faint golden dust.

The merchant said that it was "useless—it doesn’t even tell time properly."

That was because the sand didn’t measure time but... attention.

Whenever someone looked at it, the flow slowed, and the more eyes on it, the longer it stalled.

Knowing that, most still wouldn’t buy it, but Xenos did, as he already had a buyer lined up.

So he got it for twenty silver before selling it to a paranoid Noble he spotted earlier for two hundred, who was loudly searching for a Relic with a similar use, something that Xenos was sure the first villain, Nikolas, would’ve killed to get.

By midday, the market had gone absolutely mad.

Prices constantly fluctuated; merchants who thought themselves smart tried to copy his games, while buyers hunted for "the man with the Eyes," wanting the help of the one who could see through their Divine Relics better than the Divine Forgers themselves.

And somewhere in the chaos, Xenos stood, watching the panic spread.

He’d done it; he’d broken the market.

Eris giggled a little.

’That by tomorrow, the market will reset, right?’

Xenos stretched with a satisfied yawn.

’It’s not my goal to crash it indefinitely.’

’Only until you get your money, hm?’

’You got me... it’s called entrepreneurship, you know?’

Eris didn’t know, and it seemed like She didn’t want to know.

’Sure. You’ve done well, but I don’t think they’d allow you to do it again.’

Xenos nodded in agreement.

’Yeah, like those two Houses in the land war, I’m sure that from now on these merchants will better research their Divine Relics, maybe even drop by a proper Divine Forger.’

She chuckled at his words and repeated earlier ones:

’Bad intentions pave better roads.’

Something that had him laugh out loud.

Though not for too long, as he was suddenly interrupted.

║New Soul Glyph Acquired!║

[Description: The bearer carries the whisper of the Trickster God. When facing those of a lower Class, their will bends subtly toward generosity, compelling them to offer a finer deal, gift, or concession within their means.]

[Requirements: Receive Hermes’s Favor.]

Xenos stared at the glowing text before exhaling another laugh.

’Yeah. That makes sense.’

It wasn’t too surprising that he’d gotten this Soul Glyph.

Much like Son of Lelantos and Trickster, he achieved a feat worthy enough to acquire it.

There was no doubt that his Soul Glyph Rule Breaker helped with this in some way, as otherwise, everyone in the realm would’ve gotten many a Soul Glyph as he did, or at least one or two on average, but that didn’t matter to him, at least not right now.

The requirements confirmed to him something obvious.

’My kin are watching even when beyond life.’

Indeed, as Eris said, the Lower Gods, though many of them were considered dead, had some part of them remain, and those ’parts’ liked to stay around Xenos, finding him a hot commodity to invest in.

’Perhaps the realm has finally seen your value.’

His Goddess’s voice sounded truly amused.

’Even the God of Trade Himself has blessed your scams.’

Xenos revealed his pouch from his inventory, jingling with drachma.

"No, no, no, as I said, it’s entrepreneurship."

Though he didn’t count them, he was sure that it was at least more than seven gold.

If seven gold didn’t sound like a lot, then one would only need to lower the material.

One tier made it seven thousand silver drachma, while another made it...

’Seventy thousand bronze drachma.’

Wasn’t it only a few days ago that he had only a couple of bronze coins to his name?

’Oh, how time flies~.’

Xenos looked up at the golden sky above the city, still buzzing with the day’s chaos.

’Next, we buy that ring.’