"Princess Teruria, please take these."
The first one he presented items to was the troublemaker princess.
Of course, it wasn’t because he favored her over the others, but simply because the others were still "kids" right now. Giving them the accessories now might lead to losing the items by accident, given how they kept running around.
"This is...?"
Although confused, Teruria accepted the items given to her. She received a ring, a bracelet, a necklace, and a staff. Curious, she inserted her hand into her wondrous breast pocket and pulled out a monocle, wearing it over her left eye.
And then, she let out a soft gasp.
"T-This is... Artifacts!"
Axel, by pure coincidence, got items that were beneficial to witches. To be specific, he got the <Ring of Curse Amplification>, <Bracelet of Intelligence>, <Necklace of Life>, and <Low Quality Staff of Speed Casting>.
He thought that those items were minor, given how they barely increased stats—as expected from their low-quality recipe—but...
"S-Sir Axel, are you sure you’re giving me all these?!" Princess Teruria didn’t seem to agree with Axel’s judgment. "I haven’t seen this level of treasure artifacts even in the Royal Palace’s item bank!"
"Huh...?"
Confused, Axel checked the stats again. However, as expected, he didn’t see wrong. The curse amplification was a minor 20% for the ring. The bracelet raised 10 points of intelligence while decreasing strength by 8 points. The necklace simply increased energy recovery by 5% per second, and the staff only sped up casting by 10%. None of them were "amazing" in his standards!
"Wait, could it be...!"
Only then did he realize his mistake.
He did look for recipes he could use and sell at the same time, but forgot to countercheck their market. He just found similar items and shrugged without reading their descriptions!
Now, he decided to check the market for specific items once more... and realized:
’My accessories are overpowered!’
He didn’t bat an eye when he noticed his accessories selling out instantly. But now that he checked, the items he sold were now on sale at about 100x the price he listed!
Comparing quality, the average stat increase was one or two at most, while the percentage increase was already high at 2.5%. But his items had stats way more than that!
"Shit, even the useless Necklace of Invisibility is resold for 20 million?!" Axel grumbled, shocked.
An item that didn’t work as its name said, and had a debuff to speed, was sold at a high price! He couldn’t understand what those people were thinking!
Axel glanced at the remaining accessories he had saved and kept. Then, at the items he gave to Teruria, who already wore all of them, looking like she was intent on keeping them.
"Four items... 80 million..."
Axel grumbled, but sighed.
He might be a scum, but he wouldn’t do something like taking back what he gave after realizing its true value. Instead, he took it as the price of learning, a tuition fee per se.
Of course, he didn’t let the situation be as it was. Instead, he quickly blacklisted the resellers who bought from him so that it wouldn’t happen again. Then, he properly did market research and assessed fair prices, no longer trusting the system-given price. It didn’t seem accurate, apart from the material cost, after all.
And just as he busied himself like that, the sun began to dip beyond the horizon.
It was finally time for them to show off their skills!
...
Apart from the accessories that were resold, the weapons he sold were just as popular.
However, those who bought them didn’t dare resell them, as they were way too precious for them.
For example, in a certain parallel world, in an empire that was at constant war with the demonkin, a certain Emperor bought Axel’s sword... Low Quality Divinity Sword!
It only had a basic Divinity applied to the blade, promoting self-regeneration of damaged parts. Nothing too fancy. But more than that, it added +10 to strength—an equivalent increase of 500 kilograms in overall lifting power!
"What the fuck is wrong with the Interdimensional Market’s naming sense?"
The Emperor grumbled as he swung the sword, cutting the entire line of vanguards of the demonkin army. Not only that, the blade’s tip even managed to crack space itself, causing distortions!
"If this is low quality, then our Holy Sword Grakern is nothing but trash!"
"OOOH! Long live Emperor Brutus!""Follow our Emperor’s advance! Don’t fall behind!""For the Holy Empire! For the Emperor!"
As he was conflicted on why such a powerful sword was sold basically for free, the people behind him started to advance. As the Emperor, he had no choice but to stand at the forefront, felling more demons than anyone else.
But now that he had this sword, he no longer felt fear from the enemy army.
Instead, he felt that he could even march to the end of the earth and slay the Demon Emperor on the other side with one stroke!
Still, that’s a story for another time...
...
Sundown.
As the darkness enveloped the lands, the LED lights turned on automatically, lighting up the surroundings of the wall. On its four corners, the girls were already manning the ballistas, ready to fire when given the command.
The bandits, too, were spread across the edges, standing still with their crossbows aimed forward.
"...They’re here!"
And without making them wait for long, the low groans of the undead started to echo. Everyone’s tension rose, apart from Teruria, who looked extremely excited instead.
"So those are zombies... they look just as I imagined!" she whispered giddily.
"And they stink more than you imagine," Axel added, before raising a hand. "Anyway, they’re almost at the line. Everyone, aim steady!"
Some time earlier, the line was redrawn to be clearer, so nobody would miss it.
As the zombies tottered forward, as soon as they stepped beyond the line, Axel brought his hand down and shouted, "Arrow Suppression Protocol, start! FIRE!"
The next moment, the sound of bowstrings being released and of bolts cutting through the air filled the entire field. It even overpowered the low groans of the zombies!
Crossbows and ballistas began firing arrows all over the place, eliminating zombies one after another.
"I can’t lose either!" Seeing this, Teruria raised her staff as her Goth Loli outfit flapped with the wind. "Let’s do this...! Curse of Slow! Curse of Blindness!"
A pair of curses cast almost at the same time flew toward the zombies... and exploded in a wide zone. Axel and the others on top of the north wall were just right to be in range, making their movements slower and their vision completely dark.
"...Teruria..."
"A-Ahe... Hehe... Sorry?"
Their defensive battle had just begun, and a mishap had already happened!