The Hero's Supplier

Rick was not the first to find the Communication Rune Stone.

The Communication Rune was used by creatures that worked in pairs or groups to relay quick messages to their partners in times of need.

There were a low-level Dungeons with Trolls, Ogres and Goblins all around that worked in pairs. And there were many groups who had cleared these Level 1 dungeons in teams.

But not everyone who cleared the Dungeons was destined to find the Communication Rune Stone. There were instances where each of the stones was held by different members of the group because of which they never succeeded in activating them.

At other times the team might have overlooked the ordinary looking stones after killing the Trolls. But under such circumstances, there would be Sweepers that would come and clean up after the Hero's and the stones would be found by them.

These stones worked like walkie-talkies except that all you needed to do was keep them in your pockets and they started working. This was a precious treasure for any team to have.

But Rick had other plans with the Communication Stones. He wanted to replicate the patterns on the stone to mass produce them. Moreover, as he looked into the description of the stone, he was also tempted to see if he could create a pair of High- Ranked Communication Rune Stones.

Rick picked up a stone from the car parking and tried to copy the rune lines from the Communication Stone into it with his kitchen knife.

He immediately failed!

Only after his failure did he notice the intricacies of the fine lines within Small Stones.

"It is like an electric circuit connected together which runs on some sort of energy" Rick murmured.

Rick did not lose heart upon his failure. He picked up another stone and continued the process.

Another fail!

After his sixty-seventh attempt, he had lost all the energy to continue working and gave up.

'The knife is too big to carve such delicate lines' That was the conclusion Rick finally drew.

Rick looked at his watch. It was already noon. Rick put the two Communication Rune Stones into his pocket and then threw away all the other unsuccessful attempts out.

He went to the front of the car and took out a can of tuna and spread them of slices of bread. Neatly he piled the sandwiches into a plate.

"Hey, Sis! Wake up. It is already noon. I have prepared lunch." Rick called peeping into the back of the pick-up.

Samira groggily woke up from her sleep and rubbed her eyes.

"How is your ankle feeling?" Rick asked once he saw Samira wake up.

Samira held herself upright by her elbows and leaned against the side door. She bent her leg and with her palm traced the injury. As she reached her ankle, her eyebrows crumpled up.

"What do you mean?" Rick asked confused.

"The swelling it's gone!" Samira cried out in happiness.

She jumped out of the car and walked a while to check if it was true. Both Rick and Samira were surprised.

"Sis, what's your [Vitality] stat?" Rick asked.

"Is that a new stat? Let me check", Samira replied, "It's not that high, it's at Eight."

Rick was now truly surprised. Samira's physical recovery stat was so high that she could recover at eight times the normal rate.

"Sis, your [Vitality] stat is too high. The [Vitality] stat measures…" Rick explained what he knew of the Vitality stat.

---

Rick and Samira were sitting outside the car and having Rick's tuna sandwiches.

"Hey, are you angry at me?" Rick asked.

"Of course I am not." Samira replied, "Just use it carefully and plan out every detail the next time. No half-baked plans anymore. And don't tell anyone else about your spell book"

Rick told Samira everything about the Lemegeton and how it was through the Lemegeton that he had found out about the Winged Serpent Blood Essence Poison. But definitely, he could not tell Samira about how he found the information or the death threat that was overshadowing his existence.

"So what do you want to do now?" Rick looked at Samira.

"I guess the only thing to do is to find a higher level of dungeon and become stronger," Samira replied.

"Then are you leaving?" Rick asked. He realized that Samira was much stronger than he was and staying with him to protect him only slowed her down. Rick did not want that to happen.

"Not right away. Will you come with me?" Samira asked back.

"I am not a good fighter. You know that." Rick chuckled.

They talked together till the sunset. Only when it had become dark did the siblings realize the time. It had been a long time since the two of them had had a heartfelt conversation.

Rick and Samira got up and walked in the direction of Jay's shop. It was almost six.

"Rick, are you going to try to sell the information about how to kill Trolls?" Samira glanced at Rick.

Rick nodded his head silently.

"Don't go overboard with Jaya and ask him to hand over his shop to you. He saved my life." Samira warned Rick.

"I know, I know. I won't do something like that." Rick smiled at Samira.

Jay was at his shop selling beast meat just like the day before. Now that Rick observed, there was no change in the market even after the supermarket's Trolls were cleared. Rick asked about this to Jay.

"These fellows have no idea that the dungeon has been cleared. No one has even tried to go into the supermarket today." Jay chortled.

"So, are you here for the shop?" Jay continued.

Rick shook his head no.

"I want to know how to set up shop here. I want to set up an information trading shop" Rick replied.

"Well, that's simple. You need the unanimous approval of the top five on the leaderboard by giving them something else in barter. Lucky for you, you only have to convince four." Jay smirked.

"Why is that?" Rick was confused.

"Because I am ranked fourth on the leaderboard. I am the J there as in Jay." Jay replied with a smile.

Now, this was Rick and Samira's turn to get shocked. Rick had already met the fifth-ranked person in the leaderboard and he was already very powerful, and Jay must be much stronger now after the Dungeon Raid.

"And then what?" Rick asked.

"Nothing, we nod our heads and you are then free to set shop anywhere you want." Jay clarified, "But the barter you make must be good because I will be in no position to interfere in the matter."

After some more minutes of conversation, Rick understood what he needed to do.

---

The next morning Rick walked up to the fifth-ranked man who was Samira tried to buy guns from the first day. Jay told Rick that his name Hands.

As to why his name was Hands was because anyone ever challenged him, the first thing he does is shoot their Hands, incapacitating then from even using a weapon.

"Sir, I want to apply for a permit to set up shop." Rick asked.

"Really punk? You? You know the rules for setting up a shop right?" Hands asked.

Rick nodded his head yes.

"The day before yesterday you were here trying to buy guns and bullets and did not even know that cold weapons were better. Don't bother me. Do you think you will have something that we Leaders will even want?" Hands guffawed.

Seeing Rick's confident smile really pissed off Hands.

"Lad go call the others! Tell them there is someone looking for trouble" Hands barked at the shop helper.

Soon the other four including Jay gathered outside Hands' shop.

"Hands, why did you want us here so early in the morning?" An elegantly dressed man in a suit replied.

"This boy wants to set up a shop here. He wants permission to set up a shop. He thinks he can barter something you want. Especially. since he did not know why cold weapons are more effective just the day before yesterday!"

"Don't make an unnecessary ruckus here boy", another one of the four said. "What information could you possibly have that we don't know?"

Rick had gone through numerous information available in the Lemegeton.

But in the end, Rick decided to reveal the information that certainly no one here knew.