Elane made her way over after hearing Rohan shouting from half way across the building to her.
Rohan didn’t explain anything to her and instead took the VIP card from her and placed it in front of the pig faced man.
"Is this enough to prove we’re legit?" He asked condescendingly.
The man didn’t quite have the sa reaction as the lady at the front desk did, but his mood did clearly shift.
"Alright, I concede. What is it you want from then?"
In fact, he didn’t seem all that fazed by them having the VIP card at all, which confused Rohan and Elane a little.
’Seems he’s higher up the pecking order than the receptionist, but that makes sense, since he has an actually important job unlike her.’ Rohan thought.
"Are you the only one here?"
But Rohan wasn’t done with his questions just yet. He had to be sure that he was asking the right person to appraise the Lava Hellebore, since not only did he not want the information to leak, but the appraiser might not even be qualified!
"As of right now I am, but let also be clear that you couldn’t find a better appraiser than in this entire city anyway." The pig faced man was quick to catch onto Rohan’s concerns.
Rohan’s brows raised. "That’s quite an arrogant claim to make."
"Pride."
"What?"
"You an Pride, not arrogance. Arrogance is people making big or wild claims without anything to back them up. I can, so that makes prideful, not arrogant."
Rohan and Elane exchanged a glance.
’Okay, maybe this guy isn’t as bad as I first thought.’
The guy seed rude and carefree at first, but if his claims were actually true, then he could act however he liked in Erenhot since you couldn’t get any better than him without going to another city or leaving the Origin Realm.
"So that’s why you were so uncaring to sleep on the job..." Rohan muttered, unaware that he was letting his thoughts spill out.
"Nah. I just ca off a night shift, that’s why. Besides, if you were in my position, you wouldn’t give a damn about any professional image or reputation either. This is just a damned unpaid service anyway. No way would I give 100% to such a shitty job." The pig faced man explained.
But what he said left Rohan shocked.
"What do you an unpaid? Why even do this job then!?"
"It’s either this, or service in the military. Expert appraisers like myself aren’t that common, so we get better treatnt from the Federation. We aren’t automatically required to serve like most other Awakened, as they give us the option to serve in their branches inside the Origin Realm if we don’t want to risk out lives on the front lines. So sure, it does feel crappy to be exploited like that. But it sure beats throwing my life away against the Alien races."
Rohan was taken aback. He was completely unaware that the Federation did stuff like this. He knew about the military service aspect of being an Awakened, but hearing that people with more unique specialisations could get special treatnt was new to him.
His frustration towards the man chilled after hearing his situation.
However, despite his complaints, the man’s eyes clearly showed their intrigue when they landed on the glowing, molten looking flower sitting on Rohan’s shoulder. It was clear that he liked his job.
"That’s an interesting weed you dug up. I take it that’s what you want appraised?" He asked, shifting the topic of conversation fluently.
He leaned back in his own chair, rubbing his hands together as if ready to get sucked into his work.
Rohan hesitated at first, still worried about whether this was the right choice or not, but relented in the end.
He nodded. "That’s right. What can you tell us about it?"
For the first ti since entering the room, the man sat up properly in his chair and gestured toward the centre of the room.
"Put it on the table."
Rohan didn’t move right away.
"Before that," he spoke, "I want to know how confidential this process is."
The man’s eyes narrowed, but he responded promptly.
"If you worry I might leak anything. Don’t. I may look carefree and laid back, but if I even try anything like that, I’d be sent straight to the front lines. And not just as a soldier, but in a prison camp. The Federation takes matters like this extrely seriously — we’re not like those halfwit private appraisers setting up their own shop."
Rohan felt relieved. Knowing the man would face such severe punishnt if he did leak anything was very reassuring.
"But let warn you. If you bring sothing powerful, and I an really powerful, then records of our transaction will definitely reach the higher up’s tables. You may or may not like that attention."
The room went very still.
Rohan fell into deliberation, while Elane had expected sothing like that.
She turned to Rohan with her arms folded.
"That doesn’t really matter for us. We don’t plan on keeping it for long. Even if we can’t use it for ourselves, we still planned to sell it. If these higher ups co looking for us instead of us having to do the looking ourselves, that just saves us the effort."
Still, Rohan didn’t like the idea of that. Even if everything went smoothly, the attention it’d put on them was heavy.
He didn’t want to deal with people putting a closer eye on them, as he had deeper secrets than just the Lava Hellebore.
"What kind rank or tier are we talking? That would catch their attention, I an."
The pig faced man smiled mysteriously.
"Anything Commander tier and above, rank doesn’t matter."
Rohan and Elane both frowned, which practically gave away the Lava Hellebore’s status to the man without him even having to appraise it yet, but they relented.
’This is our only option at this point. It’s better than anything else we can do.’
So Rohan did as the man asked and placed the flower on the table.
’I wonder how the appraisal process works.’ Rohan watched the man with interest.
He placed his hand on the plant, but he didn’t react, surprising the duo.
"Whoo... You two mind sharing so of your luck with ? Looks like you used up a whole lifeti’s worth encountering this treasure."
Rohan’s face brightened, and he urged the man on.
"Well, tell us about it!"
The man smiled.
"Tell? I can do you one better than that. How about you guys see for yourselves."
Out of nowhere, and completely unprompted, a status appeared in front of both Rohan and Elane’s eyes. Rohan curiously noted that he could see the floating transparent screen in front of Elane’s face — a giveaway that it wasn’t sothing the Origin Realm had conjured up.
With his excitent rising by the second, he checked the screen over.
[E rank (Commander) Lava Hellebore]
[Use: When consud by an Awakened, it changes the properties of a selected Gene or Genetic Armant with the Molten attribute. It does not interfere with a Gene or Genetic Armants original abilities and even strengthens them by twofold, alongside the attribute change. If the selected Gene or Genetic Armant is F rank, it will rise directly to E rank. There is a 1% chance that it will also rise to Commander tier.]
Rohan’s jaw hit the floor.
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