Ethan’s face took a surprised look at the sudden utterance, then chuckled. "What?"
Bettie smiled just a bit as she gestured vaguely toward the clusters of students haggling nearby. "Yeah. None of the items I’ve seen so far are anywhere above Mid-Grade quality, but the prices people are asking to trade for them are just horrendous."
"Oh?" Ethan muttered.
Bettie nodded. "I guess it’s because of the auction list that was shared earlier. Everyone suddenly thinks their junk is worth sothing now because they’re comparing it to what’s going to be auctioned off later."
"Ah, I see," Ethan said with a nod.
Bettie turned toward him and asked, "So what item are you planning on bidding for from the list?"
Ethan hesitated for just a second before answering honestly. "Uh, truth is, I haven’t seen the list yet."
Bettie’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Oh, for real? It was shared earlier this morning. Where were you?"
Ethan smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. "Percival dragged off for so silly shit."
Bettie shook her head in amusent. Then she asked curiously, "So who’s winning between them?"
"It’s a tie right now," Ethan replied.
She smiled at that, then reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. She unfolded it carefully and held it up for him to see.
"Here," she said. "This is the auction list."
Ethan leaned in slightly and scanned through it.
The list contained fourteen items total, each one neatly categorized by na, description, class compatibility, and weapon grading.
The highest-grade item on the entire list was labeled as High-Grade.
Ethan’s eyes moved down the rows:
∙ Mana Restoration Vial- Mid-Grade - Restores 20% mana capacity
∙ Health Potion - Mid-Grade - Heals moderate injuries
∙ Charm of Swiftness - Mid-Grade - Increases movent speed by 5% for 10 minutes
∙ Enchanted Arrows (x20) - High-Grade - Piercing enhancent for Ranger-class
∙ Cloak of Elental Resistance - Mid-Grade - Provides 10% resistance to fire and cold damage
Ethan paused on that last one and said; "Well, this cloak that provides 10% resistance to both fire and cold damage looks okay."
Bettie imdiately shook her head. "In the grand sche of things, that’s a bad item."
Ethan turned toward her in surprise.
She continued, "It’s a Mid-Grade item. It won’t do anything to protect you against even a Tier 4 Fireball attack."
Ethan’s eyes widened just a bit. "Damn."
Bettie nodded as if she had expected that reaction. Then she added, "But Mr. Kieran did announce that there are a few items that were not stated on this list. About four of them, I think."
Ethan’s interest piqued. "Four secret items?"
"Yeah," Bettie confird. "Mr. Kieran refused to ntion their grades, but he said they were discarded items that he and Miss Hana managed to persuade so guilds in the city to hand over for this camping trip."
She paused, then added with genuine interest in her voice, "Those are the items I’m actually more interested in. Nothing on this official list really catches my fancy."
"I see," Ethan said thoughtfully.
Then he turned toward her and asked, "Well, educate on item gradings then. If I’m being honest, I have no idea how they really work except that Legendary items are strong."
Bettie nodded eagerly. "Yes, they are. And they’re right at the top of the grading scale. But they aren’t the only strong grades either."
Ethan listened intently as she continued.
"I’ll start from the bottom," Bettie began, holding up one finger as if teaching a lesson. "The lowest-tier item you can get is Low-Grade. After that cos Mid-Grade, then High-Grade."
She held up another finger for each tier as she spoke.
"Next after High-Grade is Rare-Grade," she continued. "And if that cloak giving fire and cold resistance was at least Rare-Grade quality, then it could actually provide real protection against a Tier 4 Fireball spell without breaking."
Ethan nodded slowly. "I see."
Bettie held up yet another finger. "The next tier after Rare is Super-Rare Grade, but no one actually calls it that anymore. Instead, people just call it SR-Grade."
Ethan nodded again.
"Then after SR cos Epic-Grade," Bettie said with emphasis in her voice now. "With an Epic-Grade attack item, you could use it effectively against monsters of S-Grade strength. That’s why sotis people refer to Epic items as S-Ranked items instead."
"I see," Ethan said with another nod.
Then he thought back to his reincarnation for a mont and rembered that his Eyes of the Sage had been classified as an Epic-Grade gift by Lord Reincarnation himself.
But he also rembered that Ragnarok had been labeled as a Legendary-Grade gift, which based on what he recalled from that ti, was supposed to be even higher than Epic.
So he asked, "What about Legendary items?"
Bettie nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Legendary items are above Epic ones in power and rarity."
She paused for effect before adding, "And after Legendary cos the final grade I can rember, which is Mythic-Grade."
"Hm," Ethan muttered.
Bettie continued speaking as though she’d just rembered sothing important herself. "Although truthfully, Legendary and Mythic items are so rare that most people don’t even rember such high-tier grades exist normally."
She smiled sheepishly and added, "That’s actually why I almost forgot to ntion them myself just now."
Ethan nodded in understanding.
Bettie looked back down at the auction list in her hands and said hopefully, "I expect Mr. Kieran’s surprise items to be anywhere between Rare-Grade and High-Grade quality at best. I don’t think any guild in their right minds would want to part with an SR-Grade item or an Epic one."
She glanced up at the sky with hopeful eyes and added softly, "I just hope there’s one thing I can actually use in there."
Ethan smiled as he looked at her hopeful expression while she stared down at the list again.
He may not have fully understood how item grading worked until now, but he knew enough about this world to recognize one fact:
Sotis the deciding factor between two awakened individuals ca down entirely to the level of items or artifacts they possessed.
Weapons, items, and artifacts essentially covered up for a lot of shortcomings, especially where one’s talent level or personal skill fell short of what was needed to survive.
"Okay, now I’m a bit interested in seeing how the auction goes," Ethan said.
Bettie turned up to look at him and asked, "I hope you ca with so money though. You don’t particularly seem interested in the whole thing."
"Heh," Ethan smiled. "Well, it’s not that. It’s just, I was thinking I’d make my decision right on the spot or just bid on whatever I want. And yes, I ca with a few bucks."
Bucks weren’t what they were called in this world, but his thoughts unconsciously adopted the speech mannerism as he spoke.
Bettie understood what he ant by context and didn’t question it. Instead, she said, "I think you might want to turn this paper over."
Ethan flipped the list over and saw a few rules stated at the top. However, the first one imdiately caught his attention:
Due to the number of items available and a few other factors, each person is only allowed to win one item from the auction.
"Okay, damn," Ethan said, then sighed. "Now that’s tricky."
"Mhm hmm," Bettie said with a nod.
"Ah well, I was never really that interested in this thing anyway," Ethan said. He paused, then added, "Yeah, I think I’ll be leaving camp after the auction."
He pulled his Arcphone out of his pocket and whispered to himself, "I should probably let Eduardo know to co get ."
Bettie’s expression shifted slightly, and she asked, "Why?"
Ethan glanced up from his phone. "It’s nothing serious. It’s just, I have other things I need to do, and three whole days is too much ti for this."
"Oh..." Bettie said with a slow nod. "I understand."
She turned her gaze off to the side, staring at nothing in particular.
In a way, that news affected her mood for a split second.
If she was being honest with herself, Ethan was the only real friend she had around here. Over the last two weeks, she had slowly developed the habit of talking to him more freely than she had with anyone else.
But it was all good anyway.
She kept that thought to herself and forced a little smile back onto her face.
—-
A/N: Bonus Chapters for 300 PS complete✅
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