There is Something Wrong with This Game

A011 – Appraisal

Time passed slowly until it was Hecate's turn.

Fortunately, the queue was not long, and Hecate turn was the last.

Right now, Hecate was sitting on the chair facing the Appraiser, who was a middle aged man in his 30-ish. From his attire, Hecate can assume that his Jobclass was a Scholar. A human male Native Scholar.

Scholar was another advancement route of the Mage class, other than Wizard or Witch. In comparison, while Wizard or Witch focuses on firepower, this class is aimed to be a supporting role. Their spells are primarily about empowering their allies and debuffing the enemies.

But, that was none of Hecate's business.

"These please."

Hecate placed two items on the table.

A gold coin with unknown origin, obtained from the second floor of the unnamed ruins. A dungeon where Hecate massacred the spider family a few days ago.

Other than that, Hecate also placed a mysterious glowing cube that looked like a Soul Essence, obtained from a drop of a certain World Boss. However, since it cannot be inserted to any Equip, then it most likely wasn't one.

"Let me see... That will be

50."

Looking at the bunch of items in front of him, the Appraiser, Ricardo expressionlessly replied. For him, this was just another routine of his uneventful job.

Hecate immediately took the silver coins from her inventory and pay up in front.

Receiving the coins, Ricardo nodded.

"I have received the money. Let's start the appraisal."

"Yes, please..."

Then with a wave of his hand, he activated a certain skill, only belonged to the Appraiser Subclass.

"O Spirits of Wisdom, please grant this foolish mortal the knowledge of this item... APPRAISE!!"

At that moment, many overlapping magical circles appeared in his eyes and slowly intertwined with each other. 

Then, his hands let out a warm, blue light that spread out to the coin. After a moment, on top of the coin, appeared a translucent window which its content only visible to the Appraiser.

"Oooh? What is this?"

"Is there something wrong, mister?"

"Ehem... My apologies, I was just surprised. To think I could see a relic from a long destroyed empire."

Ricardo seemed to be taken aback a little, but soon regained his composure upon hearing Hecate's reminder.

"Here, you can look at the information yourself."

He then wrote the coin description onto paper and handed it over to Hecate.

Now the information of the coin changed.

With this information, Hecate now knows that the unnamed ruins was actually the ruins of Arcadia Empire. It will be named as such in her Game UI when she revisit the place in the future.

At the same time, another window also popped up in front of her.

The window was just a hint generated by the system, not become a quest window yet. But, that itself was enough to understand the overall situation. Hecate's following action will decide whether quest would be generated or not.

'Looks like I have to do something about Arachnia first...'

With Arachnia in the ruins, it was unlikely that Hecate would be able to explore the place in peace.

"Let's continue with the other one."

"Yes, please."

"O Spirits of Wisdom, please grant this foolish mortal the knowledge of this item... APPRAISE!!"

Then Ricardo repeat the same step with the cube. The second time that same light appeared, slowly enveloping the cube. Five seconds later, the process ended.

Unfortunately, this time the result was not good.

This result is not strange. Appraisal will not work for items outside of Appraiser's knowledge. The skill simply acts as a compiler from the user's cognition. In the end, it was the user's effort that decides the worth of this skill.

"I'm sorry little miss. It seems my skill wasn't enough..."

"I understand, it happens sometimes."

Ricardo could only apologize with shame. He did not think that he could fail Appraising an item. It was the first time he has failed since 20 years. The last time such result appeared was when he still studied at the Rosenheim Mage Institute.

Now he kinda curious to the item that declared his knowledge was not enough.

"I have worked as an appraiser for 20 years. I have confidence in my Appraisal skill. I don't mean to brag, but I have read perhaps every book in this kingdom. But, unexpectedly I still fail. Wait for a bit, I can call my other colleagues..."

"Forget it... If even mister can't do it, perhaps no one in this kingdom would be able to Appraise this item."

Disappointed, Hecate could only put the item back to her inventory.

Perhaps, the item dropped from a World Boss was special and the Appraiser's skills in this kingdom wasn't enough. Hecate shook her head as she left the Association building.

'A bunch of useless fools. If the Appraisers in this kingdom can't, then I will have to visit another country later.'

Looking at the time, there still about half a hour left before the designated time.

"Rena and Emi should've finished from their classes."

Hecate decided to patiently wait for Rena-cchi and Emilia at the City Square.

The bell indicating the class was over finally rang.

Rena who came out of her classroom, took a deep breath while giving off an excited expression. She was about to start running in the corridor before Emi, who came out later stopped her.

"No running in the corridor! Do you want to be caught by the Disciplinary Committee?"

"Ah, that will be bad! But, but... but... Finally, it's time to play with Hecate-chan. I can't help but get excited, can I?"

Like a child eagerly awaiting to play with her toy, Rena cheerfully replied.

Looking at Rena's childish behavior, Emi couldn't help but sigh. It seems that all the nutrients from the food Rena consumed went to her breasts, not her brain.

"What are you? A kid? Both Hecate and the VS-Room won't run away from you."

VS-Room, abbreviation of Virtual Station Room. A place where students can use the Capsule Pod to log on to the Quantum Network. Both of the girls planned to enter the game from there. The room wasn't very far from their classroom, so they arrived quickly after walking a few minutes.

There, they met Kazu who seemed to have finished his class as well, as previously agreed.

"Yo! Let's go now, shall we?"

"Yeah yeah ooh! Let's go, Emi! To the promised land!!"

"Wait up, Rena... Don't pull me!"

And then, the three of them entered any unoccupied pod they find and started the booting process.

The process last for 5 minutes before the Capsule Pods are ready to use. Unfortunately, since the pod they used was just a standard version, it was not an instant boot. But it was a trivial matter.

Not long after, they entered the game.

They materialized in their last position before logging out. Then, they firmly used a Town Scroll, instantly teleporting them to the City Square. The three of them materialized from within the Teleportation Gate almost simultaneously.

Rena-cchi, Emilia, and KAZU

One Human, one Elf and one Werewolf. Their IGN appears over their heads, visible only to Players.

"Rosenheim Kingdom, I AM BACK!!"

Rena-cchi couldn't help but unleashed her urge to shout.

Instantly, her behavior attracted the attention of everyone present.

"Oh, shut up! Don't you feel embarrassed?"

For some reason, Emilia suddenly want to find a hole to hide.

In the side, Kazu just silently keep a distance from the girls, pretending not to know them. Unfortunately, his plan ended abruptly when a clear and smooth voice calls over them.

"Good morning, Rena, Emi... Hello too, Kazu."

Sitting on the bench in front of the fountain, a familiar blue-haired loli greeted them expressionlessly.