“I don’t mind taking you there, Valued Customer.” From abbot Soriana's point of view, the more goods she showcased, the likelier Wolf’s further purchases. Then, they could transact, slightly increasing world’s number of fair deeds.

“May I ask something?” Wolf said halfway up the flight of stairs.

“Feel free, Valued Customer,” Soriana said without breaking her stride.

“Why does the Church of Fairness handle trade instead of legal matters?” Wolf wondered about that question when he heard of the Church of Fairness’s primary method of worship.

“Do you wish to join us?” the abbot asked, chuckling.

Her offer stumped Wolf, but she explained herself immediately. “That’s the question our faithful often ask before their first trial.”

Soriana waved her hand. “Never mind. Legends say our church misguidedly managed world’s law. However, in an age before history, our great prophet appeared. Through debate and divine authority he proved we should steer away from fragile justice, saying that trade was the only fair thing.”

After they climbed back into the lounge, abbot Soriana closed the door leading underground and opened another hidden compartment.

“It’s impossible to determine who’s right and who’s wrong. The debate was lengthy, and I don’t wish to impose our values on you. Basically, the further you follow the chain of cause and effect, the more you realize everyone is right and everyone is wrong. There can be no fairness in justice, since it often turns a blind eye to motive and history. I shall quote the great prophet’s conclusion. ‘Sometimes, justice is unfair. Sometimes, fairness is unjust.’”

The woman touched six points of a new intricate seal, and another vault presented itself.

“Trade doesn’t care about history. Doesn’t care about motive. It can be fair, if practiced correctly. But I won’t bore you with our dogma, Valued Customer.” Soriana opened a glass case, revealing a palm-sized hole in reality.

“This is the merchandise you inquired about, Valued Customer.” The abbot passed a mass of blackness to Wolf.

Avarium was famous for devouring light. To determine the shape of objects fashioned from it, manlings had to use their fingers or make imprints, since eyes were useless. Wolf knew this was a cube, yet his eyes perceived a tiny void with straight edges.

Wolf took the cube and found it lighter than expected.

Two hundred and sixteen grams. He immediately recognized its exact weight. Wolf traced his fingers against the cube’s edges without looking at it. Its borders were perfectly straight, its corners pointy and regular to the point of perfection manlings couldn’t reproduce.

Wolf looked down and fiddled with the box. Then, he paused. As expected, the cube's sides were pitch black, save for one.

On that side Wolf saw a cluster of tiny silver letters. The writing was easy to read. Wolf scanned it an instant and realized this was the item’s reference.

Congratulations on your acquisition of Cube of Fusing. This instruction manual describes various usages of the item for the best possible result.

Before using your Cube of Fusing for the first time:

ᛗᛁ ᚹᛁᚠᛖ ᛒᚢᚷᚷᛖᛞ ᛗᛖ ᛏᛟ ᚨᛞᛞ ᛊᛟᛗᛖᚦᛁᛜ ᛈᚱᛟᛈᛖᚱ-ᛚᛟᛟᚲᛁᛜ - Chant the provided arcana, then store the Cube of Fusing into a Ring of Holding. Cube of Fusing will integrate into the selected Ring of Holding, permanently taking up ten percent of its space.

! Attention:

Please bind your Cube of Fusing to a sufficiently large Ring of Holding.

During activation, all required materials must be present inside the Cube of Fusing. Even with the smallest quantity of materials missing, the fusing will fail. Please be mindful of this.

If materials cannot fit inside the Cube of Fusing, the fusing cannot take place.

First use:

Step one - Provide a recipe or schema for the item you intend to craft.

Step two - Provide the correct amount of raw materials required in the recipe or schema provided in step one.

! Attention - After entering the Sea of Stars, the required amount of materials has to be doubled.

! Attention - Excess material will cause waste.

Step three - Place the desired recipe or schema and materials into your Cube of Fusing.

Upon providing the ingredients and the recipe or schema, Cube of Fusing will consume the materials and provide the finished product in the shortest amount of time possible.

! Attention - No relation exists between the end product’s quantity or quality and the fusing time.

Please note that Cube of Fusing’s production time decreases with use. The initial production time is fourteen days. Every one hundred uses incrementally reduce this period by ten percent.

Please note that the quality of the finished product depends solely on the schema or recipe provided. The Cube of Fusing will provide a product by perfectly following the schema or recipe provided, achieving the best result possible, given the materials.

Please note that the Cube of Fusing will not upgrade, nor perfect the schemas and recipes provided.

Please note that without schemas or recipes, the Cube of Fusing will purify the raw materials. This will cause wasted matter.

Please note that if provided a finished item without a schema, Cube of Fusing will decompose it into the most dominant raw material. Other materials will be wasted.

Sample schema for testing is inside the Cube of Fusing.

Reverse Star Sword:

Required raw materials:

Ten kilograms of adamantium and ten kilograms of mithril.

After reading the reference Wolf’s jaw almost hit the floor, but he maintained a poker face. The instructions are in plain sight. It’s even written in the common tongue. Anyone literate can use this. But what is the Sea of Stars? How do you enter it?

Wolf shifted his gaze towards the abbot, then turned the cube to show her the side with the text. She didn’t even flinch. The woman seemed oblivious to the writing.

This is the most awesome item I have ever seen in my life, Wolf struggled to keep his breathing and heart rate in check then faced the abbot. “I’ll take it, if you’re willing to sell under the conditions we agreed to.”

Abbot Soriana nodded. “Naturally, Valued Customer. Did anything else catch your interest?”

Wolf shook his head, smiling awkwardly. He had fifty thousand gold pieces left. That was enough for the cheapest trinkets, but he needed to buy materials to craft the Reverse Star Sword.

“How much do mithril and adamantium cost?” He already knew the market price, but still had to ask.

“A two hundred gram bar of mithril costs one hundred and forty gold coins. A one kilogram stick of adamantium costs four thousand gold coins.” The woman immediately gave a depressingly fair quote.

That’s one hundred and sixteen thousand one hundred and twenty. One hundred and four thousand five hundred and eight gold pieces in total with the loyalty card discount.

“I would like to purchase ten kilos of each,” Wolf said, feeling hollow comfort at having fifteen thousand gold coins left after his purchase.

“Please follow me, Valued Customer.” The abbot again led Wolf towards the lounge. She took out a Farvoice and repeated Wolf’s order. “Do you need anything else?”

“Do you have Tenth and Eleventh Order Monster Cores?” Wolf tried his luck.

“We only have a single Tenth Order Monster Core. It’s from a juvenile Miasmic Gargoyle. The seller valued it at twenty-six thousand seven hundred gold coins, while our processing fee is the standard two percent.”

Yeah, I don’t have that kind of money now. Wolf was tempted to take a loan, but Archibald taught him never to buy things using other’s wealth.

“Thank you.” He thanked the abbot without hiding his sad face.

The two of them sat down, fresh cups of warm tea awaited them. Several minutes later a male Priest appeared and respectfully presented the abbot with a Ring of Holding.

The woman focused her mind, and fifty bars of mithril slightly larger than a finger appeared, stacked in a neat little pyramid. Next to them lay ten pieces of adamantium the size of chopsticks.

“This is your order, Valued Customer. The avarium cube, fifty bars of mithril and ten sticks of adamantium. That would be one hundred and sixteen thousand one hundred and twenty gold coins.”

Wolf said nothing.

He handed her Headmaster Smith’s loyalty card and a Ring of Holding valued at ten thousand gold which contained nine hundred and fifty platinum pieces.

The abbot took out a magical device. She checked the loyalty card, then entered Wolf’s purchase into it. She handed back the card, then examined the Ring of Holding for a moment.

The woman frowned. “You gave me one hundred and five thousand gold coins, Valued Customer.”

Wolf nodded. “Considering the ten percent discount on that loyalty card, my bill is one hundred and four thousand five hundred and eight gold pieces. Meaning you owe me four hundred and ninety-two gold pieces.”

The abbot gave Wolf an awkward look. “Valued Customer, you didn’t use your loyalty card for at least five years. Meaning you have no discount. However, the next time you trade with us, you will have a ten percent discount. As long as the transaction happens within five years.”

The woman paused as Wolf looked at her blankly. “You still owe us eleven thousand one hundred and twenty gold coins, Valued Customer.”

Wolf blinked, then felt fury well up inside him.

That son of a bitch!