Chapter 45: Delicacy?
Kaisa walked out from a small door beside the display window. This was clearly his room, yet he looked sneaky. He approached the door, poked his head out to look left and right, and after confirming no one was there, he slammed the door shut and locked it.
"My dear friend, Kaisa has missed you very much."
Kaisa returned to the wooden display window, sat on a high stool, and pulled out half a pot of murky thick soup from under the counter. Floating on top were green vegetable leaves and some suspicious debris.
Kaisa lowered his head, took a deep breath, then revealed an expression of enjoyment, his face blooming like a chrysanthemum.
"My dear friend, this is a specialty from my hometown. Would you like to try some?"
Kaisa was uncharacteristically generous, pulling out a small bowl with a chipped edge from under the counter. For Kaisa, parting with a small bowl was the psychological limit he could bear.
"Is this... Geham?"
Su Xiao stared at the questionable thick soup, recalling his first encounter with Kaisa. Back when the other was still a quartermaster, he had been very enthusiastic about this soup called "Geham."
"My friend, you actually remember. Not bad memory, huh? How about it? Want a bowl to try?"
Kaisa swallowed his saliva, already unable to wait.
"Not needed."
Su Xiao's brow furrowed tightly. He had heard Kaisa mention the main ingredients of "Geham Soup" once before, and even if he hadn't, he wouldn't try this stuff.
Geham Soup ingredient list: unwashed wild ox large intestine, pig bladder, the reproductive organ of a giant creature (troll reproductive organ is the most authentic ingredient), Jilan flower root...
These ingredients were mixed together, chopped up, and sun-dried. Then, an appropriate amount of sour grapes was taken, crushed into sour juice, and the dried ingredients were placed in it, stored in an earthen jar, and sealed for fermentation. Two months later, the white mold layer on top of the earthen jar was removed, and the pickled "Geham" raw materials were taken out, boiled vigorously for 45 to 50 minutes, sprinkled with coarse salt, filtered of impurities, and topped with pre-boiled greens before being "enjoyed."
Supposedly, this stuff could enhance virility. Therefore, despite being somewhat disgusting, it was highly sought after by many. The words "kidney tonic" seemed to hold an irresistible allure for all males, causing people to solemnly listen intently to the details, afraid of missing a single word.
Of course, this was also one of the famous delicacies of the Dragon Soaring Empire. Judging from Kaisa's blissful expression, he truly cherished this thing. To recreate the taste from his memory, this guy had specifically returned to the Dragon Soaring Empire on the "Duguya Continent" to source the ingredients—his hometown.
*Thump thump.*
Su Xiao knocked on the counter. Kaisa, who was enjoying his meal with a wooden spoon, was startled, then understood Su Xiao's meaning.
"My dear friend, due to special circumstances, the reputation list won't activate for another half hour."
Kaisa continued to bury his head in enjoying the "delicacy." Seeing this, Su Xiao felt a slight discomfort in his stomach. The smell in this room was too strange.
Su Xiao checked the numerous prompts that had just appeared. Ignoring the upper part about Kaisa's antics, the main content consisted of four items, which were four types of faction permissions, totaling:
Cost Price Procurement, Return, Profiteer, Internal Procurement.
The effect of 「Cost Price Procurement」 was simple: for example, if an item required 10,000 reputation points, Su Xiao only needed 7,500 reputation points to get it, a quarter cheaper—very powerful.
The effect of 「Return」 was quite outrageous. From the prompt, suppose Su Xiao exchanged for a knife with a listed price of 10,000 reputation points, and he actually spent 7,500 reputation points.
If he immediately went to Kaisa to return it, the refunded reputation would not be based on the purchase price but the listed price, meaning he would net a profit of 2,500 reputation points after the return.
Even more shameless was that Kaisa had a shoddy refurbishing ability. Note, it was refurbishing, not repairing—this was important.
For example, Su Xiao exchanged for a knife with a durability of 100/100. After using it for two days, the knife's durability became 90/100. In this case, he could still bring the knife to Kaisa and return it.
Was everyone else an idiot? Couldn't they tell the knife had been used? No, of course they could. As the saying goes, "The higher-ups have policies, the lower levels have countermeasures." After completing the return, Kaisa would use one of his abilities to refurbish the knife. After refurbishing, the knife's 90/100 durability would become 95/95.
Yes, you read that right. The maximum durability decreased by 5 points, but the knife was indeed repaired. Call it second-hand, but the durability was full. Call it new, but this thing exuded a strange aura everywhere, as if it had been defiled.
This kind of return could only be done twice a day, and one had to be careful not to be discovered by the Sun Church, as it would bring a series of consequences.
The 「Profiteer」 faction privilege was also important. This privilege seemed unremarkable but was actually very strong. Its effect was to ignore the reputation level prerequisite for exchanging items in the faction shop, allowing item exchange.
For example, an item requiring Bishop-level reputation to exchange could be exchanged by Su Xiao with Respect-level reputation, provided he had enough reputation points.
Don't think this ability was useless. Gaining a higher status within the Sun Church required not only strength but also recommendations from believers and tolerance of the Sun's power, among other things.
To become a high-ranking member of the Sun Church, one needed recommendations from ordinary believers. Relying on connections or background to rise was impossible. These factors were worthless to the sun-worshipping fanatics.
Moreover, the high-ranking members of the Sun Church mostly represented strength and rarely managed affairs. Everyone did their own thing, having fun however they pleased. When there were tasks, they went on tasks; when bullied, they swarmed together. By now, being bullied was an extremely rare occurrence.
Known intelligence indicated that the Sun Church's reputation levels totaled six tiers: Friendly, Respectful, Revered, Priest, Deacon, and Bishop.
The first three reputation levels could be achieved by ordinary Sun believers. Once the reputation was sufficient, they could promote themselves. To reach the Priest level, one had to be crowned as a Dawn Priest within the Sun Church; otherwise, the reputation level would be stuck at Revered.
From this, one could see how powerful the effect of 「Profiteer」 was. As long as he had enough faction reputation, Su Xiao could use his Revered reputation level to exchange items with Bishop-level prerequisites.
The last one, 「Internal Procurement」, simply meant that some non-sale items from the Sun Church's treasury would appear on the reputation list.
After exchanging for these items, before leaving the Sand World, Su Xiao would keep such items in his storage space. Although these things were obtained through reputation exchange, their origins were unclean. If discovered by the Sun Church, both he and Kaisa would have to flee.
Su Xiao felt that 「Internal Procurement」 was the most important faction privilege. Earlier, Kaisa had mentioned that the Sun Church's treasury contained [Scroll Fragment], [Steel Box], [Sun Flame Detonation Technology], and so on.
What the [Steel Box] was, Su Xiao didn't know, but the [Scroll Fragment] and [Sun Flame Detonation Technology] were what he needed. The former needed no explanation; the latter was related to improving Apollo. Mastering this technology, Su Xiao believed, would soon allow Apollo's explosive power and subsequent burn damage to increase significantly.
Speaking of Apollo, Su Xiao thought that in the Sand World, he couldn't easily use Apollo. If discovered by the Sun Church, being expelled would be a minor issue; it might even lead to permanent hostility.
The Sun Church believed in and worshipped the sun. The origin of this faith came from the Holy Land of Chiriad. The Holy Land of Chiriad had created a sun, which was an act despised by the Sun Church. The sun was sacred; man-made creation equaled blasphemy.
If Su Xiao threw an Apollo out, and with a *boom*, the Apollo, resembling a small sun, exploded, the Sun believers would see it and think, "Oh? Isn't that the sun? You dare to create a man-made sun? Men, bring the rack, hang him up, and let him dry to death."
This was not Su Xiao's delusion; it was a real possibility.
A burp came from behind the counter. The pot in Kaisa's hands was cleaner than his face. This guy let out a satisfied burp and patted his bulging belly.
"The timing is about right. My dear friend, what do you want to buy? Kaisa guarantees that this batch of goods is honest and fairly priced, with excellent quality and low cost."
Amid Kaisa's sly laughter, Su Xiao received a prompt.
[Prompt: Sun Church · Reputation Shop has been activated. You can exchange items by consuming your current reputation points.]
[Current Reputation Points: 4756/5900 (Friendly Level).]
[Prompt: You can gain Sun Church reputation points by completing faction missions, surrendering miracle items, offering Soul Coins or Soul Crystals to the Sun Altar, etc.]
[You can consume reputation points to exchange for the following 375 types of items.]