GoldenHolyKnight
The handle GoldenHolyKnight was pretty well known around the community. He'd made his name as the main tank on more than one of Korea's field-boss first-clear parties, and he sat at number one on the Paladin rankings. He was just as famous as the user who kept posting guides on how to raise Temple contribution. If you had to name the single person with any real chance of getting Supreme Holy Water right now, GoldenHolyKnight was the only name worth saying.
"Hello, Siwoo. I've been enjoying the stream. Haha."
GoldenHolyKnight was a powerfully built player. He was big enough that size alone made you wonder if he was a bear, and he looked every bit the man. That sort of thing was easy enough if you paid for customization, so I didn't commit the rudeness of asking whether he looked like that in real life.
"Ah. I'm a fan too."
"...Sounds like you just heard of me."
"You were the tank on the Suwon Dirt Lizard field-boss first-clear party, right?"
"That wasn't me. That was Tank..."
"Ah... one second. Let me ban whoever fed me that lie."
Anyway, what mattered to me right now was whether GoldenHolyKnight could make Supreme Holy Water.
"Were you watching the stream?"
"Yes. Funny timing. I just finished a Temple quest the day before yesterday, and I got Supreme Holy Water as the reward."
"Whoa."
The board was laid out so neatly that I almost wondered if this was Windy scheming to smooth out my Haven Online play. The other materials had been the same story—listings sitting on the auction house so I could buy every one of them—and now even the Supreme Holy Water people had called impossible. Of course, that was only if I put myself at the center of it.
"Are you thinking of selling?"
He'd gone so far as to donate while declaring he was willing to sell, so it was fair to assume he meant to. The conditions, though, I'd have to hear. The auction sellers had already watched me pay exactly the prices they asked. After that, the price of this last piece could be whatever he felt like naming, and it wouldn't even be strange. Money itself wasn't a big problem for me. But if he hung some other condition on it, that could get awkward.
"Yes, of course. But Supreme Holy Water is an extremely important item to me as well. I didn't simply receive it as a reward."
"Tell me the conditions and I'll get them ready. Preferably something money can solve. As you've seen, money's all I've got."
"Thank you for saying that first. It makes this easier."
Fortunately, GoldenHolyKnight's goal seemed to be money. Even so, he couldn't quite bring himself to say the number, which made the amount look pretty large.
"Want me to pause the stream for a minute?"
"No, it's fine. I'm a viewer too. I shouldn't miss a historic moment like this."
GoldenHolyKnight thought for a moment, then spoke carefully.
"Your opinion matters most, Siwoo, but with so many viewers watching, would it be all right if I first explained why I need the money?"
"Sure."
The chat, if I'm being honest, had completely lost its mind.
Angry viewers, for starters. And so on. I froze the chat. I was getting a little irritated.
"Shut up and watch. Before I kill the stream."
Looking at the silenced chat, GoldenHolyKnight explained his situation. It wasn't so much a personal story as a quest of the same kind I'd received.
"I've been raising Temple contribution since I changed class. I knew the Temple's power in the world of Haven was immense. Just as mages steadily build contribution at the Magic Tower so they can belong to it, I went to dawn prayer every morning, never missed a Temple volunteer shift, and donated every spare coin I had, even breaking open my savings. It's already been more than two years."
"Oh..."
Even in real life, getting up for dawn prayer every single morning is hard unless you're seriously devout. A day or two, sure. But never missing a day—rain or snow, no matter what comes up, hunting down the nearest church even when you're off on a trip—that isn't easy.
"So, not to brag, but I had the highest Temple contribution in Korea, and though the unit is basically a reserve, I was entrusted with a small Holy Knight Order."
He said he was a 4-star Paladin. It wasn't one of those cases where someone punched through a billion in expected value with a miracle snipe.
"To begin with, the Temple itself won't let a user rise above the lowest grunt holy knight unless they're 4-star. I got lucky and pulled mine at around three hundred million, and even then, commanding this small order is probably my ceiling... but I was lucky."
Most recently, he said, coincidence had stacked on coincidence until he had a chance to save a Saintess.
"While we were hunting in a dungeon, the Saintess fell into danger, and I threw myself in front of it and got her out. Thanks to that, I received a quest to craft Supreme Holy Water, and I completed it. To be honest, the cost alone was over four billion in Haven money. Just like you, I needed materials that are hard to find. I even spent more than a month running the legwork myself."
That was why he'd hesitated while asking for so much money. I nodded. There was no proof, but if it was true, demanding more than that was only natural. And if he'd spent four billion making Supreme Holy Water, there would be a reason that matched the price.
"Right now, of the Supreme Holy Water actually held by users, there is only one in Korea. The Pope has one, the Saintess has one, and the Temple has one. If you want one that can be traded, buying mine is the fastest option, and the one with a real chance."
"Is it even okay for you to sell it?"
"I was actually planning to donate it to the Temple. If I donated it in God's name, the contribution would stack enormously, and I thought it might even give the order I lead a chance to move up into the main force."
Then he said it.
"But if you agree to the trade, Siwoo, I'll gladly sell. There is just one thing I want."
By the time he'd said that much, GoldenHolyKnight's face was set. He'd made his decision.
He closed his eyes as he finished, and the look on his face held a genuinely sorry feeling.
"Hm."
It really was a long story you had to hear all the way through. If he'd cut the front and the back off and just said he'd made it for four billion and would sell it for eight, he would have deserved to get called a brazen gouger. Even after hearing all of it, some people were still going to curse him. I didn't see it that way. Even if he had cut it down to that, I still wouldn't have.
"What do you have to be sorry for?"
Not because I had money. That was just how I saw it.
"It's a precious item, the only one of its kind, and the price is entirely the seller's to name. I think you could ask a little more confidently."
Four billion, eight billion, twelve billion. None of it was something I needed to worry much about. What mattered more was something else entirely.
"Then let me counter with a proposal of my own."
"...?"
"Including you, GoldenHolyKnight, how much would it take to put full gear on the entire order?"
"Pardon?"
"I'll buy the Supreme Holy Water by funding that entire cost."
"....No!"
"Siwoo?"
Lim Sarang, who had been listening, quickly cut in. From beside me, a whispered figure reached my ear.
"A level-60 endgame spec, on a 4-star standard—full sets are at least eight billion a person! And there aren't even listings!"
"In return."
There was a reason for hanging a condition on it.
"From here on, can you somehow get me whatever materials I need from the Temple?"
I didn't have time to build Temple contribution. I didn't have the nerve to go out for dawn prayer every morning, either. Unlike the Magic Tower, they weren't about to hand me the Pope's seat just because I was a Dragon's Descendant, so if I needed something, I would have to find someone else who had already stacked Temple contribution. And I had no idea what materials the Magic Tower might ask me to fetch later. Better to open a road now, while the chance was in front of me, than to go hunting every single time.
"...Are you truly all right with this?"
GoldenHolyKnight asked. Asking again instead of refusing meant the terms were too attractive to turn down. Even I thought so. The holy knights of a bottom-rung order wouldn't all be in the level 60s, but even gearing just him would blow well past eight billion. It still didn't matter.
"Deal?"
"Thank you."
"I'm the one who should thank you. It might be rough on you. I may need another Supreme Holy Water."
"I'll bring you one even if I have to scrape up every last point of contribution I have."
As we shook hands, GoldenHolyKnight bent at the waist in a full ninety-degree bow. Somehow it had turned into a scene of me granting a favor, but it was an extremely good trade for me too.
"Thanks to you, I'll be learning an SS-grade skill. Let's just call it good for both of us."
"...What did I just watch. Someone truly outrageous just showed up."
Beside me, Lim Sarang clapped a hand over her mouth and left her review in a hush.
I went straight to the bank and exchanged more currency. A clean ten billion. Twenty-six billion came in.
"I'll hand you twenty billion for now. If it runs short, tell me. I've still got seventeen billion left."
And at last, the Supreme Holy Water was in my hands.