SSS Evolution: Upgrading My Trash Grade Skeleton to Godhood-Chapter 50: Temptation
Two thousand star crystals.
The number hung in the air long after the words had been spoken, and it was that number — the sheer, almost absurd weight of it — that stopped Lukas from opening his mouth and walking out the door. This was an amount that most awakeners never saw in one place. People who risked their lives every single day, who bled and ground themselves down to bone and exhaustion just to survive, still struggled to accumulate a fraction of that. And here she was, offering it to him in exchange for a few lessons here and there.
The deal was too tempting to dismiss with a straight face.
Still, Lukas didn’t immediately agree. He held the silence for a moment, letting the offer settle, turning it over with the unhurried patience of someone who had learned the hard way that quick decisions had long consequences.
If he was going to teach her, he couldn’t afford to do a sloppy job. Even if the lessons were casual and scattered, he had his own standards.
Across from him, Ambrose made no move to push. She simply waited, hands folded, patient in the way someone is patient when they’ve already committed to a decision and are only waiting for the other person to catch up. Inwardly, though, even she wasn’t entirely sure what had prompted this. The decision had arrived from nowhere, born purely on a whim, without logic or precedent behind it. If anyone had asked her yesterday whether she would ever consider seeking sword guidance from someone like Lukas, she would have flatly denied it and questioned the sanity of anyone stupid enough to suggest it.
And yet, here they were.
While Ambrose was quietly untangling her own thoughts, Lukas drew in a slow breath and made up his mind.
"Fine. I’m willing to help you out." His voice was calm and matter-of-fact, carrying neither enthusiasm nor reluctance. "But there are conditions. I’ll only teach you when I’m free — I won’t be rearranging my schedule around this. And I can’t guarantee how much you’ll actually take away from it." He paused briefly, letting that land before continuing. "A teacher can only show the way. How far the student actually walks — that depends entirely on them."
Ambrose gave a single, composed nod.
His words made sense. She was paying him well, but that didn’t mean he owed her his time at every hour of the day. For an awakener, personal cultivation and survival always came first. She understood that much.
Lukas held her gaze a moment longer, making sure she had absorbed what he said. Then, without further ceremony, he turned and walked out of the room.
The goal ahead of him was already clear.
He made his way toward the Phantom Night Guild without wasting a single breath on hesitation.
The last time he had visited, the guild had been busy — the usual low hum of activity, people moving in and out with purpose but without urgency. That version of the place felt like a distant memory now.
The moment the entrance came into view, Lukas slowed his pace.
The hall was packed beyond anything he had seen before. Bodies filled every available inch of space, the noise of dozens of overlapping voices pressing against the walls like something alive. The air was thick and stale, heat rising from the sheer density of people crammed together, and moving through the crowd was less like walking and more like forcing water upstream. It looked less like a guild hall and more like a market square on a festival day — except the urgency in every face was far too sharp to belong to celebration.
The shelves and listings told the rest of the story.
Prices had gone through the roof. Weapons, techniques, recovery items — everything had surged as if the commodities themselves had caught the city’s rising panic. Lukas moved through the chaos with steady eyes, scanning through the available items with the focused detachment of someone filtering noise until only the signal remained.
His gaze eventually stopped on one particular listing.
Moonflower Essence Star Energy Recovery Potion — 500 star crystals.
He stared at it for a quiet moment, his expression unreadable.
Lukas stared at the price tag for exactly one second before the words left his mouth without permission.
"Damn, so expensive! Why don’t you just rob me directly?"
The outburst drew a few glances from the people nearest to him, but he paid them no mind. It was only because of the thousand star crystals he had pocketed from Ambrose that he had even allowed himself to look at something priced this outrageously. And even with that cushion behind him, the number still felt like a personal insult.
Before the horde, a Moonflower Essence Star Energy Recovery Potion had been a casual purchase — a hundred star crystals, maybe less if the seller was feeling generous. Now it was sitting at five times that amount, perched on the listing board like it had no shame whatsoever.
Crisis inflation. Apparently, it was very real.
When Lukas turned and asked the nearest guild employee for an explanation, the young man who shuffled over looked like he hadn’t slept properly in days. Scraggly, hollow-eyed, with the particular dull expression of someone running entirely on obligation and exhaustion, he answered with a dark look on his face.
"All the potion makers from the Green Heaven Guild are focused on crafting war supplies right now. There’s no production line running for Moonflower Essence Potions at all. Whatever’s left on the shelf is what’s left."
Green Heaven Guild.
The name snagged something in Lukas’s memory — the team he had crossed paths with during the hunt for the Verdant Green Monarch. He filed that away quietly and returned his attention to the problem in front of him.
The frown on his face deepened.
If there was no active supply, then the few bottles currently listed here were already on a countdown. A few days at most before they vanished entirely, snapped up by someone with deeper pockets and less hesitation.
