Liam handed over one of the top-tier healing pills in his possession to Lan Deming without asking any questions. He could see the fire in the man's eye. Though he had gotten hurt pretty nastily with several deep gashes making the floor of the shop bloody and his guts almost spilling out, it was clear that he had also gained a lot from the experience.
Sometimes one needed life and death experience to make any real progress. This was the reason why Liam had brought these guys here and he was glad that the team was using the opportunity well and not squandering it.
But after giving the pill, Liam moved away. He did not plan on visiting the fighting pits just yet. This was not only a good opportunity to learn but also a good opportunity to make money.
And knowing exactly how poor he was in the grand scheme of things, he wanted to start first with the making money part.
Liam first visited the counter of the system shop that sold a variety of beast eggs. This was because when he had crossed this place earlier, he had noticed something weird. Now he once again noticed the same occurrence.
Ever since he landed on this planet, Liam had tried a secret experiment on his own. The experiment was whether he could sense the soul strength of the people around him to roughly gauge their strength.
Since using a skill like [Inspect] would trigger the recipient, he thought that simply sensing the soul, not scanning or trying to manipulate it, only sensing the soul might not trigger anything like that.
Of course, he immediately killed this experiment as he was sorely mistaken. He had tried it on a nymph and she instantly noticed it. Thankfully, she couldn't understand what it was or pinpoint it to him. This coupled with Madan's and Rey's open ogling, it was easy for Liam to hide the probe under their drool-filled rug.
This was also the main reason why Liam had targeted a nymph but it turned out even the women here shouldn't be underestimated. The nymph ultimately let the incident slide and went back to her business and after that experience, Liam no longer continued such tests.
But when he crossed the colorful assortment of eggs, Liam did not care about any such nuances. He freely tried to probe the soul strength of the eggs displayed on the counter.
As expected, some of them were strong and some of them were weak but surprisingly this range was quite big. Liam had a strong feeling about something on the counter and his curiosity was piqued. He had decided to come back here later but now was as good a time as any. He was not training so he might as well gamble!
Liam walked over to the counter and returned the polite smile of the fairy. "Are you looking for anything, in particular, Grandmaster?" The fairy bowed in respect and attended to him.
"Can you explain to me how this works?"
The fairy nodded. "All the eggs here cost the same, Sir. 1 million high-grade mana cores each. Of course, we have no idea what sort of a beast you will get from these eggs. The process is quite random." "Some beasts are more common, while others are rare and potentially more powerful. The eggs are sourced from various realms and contain a vast array of possible creatures. This is a system-designed gambling counter that is free from any bias."
"The system has also placed special restrictions which preclude the usage of special skills to identify the beasts and only individuals who are below the transcendent realm can participate in this gamble."
Hmmm. Liam nodded. It looked like he was just barely within the limit for this feature too. This made him wonder what he missed at the Awakened stage. There was no point in thinking about that now, so he quickly put it aside and focused on the display case.
"Please allow me, Grandmaster." The fairy hurriedly started removing one tray after another and presented them before Liam for his perusal. Each tray contained a small collection of eggs, their surfaces shimmering with an array of colors and patterns, each unique and mysterious.
Liam leaned in, his senses extended, trying to feel the resonance or pull from any of the eggs. While he couldn't use skills to directly inspect them, his innate intuition and connection to the soul gave him an edge. Now that these eggs were outside of the display case, he could sense the strength of their soul even more clearly.
Liam remained indifferent as he slowly tried to gauge the soul strength of each egg one after the other. One million high-grade mana cores might not be much for many bigwigs of the myriad realms but to them, it was a huge amount. Of course, if the egg was above a certain grade, then it would instantly give him a huge profit.
Liam looked at the tray of eggs but he immediately did not make any decision. He needed some samples first. He hadn't worked with beast eggs recently. He quickly descended further down to the lower floors and first took a look at the normal eggs.
The system shop sold beast eggs from common grade to epic grade. Surprisingly, there weren't any legendary-grade or higher-rank beast eggs available. Liam assumed that these were either not sold or probably snatched up by someone else as soon as they popped in the store. But he did not care. This was good enough. He once again made his way back to the tenth floor and to the beast egg counter.
The fairy manning the counter gave him a knowing smile before his expression returned to the same old politeness. What strategy hadn't he seen already? What trick hadn't he seen already? In all his life working in this counter, he had only seen tears and angers in this counter. Of course, there were a few lucky encounters but the system was brutal. The rate of success was truly abysmal.
And now this young Grandmaster was going to fall for the same old trap… what a pity… the fairy sighed.