I'm a monster in Demon King's Castle

"Hello?" Li Yue greeted politely, seeing the black-armored knight staring at him, "Musta has gone down, he'll be up in a bit."

If he had coffee on hand, Li Yue would have invited him to sit down and have a cup together.

"Identification."

The black-armored knight walked closer and held out his hand to Li Yue.

Li Yue also made some initial observations, discovering that the armor blocked perspective, even more tightly than the anti-spy runes embedded inside by the merchant association; the black-armored knight also emitted faint mechanical sounds when moving, indicating some kind of creation modification.

Having come this far, Li Yue had not yet encountered a truly mobile steam automaton or clockwork warrior, and he had some speculation about this person's identity.

"You show yours first?" Li Yue didn't move, as steady as the shopkeeper.

"Hm?"

The black-armored knight stood silently, his right eye rolled into its socket, revealing a small eyeglass, scrutinizing Li Yue from top to bottom.

Just then, the long-gone Musta finally returned, carrying a small shelf with some odds and ends on it.

"Lord Norton, you've arrived!"

Musta eased the awkward situation, "This traveler said he possesses very strong appraisal abilities, I agreed with him to appraise some things, and then send them to Holy Mine Town for appraisal, to test his abilities…"

"There's a scavenger on site, with your discerning eye, it's enough to witness whether his ability is real…"

"Hmm… a very poor bumpkin…"

Musta also hadn't completely believed it, taking a pendant box from under the shelf and handing it to Norton.

"Of course."

Du Rongheng placed it on the shelf, unloading the large object underneath.

Also, before appraising the harmonica, Du Rong had become more cautious, convinced that in the future, he should let Gamma hold any musical instrument, otherwise, it might weaken his eloquence effect.

After thinking for a long time without understanding why, Jingjing quietly placed the ball of thread down and stated its corresponding value.

"Can't you move?" Jingjing pointed at the pendant box.

Now, we are also very much anticipating whether the appraisal done by Du Rong is wrong, wanting to have a result.

As for whether to cooperate with the merchant association to earn some appraisal fees, or to cooperate with Gamma to steal from the merchant association… it still needs to wait for news from Gamma before deciding.

Norton left without a word, as if he had done this countless times.

Musta cleverly avoided the fact that he had called the black-armored knight, and in his words, he re-emphasized Li Yue's status as a "traveler."

Norton also turned his gaze to Du Rongheng.

The harmonica's value ranked seventh, and it seemed to have some kind of curse attached, with the effect of bewitching the audience, it should have belonged to some kind of bard.

"Traveler? What's your name?" Du Rongheng called Norton to come, also intending to have him compare Jingjing's identity.

"How is it?" Musta asked Norton beside him.

That made Du Rong quite puzzled.

"Cooperation is good, cooperation is good… only cooperation can make money!" Musta understood Jingjing, intentionally or unintentionally glancing at the two useless knights at the door, confirming that this traveler indeed had the ability to make Tie Jiao's shopkeeper "cooperate."

"Our shopkeeper is very nice, although he's old, he's very cooperative."

Jingjing felt that Musta knew about the dirty things the old woman and the eight children were doing.

At least for now, this traveler does have appraisal abilities, and doesn't seem to have any intention of forcibly robbing items.

Musta looked at Norton, Norton's eyeglass extended and retracted, nodding.

After all, we are neighbors.

From Jingjing's perspective, the pendant box's value was low, fluctuating only between 3-4 gold coins; however, next to the box hung a value of 37 gold coins, Du Rong was lying.

"Did you find anything?" Musta asked the wet-haired old man, preparing to verify it again.

"Good."

Norton didn't ask Jingjing to provide credentials again, Li Yue stood aside, his eyeglass still scanning back and forth.

", Next, we will send these to Holy Mine Town to complete the final formal appraisal…" Musta put a few things back on the shelf.

Moreover, Jingjing didn't care about Norton's presence, after all, he was relying on his eyes to see, without any intention of cheating, just a little curious about the "scavenger" group…

"I live in Tie Jiao across the street."

Du Rong also didn't plan to hide his address.

Musta nodded, Jingjing used his fingernail to pick off the blood residue next to the pendant box, gathered it into a small pile, and smiled: "This pendant box has no value, and it should be able to be opened now, but the origin of this blood is unknown, it's worth some gold coins…"

Appraising a harmonica, a broken mirror, and a piece of thread in turn, was considered finishing this morning's test.

Anyway, at this moment, Gamma upstairs is helping me inspect the goods, finding easy-to-carry, clean, and simple wealth.

"Uh… that's close…" Musta muttered, seeming a bit unwilling.

Du Rongheng and Norton also relaxed.

Jingjing also retracted his gaze, not looking at it any more.

The subsequent progress was even faster—Norton's eyeglass couldn't accurately estimate the value, it could only see a rough estimate, so no matter what Du Rong said, it would eventually have to be sent to Holy Mine Town for confirmation, Musta only needed to record it.

"Okay, I'll notify you when there's news."

Musta removed the eyeball from the top corner, watching Jingjing leave.

"Li, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Jingjing nodded to Norton.

"This will take some time, if there are results, where can I find you?" Musta asked Du Rong.

"Oh… how's that hotel? Do you need me to recommend a better one to you?" Du Rongheng squinted at Jingjing, casting a meaningful glance.

"Our progress is not bad, huh?" Musta didn't expect Jingjing to appraise the value of the first item so quickly, and his mood relaxed a little.

After all, with a scavenger present, they could easily investigate and wouldn't be able to hide anything.

The last piece of thread had the lowest value, but Jingjing held it, not wanting to let go for a long time, making Musta and Norton very uneasy.

Li Yue certainly understood his unspoken meaning, knowing that he was afraid that he would forcibly take action to snatch things.

This instead represents that Musta is not too confident in the merchant association's current combat power and needs to call for reinforcements…

Are they all modified humans? Is their relationship with the merchant association good? Can they be called in to help?

"I accepted Holad's commission, it seems he really needs money."

Norton wasn't idle either, already secretly investigating Jingjing's actions after entering the town.

A tacit silence filled the store between the three people.

Perhaps Gamma's request can be fulfilled.

"Then I'll go back first, and wait for your news."

Du Rong stood up.

The first item was a rusty pendant box, unable to be opened, with some blood stains on it.

Norton didn't say anything, as if he hadn't heard anything.

Jingjing concentrated for a moment, confirming that these were two different things.

"Of course it's close, otherwise they wouldn't be the first merchant association I looked for."

Jingjing took the opportunity to rationalize his motives.

"Oh~ I see, this is garbage collected from the front line, probably some demon materials stained in the blood…" Musta carefully collected the blood residue that Du Rong had picked off, pouring it into a folded paper.

Jingjing opened the pendant box, inside was a black and white photo of a woman, smiling sweetly.

"Can we start? I have an appointment for lunch."

Du Rong pointed to the shelf under Musta's hand.

"This traveler… is very interesting."

The reason why Jingjing held it was also very simple, because this piece of thread seemed to have a texture very similar to his own hair—all the way, Jingjing had scratched his head a lot while listening to Gamma's epic, so he was naturally very familiar with it.