Chapter 321: Precious New Treasure

Since Drake didn't speak even after waiting for almost half a minute and just kept grinning as if he just won a hard-fought, challenging battle, Aiden couldn't hold back anymore and asked his friend with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Don't just grin like an idiot, speak up! What is this ring for?"

As if he was waiting for this exact question, Drake instantly burst into haughty laughter, guffawing boisterously. Galina was looking at the strange silver-haired human concerned for her Young Master's safety. 

'This human must have gone mad…' She thought as she kept looking at him.

After enjoying his moment of joyous victory of finally pulling out something that could potentially amaze this monstrously strong friend of his, he finally calmed down and began to explain, keeping the wide grin plastered all over his face.

"Aiden, my friend… This is the item that got me inside the orcs camp in the first place! It's an incredible magical treasure! It has amazing abi-"

"Yeah, I could see it working flawlessly…" Aiden snorted, freezing the already prepared words in Drake's mouth, and causing his joyous moment to quickly sour back to the grounds of reality.

True, he ultimately failed, but the fact remained: The ring was a powerful treasure, almost at the level of the artifacts. 

"Well…" Taking a brief moment to adjust his demeanor Drake continued with a much more cool-headed play. "Although I ultimately failed, that doesn't change the fact that this ring is a powerful treasure, in fact, one of the strongest weapons in the kingdom!" 

Sighing as the introduction was already getting annoyingly long and arduous, Aiden waved with his hand urging the youth to continue and get to the point finally. A look of wry annoyance was starting to settle in his exposure giving a bit more pressure to his friend.

"Fine, fine… I get it! At least let me enjoy the moment for a bit!" He grumbled but continued regardless. "This small piece of gold jewelry is called the 'Ring of Masks'. It has the ability to change the wearer's look by simply injecting mana into it. To top it off, the illusion can last as long as you can keep up with the cost!"

Done with playing around, he pushed his hand in front of Aiden, nodding, motioning with his head to take it, grab it from his palm.

"It's a unique, one-of-a-kind item in the entire kingdom, at least to my knowledge. Take it Aiden and use it. Let this be my thanks for doing everything to save me…" Not used to thanking others, Drake had quite difficulty with expressing his feelings. Due to that, as he spoke, he averted his gaze towards the ground instead, his voice gradually lowered turning into senseless mumbling by the end. 

Still, Aiden with his enhanced senses could clearly understand his friend. With a warm, kind smile, he grabbed the ring, nodding in response.

Taking a closer look, instead of waiting for Drake to once again collect himself enough to continue with the description, instead he turned to his guide, Enya.

'Enya…' He asked inwardly. 'Do you know anything about this item?'

The response was instantaneous and should have been expected by all the years behind him.

'[Please place the item into the System's inventory first so it can be analyzed.]'

'Oh, of course… sorry…' He responded inwardly, with a guilty tone, blaming himself for his forgetfulness. He flicked his hand, masking the fact that he just transferred the ring to his System's Inventory place with a sleight of hands. 

"So, what can you tell me about this ring?" He asked Drake, knowing that he would take a bit before he could collect his thoughts and give a vague description. Whilst waiting Aiden was already focusing on Enya's faint presence as it worked her magic to give him the requested information.

'[As the human boy said, this is indeed an item called the 'Ring of Masks', something that once was at the level of Artifacts but by now has deteriorated back to the Semi-Artifact level. As he said, what you or your minion needs to do is to equip the ring and inject your power into it. You could also use [Soul Power] and it would work for days to even weeks with just a sliver of it, but since your minion has no access to it yet, she should still be able to keep it up for around 2 hours with her entire pool of 200 mana.]'

Giving a moment of pause, Enya continued, already expecting Aiden's follow-up question.

'[As for the form, you need to feed the gemstone a sample. A strand of hair, a drop of blood… whatever you can get your hands on. Obviously, you need to match the gender, or it wouldn't work.]' She responded, giving a light-hearted lie. The magic of the ring would actually work, but the end result would be something they wouldn't want…

While she spoke, giving the explanation to Aiden, Drake also managed to calm down and began his version of the explanation, mostly matching what Enya has already told them about. The only difference was that he didn't seem to be aware that any kind of sample would have worked and was told to always use a strand of hair be it from any part of the target's body.

Listening to the explanations, Aiden gave a long sigh, reaching for his temples. The item was indeed marvelous but where would they find a human girl's sample? The girls that were with him have long left, probably waiting for him inside the guildhall back in the city. He couldn't possibly think to just go and sneak into some nearby village and assault someone there, right?

"Ehrm… So… Before you say or ask anything… I already have a solution for this particular problem..." Drake suddenly spoke up, with a slightly colored, embarrassed look on his usually haughty face. 

Seeing as the attention was once again on him, he sighed reaching for his brown, enchanted leather pouch once again, searching for a particular vial in its depths. A few moments later as his fingers latched onto the object, he slowly, reluctantly pulled his arm back.

As his hand appeared, he was holding, no tightly clenching a small, opaque, crystal vial.  A simple cork was placed at its top, inside it, only a single, red, singed strand of hair was resting.

It didn't take a genius to connect the dots and realize whose it was. After realizing it, Aiden turned to look at his friend's deeply embarrassed expression, with an aporetic look. Without even voicing it, Drake could clearly hear his friend's urging tone inside his head, urging him to explain the reason behind holding a strand of his sister's hair tucked away with him. There had to be conscious, logical reasoning… at least for his sake.

"Uhm… This…" Drake, however, wasn't sure how to explain. Troubled by how to continue, he instead decided to change the topic. "It doesn't matter why I have this right now. What matters is that you can use this to give a new look for your servant and let her accompany you. Still… I would advise using hoods and masks in most cases… Scarlet might be well-known not just for her background, but due to her…" He had to stop for a moment and cough, to mask the unease in his heart as he remembered her dear sister's tragic childhood. "…past… within the local nobility. The less they see her face the better for her and for you guys as well."

"Don't worry about that," Aiden reassured his friend with a slightly cold, distant look as he accepted the vial from him. Whatever reason he had, Aiden wasn't truly certain he really wanted to know about. Heck, it might have been for some pill or potion ingredient in Alchemy. Maybe it was to be used for some powerful, life-saving potion! Maybe. Hopefully…

Deciding not to waste energy in trying to formulate reasons pointlessly, Aiden turned to the shy-looking Galina. Stretching his arm towards her, he made the ring reappear in his open palm. 

"[Goblin] I know you have understood most of what he said, but just to reiterate, you just need to use this ring: Go on and equip it…" He started explaining, looking at the girl who looked at her Young Master with an incredulous, unbelieving look.

Obviously, she was aware of the reason for the gift, but still, being presented such a beautiful ring, her maiden heart was beating so hard that she was afraid of it breaking out of its socket.

She had to take several long breaths, just not faint and shame herself and the Young Master. With a trembling hand, she slowly reached out and accepted her newest and most important treasure from now on. Taking a closer look at it, she revealed a goofy smile as she put it on her right ring finger, taking even more time to revel in it. 

However, before she could lose herself in the moment, the young master continued.