Loki stepped out of the light in Sandrock Vale, checked the circle once, and walked straight into the town gate again. The panel blinked.
[Destination: Ashen Hollow]
[Use 100 TLE to travel?]
[Yes]
The world shifted, and Loki was back.
"This is more like it.", he said, looking at the grey sky.
Minjoo was waiting just beyond the spawn, helm tucked under her arm, eyes bright.
"Welcome back, Mr. Loki," she said. "Miss Haeun asked me to meet you and guide you to the meeting place. Also, here is your TLE," she said, and the transfer went through.
[+1,200 TLE]
"Thanks," he said.
"This way. They are all gathered."
She set an efficient pace. People, as usual, were focusing on Loki.
"Look, that's him. He is the Number one in town."
"Loki! I am your biggest fan! Please wave at me!" shouted a girl.
Loki casually waved, and the girl went kyaaaa.
"Mr.Loki, please shake my hand.", said a man while doing a 90-degree bow.
'It feels like I am a celebrity, ' he thought and shook it.
Minjoo led him to the largest building in the hollow, an old civic hall-type building that had survived with its bones mostly intact. The facade was cracked but straight.
"You guys did good work with this," Loki said.
Minjoo's mouth kicked up. "We had the security teams collect usable parts in town and cut trees and plane them. It was a pain since there were no proper metal tools, but it turned out decent."
Inside, the hall was warmer than the air outside. Fire bowls burned in a line. The long table was raw wood paired with mismatched chairs. People filled the space in clusters.
"Miss Haeun," Minjoo said, clear enough for the hall. "Mr. Loki has arrived."
Conversation fell when the two of them crossed the threshold.
All eyes turned in union.
His Regalia answered the room before he spoke. The hood was deep and low-glare, a matte black that drank light. Only the gold of his eyes showed, steady and predatory, as if they held their own fire. The mask covered the lower half of his face, not glossy, not loud, just a smooth black plate with hairline gold tracers like stress lines in stone. The chest was a clean read of armor over muscle, obsidian-dark with very thin inlays of gold that ran like a pulse across the shoulder and sternum. Nothing hung or clinked. Everything was recessed, sealed, made to move quiet.
People felt many different things after seeing him. Admiration. Wariness. A little jealousy. Curiosity most of all.
A few murmurs broke loose.
"A Regalia can look like that?"
"It's mesmerizing. That looks so divine, I tell you."
"What tier is his class?"
Across the table, Kwon Mira's eyes lingered. She did not smile much, but she made a neat note to herself all the same.
Sera forgot to pretend she was not staring. Her mouth parted. "Wow," she whispered, a little awed.
Loki read the room once, quickly. Faces he did not recognize arranged around an influence he could feel.
'I don't remember any of them, ' he thought.
Either these people had not mattered much in the future for him to remember like Haeun did, or they had mattered and died.
His eyes found Haeun.
She stepped forward to greet him, and he watched her face a beat too long. He thought, without judgment, that losing these people might be part of what had carved her into the Haeun he saw in the previous world.
"Mr. Loki?" she said again, a small repeat that was more amused than sharp.
"It's nothing," he said. "Good to see you."
"You too. And once again, congratulations on reaching level seven," she said. "But tell me honestly, how did you climb that fast? Don't tell me you found another hidden dungeon or something similar."
"You guessed it. I need to speak with you about it. Interested?"
"Please, Mr. Loki, do you even need to ask? You know I'm very interested."
"Ahem." Seo Min-gyu's voice came smooth from the table. "Haeun, would you care to introduce him to the rest of us?"
Haeun felt a dozen gazes click in. She nodded once and turned.
"This is Mr. Loki. My business partner," she said. "The person I killed the Minotaur with. Also, the top name of the Ashen Hollow leaderboard."
Chairs scraped. Someone stood and then sat back down by accident.
"He is Loki, the level seven guy?"
"No way. Already seven?"
"How?"
Loki inclined his head. "It is a pleasure to meet you all."
That bought him about three seconds of quiet. And then came the storm of questions.
"Is it true you killed a boss with Haeun? Only the two of you?"
"How are you leveling that fast?"
"Can we see your items from the Epic boss?"
"Your class is Assassin, right? What tier?"
The sound stacked until Chairman Yoon lifted a hand. "Please," he said, and the room listened. "Calm down, everyone."
He came forward with the other heads.
"It's nice to meet you finally, Mister Loki. Haeun would not stop singing your praises.", he said with a business-like smile.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Chairman Yoon."
One by one, he greeted all the heads, and everyone settled down.
Mira asked the next question. "Haeun," she said, easy but direct. "You said business partner. In what way?"
Haeun looked to Loki. "Do you have stock on you right now?"
"Quite a lot actually," he said.
"Good," she said. "Put everything on the table."
Loki looked at the table, then back at her. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. Lay it out. We will sort the rest."
He went near the table and opened inventory. Blue orbs upon blue orbs fell and turned into equipment and skill books. He placed them by type without narration. He did not crowd the space. He set each to be seen.
People's mouths hung open in astonishment.
" So many rares"
"A rare Poison Dagger! I can get mine directly to rare with that skill book."
"Wait, what is that purple thing?"
She moved to speak and then saw the glint that was not Rare. Her head snapped back to him.
"You killed another Epic," she said, a little surprised. "And you did not think to mention that before emptying your loot."
"That is why I asked if you were sure," Loki said.
The room tipped forward.
"It...it's an Epic!", Sera shouted.
"That ring, what is that. I have not seen anything like that."
"Look at that necklace, it's so pretty!"
"Is that a staff from a boss?"
Haeun exhaled through her nose and accepted the new shape of the moment. If he had told her first, she would have kept the best for their own teams. Now that it was in the open, she could not just take it.
She raised her voice and continued, clear and even.
"This is what I meant by business partner. Mr. Loki hunts Rare bosses routinely and sells me his high-tier drops. And apparently, he can now solo Epics too." She looked at him. It was not a glare. It had some of the same heat.
He looked back and shrugged. 'How is that my fault?'
The questions returned, more focused now.
"No way he can solo Epics. Surely she is joking."
"Mr. Loki, work for me. I will pay you double what Haeun is paying, " said Han Ga-yoon.
"No, mister Loki, be our bodyguard instead.", said the Twins.
"I will pay you to take me on a dungeon trip," one of the wives said with bright optimism, then covered her mouth when her husband coughed.
Loki was feeling a little troubled. He had seen this type of behavior before, and honestly, he hated it.
Haeun held up a hand. "Money will not move him," she said. "Mr. Loki does not care for cash. He only trades for TLE. He also prefers to trade items for TLE."
The room went Silent. People tried to do the math of that and failed.
"Why refuse money?"
"What do you even do with TLE except traveling through gates?"
"My teams can pool TLE," Ga-yoon said, trying to recover the advantage. "If you work under us, we can guarantee…."
"I will not work under anyone," Loki said. He did not raise his voice. "I can work with you if I feel like it and the TLE is right. Other than that, I will only sell loot or information."
Haeun nodded. "That is correct. Our partnership gives me first look at his high-tier stock. I either keep what I need or I sell it forward to others in town. That is also why my teams have been able to work faster and safer."
The sharper minds put it together at once.
A moment ago, the rule that tied leadership to level and equipment had sounded clean and fair. But with Loki giving Haeun first choice, no one would outgear her any time soon, which meant the "rotating" head would not rotate at all.
Han Do-chul saw it and smiled to himself. 'This girl is too cunning.'
A few heads dipped. A few one-line acknowledgements went out across tables.
Haeun continued, "I plan to put a weekly market in this town. You and your teams can also buy the loot off there. For higher-tier loot that Mister Loki provides, I will hold an auction between the alliance families only."
'After I take what I want, that is', she thought.
Mira stepped nearer to Yoon Seung-min and lowered her voice just enough. "I wish my Sera had a quarter of your daughter's cunning," she said, smiling. "She showed the loot at exactly the right moment and offered an auction to keep us satisfied, even after everyone realizes the chair will not change hands."
Seung-min's mouth tipped, equal parts pride and caution.
"Haeun didn't shut others out by grabbing power," he said," she made a system that gives everyone access to loot and auctions. When leaders share tangible benefits, people accept their authority instead of fighting it. If allies keep getting good items and opportunities, they'll support and rely on us."
Seo Chang-ho's hand went up, eager. "Can we start the auction right now? Can I bid on the Epic items now?"
The other people were also very interested in the loot and could not contain their excitement.
Haeun weighed it for a second, then nodded. "Yes. The starting price for epics will be eight hundred TLE per piece. No item will be sold on credit. Everything must be paid up front." She looked to Loki. "Is that fine?"
"Yeah," he said.
"Minjoo," Haeun said, without looking away from the table, "Start the action and sell to only those who pass you the TLE. If anyone starts creating trouble, talk to my father."
"Yes, my lady." Minjoo moved to the head of the table and got to work.
The hall changed shape again. Voices found an order. People leaned in just enough. This was something they knew how to do even here.
While Minjoo worked the room, Loki took Haeun to the side.
She stepped aside with him into the shadowed edge of a pillar, close enough to see the pattern in his mask.
"So what was that about the duengwon?" she said, low.
He looked past her once, measuring the circle at the tables, then back at her.