Chapter 19: Héctor (Part 1)
The next day, Amalia sent out Carlos artifact and posted the remaining two fire attribute artifacts on Red Espiritual Net, each priced at two million.
Selling an artifact despite the smear campaign didn't seem to affect Amalia. However, Héctor, who was closely watching her shop, was infuriated and decided to wait for the orders to come out before identifying his opponent.
In the afternoon, the orders were out, all anonymous. Héctor was truly exasperated.
A great feature of Red Espiritual Net was its protection of user privacy. As long as it's anonymous and the user doesn't reveal their identity, no one else would know.
Héctor had to change his plan and portray this as Amalia orchestrated act. Generally, customers didn't want trouble and wouldn't willingly step in to testify for Amalia.
Thanks to his manipulation, within a day, the incident became a hot topic in the Newcomer Zone.
Any new user who saw the post content would avoid Amalia shop, resulting in a noticeable drop in traffic.
To clear Amalia name, Carlos engaged in a heated argument with Héctor on the post. However, Héctor mocked him for potentially benefiting from Amalia.
That afternoon, Carlos received the artifact Amalia had sent. As he laid eyes on it, his suspended heart finally settled.
Upon forming a contract, all the information about the artifact flooded into his mind. To his surprise, it was a purely offensive weapon. He was more certain now that one million five hundred thousand was well worth it.
He felt grateful to Amalia, recognizing that selling the artifact for two million was indeed fair.
Defensive artifacts were easy to find, as they were simpler to refine and the spells weren't difficult to inscribe.
Purely offensive artifacts were rare, especially mid-grade ones.
Creating an artifact that balanced both defense and offense was challenging. Only a skilled Artificer could achieve that, which explained why mid-grade artifacts that accomplished both were scarce on the market.
Carlos was truly thankful to Amalia; he had really lucked out.
"Shopkeeper, Héctor has gone too far. The shop used to have hundreds of daily visits, and now it's down to just a dozen or so," Carlos expressed his frustration towards Héctor insults but was even angrier at his comments about the shopkeeper.
"It doesn't matter," Amalia brushed it off. She wasn't bothered, as her artifacts were of good quality and someone knowledgeable would eventually come.
Carlos switched back to the shop and saw the newly added artifacts.
His eyes involuntarily revealed a touch of envy, but upon seeing their attributes not matching his, he suppressed his envy.
Fortunately, he had already accrued a pile of debts totaling one million five hundred thousand to afford the last purchase. He sighed in relief.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone