They were quite literally blown away.

For a short while, neither he nor Elane said a word.

They simply stared at the floating screen in front of them, reading and re-reading the description as if doing so enough times might somehow change it into something less absurd.

Rohan could hardly believe what he was seeing, and even though he knew it was extremely unlikely that it could be faked, a small part of him still refused to believe that it was true.

The pig faced man, meanwhile, looked entirely too pleased with himself.

"Yeah," he said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "This reaction is about what I expected."

Elane was the first to recover enough to speak, though her voice came out far quieter than usual.

"...It can raise an F rank item directly to E rank."

The pig faced man nodded.

Although he didn’t realise it, but Elane was looking directly at Rohan in this moment. Somehow, she felt that in his possession, this flower held far less value than it would to literally anybody else.

"I have to say, you two really hit the jackpot with this. Most likely, you’ll never see or come across something like this again in your lifetimes — unless you reach the upper echelons of the Federation where people deal every day with treasures like this."

The man’s eyes glinted with the sort of professional fascination that made him look ten times more alive than he had when Rohan first found him asleep and bored out of his mind in his chair.

Rohan finally tore his gaze away from the screen and looked at the man.

"This is insane..."

"No," the man replied. "This is a Commander tier treasure. Although to have all of these features is rare, its about what you’d expect from something of this level."

That shut Rohan up.

He could tell that the man wasn’t just all words with nothing to back him up at this point.

Just from his lack of excitement like he and Elane were currently feeling, it was clear that it wasn’t the first time he was seeing and dealing with something like this. In fact, Rohan didn’t doubt that he might’ve seen even greater treasures.

Being an appraisal expert wasn’t just an empty title.

"How do you do what you do?" Rohan suddenly asked. He was still slightly sceptical over the actual usage of the flower, even though his trust in the man’s skill had risen over the short period.

The truth was, that neither he nor Elane knew much about how appraising items works, just that it somehow did.

"It’s simple really. Just like how every other ability from the Origin Realm works, we use specialised Genes. These types of genes are called insight genes, and they have far more usage beyond just appraising items. The higher an insight gene’s rank or tier, or both, the greater insight and information you can pry out of the Origin Realm — it’s also what differentiates appraisal experts from each other. The better their insight gene, the more desirable they are."

"Like me for example. I am able to draw out every last bit of information from this Lava Hellebore because my insight gene is a C rank Commander tier gene. Prying out all the information this flower has to offer from the Origin System is a piece of cake for me."

Rohan was taken aback. This man, whose name he didn’t even know, had just casually revealed the level of his own gene so easily.

"Shouldn’t you keep those specifics a secret? Why tell us something so precious so readily!?" Rohan was utterly confused. He would never openly reveal the specifics of any of his genes if he could help it.

The pig faced man laughed, finding Rohan’s reaction funny.

"That’s what separates pure attack focused Awakened like you from the more profession focused Awakened like myself. Hiding my gene’s level would be more of a hindrance to my business than a boon. After all, letting people know my level essentially tells them the limits of the treasures I can appraise. All appraisal experts do it."

Rohan calmed down after realising that it wasn’t such a big deal for people like him, but then his expression suddenly took another shift, and a much more cautious one at that as he made a realisation.

"Wait, you’re a C rank Awakened!??" He asked in shock.

"Actually, I’m a D rank. It’s not a requirement to be the same rank as your genes, after all." The man simply replied, but he could already tell the way Rohan and Elane looked at him right now was far different than before. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

This man had nearly the same level of status as her farther! Perhaps he wasn’t quite at the same level as he was neither a C rank yet nor a Colonel in the Self Defence Force, but his status as a C rank Commander tier appraiser bridged that gap.

’This guy is probably one of the strongest Awakened currently in the entire city...’

Being a D rank meant that aside from his C rank Commander tier Insight gene, he had two more genes as well that he hadn’t disclosed.

Even if he wasn’t a combat oriented Awakened, which the man had already made explicitly clear that he wasn’t, that level of strength was still above 99.9% of the rest of the population in this city.

Suddenly, the appraiser’s expression slowly lost some of his smugness and settled into a more serious atmosphere.

"Now, all that aside, you two need to understand what you’re sitting on here." He pointed to the Lava Hellebore, though with a healthy amount of caution. "This is not just a treasure you want to quietly sell off in a tier two city and walk away from richer. The moment word of this reaches the right ears, people will stop seeing you as lucky kids who found something valuable."

His gaze sharpened.

"They’ll start seeing you as an obstacle between them and something they must have."

That warning caused the atmosphere in the small room to chill, even though Rohan and Elane knew as much already.

Still, hearing it plainly stated from someone who actually worked in this business made the danger feel much closer and personal.