I Can Contract Beauties-Chapter 137: Collector Eye

"How was your reading, Mr. Journey?" Alderic greeted them with a smile on his face upon arriving not far from Miguel.

Miguel nodded his head back at him before saying, "It was alright. I can say that you have collected a number of books inside your library."

Alderic replied, "Well, it’s sort of a requirement for being a city lord not to be ignorant."

"I’ll bring you to my collection room now, Mr. Journey," Alderic added as he walked in front.

He walked proudly in front, and he could not wait to see Journey’s reaction when he saw what he had collected so far all throughout the years.

After a while, they finally arrived in front of a huge metallic door.

On both sides, there were two guards holding long spears and wearing exquisite armor. Just from one look, one would already be able to tell that the two of them were pretty strong. It was apparent that Alderic put great importance on his collections for the security of this room to be this tight.

The guards greeted Alderic politely as they opened the huge metallic door as per his order.

After the metallic door opened, there was another metallic door inside that looked much thicker and sturdier than the first. He beckoned for Miguel and Edith to come forward while guards, Vena, and the servant girl remained outside.

The door behind them was then closed as Alderic took a key from his grimoire and inserted it in the keyhole. After a series of clicking sounds, the thick metallic door finally opened as Alderic pushed it forward to reveal what was inside.

"Come on in," he stated with a proud smile as he beckoned for Miguel and Edith to come inside.

"This is my collection," he said, spreading his arms wide as he presented a huge room full of neatly piled treasures and items of various varieties in every corner.

There was a glistening sword at the center, an old, dilapidated book at one corner, a jewel in the other, and many more items that were obviously not normal.

Even Miguel could not help but take a few glances at some of them.

"Where did you get all these?" Miguel could not help but ask.

Seeing that his interest was piqued, Alderic proudly answered, "Some of them were bought off by merchants, while the others I found on my own with my Innate Skill."

"Hmm? Innate Skill? You have one?"

Unlike the Innate Beast, it was not a guarantee that a Grimoire user would gain an Innate Skill after awakening. Those who awakened an Innate Skill, especially a powerful one, would be considered geniuses compared to others who don’t have one.

Alderic nodded his head and answered, "Yes, though, it is not very useful and can only help me find treasures around me once a month."

Innate Skills vary from person to person as well. There were also those who only awakened useless Innate Skills. According to Erika, she knew someone who awakened the Innate Skill [Dirt Removal]. Although it was practical and useful in grooming oneself, none of the grimoire users would want to awaken to such a skill.

"All of these treasures are actually obtained through my [Collector’s Eye] Innate Skill."

He walked forward and took a box situated in one corner of the room. He opened it and revealed what was inside of it: "This stone over here might look normal, but it shone so brightly when I activated my skill. I bought it for one gold coin from a kid a few years ago. He said that he found it in their backyard while playing in the mud."

Miguel traced his fingers and observed the black stone placed inside the box. It looked like a rough pumice rock with various holes around its body, but with just one glance, Miguel’s eyes constricted the moment he saw the stone.

"Unfortunately, I haven’t found any person who knew what kind of material it is; even when I tried to bring it to Blazing City, none of the blacksmiths there were able to discern its name, origin, or what it could be used for," Alderic lamented.

After that, Alderic began to introduce all the treasures around him and where he found them. Most of the time, he relied on his Innate Skill to determine if an item was valuable or not, but there were also items that he just fancied and decided to buy, such as the glistening sword.

Alderic was an item collector, through and through. This was his hobby ever since he was young.

That hobby became an addiction, and he now has a room full of various items, some of which he doesn’t even know their origin or real value.

Miguel did not blame him for his actions. A collector finds great joy when they find out that an ordinary item they fancied years ago was actually very expensive in the present.

Miguel could also understand why he did not know much about the origin of the items around him. His Innate Skill would only point him to something valuable and not tell him their exact details and how they were valuable.

Perhaps this was also the reason why Alderic loved to read. He probably just wanted to search for the origins of the items he collected and how valuable they truly were.

In the grand scheme of things, Blazing Expanse was just one of the many provinces under the rule of the Meven Empire. And as a person who only lived in one corner of this province, it was not without reason that he did not know the origins of the items or materials he found.

Even Miguel, who lived for hundreds of thousands of years, did not dare claim that he already knew all the materials around the whole universe.

In this world alone, he had already encountered a lot of materials and items he did not know of.

However, the rough stone stored inside the box was not included on that list.

It was because he was very familiar with this stone in his previous life.