The dwarf made a prolonged whistle of awe. Now, there were two people looking at Asterios with eyes brimming with curiosity. He completely didn’t expect this much attention. Rudy chuckled and slapped the table to get it back on her.

  “Focus. Money. Deal?”

  He pondered for a moment. “Crystals are obvious, but what about the equipment?”

  “You need it for something?”

  “Not really. The armor is way too big for anyone in my team and the same goes for the shield.”

  “We can ask in the guild’s tent, but the queue to appraise stuff will be astronomical. If I were you, I’d take all of it to the town and sell it in the guild's branch there. The selling price will be lower here too since everyone who doesn’t have a spatial mage in their party, or some kind of a storage artifact, tries to get rid of most of the junk on-site, so the supply is enormous. But you don’t have that problem, right?”

  Asterios nodded. With either Miria or Selene, he could store almost everything in their realm now. Abiding by the core magical rules of interdimensional travel through the established summoning corridor, of course.

  Rudy gestured at her friends. “They only came here to fetch me after getting done with the task. We are going back to the town now and then most likely picking another quest leading out of it.”

  “Aye. Sitting in one place is just not our style,” the dwarf added.

  “So, we can exchange cores here, split the rewards, and then you can pawn off the equipment later. Or we can go back together if you don’t intend to dive into the dungeon again already. We’ll get more that way.”

  Asterios relayed the info to Selene and Miria, asking if they wanted to continue exploring the dungeon or come back with the party. Both girls said they would follow his decision. He smiled to himself, shook his head, and agreed to Rudy’s plan. They had some fun in the dungeon. Perhaps they could find an interesting quest in the guild.

  The group chatted some more while Asterios ordered something to fill his stomach. Mostly, it was Tesser and Douhlim raining questions about the girls onto him. They left the restaurant tent shortly after he finished eating.

  Rudy’s party had their horses kept in the makeshift stables and they went to pick them up together. Asterios, of course, had Miria to fill the role of his valiant steed and she didn’t let him even think about any other form of transport, eagerly jumping out of the portal in her panther form and spooking most of the animals in that area. He had to leave first, or all the other horses wouldn’t stop neighing, scared by her presence.

  Nothing notable happened on their way back. If Asterios was traveling alone, Miria could have covered the distance in something like two hours, but since they didn’t want to overexert the horses, it took the party seven hours. They arrived shortly after noon and headed straight to the guild.

  It was lively inside, but it couldn’t be called bustling with people. Most adventurers picked quests early in the morning and the current time was more peaceful, without the presence of the early rush.

  Asterios noticed Ven behind one of the counters. She was talking to a woman in heavy armor, most likely discussing some task. Before he decided to approach a different receptionist, they finished their business and the blonde clerk saw Asterios in the crowd. She made a short wave at him with a smile. He guided the party to her spot.

  “Welcome back, Ast! Already done with your first dungeon dive? Miria is not with you today?” she asked, keeping her usual professional smile.

  “Hi there, Ven. Yeah, we just got out yesterday. As for Miria…” Asterios moved his gaze to his right, where a certain black panther’s head was peeking over the counter line.

  The clerk raised one brow curiously and then noticed the brown badge strapped to the beast’s neck. “Ah!” Everything from their earlier meeting clicked, and she instantly realized who she was looking at. “I’m sorry! I knew you were able to shift but still didn’t notice,” she quickly apologized and bowed a little.

  A moment later, black mist surrounded Miria’s body, and she soon appeared in front of them in her other form. She grinned at the receptionist.

  “Don’t worry, hahaha! I stayed in that shape purposefully to see if you would figure it out!”

  Asterios plopped his hand on the panthergirl’s head and scratched it gently, making her squirm and blush a little. Venera quickly fixed herself and cleared her throat.

  “Ekhm. So, how can I help you today? And welcome Miss Rudy. Your party submitted the finished quest just recently. There aren’t any problems with the reward, right?” She turned her attention to the other woman for a moment.

  “Yo. Nah, everything is fine. I’m just accompanying this little Summoner here. We want to cash in the cores we got and perhaps sell some equipment from the monsters. Is Dave on site today?” Rudy asked.

  “Yes, and he shouldn’t be busy right now. Should I call him here now? I can give you time to bring the items in.” Venera glanced at Asterios while asking.

  “We have everything with us so we can proceed at once. A private exchange room would be nice,” he answered.

  She pondered for a moment and looked over each one of them. They didn’t seem to be carrying anything more than necessary. She then thought that maybe Asterios didn’t want to show the public that he owned a spatial storage artifact of a commendable size and that’s why he had asked to be led into the exchange chamber. It was a safe move.

  She agreed to the request and guided the party to the trading area, leaving them in one of the chambers while she went to bring their appraiser.

  A few minutes later, Venera came back with a man by her side. He was a member of one of the demonic races, which was quite clear from his navy-blue skin, pupilless eyes of a similar but even darker color, looking like a night sky, dark hair, and two horns sprouting from his forehead and curling to the back. His kind was called Nightstalkers. He wore a similar outfit as the blond-haired girl.

  “Ast, this is Dave, our appraiser. He’s pretty knowledgeable about the things you can get from the nearby dungeon and also specializes in Divination Magic. Dave, this is Asterios, my new protegee.” She conducted short introductions by herself.

  “Alright, kid. Show me what you got. What do we start with?”

  Asterios brought out all the cores they had collected and presented them to the man first. He examined them quickly and wrote down the value of each one on a piece of paper while Ven checked everything with her notebook. Overall, they could get five gold and forty-seven silver coins if they decided to sell everything.

  After finishing, Dave picked up the biggest crystal and glanced at Asterios. “This thing comes only from the Hobgoblin Warlord. Assuming that you managed to kill it, I bet you have something to sell off him.”

  “Correct,” Asterios answered.

  “Bring it out then. Let’s see if you got any lucky,” the man urged with a grin.

  “Let’s go with the shield first then.”

  “Shield?” He looked around but didn’t see one anywhere in the room. “You carried that huge-ass chunk of wood all the way here? That thing won’t fit through the door. Why did we even come here if we have to get out anyway.” The man sighed and started standing up from the sofa he had been sitting on while checking the cores.

  “No need.” Asterios stopped him. “We’ll use my door.”

  Miria stepped to the side, opened a dark crimson portal, and jumped into it. Both Dave’s and Venera’s eyes widened as they watched a huge shield come out of it a moment later, carried by two quite slim girls without much effort. They dropped it on the floor beside the table and stepped back.

  “Gate?”

  The man furrowed his brows at Asterios. The boy didn’t look anything like a high-tiered magician to handle such spells. And that thought was supported by the E-rank plate on his shoulder. No proud mage of this caliber would start so low when they could blast the examiners whenever they wanted.

  “More or less.” Asterios smiled. “So, is it worth anything?”

  Dave got up and walked closer to the tower shield, examining it carefully. After a moment, he knocked with his knuckles over its surface, just above the spot where a deep imprint of a fist was located, almost breaking through all the layers.

  “It would have been worth much more if your Martial Artist didn’t decide to play with it after the fight without someone using proper techniques to activate the mana circuits inside.” He scratched his head. “Now it’s damaged. Thirty silver coins at most, just to scrap it for materials. Repairing is not worth the effort.”

  Miria butted in before Asterios could say anything. “But we didn’t play with it! The hole is from the fight!”

  Selene felt responsible for their loss and stepped forward, bowing down towards Asterios. “I apologize, my Lord. I should have held back more. I know this is just an excuse, but I didn’t know what to expect from its hardness when I first struck it. It’s entirely my fault.”

  He moved closer and put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s fine. Safety first. Besides, if I wanted it intact, I would have told you beforehand, right?”

  She showed a faint smile, nodded, and backed away, returning to her previous position.

  Silence filled the room. Asterios glanced around and noticed that everyone was staring at him and Selene with wide eyes. Everyone except Rudy and Miria. The former was grinning from ear to ear.

  “Something wrong?” he asked.

  “Did you… feel some kind of repulsive force when you hit it?” Dave directed his question at Selene.

  She glanced at Asterios, and he told her mentally that she didn’t have to ask for his permission to speak.

  “Yes, I did. It was ticklish. Like someone brushed my knuckles with a feather.”

  Dave’s jaw dropped to the ground. Noticing Ast’s curious gaze, he coughed awkwardly and changed the topic. “Okay. Got anything else?”

  “We have its armor.”

  “Ah. Right. It appears quite often. But don’t expect fireworks from a piece or two. Come on, let me see if any part is salvageable after the fight. I don’t think there’s much of it left if Miss Selene had a go at the monster.”

  The person in question had already left when Asterios mentioned the item and was just bringing it back into the room through the portal. She laid down the whole black set, including a vest, greaves, shoulder pads, bracers, and waist piece, on the shield in front of the appraiser.

  “What?!” Dave shouted and started frantically going through all the pieces.

  He checked every nook and cranny of every part of the set but he couldn’t find any marks of battle or damage, besides the usual wear that accompanied those items. He froze for a moment and then slowly turned his head back, looking straight at his colleague.

  “Venera. Go tell Claire we have it. Now,” he said in an unnaturally calm tone.

  “Eh? But what should I tell he—”

  “NOW!”

  She jerked hearing the man shout again, this time at her, and ran out of the room in a hurry. Dave rarely raised his voice like that. Even rarer at his coworkers. She wasn’t sure what it was all about, but Clarie must have been informed if he was urging her to tell the woman.

  After she left the room, Dave stood up and turned to Asterios, ignoring the confused stares from Rudy’s group. “I apologize for raising my voice. It’s just… It’s not very often we see a whole undamaged set of this armor. Due to the huge shield, most adventurers just attack the monster with all they have from behind while it’s distracted, and even that usually ends with the chest piece almost completely destroyed. We currently have a seven-month-old order that requests all pieces in the best state possible and I believe your goods match the requirements. I’ve sent Venera to inform the person overseeing this order to check how much—”

  The door to the room suddenly flew open and a girl with short black hair, and in the guild’s uniform, stormed into the room.

  “SEVENTEEN GOLD COINS!” she shouted from the very doorstep, before even stopping her charge.

  Wheezing for air, she scanned the room and immediately locked her eyes on Asterios after seeing him in front of Dave. The girl named Claire approached him in a flash and bowed down respectfully.

  “Hello! My name is Claire! Please, sell your armor to us! We can offer seventeen gold coins right now!” she said hurriedly without raising her head.

  Asterios, like any other person present in the chamber, besides the employees, was quite befuddled by the whole scene. He glanced at Dave, but that only showed a wry smile. He looked at Rudy for some guidance, but she shrugged her shoulders, showing that she knew nothing that could be of help.

  Sighing heavily, he spoke to the girl. “Please, raise your head. I brought it here with the intention to sell so there’s no need to be this desperate.” He chuckled. “Shouldn’t you be hiding the fact that you want it so badly? What if I decided to hold onto it after thinking that I could get more in another branch?”

  Claire straightened her posture and shook her head. “I don’t think you will get this much anywhere else! Our buyer waited seven months already and countless adventurers pass through the tenth floor all the time! And he wants it for purely aesthetic purposes! This is really the best deal around! He came here from the Demon Continent to place a direct order!”

  “Alright, alright, I get it. I accept.” He smiled wryly.

  That person must have been desperate for these items to travel so far just to submit a request. He most likely had placed similar ones in many other locations, but Asterios didn’t mind getting it off his shoulders here. The price was already high to him and trying to turn down this overly excited clerk would be as challenging as finding another buyer.

  Claire took the items and ran away to do whatever she was supposed to do with them. Ven and Dave completed the exchange with Ast’s group after checking the Hobgoblin’s longsword too and summed up their earnings.

  With all of those, they ended up with nineteen gold and twenty-one silver coins, after deducting all the fees and taxes. It was a small fortune for Asterios. The materials the academy supplied were worth around five gold coins every few months, which already was quite generous. Students with better results than him received more of course.

  After everything had been finished, Dave left with the remaining items while Ven led them back to the main hall. On their way, Douhlim kept nudging Asterios while laughing heartily, talking about how he must have been one lucky boy to negate all the bad luck Rudy was bringing to their party. Naturally, he was silenced by the same, unlucky person when she accidentally set her foot in front of his and he tripped, blaming it on her bad luck.

  He managed to negotiate a thirty-five to sixty-five split with her, and they bid farewell, in case they didn’t see each other the next day. Either of the groups could end up with a quest before they met again. Asterios was left with Miria and Selene by Ven’s counter.

  “Thank you for cooperating with us. And I’m sorry for the scene my friends caused,” she said while lowering her head a little.

  “Don’t sweat it! Master definitely doesn’t mind!” Miria informed her joyfully.

  The blond-haired woman raised her gaze and smiled brilliantly at them. “Also, it’s quite late, but I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Selene. If I’m allowed to call you by name.”

  The fox lady nodded her head. “Of course. My Lord’s friends are my friends.”

  Ven smiled at her. It was quite weird hearing someone be called by such a title. And Asterios didn’t give a feeling of a high-status noble. But perhaps she was mistaken. Or that was just how they had set it in the contract or something. She only knew some basics about Summoners.

  “Anyway, thank you again. That was quite the haul. What are you guys planning to do now? Still going back to the dungeon? Or are you leaving?”

  “That depends. If we find an interesting quest that leads us out, we might take it, but we aren’t set on either staying or leaving specifically. We do plan on doing something else besides delving into the dungeon though,” he answered.

  “I see…” Ven pondered for a moment. “Say… I hope I don’t come out as rude, but…” She glanced at Selene and Miria before continuing. “Does one of your friends have a… good nose?”

  “I do!” Miria answered before he could.

  “And I can confirm that.” Asterios chuckled. “She got us through one or two hidden passages.”

  “Then, I might have something for you.”

  Chapter 14

  Emergency Search

  “What is it?” Asterios asked, curious of what Ven had in mind.

  “Just recently, we have received another new task. It was labelled as a lower-level emergency but fortunately ranked at E, so you can still take part. We are looking for any adventurers who know a thing or two about tracking.”

  “Master! I’m confident in my tracking ability! I worked as a hunter in my village for most of the time!” Miria smiled at him excitedly.

  Asterios brushed through her hair. “Yes, I know. Let’s first hear the details.”

  After she had their attention again, Venera continued. “Two days ago, an eleven-year-old boy came rushing here while crying and shouting about his brother suddenly disappearing. After hearing him out, some girls at reception pitied him and quickly gathered their pocket money to put an urgent quest. The boys were playing in the nearby forest when one of them supposedly disappeared from the other’s side. The younger brother said it happened when they were passing through a part of a ruined watchtower as they usually do. He couldn’t find his sibling for an hour and ran back to the village.”

  “And since some time has passed, I guess he didn’t just return back home?”

  “No, he is still missing. Also, the quest was initially F-rank, but our guildmaster decided to bring it up to E-rank after hearing from the boy about some weird noises, saying that it might be the work of some monster.”

  Asterios pondered. “Did people attempt this task already? Did we get something new from them?”