Chapter 22: CH. 22 | Transaction With the Guild

Thalia heard him call out. She immediately lifted her head and turned, seeing Theo step out of the City Authority of Justice office alone.

Even so, she noticed the bruised marks on his face. Panic washed over her expression, and she jumped up right away, asking about the injuries.

"It’s fine... it’s nothing serious," Theo answered, "Why are you here?"

"I was worried about you. You got dragged into all this because you saved me. There’s no way I could just sit around and do nothing."

"Everything’s fine, it looks like they’re still investigating something, so they let me head home for now," Theo answered.

I can’t tell her they closed the case entirely. I’m worried she might let it slip and stir up even more trouble.

Theo noticed the number of officers stationed in front of the office. He didn’t want to linger there any longer, so he suggested to Thalia that they head off.

Neither of them had gotten the chance to eat since arriving at the guild. The female knights had shown up right as Theo was about to sit down for lunch.

He doubted his food was still there, they’d probably have to order again.

Thalia agreed, walking alongside Theo down the main street of the city until they reached the guild office. When the door opened, Theo saw Sara already behind the reception desk.

"Theo?"

"Looks like your shift just started, Sara," Theo said. Sara nodded.

She explained that her work shift today ran from midday until midnight. She also mentioned she’d already heard everything about Theo, a rookie who’d killed a silver ranked adventurer and left one party leader blind in one eye.

"You haven’t even been here a full month, and you’ve already got everyone talking," Sara said, "They definitely never expected a rookie adventurer like you could take down a silver rank adventurer."

"I’d rather not talk about that right now."

"Actually, since you’re here, there’s something I wanted to ask," Theo added.

He tapped his inventory bag and conjured a Slime Acid Bubble and a Black Ant Antenna into his hands. The young man set both items down on the reception desk.

"This bubble came from a Watery Slime, and the antenna’s from a Black Ant."

"These are common items, though getting your hands on them isn’t guaranteed," Sara added.

"What do you mean?"

Sara picked up the acid bubble and held it up to show Theo, "Usually adventurers only manage to get this after killing about five to ten watery slimes. And even then, the odds are pretty low."

Theo raised a hand to his chin, thinking hard. If Sara was saying that, did it mean the acid bubble item could actually be considered rare?

"So, is it a rare item?"

"Not really. It’s not classified as rare," Sara answered, "That said, it doesn’t mean the item’s useless."

"So what’s its main use, then?" Theo asked.

"Alchemists usually need the liquid inside this bubble to help dissolve herbs that are hard to break down otherwise," Sara explained.

"If you sell it, you could get around 20 to 30 copper for it."

Theo was a little surprised, he hadn’t expected the acid bubble he’d gotten off a watery slime to actually carry decent market value.

It only made him more curious about the black antenna and its own price.

"What about the antenna, then?" Theo asked.

Sara picked it up and explained that its main use was as a forging or weapon enhancement material. Theo nodded, though he still had no idea what kind of weapons or items actually used antenna material like that.

"It’s priced about the same as the acid bubble, somewhere between 25 and 33 copper."

"Where could I sell these?" Theo asked.

"You could check potion shops and blacksmith shops for both of these. You can also sell them directly to us, but we’d take a 10% fee off your total sale."

Theo turned to look at Thalia, and she nodded, seeming to agree with what he was already thinking. Without overthinking it, he agreed to the sale, letting Sara buy the items off him.

"Go ahead and pull out everything you’ve got, I’ll price it based on quality and today’s market rate."

He pulled out four slime acid bubbles and nine black ant antennas. Sara looked visibly startled, clearly caught off guard by just how many items Theo had actually managed to collect.

"Wait! How did you end up with this many?" Sara asked.

"Maybe... just pure luck."

"Luck doesn’t usually work like that," Sara answered, "Forget it! Let me tally this up for you."

Sara pulled out a calculator and carefully worked through the numbers. Theo waited at the desk, and Thalia stayed close beside him.

Before long, Sara handed over a sheet showing the unit price for each item, along with the total for everything combined. Theo took it and read through the numbers.

One slime acid bubble came out to 24 copper, so four of them totaled 96 copper. On the other side, one black ant antenna came out to 27 copper, so nine of them totaled 243 copper. Adding it all together came to 339 copper, or the equivalent of three silver and 39 copper coins.

However, he would only get 300 copper or the equivalent of 3 silver pieces because of the 10% fee charged by the guild.

Theo and Thalia agreed to the deal. The sale went through. Sara took the items, and Theo walked away with the payment.

"Are you starting to get used to all of this, Theo?"

"Yeah," Theo answered, "More or less."

"Glad to hear it. Don’t forget to pick up a mission tomorrow. The more missions you run, the faster you’ll climb the ranks," Sara added.

Sara leaned forward, resting her head on her hand as she looked them over, "Though, it looks like you two could really use some new gear."

Theo instinctively glanced down at himself and drew his sword. Sara had a point, his gear was dented and nearly falling apart, and the blade of his sword had chipped and gone dull.

He also glanced over and noticed Thalia’s wand starting to crack, looking like it could barely hold up under the strain of her spellcasting runes anymore.

They both had money now, and Theo still had savings left over from Yasa on top of it.

Buying new gear and weapons for both of them seemed like the smart move right now.

"You’ve got a sharp eye for that," Theo said.

"Of course," Sara said, "Just taking one look at the two of you was more than enough to figure that out."

"There are plenty of gear shops right outside the guild. Feel free to buy from wherever you like, I won’t recommend any specific one."

"All right, thanks, Ms. Sara."

The two of them said their goodbyes and left the guild. Thalia walked ahead, telling Theo she knew a good shop for buying their gear.

Hearing that, Theo was more than happy to let Thalia pick out the equipment shop for them.

But as he followed along behind her, his steps paused for a moment when his eyes caught a notification panel suddenly appearing in front of his face.

It wasn’t the personal system panel this time, but something related to an Authority Quest. He was now seeing his third Authority Quest appear.

[3rd Authority Quest:]

[Objective: Use the Foresight Skill to predict a magic attack once (0/1)]

[Reward: 50exp || 100 authexp]

[Status: Incomplete]

"Theo?" Thalia called out.

Theo’s attention snapped back to her. He walked over to her while still reading through the objective of his third authority quest. Put simply, he needed to successfully predict a magic attack directed at him at least once.

With Thalia right there beside him, Theo felt confident he could complete this third authority quest with relative ease.

"Once we’ve bought the gear, would you mind training with me for a bit?" Theo asked.

Thalia turned and gave a short nod, "Sure. We can train after we’re done shopping. We might even be able to go hunt on our own again once my mana recovers."

"Sounds great."