Chapter 70 - 100,000 Monster Crystals

For a moment, I thought Zoen was going to attack me because of my fights with his son, but he didn’t. He lowered his aura and started laughing, giving me a few playful smacks on the head.

"Good to see," Zoen said. "Someone really needs to teach my boy a lesson. The best way to learn is by taking a beating. You did right."

That family was pretty strange. The more I got to know them, the more shocked I was. Zeph stood in the corner looking embarrassed as he listened to that.

"I’ll get stronger and beat him, Dad, just you watch. He just got lucky," Zeph said, clenching both fists as he glared at me.

This time, I didn’t feel any hatred coming from his eyes. It was more like he saw me as a rival, which was good. I preferred that over being hated for no obvious reason.

"I’ll put together some rewards for bringing my son back. Right now, I can offer you some monster crystals I have in storage. What do you think?" Zoen said.

That was exactly what I wanted most. With Bob, those crystals would turn into an insane amount...

Just out of curiosity, I asked him how many he had in mind.

"How many would you be willing to give as a reward? I don’t want it to be too much and end up owing you guys. Just a fair amount for what I did."

Zoen crossed his arms and looked at the ceiling, clearly thinking about how much to give me for helping Zeph.

"Considering my son has an S-rank ability, which means he’s the future of this family, I can give you... 10,000 good-quality crystals? Would that be enough for you?"

I could barely believe it when I heard that. 10,000 crystals would turn into 100,000 good-quality crystals... That was an insanely high number. I doubted any hunter had ever seen that many crystals in person.

I started doing the math in my head. Even if the crystals’ benefits got weaker as the body improved, 100,000 crystals was still an insane amount.

Maybe, just maybe, I would be able to reach a body equivalent to an A-rank hunter, or even AA-rank, who knows. I didn’t know if it would be enough to go further than that.

But that would already be insanely high anyway! I would be on the same physical level as Frederic, the academy principal! That was amazing. Sure, learning how to use my ability and raising my WIL was another story, but just having a body that strong would completely change my life.

With a smile on my face, unable to hide my excitement, I said, "Yes, that amount is plenty, sir. Thank you very much."

Zoen sighed when he saw me agree. Maybe I could have even asked for more, but even so, I wasn’t complaining.

"Great, great. And my son said you’re pretty skilled too, with an A-rank ability. Impressive. What do you think about working for me? I can get some missions for you. It could be useful since the Hunter Society will be focused on taking back the cities from the monsters. Either that, or you’ll have to stay cooped up somewhere with nothing to do."

Honestly, staying isolated somewhere with nothing to do would be boring. I wanted to explore more rifts and get even stronger, practice using my ability, and maybe find out more about that whole mess with the vampires and the monsters attacking the entire country.

"Sounds good," I replied, "but I want it to be flexible. I accept a mission, finish it, and that’s it. If I want to stop working for you, I just walk away."

"Of course. That’s what I meant anyway. Just temporary help. With all the chaos going on, a lot of the hunters working for me left to handle personal matters, and I’m short-handed. I really could use some help during this tough time."

I had no idea what kind of mission he would give me. From what I already knew, Zoen dealt with assassinations, which was pretty... dark. But that didn’t mean I would have to do the same thing.

Besides, so what if it was? I didn’t care that much anyway. Maybe killing a few bad guys would be fun too. You needed to be cold-blooded in this chaotic world. Either that, or I’d eventually go crazy or end up dead from being too nice.

"Come with me, I’ll give you the reward," Zoen said.

I followed him through the house. Zack and Zeph tagged along too. They wanted to get into the family vault as well.

"Our dad doesn’t open the vault very often," Zack whispered in my ear. "I want to see if there’s any new stuff in there. He stashes away most of what he finds in rifts or gets from completing missions."

We followed Zoen down to the basement, passing several doors protected by magic barriers. Zoen had a device on him to unlock them, letting us walk through and keep up with him.

It was a heavily protected area, the safest spot in the entire mansion. The family’s wealth was kept in there, so Zoen spared no expense to make sure no one could break in, even if they managed to invade the mansion.

The last door was the biggest of them all. It was basically an entire wall turned into one solid door.

"This door was built with materials I found in an S-rank rift," Zoen said, clearly wanting to show off his family’s strength and wealth. "It’s nearly impossible to break. I made this special key to open the vault, and I also put up several magic barriers."

Zoen pulled a key from his pocket. It was made of the exact same material as the door. Opening it without that key was impossible. And even if someone stole the key, the magic barriers were still there to protect the vault.

It really was practically impossible to break into this place. I was already sure of that.

"Are you sure it’s okay to tell me all this?" I asked. "It sounds like personal info you’d want to keep secret."

Zoen laughed. "I’m confident that even knowing all of this, nobody could ever break into this place. Besides, I’d like to believe I can trust you. If not... well, you know my reputation."

Yeah, I knew it all too well. An assassin. I didn’t want to get on his bad side at all...

As soon as he opened the vault and deactivated the magic barriers, I saw what was inside, and I was stunned.

There was SO MUCH stuff in there. Piles upon piles of monster crystals, rift artifacts like weapons and armor, and magic vases whose effects I couldn’t even begin to guess.

I saw lots of sealed books and scrolls too. They definitely had to be important to be kept inside a vault this secure.

"Why don’t you guys use these crystals to get stronger?" I asked him. "I mean, I get why you don’t, since you’re super strong and the effects would be minor, but what about Zeph?"

There were still plenty of things I didn’t fully understand. I was hoping Zoen could answer some of them.

"The body has a limit on how many crystals it can absorb in a short period. I give my son some to absorb, but he can’t just keep doing it non-stop. It could cause permanent damage to his body."

I already knew that. But from what I’d read online, the body would make it obvious when it reached its limit. It was basically impossible to absorb more crystals, no matter how hard someone tried.

In other words, deaths from absorbing too many crystals were pretty low. Only a few people managed to bypass that and try absorbing past their limit, but those cases were rare.

Still, what about me? There never seemed to be a limit to how many crystals I absorbed. Did I just have a unique body, or was I pushing my luck? What if there were side effects?

I had no idea. Maybe I should look into it more before absorbing them like a maniac...

"I got all these items during my explorations," Zoen said. "Most are powerful artifacts that take a certain level of skill to handle. I thought it was better not to give any to my son Zeph, since he’s still too young and inexperienced. But Zack has used a few from in here."

Zack nodded. "Usually I just grab whatever artifact fits the mission, and once it’s done, I put it back in here. I don’t like carrying heavy stuff around. I might overexert myself and catabolize, losing my precious muscles."

Seriously, that guy was a little nuts...

Zoen grabbed a small leather bag and handed it to Zeph.

"Count 10,000 crystals and put them inside. You can take turns with your brother."

He then stood next to me, watching his sons fill the leather bag with crystals.

"This leather bag is special and can store a lot of items. You could say it’s similar to your ability, right? But it’s impossible to store a living person inside."

I could tell that wasn’t really an explanation, but more of an interrogation.

"Tell me, Vincent," Zoen said. "Have you ever tried storing someone inside your ability and entering a rift? What happens in that case?"

"..."