Chapter 91

Finally arriving at the guild, it was time to sort and sell our hard-earned loot. I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement, knowing that we had probably made a substantial amount of money.

However, as I thought about the prices of quality gear and the various expenses we needed to address, a sense of apprehension started to creep in.

"Morning', Rose," I greeted, approaching her booth with a smile.

"It's noon," Rose replied stoically, though her tail betrayed her excitement with a subtle sway. Being one who possessed a tail myself, I understood how emotions could often slip through it. It was a rather fatal weakness, I concluded.

"I assume you're here to sell the loot from your expedition," Rose stated matter-of-factly.

"Yes," I confirmed, gesturing towards the numerous backpacks piled up behind me.

As Rose led us to a room to sort and sell our loot, I could hear murmurs from the surrounding guild members.

"Hey, isn't that the black hunter? I heard he ripped out an Evilus' heart with his bare hands and ate it," someone whispered.

"Yeah, I also heard he's now a level 3. How frightening! He's even faster than Ais from the Loki Familia," another voice chimed in.

"Who is spreading such rumours?" I muttered to myself, annoyed by the embellished tales circulating about me.

"Pffff," I heard from behind me, and when I turned around, both the Astraea Familia and mine seemed on the verge of bursting into laughter.

"Yo...," I began, but before I could say another word, they all erupted into a fit of laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha, my sides hurt!" Eleni exclaimed between giggles. In retaliation, I shot them a menacing glare.

"Help, the black hunter wants to rip out and eat my heart!" Lyra cried out, causing the others to dissolve into even more laughter. Even the usually stoic Rose couldn't help but join in the amusement.

Eventually, the laughter subsided, and we began sorting our loot as a guild appraiser was called in.

"W-Wh... how did you get these?" Rose stuttered, clearly taken aback. I couldn't blame her.

Among our haul were a Goliath core and one from a green dragon, both of which were on my familia's side of the loot.

We had agreed to split the loot between our familia's based on what we had individually killed. While my familia had a larger quantity of cores, they came from lower-value monsters.

The higher-value ones were the result of hunting trips I had undertaken alongside the Astraea Familia, ranging from floors 19 to 24 in the dungeon.

"Don't think too much about it," I replied, trying to ease her curiosity as I continued sorting the loot for the quests I had picked up before our expedition.

I could tell Rose was wondering how a low-ranked familia like ours could come upon such valuable loot. An ordinary person might assume that it was a generous contribution from the Astraea Familia, but Rose knew better.

"Are you really only level 2?" Rose skeptically asked, further fueling her intrigue.

"Yeah," I responded, finishing the separation of the last of the ores and herbs for Eleni and Nikolaos. Afterward, I proceeded to give an account of our encounters in the dungeon, including the strange green dragon and the involvement of the Evilus.

"I'll report this to the higher-ups," Rose replied, her voice filled with determination.

"We will offer you 20 million Valis for the Goliath core, 81 million for this peculiar green dragon core, and the rest of your loot will be valued at 29 million," the appraiser stated.

My mouth gaped open in disbelief at the absurdly high amount of Valis mentioned.

"Why are these crystals so expensive?" I couldn't help but ask.

"It's a matter of high demand but limited supply," the appraiser explained simply.

"That may be part of the reason so many adventurers were rushing into the dungeon," Kaguya said, as they too were done with their appraisals.

The only things I kept were ores, some fancy gems I just couldn't let go of, and herbs. We had split the treasure tree loot, 60% for me and 40% for the Astraea familia, but I kept all the shiny gems.

"Yeah, maybe it is," I replied. Soon, we were done in the guild and paid. My familia was now 130 million Valis rich. We would have to get home before I give my familia members some of the money for themselves.

"Sigh, so much to do," I muttered to myself.

"Draco, you haven't forgotten your promise, right?" Rose said as we were about to leave. Everyone's attention was now on me.

"Of course, I remember our date plans," I replied, causing her to blush.

"What?!" Lyra exclaimed loudly, drawing attention to herself. She was covering her mouth with her hands.

"Sorry, I was a bit surprised, is all," Lyra said.

Soon, we left the guild and separated to our respective familia homes. I felt like I was forgetting something. I pushed it to the back of my mind for now, as I was exhausted.

Finally, we reached our manor, and I saw Lysander, captain of the Gofannon familia, still working on our familia manor along with his familia members.

I was a bit shocked because I thought it would have been completed within the month that we weren't around.

"Ah, Draco, you're back," Lysander exclaimed as he saw me.

"Lysander, my friend, what's going on?" I asked, walking up to him and putting my hands around his shoulders, smiling eerily.

"Well, we ran into a bit of a problem while installing the vault," Lysander replied, nervously scratching his head.

"What problem?" I asked, concerned.

"We found an empty space further beneath the mansion, since you said you wanted a vault deep underground.

Well, there was a depot filled with chests that I wasn't sure who it belonged to and what to do with it, so I moved and kept them, awaiting your arrival.

It took a long while to fill the space up too, before we managed to install the large vault," Lysander concluded his story.

"Where are these chests?" I asked, genuinely interested in possible free loot.

Following Lysander, I was led to the entrance of an underground basement made the manor. Soon we reached an open space filled with a lot of heavy-looking chests.

"We didn't open them and don't know what is inside," Lysander added.

"Stand back," I said, approaching one of the chests to open it up.

Bang!

I broke the lock on one of them and opened the chest. To my shock, it was filled with valuable ores. I quickly closed it and opened another, then another.

There were a total of 20 chests filled with a mixture of gems, ores, monster parts, and many items that I couldn't identify.

"Shit, who owns this stuff," I muttered to myself. But it didn't matter; it was my familia's land, so all this now belonged to us, right?.