Chapter 14: The Sale And The System.

Once inside the guild, the duo stood in line to the reception desk, three people in front of them.

After a minute of silence between the two, Elara suddenly said, "Wanna play tic-tac-toe?"

"Sure. I'll go first, circle on bottom right." Alex responded.

"X on middle." Elara said.

"Circle on bottom left." Said Alex as the first person finished at the reception desk. Now, only two people stand in front of Alex and Elara, both some type of demihumans.

"X on bottom middle." Elara said, blocking Alex's win.

"Circle on top middle." Alex said, blocking Elara's win, too.

"Nobody will win, wanna play again or do we play something else?" Elara asked.

"Let's play again." Alex replied. The person in front of them, a human-fox demihuman, looked excited, her tail wagging back and forth. The tip of her tail accidentally brushed against Alex's hand.

The woman looked over her shoulder and said, "Sorry." Alex nodded and the woman turned back forward.

"I start, circle on middle." Elara said.

"X on top right" Alex said.

"Circle on bottom right."

"X on top left."

"Circle on top middle."

"X on bottom middle."

"And nobody wins." Elara said as the person in the front finished their business and stepped out of the line.

"Got some other things we could do?" Elara asked.

"Just talk, I guess." Alex responded.

"So, what do we talk about?" Elara asked.

"No idea." Alex replied, and they went silent for a moment.

"Why's she so excited?" Elara asked, looking at the human-fox woman in front of them.

"Probably to get paid, I guess." Alex responded and looked at Elara, who was solving a Rubik's cube in her hands.

"These things are a bit fun." Elara said as she solved the cube after a couple seconds. "The algorithms used to solve this are pretty cool." She added.

"You solved 3 since I started watching you, you sure it's a challenge for you?" Alex asked, seeing Elara dissipate another Rubik's cube into thin air and create a new, unsolved one.

"It's not, but I can at least be occupied while waiting." Elara replied.

"Then create a bigger one and solve it, that should take some more time." Alex said. Elara, who already solved the one from a moment ago, shrugged and followed Alex's suggestion, creating a Rubik's cube with a bigger grid.

Elara looked at all the sides, and started solving it after that. This one did take her more time to solve, but ultimately she was able to solve it after just over half a minute.

Alex looked up and noticed that some people were looking at him and Elara. He looked back at the solved cube in Elara's hand and said, "People are watching you."

"Probably because they never saw a Rubik's cube." Elara responded before dissipating the cube into Xen. By then, the person up front finished and they moved forward.

"Hi, how can I help you?" The receptionist asked.

"We came to sell some monster body parts and organs." Elara replied.

"What monsters do you have, exactly?" The receptionist asked.

"10 Black-Furred Elanrs." Elara answered before creating a portal to the 'Incomplete Complex World', and one of the wolf monsters fell onto the counter. Along with the carcass, a transparent bag with the monster's organs inside fell onto the monster's body. There was no blood and the organs were cleanly cut.

"Are all of them cut like this?" The receptionist asked as she picked up the bag and put it beside the corpse.

"Yes, all 10 of them." Elara responded.

The receptionist just stared at the corpse for a couple moments, during which Elara sped up hers and Alex's thoughts and said telepathically said to Alex, "That's interesting."

"What is?" Alex asked.

"She's using some analytic skill to evaluate the value of the monster's parts." Elara explained.

"Okay? And? You can also analyze things, what's so special about it?" Alex asked in confusion.

"The value of a thing depends in the supply and demand of that thing, right?" Elara asked.

"Yeah?"

"And so, since supply and demand change over time, that means that the value that her ability is showing her has to be updated in real time, right?"

"Yeah?"

"So, that means that these things are somehow related, or at least can 'communicate' with one another."

"Alright? What does that even mean?" Alex asked, still not getting what Elara was trying to say.

"It means that there is most likely some system that holds them together and manages them. Maybe it even manages other parts of the universe, like the laws of the universe and universal constants and so on." Elara explained.

"Okay, I can understand what you're saying, but I think you made a leap of faith trying to include laws and constants and more under that system." Alex said.

"Maybe I did, but I'm almost certain about the supply and demand and the analytic ability being connected through some type of system." Elara responded.

"Anyway, let's get back." Alex said, slowing down his perception of time back to normal.

"So, how much can we get for the carcass?" Elara asked.

The receptionist looked back up at the duo and replied, "The fur is high quality and clean, I could give you 4 silver coins per corpse if all of them are like this."

"We'll take it. And the organs?" Elara said.

The receptionist looked at the bag filled with organs and after a moment said, "8 silver coins for the stomach, and 6 silver coins per each organ."

"Alright." Elara responded and the receptionist nodded.

The receptionist picked up a feather, dipped the end in ink and wrote 'Elanr' on the bag, and then grabbed the carcass by its neck with one hand, the bag in the other. She turned around and pressed her hand against a specific spot on the wall, which opened a portal. The portal led to a room filled with ice, cold air slowly escaped the room and pooled at the floor behind the counter. The receptionist threw the corpse and the bag into the room and turned back to the duo.

"Next one." She said, and the process repeated 9 times.

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Aelia crossed her arms and said, "Sometimes I forget that she's actually pretty clever."

"Yeah, from simply looking at an analytic skill she was able to guess pretty accurately." Responded Vyria.

"What is that whole system anyway?" Aelia asked, and not a moment passed before a figure appeared and sat in a free chair.

Aelia and Vyria looked at the being who just appeared and Vyria asked, "What do you want, Azaroth?"

"I come here out of the goodness of my heart to explain what that system is." Azaroth responded.

"You were bored." Vyria stated matter-of-factly.

"Maybe. Anyway, the system that Avalog created is there to hold everything together, such as the laws, constants, manage skills and some more, just like Elara said." Azaroth explained.

"She was always good at guessing." Vyria said.

After a moment of silence, "You know, ever since Avalog disappeared, I started observing humans from different universes." Said Aelia.

"And?" Azaroth asked.

"And normally for those who reincarnated it would take some time to accept that they would never see their friends and family ever again. But in Alex's case, he accepted it pretty quick." Aelia pointed out.

"About that, it may or may not be my fault." Azaroth said.

"What do you mean?" Vyria asked.

"Well, remember that Avalog went to Heaven right after he disappeared to prepare, and that Elara still has control over the concept of beauty, right?" Azaroth asked, looking between Aelia and Vyria.

Aelia nodded and Azaroth continued, "Just like Elara, Alex had a connection to and subconscious control over what he prepared."

"Had? What happened?" Aelia asked.

"After Avalog disappeared and everyone went on their way, I went to Heaven. I always let my aura go wild in Heaven since nothing will be destroyed, turns out, something was destroyed." Azaroth said.

"The connection?" Aelia asked.

"Exactly. I thought that it would attack me, but I wasn't close enough, so I just left it alone in Heaven after putting a Dimensional Restriction on it so that it won't leave Heaven." Azaroth explained.

"Alright, but how does that relate to Alex accepting death so easily?" Aelia asked.

"Before I was able to place the restriction, it manipulated Alex's mind to make him accept death easier so that watching Alex would be less boring." Azaroth said.

"Watching Alex be confused about death and homesick for a long time would be pretty boring." Vyria said.