Finally Reward

Lord Hathi stared at Jue with disbelief for a while before he finally coughed and asked,

"Are you sure that is the answer that you want to give me? Young one of the Pernelle family?" his displeasure was clear in the way he spoke, but Jue was inflamed and wanted to deny him at any cost when he suddenly felt something on the back of his neck,

'Water!?' thought Jue as he looked back towards Ryu who was looking at him with scary eyes and he put a finger on his lips. This time Jue understood the meaning correctly and thought,

'Brother doesn't want me to deny him!!' he turned back towards Lord Hathi and spoke, trying to sound as humble as possible,

"I wasn't trying to disrespect my Lord" he paused, and Lord Hathi nodded, and Jue continued

"It is just that my father likes to take care of other Lords as much as possible so he wouldn't be pleased with a surprise,"

'This brat sure learned a stuff or two from Geld big brother,' thought Ryu and Rafa sat on the ground on the spot being exhausted for so long.

Lord Hathi looked toward her with an irritated gaze and turned back to Jue as he replied with a sigh,

"I see…"

"Well, if you want to visit him either way, I suggest sending your son Faltar before so he can look around and inform my father," added Jue and Lord Hathi nodded.

For 15 minutes they continued to eat. Faltar was looking awkward, but he knew he'll be on a new trip soon, and once breakfast was over, the butler uncle took Fusion Souls out of the mansion.

Core-less, empty stomach, and without any reward, Fusion souls stood outside the mansion.

"Ahh, it is finally over!!" sighed Ryu and thought,

'That bastard didn't give us a single thing for the core!!!'

"He was not like Mr. Faltar a bit," said Aiena with an exhausted look and Rafa said,

"That plump uncle gave me stares" she seemed sad because of being looked at with malice, but it wasn't something unusual for beastkins to get such stares in this part of the kingdom.

"I am sorry big brother," Jue apologized about not getting the sign earlier,

'I must give him a sign tuition!!' thought Ryu and shrugged as he replied,

"You tried your best Jue it is fine" and suddenly someone called Ryu's name from behind,

"Ryu, Jue!! Wait!!" shouted Faltar. The Fusion Souls who were about to start walking away all turned back, and Ryu thought,

'don't tell me he is going to hire us for Zerah escort after all of that!!' he looked towards him with a pasted smile,

"You people walked out too fast!! I told butler I wanted to talk with Ryu,"

'Ahh, that uncle I threatened… what a petty person!? For such a small threatening,' thought Ryu as he asked,

"What happened Faltar? You seemed in hurry,"

Faltar wiped the tears from his forehead and spoke.

"I wanted to give you this" Faltar handed a folded scroll to Ryu. Ryu opened it as he asked

"What is this?"

"Is it a letter?" asked Aiena and Faltar replied,

"It is my apology for what my father did and my thanks for saving us from the constantly rampaging dungeon… it is a map of nearby dungeons those known and unknown to adventurers, my father ran an investigation but didn't care much afterward I doubt he'll need it so please make good use of it" he bowed a bit with gratitude and seeing his deep felt gratitude shook Ryu's heart and he thought,

'Nice, I forget Faltar was like this!! Time to salvage money!!'

"Ryu, you are grinning wide," Aiena said with a sigh as she knew Ryu is up to no good whenever he grins,

"Am I? I just remembered a joke" Ryu shrugged awkwardly and coughed to fix his facial expression as he replied to Faltar,

"I am happy with your gratitude, Faltar… but the thing is it is no use for current us,"

Faltar looked confused and troubled as he asked,

"I thought dungeons was one of the most profitable things for an adventurer? Was I wrong?"

"It sure is truth but the matter of fact is we don't have any money to even travel to the next town we will be staying here or go to the nearest village at most,"

Fusion souls looked at Ryu confused, but none said a thing as Faltar questioned,

"The money I gave you to escort 80 silvers?"

"We spent that all" Ryu shrugged,

"How could you!?" Faltar was shocked as he couldn't believe they would spend this amount in a few days, but Ryu replied,

"You see, the way we clear the dungeon was…." Ryu explained to him how they bought a huge amount of pesticide in the barrels and used water magic to spray it all on the monster in large amounts so they could reach the core room without a scratch.

"Is it possible?" asked Faltar, confused, and Ryu looked towards Jue and nodded,

"Ahh, rolling the barrels down was hard and the money it took afterward, we could buy a carriage" then Jue look towards Aiena,

"I tried my best to deny the idea, but Ryu had the hope of doubling it with dungeon core price" Aiena looked towards Rafa who tilted her head idiotically and asked,

"Why are you all lying?"

"Eh?" said Jue,

"No…" Aiena looked down, a bit embarrassed,

"Don't mind her, she is a newbie!!" protested Ryu as he makes a mental note of teaching Rafa the importance of teamwork,

Faltar stared at Fusion Souls and then at Ryu for a while and then burst out laughing.

'Ahh funny this Ryu, I wonder why he wouldn't ask for money straight when he saved me and then my town from the dungeon… I guess this is how it rolls with him, sly was that the word father told me'

"Hahahaha" he laughed, and Ryu stared with his eyes turned into dots as he was confused from his reaction of sudden laughing and thought the Faltar felt disrespected he was about to apologize when Faltar handed him a pouch from the side of his coat and spoke,

"Here this is my personal thanks on the behalf of my town, I hope to hear a lot about Ryu and your party once I visit Lord Pernelle" what he didn't know at the time was that he will be shocked from the core when he'll come to know that Fusion soul is a party that just formed a few weeks before,

"Ahh with this we'll be able to make use of the map. You are great Faltar,"

"Faltar uncle father would be happy meeting you," Jue added although a bit awkwardly as he knew he had helped Ryu in scamming him just now.

After exchanging wishes for adventure and well-being, Fusion Soul and Faltar went their ways, both sides elated at the gains they made since meeting each other when Aiena asked Ryu,

"Ryu, why did you lie to Mr. Faltar? didn't we already have enough money from the first dungeon and then rescue quest?"

Ryu put a hand on his chin as he replied,

"Listen Aiena, money is one of the things that never pains one unless you go around shouting you have a lot of money on the other hand the more money you have the less money-related problem you would have, also Faltar is someone with no shortage of money,"

"I see," Aiena replied as she thought, 'Ryu always thinks things through'

"I do not like lying" pouted Rafa, but Ryu replied,

"Not all lies are bad Rafa" and he patted her, and she nodded happily as she said,

"It is okay as long as you pat me!!" Aiena looked a bit jealous but didn't say anything, but Jue pulled on Ryu's sleeve as he spoke.

"Big brother I am hungry!" and hearing him Ryu felt hungry too,

"Let's go to the diner first and then buy carriage and stuff we'll need for next town!! Let's go!!"

"Let's go!!" Jue, Rafa, and Aiena replied,

After that, the Fusion Souls eat at a hotel to enjoy a bit of their newly earned wealth and went through the stores buying everything they need Ryu bought a few magic books he had never seen before, and at the blacksmith, they bought a set of kukri for Jue and Ryu also gave the smith his daggers to deal with chipping of the blade,

"This carriage is perfect!!" Ryu said as he looked at a plain carriage with a blue pattern on the side.

"It isn't good enough for you though," the seller said as he looked up and down at Ryu and Ryu asked,

"Why?" he didn't like the judgemental eyes the shopkeeper gave it and the shopkeeper answered,

"Not to disrespect you Sir Adventurer the thing is this is a Mana carriage only high-ranking parties and nobles can afford one, and it isn't very useful either this can just maintain the temperature according to Mana channeled through the glyph, and the non-magician will have to buy mana stones of high quality to make proper use… this is actually just a bit of liability to us to as no one who can use this desire to buy such a simple function," the carriage seller looked a bit troubled as he explained this and Ryu could understand his point,

'If someone wants to buy a function, they might want more than simple Aircon, but…' he moved towards the carriage and channeled mana through it as he spoke,

"I'll buy this one Uncle… hope I'll get a discount" seeing his confident smile, the salesperson couldn't help but nod and Jue said,

"This is impressive, big brother!!" he looked around the carriage,

"Ryu, you are thinking about using this to practice your channeling, right?" Aiena asked and Ryu nodded as he thought,

'I got found out'

"I will ride it!!" said Rafa happily and everyone nodded someone even though Rafa was originally going to attack a carriage horse turned out her synergy with riding a carriage and her knowledge of them is very nice as she was the one who selected the horse they bought and guided them to carriage instinctively.

After buying a carriage, the Fusion souls didn't find any reason for staying another night in Hinsmark and decided to ride the night towards the next village marked on the map Faltar gave them.