CHAPTER 50: BLUE STAR MALL

When Silva heard the price his sword could go for, he was already shaken. He wanted it back; there was no way he would sell something like that, especially when he wasn’t strong enough to protect himself in case.

Elena seemed reluctant to part with the blade, but she understood why he wanted to keep it. It was a treasure; he could also use it to go farther in his journey.

She handed the sword to him, and Silva took it. He placed it back into his inventory. She saw this and wanted to ask about the fact that she didn’t see a storage device with him, yet he was able to place it somewhere.

But Andrew interrupted, "Lady Elena, the orb." He said and pulled her attention back to the orb.

"Oh yes, let’s go," she said. They headed to a lower floor where Andrew found one of their flame users, a young woman.

He informed her of the test. She entered a training room; a couple of dummies were set for her to attack.

She looked at the first one and attacked without the orb, firing a fireball at the dummy. It slammed into its chest and burned deep into it. It was pretty impressive.

Then she picked up the orb from the ground. She used the same attack, but it came out twice as strong and obliterated the chest of the dummy.

She was stunned by the effect. She turned around and looked at Lady Elena with a shine in her eyes.

"That looked like double the effect for sure," she said.

"Yeah, it’s a really good one," Andrew added.

She looked at Silva, "Are you willing to sell this one?" she asked.

"Sure, I don’t use fire, so the money is more important," he responded.

"Good, then I’ll be buying it at six million. The extra one is for goodwill, because we might have a future partnership," she said.

"Hmm, I’ll take it," he spoke, trying to hide his excitement.

"Alright, when we add all the cores that we found, it brings it up to eight million credits in total," she added.

Silva’s head was spinning with figures. He gave her his bank account, and right there the transfer was made. He saw the alert and his eyes lit up.

"Don’t spend it all in one place, kid. Be smart about it. And oh, if you are capable of raiding a D-ranked gate, you can probably do C without issues. Why not go there?" she asked.

"Well, I recently got my upgrade from an F-ranked to a D-ranked awakened. If I came in again and asked for another re-evaluation, it would be suspicious. I’ll stay at the D-ranked gates for a while," he said.

"Hmm, I see," she said, her eyes turning to slits. "We’ll deliver you an access pass to a C-ranked gate from the Rising Phoenix. It will last one entry," she said.

"Really? That’s great, thank you. I owe you one," he said.

"Don’t worry about it, it’s really nothing."

After they exchanged a few more words, he left. Elena and Andrew headed to the office.

"Why are you favoring the kid so much?" he asked.

"First, he is only a kid on paper. He’s more man than many I’ve met, but with a slight childish twist. Second, he has potential unlike anything I have seen before. He is growing fast, very fast.

"And beyond that, he has secrets, I can tell. There are a few very important things he isn’t telling us. A good partnership will loosen his tongue over time," she explained.

[..... ]

Silva got out of the building. He strode like a free man and took a deep breath so that bustling city smell filled his nose.

He whipped out his phone and checked his account again. He saw the amount, and he couldn’t help but smile. He placed a call right to his sister.

"Hello."

(What’s up bro?)

"Uhm, are you free? I want to take you somewhere," he said.

(Oh? Like to get food?)

"Something better," he said, a smile on his face.

(Hey, can I come?) Suddenly, Peter’s voice came from the other side of the phone.

"What the hell, what are you doing there, Peter? I thought you went hunting," Silva yelled.

(Finding a new party is hard. I have been searching for the right one, but it’s been falling through,) Peter said.

"Bruh."

(I’m serious, especially after what happened. It’s like I’m some curse because most of my party died.)

"But Stacy already got back in the game."

(Well that’s Stacy. She is cute, beautiful, and skilled. It’s impossible to compare.)

"Or it could just be better skill and planning."

(Whichever, i did some solo grinding an E gate, couldn’t waste all the time. So can I come?)

"Yeah, yeah, come with my sister. Meet me at the Blue Star Mall," he said and cut the call. He got into the taxi and headed for the mall.

He wanted to take today and spoil his sister, because he was certain that the moment he stepped into that C gate tomorrow, he wouldn’t be coming out early. He’d probably stay a day or two inside there and try to raid the entire gate, and maybe for the first time, find the gate boss.

In every gate, there is a core. The core controls the gate, and it is hypothesized that the core is what births the monsters. Destroying or taking it out is the only way to destroy a gate.

Many gates have been destroyed, more get destroyed, but more are born. Closest to the core is where the strongest monsters are born, with one being called the gate boss. It guards the core, strong and powerful.

Silva was certain that if he could defeat the gate boss, he would finally be able to take down the Minotaur and settle their score.

He clenched his fist as he recalled the disrespect that the Minotaur had shown him. He was surely going to make it pay, no matter what it took.