Chương 627: Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Forty-Six

"This is everything," Illiem asked as he looked at the goods laid out. They had moved into a warehouse instead of the usual meeting room as what Beth had to sell was definitely not fitting on even a large coffee table.

"This is the first batch," Beth replied casually.

"I still have to deliver the goods that we were sent to retrieve."

"It must have been something," Illiem muttered, scratching his temple as he looked over the stacks of goods. He had summoned a half dozen functionaries of the Black Ships to help in cataloging everything.

"Somebody strong we know through somebody else," Beth explained, keeping it vague.

"We were basically the only ones taking care of a level five hundred dungeon, one that's out of the way and not that popular."

"Ah, that explains much," Illiem said.

"Such places aren't that popular regardless of how far off the beaten path they are. If it was only your team there, then I can see how you could easily monopolize it, especially considering that things are different at five hundred."

"What's that mean?" Beth asked.

"Hmm?" Illiem asked, taking his eyes off the loot for a moment to give her a questioning look.

"About level five hundred," Beth clarified.

"Ah, yes, I forgot you're a young team," Illiem said.

"Most people never reach rebirth ten. If you look at the population as a whole, you're talking about less than point one percent hitting that rebirth, and, in fact, it's far less than that. Point one percent would meant that out of a sample of a trillion people, the population of many planets added together, you would have about a billion people that are at least Enlightened.

In reality, the number are even less; take a sample of a trillion people in the Milky Way, and there are probably only about a hundred million at rebirth ten or more. Hell, it's probably less than that, and the fact that Enlightened doesn't greatly increase lifespan, but often greatly increases the person's responsibilities, means that most of those hundred million are still in that bracket.

If we take that hundred million as correct, and I'm saying even that might be a high estimate for our galaxy, than maybe five million of them are Ascended. Of course, there's more than a trillion sapient beings in the galaxy, but that should give you a better idea of the numbers."

"And that relates to level five hundred…how?" Beth asked, though she could make some guesses.

"Please, you're not that foolish," Illiem returned.

"Most Enlightened never hit the point where they are consistently fighting level five hundred beings. It's just not something that they get to, leaving that to mainly be the realm of Ascended. That leads to people talking about it a bit as a mystical realm, though it's not all that mystical, but things do change a decent bit at level five hundred. Tell me, how many beasts did you encounter building up around the dungeon, especially after you started running it?"

"Well, there were very few," Beth answered, frowning as she tried to follow his line of thought.

"Exactly right," he said.

"At level five hundred, beast tides don't stop entirely, but the mechanics change. I'll also bet you barely made a dent in the dungeon's mana pool, no matter how many runs you did. I would further bet, a rather large amount, that you experience some… shall we say, unique situations within? Perhaps you encountered a beast you had never seen before, or an odd monster, or a special variant that was so unusual you didn't know what to do with it?

Or maybe something that would break the dungeon rules, such as a level six hundred beast in a level five hundred dungeon, one that wasn't even the boss?"

"Well, yes, now that you're mentioning it," Beth replied with a nod.

"We did encounter several things like that, including a level six hundred beast that was immensely powerful, one that we managed to kill. I just thought it was because it was a spiked run."

"You did a spiked run of a level five hundred?" Illiem asked, his eyebrows climbing up his forehead.

"That's quite an impressive feat, regardless of your team's strength. It would be an impressive feat for a group that were all in the twenties in rebirth."

"Yeah, we didn't have all that much trouble with it," Beth said with a slight shrug.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it was easy, ya know, but I am saying we were able to successfully do it, and more than once."

"If that's true, then you must have some extraordinary loot," Illiem said, looking between the already vast pile and Beth while the other appraisers groaned.

"Yeah, but I'll let you guys work on this stuff first. I have to go meet my contact and get the stuff they assigned the job for in their hands, first, then we can talk about the rest," Beth said.

"We shall be here," Illiem said, hading her a token.

"This is a bond from the company that signifies that you have not just high-value goods being processed, but that it is a significant amount. I understand we have built up some trust, but I wouldn't want you to leave so much value with us without a payment on the materials and there to be any issues or confusion." Beth took the token, which was a plaque about an inch thick about as wide as her palm and as long as her full hand including her fingers, stashing it in her necklace.

"Thanks, I didn't even think of that. How much time do you think you'll need to go over this stuff?"

"Irrelevant," Illiem said coolly.

"If you have more things for us to appraise and buy, or act as the middlemen for the sales of, then bring them by whenever you have free time. We will never turn away high quality goods from a valued member, even if we have a backlog." Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

"Then I'll be back in a day or two. I'm not sure how long this part is going to take," Beth said, giving Illiem a nod before leaving. She hadn't been lying, either about the amount of materials, or about not being sure how long things would take. The group had already set aside a lot of the stuff they wanted to keep for various reasons, from their own crafting to wanting it as bargaining chips or materials for future items they wanted others to craft for them.

Beyond that, they had a massive pile of goods ready for sale or bartering, some of it of crazy value. Sera had said that they should keep most of the level six hundred dragon, as it was a crazy powerful beast and its body was some of the best crafting materials she had ever seen, but they had a small selection of even those goods they were willing to sell.

Beth really needed to get to Mortaine and offload their haul, dumping all the beast cores, the specialized boss ones, at any, off on the Exalted along with most of the crystal. They had quite a bit extra of the crystal, and if Mortaine didn't need all of it, they were going to keep some of it. The energy storing crystal, in particular, was extremely valuable and they might return to the dungeon for a few weeks at a later point to farm more; that's how impressive the stuff was.

Beth messaged Mortaine and was told to stop by his home; despite him always popping in on them unannounced, he wasn't always available to fling himself across the galaxy just to meet up with them. Honestly, it was rather generous of him to show up where they were much of the time, and Beth didn't really have a problem going to visit the man. He was, at the end of the day, an Exalted, and bending just a bit to his schedule wasn't the worst thing.

She had all the things Mortaine needed and went just herself, none of the others that bothered with wanting to run and do a delivery. She was greeted by the same man that she had first met the first time she had come to Mortaine's place years ago, being quickly led to a sitting room that was already occupied. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised, but it was still a bit startling to see Laselle there, the Blue Queen sitting in a large chair with an air of regal dignity about her, which Beth found a bit amusing.

The woman, despite the most common moniker that many used to refer to her, was the leader of one of the strongest and most dangerous mercenary companies in the galaxy; much of her appearance was just an act, one that hid the real terror beneath. Mortaine was also already in the room, and he gestured for her to take a seat, which Beth did, pulling out her own drink after sitting across from Laselle and to Mortaine's left.

It was rather common for people, above a certain level, to have their own things and use them, including furniture, drinks, food, and so on. It wasn't so much a matter of trust, it was just that busy and powerful people became used to having their own things at their fingertips at a thought and often simply deployed them, casually, without thinking much of it. Beth was pretty sure the Blue Queen's chair was from her personal storage as it was a bit…

elegant, for something that Mortaine would have just laying around.

"You have the materials?" Laselle asked before the hellos were even finished.

"Of course," Beth scoffed, waving a hand and making a pile of goods appear on the floor between them.

"One hundred five cores, of the requested type, and the exact amounts of crystal requested."

"You have any more crystal?" Laselle asked, examining the pile closely.

"We picked up more crystal than what was requested, but we were requested to deliver a certain amount…" Beth said in a leading tone, letting her sentence trail off.

"Yes, yes, we can pay," Laselle said, frustration evident in her tone and the way she waved a hand idly at Beth.

"Then we have more," Beth said, stacking sections of crystal to the side of the initial pile.

"Excellent," said Mortaine, lifting everything off the floor with a gesture.

"And not only did you exceed the quota in all aspects, but it's some of the purest goods we've had delivered in a long time. I dare say, I haven't seen crystal with this little flaw in a long while. A good long while."

"We aim to please," Beth said, with a big grin.

"You've done more than adequate work, but don't get too cocky," Laselle said to her with a slight frown.

"My, I would never," Beth said in a sarcastic tone.

"I was going to make you an offer, quite a lucrative one, but I see I was aiming above my station. I'll just make sure to stay a good little worker drone from now on."

"Easy, easy," Mortaine said, making calming gestures at the two.

"We have the materials now, Laselle, we can finish the initial work. No reason to be so on edge about it."

"You know we're pressed for time!" she snapped back before closing her eyes. With a big sigh, she seemed to deflate, leaning back in her large chair before she slowly opened her eyes again and looked at Beth.

"Apologies. It's been a little…tense, lately. I know you're team is a cut above the other rabble that's running around out there. What's this offer you're dangling?"

"Just was curious if either of you might have a use for this?" Beth said, making the dragon's heart appear and hover in the air. Despite being a heart, it was more like a giant crystal than anything else, without any blood or viscera coating it. It also released a strong pulse of mana as soon as it appeared, the faint roaring of a mighty beast echoing through the room, followed by a slight but steady heartbeat as the heart hovered in the air.

"Blood Stars!" Laselle swore, immediately surging to her feet. She approached the heart, stopping just a step away, examining it intently. Mortaine hadn't moved, but Beth could feel that his attention had focused on the organ as well, clearly using several skills to analyze the heart and everything about it.

"Tell me…tell me you have more," Mortaine said, genuinely surprised by her offering.

"Well, such things usually come from a beast, you know?" Beth said with a grin.

"You have all of it?" Laselle asked sharply.

"My team has a reserve on much of it, but there's some parts we're willing to sell. We haven't told anybody else about this or that we fully harvested the entire thing," Beth replied, her grin only growing as she saw the Exalted start to sweat.

"How much of it are you willing to part with? We'll buy everything that you want to sell," Laselle said immediately.

"Price is no issue," Mortaine added in a more mild voice, though his focus had never left the heart.

"Well, it was an adult dragon, though not an elder dragon, and we killed it pretty cleanly. We want most of the scales, bones, and blood, but I can sell some of each. I would like to keep the core, which we harvested perfectly intact, but if you make me a strong enough offer…" Beth said, once again trailing off, but on a much more suggestive note this time.

Laselle shared a sharp glance with Mortaine before gesturing at Beth, who obliged by bringing out a few scales, a bone, a vial of blood, and the piece de resistance, the core. She watched in real time as Laselle's pupils constricted on seeing the core, proving that her dangling that bit of meat in front of these two was the right call. Beth had plenty of very fine pieces stashed away, including some things the team hadn't hinted at to anyone, but the dragon pieces were some of the best of the best, if not the best.

Using them to tempt two Exalted was just too good of an opportunity to pass up, and it looked like she had just the right bait for these giant fish to be willing to bite. The two of them were clearly communicating, either with their communicators or some kind of telepathy, and it's likely they were arguing over the pieces fiercely. Not about whether they would buy them, or how much they were willing to spend, but they were very likely arguing over who got to keep what and what they wanted to use it for.

"How much material, by weight?" Laselle asked, and Beth gave her a figure. The Blue Queen shared another long look with Mortaine, both of them clearly bargaining hard, before turning back to Beth.

"Fifteen adamantine for everything."

"The heart, the core, and all that material from a level six hundred adult dragon, and for fifteen?" Beth asked mildly, raising a brow. Laselle ground her teeth a bit and then returned, "Fine, fine, have it your way. Twenty adamantine, but no more than that. I'd rather have less of the materials than pay too much."

"You have yourselves a deal," Beth said with a big grin, practically filling the room with materials, and that was just a fraction of what she had. Just a fraction of what they had gotten from the dragon.