Chương 30: Brewing Calamity

The walk back to the slums was swift. Nero first made his way through the tunnel, and entered the guildhall. He could sell the materials back at the sect, but he'd rather avoid transacting materials directly there. The first time had left him with enough of a sour taste. He made his way to the receptionist desk, as Miya slowly rose from her seat, and welcomed him. I'd also rather see her face than a bunch of dudes' faces when trading.

"Haven't seen you for a while after that quest." She asked curiously.

"Well, your face tells me that you have more than a bit of an inkling of the reasons behind that." He said with a smile.

"Haha, true, it's rather hard not to know of something as drastic as a whole migration of villagers into the slums. Especially so when the guildhall is so close to the slums." She pointed at him, "and you, I must say your luck is one piece of work. Went for the questing route to avoid the dangers of dungeons, only to fall into an even more dangerous situation."

"Can't say I disagree." He shrugged, and put the bag on the desk.

"Though, where there's bad luck, there's an opportunity to acquire benefits." He said, tapping on the bag full of loot. Miya whistled lightly at his confident remark, and as Nero opened the bag and handed her the pouch full of Beast Cores, she again called over that old expert to appraise them. The old expert sifted through each core, and even took a sniff from the bird feathers he'd collected.

"These are pretty good. Unusually mana-rich too." The old man's gaze scanned him for a second, almost as if he wanted to ask him something, but judged it not worth the trouble. He scribbled something on a note instead and handed it to Miya. And as he was about to leave, Nero stopped him.

"Appraise these too, please." He said, bringing out the small chunks of mana crystals. They were mainly water elements. At the sight of these materials, Miya's and the old appraiser's eyes widened in disbelief. They glanced at each other first, before the old expert came to sift through them too. Miya very much appeared to be holding back questions she wanted to ask. And Nero had a good idea of what those could be. Mainly, how he'd gotten these from an E-ranked dungeon.

Or whether he'd soloed some higher-ranked dungeon by himself. She couldn't ask, though—the guild strictly prohibited its employees from prying. And although he interacted with her like a friend, even he appreciated this feature of the guild. He was certain Miya already understood that asking these questions of him in front of other adventurers could get him into trouble later.

Despite the relaxed way the adventurers sat around the guild, at the end of the day they killed and slaughtered monsters for a living, hunting for resources constantly. Nero was already certain he'd be followed once he left the guild. Mana crystals were valuable, and the kind he'd brought, based on their reactions, were even more valuable. He was certain the old expert was avoiding any reaction that would give that away, mainly so he didn't have to pay too much in exchange for trading them.

That, and Nero's own safety. If he instead shouted out how high-quality or amazing the materials were, Nero wouldn't even make it two feet outside the guildhall before being kidnapped. So, all things considered, he was more than appreciative of the guild staff's professionalism and consideration in every respect. After appraisal of the crystals, another note was written to Miya as she brought out her calculator, produced the final acquisition price for all the items, and showed Nero.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. It was two gold crowns. Nero agreed to the price. She then went to another receptionist counter, grabbed a metal card inscribed with the strange letters his own Nether World Sect's ID held. She then extended the metal card to him, alongside a sharp needle.

"Please put a tiny bit of your blood on it."

"Sure." He picked up the pin, and ignoring the instinct telling him not to, that it was going to sting, he did it anyway. A small drop of blood pooled on his thumb from the incision, and he smeared the blood over the card. The letters glowed with a mystical hue before settling back down. She then took the card over to the same receptionist as before, who put it inside a box, pressed some keys, and returned it. She finally handed the card over to him.

"Here, the full amount has been deposited. You can now withdraw the cash from any established establishment. Including a sect." Nero was about to say thanks and leave when an adventurer from a neighboring table burst through the door and slumped onto one of the tables beside other adventurers. The whole table was full of burly men, each armed with at least a sword, spear, or mace.

"Damn this accursed snow." He yelled to the ceiling. The adventurer closest to him smirked and handed him an ale mug.

"What's up with you? Did yar wife beat you?" Another one asked, laughing loudly.

"You know damn well I don't have a woman, Smith." he barked, chugging his ale almost furiously.

"It's just that my maid's distant relatives' village recently got attacked by a horde of Ogres—nearly the entire village was wiped out! And she hasn't come to work for nearly three days now. Who's gonna do my laundry and stuff, huh?" Smith gave his friend a pained smile.

"I don't think that's what you should be worrying about. Was the attack inside the seventh circle, though? Because, to my knowledge, such creatures are only found at the furthest end of the northern side of this circle. And barely any villages exist there."

"Nah, some new dungeon spirit had likely popped up in our circle." Another, slim, lean-built guy chimed in.

"On the way here, I saw the administrative office in an uproar—they were scrambling to find any available Silverine Knights to allocate to the issue."

"Shit, hadn't those guys already been sent to the eighth circle to deal with the dungeon that supposedly spawned in the freaking sky?" The slender guy nodded.

"Yep." At their words, the whole guildhall fell silent. Nero tentatively called on Miya to get a read on the situation. He'd been so busy going from sect to dungeon that he'd nearly lost track of what was happening around him. Miya explained the situation to him in a low voice, while the adventurers gulped down mugs of ale with an air of severity.

"The snowfall this year, as you probably already know, isn't normal. It originated as a side effect of the Floating Island dungeon that appeared out of nowhere in the skies of the Eighth Circle."

"But how? I've heard of large dungeons affecting the weather and natural environment around them, but I've never really understood how that happens."

"Mana extraction, that's the reason. Large-scale dungeons can suck vital mana right out of their surroundings to produce enhanced and even mutated monsters. And the lack of necessary mana in the right place can cause a chain of events leading to all sorts of disasters—like the huge earthquake we experienced roughly three years ago."

"You mean the one they named the Walpurgisnachts Wail?" She nodded, her face no longer playful.

"And what are these dungeon spirits? What's happening in our circle?" After the exchange with Miya, he bid her farewell and on the way, beat about ten burly guys black who tried to follow him. He also dropped by the guild associated library to meet sunny, but the guy supposedly hadn't been to work for nearly three days now. Disappointed, he returned to the sect, his face was nearly grim after the talks with Miya as he exchanged the two gold crowns for two Spirit Stones.

By the time he returned, it was already nine pm. He bought just enough food to last him the night, then promptly got to cultivating.

"A huge peril is brewing on the horizon, huh." He sighed, not really wanting to continue the thought. Sucking in a deep breath, he worked on relaxing his mind and heart. And unlike usual, it took him nearly an hour before his thoughts calmed, and even that was only thanks to the sweet, innocent scent of jasmine. It drifted in through the windows on the wind, enveloping his room and his mind with peace. The cultivation session stretched on and on, with Nero not even rising from it after six hours had passed.

He only broke it at the eighth hour. Collapsing onto his bed, Nero's mind was again flooded with Miya's words.

"Even as a side effect, this mana extraction has taken nearly a thousand lives within our slums. In fact, I was worried about you, since you live there. The church's priests have been working day and night to accommodate the many kids whose parents died just protecting them from the biting cold." He sucked in another breath, his eyes turning resolute. He opened the panel of [The Endless Path] to check his progress.

He was no god who could save them, or even help the priestess much for now, not unless he grew stronger.