‘Grade-II beast cores!’ Rick was shocked. Afterall Grade-II cores could only be acquired from spiritual beasts.

While ordinary beasts would only enhance their physique and attack with their evolved bodies, even the weakest spiritual beasts had understood a wisp of the elemental powers within them.

He had tried getting higher quality beast cores for a while now, but with little luck. When he had asked Samira, Jay and Dale for help, the problem quickly became clear. Since evolutions had just begun after the Haven’s Dictate, Spiritual beasts were not as abundant as ordinary ones.

But more importantly, although it was not very hard to kill Grade-II beasts, the proud creatures would rather exhaust their core to the brink of its destruction than surrender. As a result, the cores would usually get damaged and become impossible to use for making golems. but since no one really cared for the cores, nobody was perturbed by it either.

‘I have to at least try,’ Rick thought, steeling his resolve. Although having Azer as the only supplier could possibly ruin his bargaining position, it was too important to reject outright. The ordinary golems he had on him were rapidly become obsolete in any fight, even destroying them could only suffice as a distraction now.

“How much do you want for it?” he asked pensively.

“I don’t even know if I can set a price on it, to be honest. A lot of my boys were roughed up quite badly trying to get their hands on them. How about we barter instead? There are five cores here, no need to buy the cores. Once you craft the golems, you give me four and you can keep one.” Azer offered.

“It’s a good offer. But as friends, I want to be honest with you.” Rick said.

“I have never worked with Grade-II cores. All of them will probably end up just on experimenting,” Rick replied, with a half-truth. He had to undersell his abilities, otherwise, he would probably end up wasting all his time just crafting golems all his time with nothing else to do.

“Now, that’s a bother isn’t it?” Azer leaned back on his swivelling chair as he tried to come up with a solution. This was a real pickle for him.

Kir was an unknown element in the City. The golem last time around had raised the reputation of the Celestial Devotees to new heights and Eira had risen to renewed heights of power, only below the Supreme Devotee. Even the rune-craftsmen of the City had learnt a lot apparently uncovered a lot from studying the golem core. Although they still were unable to craft golems, they were close.

Even the Word Transmission Scroll was a marvel. Although the Communication Stone that was recovered from the few dungeons were of higher quality, there were only so many of them. But thankfully the City’s rune-craftsmen were able to replicate this. Such a strategically valuable product was invaluable that only high-ranking Celestial Devotees could own.

With so much happening, Azer, of course, made sure to capitalize on the fame as well. As the only man who was able to contact Kir, he had gained a lot of confidence with the higher-ups.

But since that day Kir had as if disappeared completely. He had never come back to the City again and soon after could not even be contacted with the miraculous Word-Transmission Scrolls. Now that he had the chance, he desperately wanted to make sure Kir did not disappear a second time. He did not think he could keep up the fake facade of actually being in constant touch again.

“How about I buy them from you? Wait let me finish-” Rick added quickly just as Azer was about to interrupt. He could not just give up such precious cores cheaply. “I will buy them for ten gold Cilliacs each. But for every other golem, I craft, you can have the right to the first refusal.”

“So I only get to keep the second golem you make?” Azer said hesitatingly.

“And, I will give you a fifty-per cent discount for the next five Grade-II golems I sell to you,” Rick added, hoping to sweeten the deal.

“Fine, I can live with that. Okay, the young man let’s do it, I agree,” Azer agreed with a wide grin. Although it was not the deal he would like to make, but he was willing to take it. At least this way he could make sure Kir would remain in touch and not disappear.

Rick smiled and quickly pocketed his precious new golem cores immediately.

“Your money is here,” Azer said as he put away the golem and the talismans into a drawer.

The soldier that had disappeared with his card walked back in with a pink school-bag in his hand. He left the bag on Rick’s side and left the card on the desk before disappearing without a word.

“I will leave you to it while you count the amount. You must be one of the richest persons in the City Kir… well of course excluding us,” Azer said cheerfully.

“I will trust you on it. And here are the things you bought,” Rick said sliding over a golem core and the Controlling talismans along with the money he owed.

‘Time for part two,’ he thought. The first part of his job here was done. He had secured the finances and even landed with some valuable resources.

“I should be able to supply golems to you much quicker by the way,” Rick said.

“Oh really? Changed your mind about joining the Celestial Devotees, is it? Don’t worry, I will arrange for your relocation into the city, an excellent spot just opened up in Block-C. It will be the perfect spot for you to stay- a nice bedroom, a private toilet and listen to this, it even has enough space to do your manufacturing and stuff as well.” Azer said, getting into real-estate agent mode. This was turning out better than he could hope for.

“No, no, not me. A friend of mine wants to settle here. She will be able to deliver them to you directly. You just let me know how many you want and I will have her send it to you. You can make the payment to her as well,” Rick said, choosing his words carefully.

“Oh it’s a she is it?” Azer asked with a lewd smile.

“Not if you ask her,” Rick laughed out.

“Don’t worry about it. I will make sure she is comfortable here. She is your-”

Suddenly the door burst open from nowhere, startling both of the occupants in the room. “Is he here? How many golems does he have? And the controlling artifacts?”

A bony face with a scarf wrapped around his neck, eyes as dark as the shadows around them stepped into the room. The room became cold as soon as he appeared.

‘Eira!’ Rick immediately tensed up. A golem core immediately appeared in his hand and as prepared to summon Grant.

There was no way he could forget the lunatic’s face. The madman that had tried to kill him and Pip in the name of some twisted justice.

“Eira! There is a guest here! Don’t barge in like it’s your goddamn bedroom,” Azer snapped, doing little to hide his annoyance.

“Kir how many golems can you sell?” Eira said between cold stutters, ignoring the screaming old man.

“Eira, I remember you now. You bought the Hydrophant golem the last time. How are you?” Rick said, making sure not to show his nervous anxiety in his voice. He was confident that with Grant with him, he could easily take on the Ice Mage, but he did not want to try his luck either. Besides, there was no way he could risk blowing his cover as Kir.

“How many golems?” Eira repeated himself.

“Eira, behave. It’s an order - sit down and talk politely!” Azer said pointing the pen at him.

‘Civil tiffs already, that too in the open?’ Rick was shocked but more than that happy at the turn of events. The Celestial Devotees for all their marvels and great policies apparently weren’t good at keeping egos of their members in check. The last time when he had sold the golem cores, he was sure Eira was a leading member compared to Azer with the later allowing Eira to walk all over him. But now, the roles had reversed!

“Ugh!” Eira grumbled before walking over towards the chair and sat back down.

Giving another disgruntled look, Azer turned back at Rick.

“Now, where were we?” he asked.

“I think we were done here,” Rick said. Although he was enjoying the tension brewing in the room, Eira sitting so close-by didn’t sit well with him. Since everything he wanted to do was done, he wanted to leave the room as soon as possible.

“Yes, do let me know if you ever need anything though,” Azer replied.

Hearing that, Rick suddenly realized he forgot one last important thing. Sitting back down he said, “If you have ordinary beast cores, I would like to buy them.”

“Oh! Hahaha!” Azer laughed. He walked up to the door and ushered Rick to follow, “How could I forget. Actually, there have been places where beast cores are used now. Why don’t you come with me? I will show you our new ATMs.”