Volume 2 Chapter 7: Part 1: Auction

What's that smell?! Blood! Onyx quickly wakes up and places his hand on his waist! His expression turns grave. Where is my sword?! His instincts are on high alert.

But he doesn't have to do any of that.

Oh, yeah. I fought with a python. Looking at the dead corpse across the pond, Onyx remembers everything. He frowns,

"How did I survive?" He remembers most of his bones were broken. Blood gushed out from all the pores of his body too. But right now, he feels,

Alright.

Onyx looks down at his body to see all his wounds are closed up. What's more, his bones aren't aching either!

Why do I feel so refreshed? Onyx's body felt light as a feather. Like he can go another round with the python again!

Onyx looks down at the water to look at his face. His eyes went wide,

Why did it become so sparkly?! His face shows a shine never before! His eyes are also bright and clear.

He touches his cheeks.

So soft. And Onyx realizes what caused it.

The spider lily. That is the only reason why he feels so refreshed and clear. He looks at the flower and notices one of the petals is black.

I see. So that's what rescued me. Onyx realizes the flower saved his life. After thinking about it a little, he turns to the python's corpse.

Just looking at it right now, he's in awe.

How did I beat this thing?! Onyx can't believe he is capable of taking such a beast out. But the bigger question he has is,

Is it going to fit? Looking at the size of the python and then back at his magical bag, he doubts whether or not the bag can hold the monster.

Let's try it out. Onyx opens the bag. And no dice. The python doesn't get absorbed.

This is one of the features of the bag. When something is over the capacity, the bag will refuse to absorb it.

Hmm. What should I give up? If Onyx can't bring the python body with him, he'll have to leave some monsters behind.

What do I have again? Onyx takes all of his spoils out of his bag again. And when he does, there are so many piles of monsters in front of him. There are many different types of monsters and corpses there.

I'll throw out the goblins and cut off the mantis blades. The number of goblins Onyx has is enormous. It takes up too much space in his bag, and the coins he'll receive won't be much.

Taking them out, Onyx tries putting the python back into the bag.

Max capacity.

Thank goodness. Onyx sighs in relief. He doesn't want to give up any of the python's body. And now came the other part. He turns over to the spider lilies. I'll take 3.

There are four spider lilies there.

I don't want monsters coming after me. Onyx remembers how he got charmed by the flower. What will happen if he takes all of them with him?

How many monsters will come after him? This is something he doesn't want to find out.

And Onyx has a hunch that this is more than enough. But then, his face turns blue!

How long was I out for?! He doesn't know what the time is or how long he was knocked out!

The only thought he had was to collect the materials!

Crap! What if I'm too late?! Onyx's expression turns an extra shade of white! It doesn't take him a second to think as he dashes away from the area!

Gotta get back there fast!

...

"Why are you still moping around like that, guild master?" Madelyn's expression turns dark.

Oliver was staring into space, dazed and aloof. But he asks, "Aren't you worried about Onyx?"

"No, I'm not. And get back to work. I helped you with half of yours. You have to do yours." Because of Oliver's amount of work, Madelyn stepped up and helped him out again.

"But how can I keep working?! The kid's been gone for two and a half weeks now! And just the other day, my favorite mug broke too! What if something happened to him?!" Thinking about superstitions, Oliver can't help but shiver at the thought.

"I didn't peg you to be superstitious." Weren't you the one who told me not to worry about him? Madelyn quips in her mind. Madelyn doesn't care as she continues to work on the paperwork.

"That isn't the only thing that happened! My pencil keeps breaking every time I use it! I have been tripping on the air! And every day when I drink something, it tastes disgusting!" Oliver grabs his head in horror.

All these things that happened in just a few days were enough to make him believe it.

"First, your pencil kept breaking because you put too much force onto it. Second, you kept tripping on the air because you were out of it. And third, that's because your mug isn't cleaned." The last one makes Madelyn look at him in disgust.

Oliver screams out, "You're so cold-hearted! How can you be worried about him?!"

Aren't you supposed to be an adult?

"How can I be worried when he's going there for such a weird reason." In the beginning, Madelyn is the same as Oliver. She worried her head off. But realizing the reasoning now, she felt conflicted.

Oliver gives her a strange expression, "Isn't it because you're jealous that Onyx isn't doing that for you?"

"..." Madelyn's expression drops. And then red envelopes her face! She screams out, 'What are you talking about?!"

"Don't lie. I know Onyx is your type. The other employees have also figured it out-," Oliver knows Onyx is in Madelyn's strike zone. Before he can finish his last word,

"Shut it!" A pen was stuck in front of Oliver's throat, "One more word out of you, and I'll make you stop talking permanently!"

Oliver sticks his hands into the air, "Understood! I'm cool! I'm cool!" Seeing how he shut it now, Madelyn sighs,

"I am worried about Onyx. But I put my faith in him as you said before." Onyx got the talent. And she is willing to place her bet on that talent.

"Yeah. But-" "Guild master!" As Oliver is about to say something, an employee comes into the office!

"What is it?"

"The adventurer who left a few weeks ago has come back!" The moment the employee said this, Oliver and Madelyn gave each other a look. Speak of the devil! The two quickly dash off, leaving the employee in shock.

When the two come down the stairs, they don't need to find where Onyx is. The guy sticks out like a sore thumb! At the front gates, adventurers crowd him. But they aren't getting close to him at all.

And who can blame them? Onyx is covered in blood from head to toe. His armor has cracks all over the place. He looks like he just came out of a battle a few minutes ago.

"Onyx! What happened to you?!" Madelyn screams out in shock while Oliver has a thousand-yard expression. Did the kid push himself too far?

But Onyx quickly dashes up the stairs and to them. He answers back with another question, "Has the auction started?!" His eyes are bloodshot as he says this.

"N-no. The auction will be starting in 4 days. You came back early." Hearing that, Onyx drops to the ground out of exhaustion and relief.

Oliver takes a step away from him, "Anyways, you should go and wash. You're covered in blood." Seeing how energetic he was, it seems he's not as injured as the blood made it out to be.

"Ahh, gotcha." Even Onyx realizes it too. Having blood all over his body was overkill.

"Go to the back. You can clean yourself over there." Madelyn adds.

...

"Sorry about that. Just go ahead of myself." Onyx came back all cleaned up. In the back of the guildhall is a well for people to clean up. He continues,

"Thanks for lending me some clothes, Oliver. And sorry about what happened." Onyx isn't wearing his armor anymore. But a baggy shirt and some ripped-up pants. Onyx has a wry smile as he scratches his head, still embarrassed about what happened.

But Oliver covers his eyes. And he isn't alone; everyone else in the guild hall did the same.

"Hmm? What are you guys doing?"

"Did something happen to you over these 2 weeks?" Oliver screams out. Why are you so sparkly?! His eyes are going blind. If Onyx's face value is a perfect 100 before. Then his face value is 120 now!

His face turns extra sparkly, and his eyes sparkle like the night sky! It's just blinding!

Ahh. Onyx realizes why they are acting weird too. His face did become better after touching the spider lily. But he can't do anything about it either now that it happened.

"So it is you, Onyx." In front of the front gate, Gilbert is there.

"Why are you here? I didn't call you." Oliver squints his eyes when he sees Gilbert.

"Of course not. It's already spreading throughout the city about an adventurer running around with blood covering his entire body." Gilbert laughs. Onyx has become the talk of the city.

That's how many people knew. Onyx didn't even care as he charged toward the guildhall.

"Sorry." Onyx scratches his head, continuing to be more embarrassed about what happened. He used the quickest route possible; charge straight through. It didn't matter whether or not a monster was in his way. He blasted through them!

The blood splattered across his entire body.

"It's ok. Things like this happened. So what kind of things have you brought with you today." Gilbert smiles.

"I knew it, you fox! You're only here because of the drops!" Oliver scowls at him. He knew his friend all too well. If there is money, Gilbert will be there.

"Of course, I will be here. I'm interested in how this young man would gather so much money. So what did you bring?"

"I've brought a lot of things with me. Do we have a bigger place where I can put all these things?"

"Hmm? What did you bring?" Madelyn's expression turns weird hearing what Onyx said. What could he have brought with him this time? The thunder bear variant was surprising enough.

So what is it this time?

"Well, one monster I killed is really big," Onyx says.

Oliver suggests, "We can use the warehouse." Also, it's not going to be that big.

He thought Onyx was exaggerating a bit.

...

"WHAT THE!" Oliver screams in shock, Madelyn can only stare with dead eyes, and Gilbert laughs wryly from the python corpse.

"Told you it was big." Onyx scratches his head.

"How did you defeat one of the 3 kings?!" Oliver looks at him strangely. This is like his third time going out on an adventure. And every single time, he had to one-up the last one in drops.

"Three kings? What's that?"

Gilbert explains, "In the Forest Of Death, three types of monsters are considered the strongest. And you just brought back one of them."

Even Gilbert is shocked he brought this back of all things! And this isn't the only thing. How many herbs did he collect?

Besides the giant python, Onyx brought back many different herbs too.

"...Is that all of it?" Oliver couldn't help but say that. And he instantly regrets it.

"Oh yeah. I forget these are in my bag." And Onyx takes out the spider lilies. Oliver slaps himself in the face while Gilbert does a thousand-yard stare. Gilbert turns to Oliver,

"Where did that guy find such a monster?"

"Don't ask me! How am I supposed to know what kind of rock he got him from" Seeing how the two are arguing, Madelyn explains,

"Onyx, the devil python is considered to be around a top-class A or low-class S-grade monster. What's more, the flower you brought is called the crimson saint spider lily. It's an S-class herb. Just having one petal is enough to heal all wounds."

"I see." Onyx knew about the effects of the flower. He witnesses it firsthand. But he didn't think it was an S-rank plant.

"Oliver, how much will I get if I sell one of these?" He got three of them on him right now.

"I don't know the exact price. But if I have to estimate, one petal from the spider lily should be around 3 platinum at the least."

"And what about the python?"

Oliver turns to Gilbert, "Have you sold something like this?" He hasn't seen such a devil python in so long.

And so large too.

Gilbert touches the python, "From how undamaged the skin is; if he sold this whole, you could get at least 30 platinum coins at the minimum." And that's only from the skin.

The fangs and other parts of the python are a whole different matter.

Then I have more than enough. Just from the python alone, he overshot his goal. Thinking about it, he asks Oliver,

"Can you buy all of this?"

"Hell no. No way." Oliver instantly gives his answer. As much as he wants to buy these from Onyx, it's way over their budget. He would die from buying it.

"Please let the auction house deal with it." Gilbert says, "Onyx, you have my word that I will give you the absolute maximum amount from these drops."

"What's the catch?" Oliver squints his eyes at him, "Whenever you do something for others, you want something back." That's the aura of a businessman.

"I do have a request. It's the only thing this young man could do."

"What do you need from me?"

"Please take care of Rena." Gilbert's expression turns serious. Hearing this, Onyx stays silent for a few seconds. But he looks up at him,

"You have my word."

Seeing how there's no lie in his eyes, Gilbert smiles, "That is good. Then I will be leaving now with the materials. You keep the spider lily for now. When you go to the auction house-"

"HOLD IT!" Oliver screams, "Don't you try to get a fast one on me! I see what you're trying to pull, Gilbert!"

"TCH!"

"Our guild may not buy some of the items. But that doesn't mean we can't buy anything!" Oliver knew what he was trying to pull. You want all the profits for yourself! Well, that's not happening!

The two start arguing about which items they should get. Onyx looks over at Madelyn,

"How long will this go for?"

"Probably an hour or so."

"Then I'm off. Just tell me about it later." I need to get something to eat! Onyx ran all the way here without breaks or eating. He needs something in his stomach.