NOVEL WEB Chapter 111: Scammed
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Aurora sighed, feeling tired of listening to the two greedy people trying to argue with each other. "How much did you sell your last grade eight item for?"
The black-haired man felt cold sweat drip down his back, and didn't dare to avoid Aurora's question at all, let alone lie. "S-Sixty cores?"
The platinum blonde nodded. "Then give her half of that. We're done here."
Half of sixty cores... that was still thirty cores, which was three times what he promised! How could any reasonable person try to propose such an absurd deal?
Unfortunately, even she was being unreasonable, the manager could only obey her. Hopefully, the higher-ups will understand his circumstances.
Manager Rufus felt his heart bleed as he approved the transaction. 'That beast corpse isn't even worth twelve cores! AHHH!'
If he had known it would backfire like this, he would have called in sick today.
Of course, he would mark it as 'cost of preventing the 'Emerald House' from being razed to the ground' instead of 'buying grade 8 material', since that is what it was.
Even if he was crying in his heart, though, he respectfully escorted the two of them out of the 'Emerald House', and breathed a sigh of relief as they were finally gone. "Finally, it's over."
Now all he had to deal with was to get rid of the giant ugly beetle on top of his auction house. Thankfully, his employees were quite competent, and already working on dismantling the corpse.
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Ruru and Bree had already fallen asleep before they reached their destination. The little fox was of course quite tired from the overuse of her ripple skill, as it put far more stress on her than it did on her master.
As for the little puppy, perhaps she had just been lulled into sleep by watching her companion. Evelyn could only helplessly hold onto them carefully in her left hand while Aurora held her right palm.
As she arrived at the White Lily Palace with her loot of thirty spirit cores, Evelyn still felt that she had been scammed.
Unfortunately, Aurora wasn't in a very good mood, so she decided it wasn't worth annoying her further. Otherwise, she planned to try exchanging the corpse for that choker.
After all, an actual grade eight item was worth far more than some spirit cores lying in her inventory.
As Aurora led her student back to the White Lily Palace's gate, she gave the pink-haired girl a pointed look. "In the future, you cannot use your teacher to bully people, okay?"
Evelyn couldn't help but pout. "But wasn't he the one who bullied me?"
Had the manager heard her, he might have already committed suicide.
Aurora sighed. "Okay. Everyone has their own path. I will teach you what I know. But you decide what to learn… I understand. Un."
The pink-haired girl smiled as she happily clutched the platinum blonde's palm, making the girl blink at her in surprise. "Thank you, Aurora! I never thought I would be lucky enough to meet someone like you in the academy. To be honest, you're right. I was being too greedy. That beast was your kill, anyway, and these spirit cores are also yours. But…"
Sensing her hesitation, Aurora gave her student an encouraging nod.
Evelyn bit her lip. "Actually, I'm desperate. You understand, right?"
Aurora shook her head. "No. I don't understand. I don't get your desperation. I never understood my mother's desperation, either. Why struggle so much? If you cannot help it, just live life as you can, and whatever happens… is your destiny."
Evelyn didn't agree with that at all, but considering how much Aurora had grown, and how much stronger than herself she was, the pink-haired girl felt that refuting her directly wouldn't be able to convince her teacher anyway.
So she could take a set sideways. "What you said is not wrong, Aurora, but this is how I want to live my life. I don't wish to surrender to 'my fate', since my fate will be written… by myself!"
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Evelyn felt like she had punched empty air after Aurora left with just a nod and no more words, but making her point known to her teacher was also a crucial step for her.
After all, she realized how much her growth rate could increase with Aurora's help, and there was no way she could give it up now. Just entering and exiting the 'Wonderland of Doom' would have been a life-threatening ordeal before, but with Aurora, it had been like a picnic!
Moreover, she was incredibly generous and liberal with her resources, which would allow Evelyn to grow by leaps and bounds in a far shorter amount of time than she previously imagined.
As long as Aurora made these trips to the 'Wonderland of Doom' frequent enough, she would be all set.
In fact, if not for the interruption by Craig, she would have looked for some contaminated beasts that could be processed using Bree's purification. However, his interruption did end up bringing her 30 extra spirit cores, so she wasn't complaining.
Moreover, the mighty Crown Prince of Terrazyme even ended up crippled!
The only regretful thing was that he was probably still alive, but there was little Evelyn could do about that right now.
After all, Professor Dane wasn't dead yet, either. Even if she decided to go back and look for them, the one to end up dying might just be herself.
And the other regretful thing was that due to the 'Terran Infestation' in the forest, Aurora had canceled her plan to train her there for a while. She wouldn't even be teaching her anymore, since she would be leading a team of pillars into the forest to look into what was going on.
Evelyn was probably the only student who would know, though.
Of course, even if she knew, there was little she could do to change anything. Aurora wouldn't let her come along, and insisted that she stay inside the academy during this time.
Evelyn placed her purple badge on the door, and it opened without a sound.
Perhaps Vivian had already fallen asleep, but Amara was waiting not far from the door with a concerned frown. "You're finally back! Are you okay? You didn't get hurt, did you?"
Evelyn sighed as she made a shushing gesture to the girl before entering her room first and laying down Ruru and Bree on the bed.
She gave Amara a nod after she returned outside. "I was with Aurora most of the time, so of course nothing dangerous happened."
"O-Oh, I guess that's true… Still, you have to be careful if she ever takes you there again. I've only heard bad things about the place!"
Evelyn shook her head with a smile. "Don't worry, that plan is canceled for a while anyway. I'll just be attending regular classes from tomorrow, I guess."
Amara couldn't help but be shocked. "E-Eh? W-What happened?!"
The pink-haired girl sighed. She didn't think there was any harm in telling Amara, so she just didn't bother hiding it. Of course, there was no point in needlessly making her worry, either. "Don't worry, nothing happened to us, but there were some suspicious activities in the forest, so Aurora decided to investigate on her own later."
Amara breathed a sigh of relief. "Ohh. That's fine, then."
For a moment, she had even wondered if Evelyn's teacher had abandoned her, but thankfully that had not been the case. Otherwise, she didn't know how Evelyn would react, and if she would even be able to console her.
After all, Amara could feel that Evelyn's desire for getting stronger was even greater than her own, and losing what was probably her greatest source of growth would surely be devastating for the girl.
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Meanwhile, back in the Eastern Forbidden City, the manager had just started to calm his heart when a panicked lady burst into his office. "M-Manager, this is bad!"
The black-haired man gave the obviously disgruntled woman a strange look. This was the person responsible for directing the disassembling team, wasn't she? A strange, dreadful feeling settled in the pit of his stomach as he questioned her. "What's wrong?"
"I-I'm afraid we've been scammed!"
The manager almost rolled his eyes, but then he realized that he hadn't told anyone how much he actually paid for the beast. How could they know? "W-Why would you say that?!"
The woman gulped. "M-Manager, although the beast looks like it was killed using some strange attack that left its body intact, in fact, everything inside is already destroyed! Only the shell is intact!"
Although the shell was definitely the most valuable part of this beast corpse, if the insides had been intact, all together they would still be worth about four or five spirit cores. Without it, the shell was only worth about five cores or so.
That is to say, he hadn't overpaid them by three times, no, he had overpaid them almost six times!
And to make things worse, they had never even mentioned anything about the condition of its insides. It was all his assumption… he couldn't even cry if he wanted to.
In the end, Manager Rufus really fainted.
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