"There were fewer quitters than I expected"
Sitting in a beast made cave YuJu tapped at the brittle stones in a rhythm, waiting for the expected visitors in his Ephai getup
"Vehemty aside its already hard to supply ten of the top twenty guilds with creatures that could grow strong enough to eventually outclass most creatures in the Infidome, that being said it would have been a breeze if those Dreonates I caught didn't die"
There was nothing he could do about it now though, to begin with he knew what decided a guardian's strength was not the creatures themselves as much as it was the guild's growth, if Dreonate's really were that great of creatures then they wouldn't have died when their world was raided
"Hmm, I wonder who will come first"
Would it be one of the six guilds requesting a creature, one of the three dissatisfied ones wanting a face off with him, or one of the ones he did supply in need of a chat
"I can see Sid coming up to me for some sort of deal, only its a small chance when he doesn't have anything to offer"
He did not know the human race's leaders like he knew those in Hortus though, there were many he was still puzzled over, like Paradise Palace, the biggest mystery that was not solved up till the day they got wiped out
His shadow moved as he spoke to himself, revealing Sofia who was keeping an eye on the place for the next couple of days
"A party of four have delved into the dark path"
"Which guild do they belong to?"
"None"
"None?"
That was weird, has news of his location been shared with others already or was it some random party that coincidently came upon this place
'No, shouldn't be any random passerby, we are using the place Mia had her class advancement in, even though we cleared it of danger now others should still be wary of entering'
Then it could only be someone who had been informed of his location through the guilds
"I do have an inkling to who they might be my King"
"That so?"
"If I recall correctly they are from a small guild called Dead Jokes, their leader is-"
"So its Joco and his lads who came to strike a bargain huh, that certainly makes more sense"
Others would be wary of him but not these fellows, they were dumb enough to be brave, and had a transaction with him before
"Allow them entry"
"Yes my King"
Disappearing into the shadows of this dark place Sofia went about shining a light in the darkness for the four to follow all the way to YuJu's place
"Whats up Ephai"
Woosh!
As soon as Joco came over with a smile a knife whistled past his face, sliding past his hard skin and almost cutting his wife who ducked just in time
"Well hello there Joco, did I perform your greetings correctly this time?"
"...Marvelous mister, but please keep your greetings to minimal enthusiasm next time"
He spoke as his wife nudged him in the ribs for coming up with that dumb greeting
"Will keep in mind, so, what are my first customers here for"
"Naturally it's for a bargain, we heard you were giving away free stuff so we came to take some!"
"...You misunderstand the word bargain here friend"
Denying the happy go lucky man a freebie Ephai decided to allow them a trade
"As your not on my list I cannot offer you the same deal as the top twenty, however if you have anything valuable then I just might be able to procure you good beasts"
"Ahh, well, I guessed as much, so I brought these along"
Smiling proudly Joco motioned for his wife who was carrying a large bag to empty its contents before him
"Since you liked it last time I brought a few with me, even hunted a ton which I stored in my base"
What he presented was the solidified bug Ephai had taken off their hands along that ball of flesh in exchange for weapons
"Uhh, just how many did you hunt?"
"Around a thousand, these creatures were really fast at multiplying for being so strong, took us a ton of time to gather them all"
"Oh, I see…."
"I was hoping to get weapons and armours for all my members, I don't know if you have enough but if you do then I'd love to even get spares, and then may we could trade for-"
"Actually"
Breaking Joco's demanding spree Ephai tried to put his words together in the least disheartening way
"I hate to break it to you but…I just wanted one for research value, these are all useless to e now"
"".....""
It wasn't just Joco who stiffened hearing this, his wife and the two old men who came along went stiff as well, so much so he thought they might have been petrified by something
"If you have anything else then I'd gladly trade for it"
Feeling that they put a lot of effort in he tried to smooth their transaction
"No, we sorta, only hunted these things, nothing else was kept even when we did kill others so we could store the bugs, even our members' rooms were used as storage for the stone bugs"
His speech seemed impeded at the moment, perhaps the mental shock was too large to cope with, in the end they could only leave, not even bothering to pick the bugs up
"...heh, hahaha"
Once they were far from him YuJu couldn't help but crack up, the stiff smile on their faces was just too entertaining, though he kind of felt sorry for them as well
"My King"
"Uhuh?"
Wiping away the tears from his excessive laughter he turned to Sofia who once more came in report of visitors
"One person, she is a member of Paradise Palace"
The news instantly wiped the smile off his face to replace it with a frown, what would they be doing here of all the guilds?
"She seems to be touching the mist slowly before going in, as if she's searching for something"
"Hmm, guide her here"
Sofia nodded and melded back into the shadows once more, guiding the careful woman all the way to him
"You were one of the last ones I expected to come looking for me"
He told the woman truthfully
"Is that so? Here we thought you would put us at the top of the list"
"?"
pαndα noνɐ1,сoМ The reply was puzzling but he couldn't dwell on it for she was getting closer, a bit too close to his liking
"Anything I could help you with?"
"We merely want to touch you, is that not to your liking?"
"Well, nothing to touch here, but it would be rude to get so physical when you're not even taking that veil off"
It was at this that she stopped moving, seemingly staring at him in thought
"If we let you see our face would you allow us to touch you?"
"Interesting offer, I agree"
Treating it as a trade Ephai got up, sliding toward her with seemingly nothing to hide
The woman was quick to place her hands on his body, only to go through it
"No physical body"
"Nope"
It seemed like that but in reality, YuJu merely used the same trick he used with that man who loved to raise the dead, walking out of the shadow he created while in stealth
"Then…"
The woman proceeded to coat her hand in light, nothing was illuminated in the smoke though, then in shadows, but nothing could be felt, from there she could be seen using every possible element to erupt a reaction out of the smoke, all to no avail
'Amazing as ever, their shared diversity is truly a remarkable thing'
No one knew how but all the members of Paradise Palace could use any element, any skill, and all had strong physics
'Their individual strength is weak though'
Perhaps they could use fireballs, and ice shots and earth spikes but the power is weaker than when a normal person with any of those skills uses them, the only downside to this seemingly impossible achievement
"That's about all the elements you could conjure?"
"Yes"
Whether that was the truth or not didn't matter, what he wanted from her was the fulfilment of her end of the deal
"Then I would love to see what lays behind that veil"
"You would be disappointed we fear"
She answered
"How so? If it's about your beauty then I care not for it"
His guess had her shaking her head, moving a hand to clutch the veil
'Would she truly show me her face?'
This was indeed a surprise, he expected her to go back on her words or something, especially since every time someone ripped the veil off their face they would instantly turn to ashes
'Would she also turn to ash or is her taking it off willingly different?'
There was one way to find out, and that was by watching her slowly lift the veil off
"You shall find in us what we found in you"
She said, tearing it away to reveal….
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