Darius smiled with amusement. "Why wouldn't I? I trust the two of you wholeheartedly, so spill the beans, My Dear."
Xela nodded and showed her dimples. "Since I was looking for useful real estate, I went to the largest firm that deals with such things. They are called the Keen Group and belong to the Goddess of Wealth Waukeen, with branches all over Faust."
"While there, I discovered that the branch manager was also an elf, and a relatively young one at that." Xela added with a sketchy grin.
Darius smiled wryly. "Let me guess, he took a great interest in you and gave you many benefits in hopes to catch your eye?"
Xela pouted. "Wow Master, you absolutely ruined everything!"
Darius and Gunner laughed. Darius then turned to the large lad and asked. "So? How was everything on your side?"
Gunner clapped his hands. "Very straightforward. The 3 Warp Scrolls sold for 22,000, 21,000, 18,000 Dius respectively."
Darius displayed an expression of surprise. One should keep in mind that the valuation of the scrolls had been valued at 1,035 Dius by Kilobar's appraisal, with him estimating that they could fetch between 10,000 to 12,000 Dius on auction.
Those estimations were given in honesty, that Darius didn't doubt.
So it simply meant that the subjective value of these 'supreme' items had been far higher than they had expected. Or, alternatively, it could be said that today's patrons had been far wealthier than estimated.
As usual, Darius safely assumed that it was a mixture of the two.
"What about the Spark Potion and the Awakening Scroll?" Darius asked with curiosity. If the Warp Scrolls already exceeded their value by this much, what about the truly valuable items among them?
Gunner grinned. "They each sold for 500,000 Dius!"
Darius gasped in shock. Back then, the value given to the two of them after appraisal had been 70,800 Dius, with the auction estimate reaching 200,000 to 300,000 Dius. For the two to break the limit and reach half a million was truly unheard of.
Darius now had a firmer grasp of the value of his items, leading him to smile mysteriously. "It seems like our new territory will really be blessed with an unprecedented explosive growth…"
With top-tier resources, great dungeons, and a soon-to-be powerful currency, the new territory would rise like a rocket. Now, the only problem was whether Darius and his faction could ward off the external - and possibly internal - threats that would crop up.
For that, Darius already had a few ideas.
"Alright, let's head back to Fallon then." Darius ordered with a nod.
Before they could leave, Xela made a query. "Err, Master, what about the recommendation letter you received? Aren't you going to get verified by the Appraisers Guild?"
Darius shook his head. "At one point, I was interested in such a thing, but no more. How can I, the budding leader of new power, be content to be mere a newly minted Appraiser in another organization? I hardly know the rules there and I don't wish to risk the Guild here using my identity for their own purposes."
Darius turned and began walking towards the Portal Center which was only a stone throwaway. "If anything, we can build our own guild and raise its prestige. With my ability, creating skilled Appraisers superior to any other in Faust will be a matter of ease."
Understanding what he meant, Gunner and Xela smiled knowingly, also excited by the idea. If Darius could create elites of every occupation loyal to them, heh heh.
They would be unstoppable!
After going through the various processes, and just as he was about to enter the portal, Darius turned towards a certain direction and smiled with his eyes narrowed.
There, the assassin who had been sent to tail Darius felt a chill in his heart when he was looked at. Just being spotted by his quarry was not enough to scare him in any way, only made him more careful.
However, the moment he had locked eyes with the fellow, his yellowish pupils had shifted into serpentine slits, which had greatly freaked out the assassin. It wasn't just for the visual aspect, but a strange feeling he got while looking into those eyes.
Like a predator looking at prey… yes, that's what it felt like…
.........….
In the portal center of Favelia, the capital city of the Favelian Empire.
Darius and his group walked through and shook their heads with noticeable discomfort. Really, the construction of these portals was crude and flawed, leading users to feel great discomfort based on their own power.
It was very much subpar to Darius' own warp scrolls and teleportation skills which were made by Transmutation, which had no side effects.
Darius was also certain that any portal he made in his territory would be the best of the best as long as he Static Transmuted it.
The group walked away from the entrance of the portal and gazed at the familiar medieval style of Fallon that made them sigh with comfort. It was good to be in familiar lands.
"So, do we go straight home, or do we spend the night here, Master?" Xela inquired.
Darius smiled and threw a question back. "What do you want to do?"
Xela was surprised by this but quickly answered. "I want to stay here for a day or two and take a look around."
Darius turned to Gunner who nodded. He too was seemingly curious about his new environment now after being given some freedom in Elysium.
Darius wasn't opposed to this, as he didn't need his Branded Servants trailing him everywhere he went anyway. Especially once he brought Deia to his side, things would be awkward then.
"Alright then, let's find an inn to rest. Tomorrow, you two can do whatever you want while I will deal with the remainder of our Dius." Darius stated with a smile.
They then walked to the largest inn in the Capital City called the Favvy Queen's Abode, which was far larger than anything they had encountered so far. Then again, it made sense seeing as this was the capital city of a powerful empire, not a mere kingdom or a sector in a city.
