Shang left the northwestern forest with his three Javelin beaks. Sure enough, Chuck's hint had led Shang to a Javelin with a greenish-blue beak.
In comparison to the first two Javelins, the beak of the third one had taken Shang two hits to break. Obviously, the greenish-blue beaks were way harder than the green beaks.
But that also meant that Shang had essentially created an empowered Javelin. In a couple of weeks, it would join the Wasteland and help keep the Wasteland in check.
As a Soldier Stage warrior, Shang was helping the General Stage hunters. Sure enough, even the weak people could contribute a lot to society.
By now, it was late evening, and night would soon arrive. The sun was already starting to dip below the horizon.
After Shang left the forest, he charged back towards Warrior's Paradise.
At the moment, Shang's headache was forgotten, and the bloodied face had also not appeared as frequently anymore.
Why was that?
Because Shang was excited.
He was finally done!
He had finally earned enough money to upgrade his sword!
After some time, Shang arrived at the city a couple of minutes before the main gate closed.
Night had already arrived. Luckily, the Hunting Guild was always open.
Shang immediately entered the Hunting Guild and saw an open counter with a young man sitting behind it. In comparison to the receptionist Shang had met during noon, this one seemed to only laze around.
He seemed quite bored.
Shang walked over to the counter and put his beast sack on the counter.
"Emblem first," the receptionist said with a bored tone.
Shang put his emblem on the table, and after a quick burst of light, the man gestured to the beast sack. "There should be three in there."
For an instant, Shang was surprised that the receptionist knew how many beaks he had in the beast sack, but a second later, Shang remembered the stamp he had put on every Javelin.
The receptionist had probably just checked that data.
Shang opened his beast sack and pulled out the three beaks.
The receptionist looked at them for a bit and nodded. "Well cut," he said. "Quality is good enough. Well done."
"Thanks," Shang answered.
The three beaks vanished, and four sacks of gold appeared on the table, one big one, two medium ones, and one small one.
"500 plus 100 plus 100 plus 50 gold. There you go," the receptionist said.
Shang nodded. "Thanks."
However, before Shang left the Hunting Guild, he stopped.
"By the way, I found a Spire Mire hunting in the southern part of the northwestern forest. Not sure if you need to know that," Shang said.
"What?" the receptionist asked with furrowed brows. "Spire Mire? What's that?"
Shang remembered that the official name was different. Chuck McGuiness had said that only his people called them Spire Mires. "Stalker Lion," Shang said.
Surprisingly, the receptionist only continued looking at Shang with bored confusion. "And that's supposed to be what?"
Now Shang was the surprised one. "A General Stage beast. It's rather big and hunts by creating a spire of valuable ore. When a beast approaches the spire, it closes its mouth."
"Yeah, we don't have such a beast," the receptionist said.
Shang was taken aback. "What do you mean you don't? I saw one."
"Did you? What did you see?" the receptionist asked.
"Well, I saw a spire made of ore jutting out of the earth. It was about half a meter high."
"That sounds more like an Ore Toe to me," the receptionist said.
"Ore Toe?" Shang asked.
"Yeah. Beasts give off a lot of Elemental Mana, and over a long period of time, Elemental Mana gathers in the ground and forms valuable ore. If the Mana condenses by too much, the ore explodes out of the ground in the form of a small spire. We call them Ore Toes," the receptionist explained.
"Based on what you said, I estimate that it most likely was Peak Soldier Grade ore and about 20 units of it. That should be about 500 gold for you."
"So, where did this Spire Mire thing come from?"
Shang's face looked like he had just swallowed a fly.
"A hunter named Chuck McGuiness told me that this thing was a Spire Mire," Shang said slowly.
Then, the receptionist began to laugh. "Oh, good old Chuck."
Shang didn't laugh with the receptionist.
He had just lost 500 gold.
Several seconds passed in which Shang only looked at the laughing receptionist.
"Oh, Chuck," the receptionist said after being done with laughing. "Come on, it's funny."
"How is it funny?" Shang asked with annoyance.
"He convinced you that there was a beast called Spire Mire. Like, what even is that name? Who calls a beast that? It sounds like the worst made-up name possible. It's like there's a suspicious branch, and I tell you that it's a dangerous beast called Branch Kranch."
"Also, a General Stage beast hunting in the Wild Forest?" the receptionist said as he began laughing again. "Why would a General Stage beast even hunt there? They only go there to give birth to their young. Why would it go through the trouble to wait for prey in the Wild Forest? Soldier Stage beasts are, at best, a snack for it. They don't even contribute to it becoming more powerful."
"Additionally, have you actually seen Chuck? Does he look like someone that you should believe? He's about the shadiest hunter we have."
As the receptionist began to laugh again, Shang grabbed his sacks of gold and left the Hunting Guild.
Shang slowly walked along the emptying streets with a deep frown on his face.
'A fucking Spire Mire.'
'How the fuck did I fall for that?'
'A General Stage beast hunting in the Wild Forest?'
'500 fucking gold!'
'That asshole scammed me out of 500 gold!'
'I should have known! I sensed no danger, and there have been several red flags.'
'How the fuck did I not notice any of these signs?!'
And just like that, Shang's good mood was gone again.
He had returned to Warrior's Paradise in a great mood, but now, he felt frustrated and embarrassed.
Shang jumped over the closed gate of the academy. Teacher Loran, who was guarding the academy during the night, didn't even say anything to Shang.
Shang walked to the main building and entered his room. No one had stopped him on his way to his room. There had been a couple of students walking around, but they got out of Shang's way.
Shang put his sacks of gold to the side and sat down on his bed.
Silence.
For a long while, Shang only silently sat on his bed without saying anything.
A lot of things were going through his head.
He wanted to upgrade his sword, but the merchants would only be back at noon the next day.
There were also no lessons during the night.
And lastly, Shang thought about the many mistakes he had made today.
He hadn't noticed the Life Scarab, even though he should have seen it coming.
Shang had been mindlessly hunting for Pest Cats for an entire hour.
Shang fell for a scam.
'None of these things should have happened.'
'I'm usually much more observant of my surroundings, but today was horrible.'
Shang's headache worsened.
Then, Shang looked at his bed.
'Should I sleep?'
The more Shang pondered the question, the more nervous he got.
He didn't want to sleep.
