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Chapter 75: Goddess's Gold
"You guys… really are a handful."
Looking at their repentant expressions, Eina scolded them for a while longer before her heart finally softened. She sighed, "Forget it, as long as you're all safe. Wait here, I'll go fetch the commission forms."
With that, she turned and hurried toward the archive room behind the counter.
She quickly returned with a thick stack of parchment forms, each stamped with the crest of a different Familia.
"These are the Familias who have officially registered their intent to purchase Domain Instance intel at a high price," she said, placing the stack on the desk. "You can choose whichever one you like. Once you've decided, I'll handle the paperwork. After the commission is complete, the reward will be wired directly to your Familia's account."
Aiden took the stack and flipped through them one by one.
Most Familias were offering around 200,000 Valis. For merely reporting an entrance location, it was already a massively lucrative payday.
He spotted the Ganesha Familia's crest; they were offering 250,000 Valis.
He saw the Ishtar Familia's crest; they were offering 300,000 Valis.
His fingers flipped rapidly as his eyes scanned past familiar names.
Suddenly, his hand stopped.
His gaze locked onto a specific commission form. The contents made his breath catch in his throat.
[Freya Familia]
[Commission: Purchase of Domain Instance Intel.]
[Reward: 1,000,000 Valis.]
One million!
The sheer number made Aiden physically lean back.
This was the style of Orario's reigning monarchs, the Freya Familia. They couldn't care less about haggling over petty change; they simply crushed all competition with overwhelming financial dominance.
Aiden didn't hesitate for a second.
Smack!
He decisively slapped the Freya Familia's commission form onto the counter.
"This one."
One million Valis handed to him on a silver platter? He'd be an idiot to refuse.
"I knew it…" Eina pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation as she looked at the form, but she quickly began processing the paperwork anyway.
Not long after the paperwork was finalized, a commotion broke out near the Guild's entrance.
The crowd instinctively parted, making way for a squad of uniformly armored, terrifyingly imposing adventurers marching in perfect synchronization. Leading the squad, however, was a young woman who looked completely out of place amidst their killer intent.
"Ugh… why do I have to be the one doing this…?" the girl complained, yawning loudly.
She sported long pink hair tied into twin tails. Her red eyes looked entirely lifeless, completely dead and unmotivated. Slouching with a lazy, lackadaisical posture, it was incredibly difficult to associate her with the elite squad marching behind her.
She scanned the room, her gaze eventually settling on Aiden's group.
Ambling over, she lazily looked Aiden up and down before speaking. "You're the ones who found the Domain? Lead the way. Hope you aren't wasting my time."
"Goddess's Gold…" Aiden instantly recognized her. He put on a polite smile.
"Oh? You know me? You don't look like a rookie. Which Familia are you from?" Heith tilted her head, a flicker of movement returning to her dead fish eyes as she took a mild interest in him.
"The Focalors Familia. I'm Aiden. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Heith."
"Focalors… Never heard of it." Heith pondered for a moment, drawing a complete blank on the name, before casually waving it off. "Whatever. Let's go. Don't waste time. I really don't want to get there late and find out someone else snagged it. You wouldn't want to lose your payout either, right?"
She wasn't exaggerating.
While the Guild had laid down the law, their actual ability to enforce it inside the boundless Dungeon was practically nonexistent. It was entirely possible for an unaffiliated party to stumble onto the Domain right after it was reported. Unless the informant moved fast or left someone to guard the entrance, anything could happen.
In short, the new policy was riddled with loopholes, but the Guild simply didn't have a better solution on such short notice. Adventurers were inherently difficult to control.
"Robin, you guys head back first," Aiden told his companions. He then stepped forward and nodded to Heith. "I'll lead the way."
Robin nodded, leading Tifa and Hyacine out of the Guild through another exit.
Along the way, Aiden walked silently in the lead, while the Freya Familia members surrounded him in a textbook escort formation. Their breathing was steady, their gazes sharp. Whenever a monster spawned from the walls or ceiling, the outer ring of the squad dispatched it with brutal efficiency before Heith even had to issue an order.
Whether it was Goblins, Imps, or Hilichurls, nothing survived a single strike.
However, as they ventured deeper, Heith's brows began to furrow.
"Strange…" she muttered to herself.
When the new monster variants had first started appearing, the Freya Familia had dispatched investigation squads into the Dungeon, and Heith had been part of them. Because of that, she clearly noticed that the frequency of new monsters they were encountering on this trip was absurdly high.
Walking beside her, Aiden heard her quiet observation. He kept his face perfectly neutral, but internally, he was cursing himself.
Why else? Because you're walking next to a mobile monster spawner! He kicked himself for his oversight. If he had known, he wouldn't have been so greedy for the money.
One million Valis was tempting, but the risk of exposing his Unique Skill was infinitely greater.
Before they had even reached the Middle Floors, they ran into several Kairagi: Fiery Might—samurai monsters wielding flaming twin blades—in the Upper Floor zones.
Upon reaching the Twelfth Floor, a three-meter-tall Blazing Axe Mitachurl wielding a flaming greataxe roared and blocked their path. While it wasn't quite on the level of the Lv.3 variants found inside the Domains, it was just as strong as the one Aiden had fought previously.
"Well, isn't this... getting interesting."
Heith watched as her Lv.2 subordinates surrounded and slaughtered the Mitachurl. She suddenly turned her head to Aiden, a distinct smile appearing in her dead fish eyes for the first time.
"Your name is Aiden, right? I'll remember that."
"Er… I'm honored," Aiden replied, the corners of his mouth twitching as he forced a smile.
"You're pretty cute. Want to join our Familia? I could recommend you to the Goddess personally, you know," Heith said in an entirely flat tone, casually brushing a lock of pink hair over her shoulder.
"I'll have to pass on that. I'm perfectly happy with my current Familia," Aiden shrugged, rejecting the offer without skipping a beat.
"Is that so? Pity," Heith said, dropping the subject as casually as she had brought it up.
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