After staying in the hospital overnight for observation, the doctors discharged Aug the next morning. He had a concussion and required three stitches in his leg, but the rest of his injuries were superficial.
Mid-morning, before he returned home, he had to meet with the guild to report on the aftermath of the dungeon and submit the map. The guild had told him none of the other members were answering their phones, and he was the only one to pick up.
The city's party had reported what he had said to the guild, but they wanted him to tell them firsthand.
When he arrived at the guild, an attendant directed him to an office. Here, a woman, maybe in her thirties, with long, vivid red hair, the colour of strawberries, sat behind a desk. She was wearing a grey fitted suit with a white blouse underneath and had a gold watch on her arm. On her desk was a plaque [Guild Master - Mystica City] and below was her name [Lacy Temple].
As he entered the room, she looked up from her paperwork and greeted him.
"Augustus, I assume. Welcome, I have been expecting you. Please sit," she said, gesturing at a chair.
"Hello, yes," replied Aug.
Lacy was a well-known figure in Mystica, as she had made the position of guild leader at a very early age. She had also been part of the city's employed adventurers since she was eighteen, an unusual feat.
She had made it this far, so early, because her ambition and drive were legendary, and her skills were even greater.
Aug sat down opposite Lacy, who put down her pen and looked at him with her burning hazel eyes. She had a stare that would intimidate most, making it hard to look her in the eye for too long.
"Let's get straight to it. Please tell me what happened from the beginning. Do not spare any details. I will be recording what you say, so please refrain from using colourful language or speculation,"
She then pressed a button on a recorder on her desk before speaking once more. "You may begin."
Aug then recounted the whole incident. While he spoke, Lacy remained silent. Once he concluded, she then asked quite a few questions on details she didn't understand and then stopped the recorder with a click.
There was a silence for a moment as she let it sink in.
There had been only a few questions about Duke. But as they hadn't found a body yet, it was hard to confirm if he was actually dead. So, for the time being, they had declared him MIA.
"Do you have the map on you?" asked Lacy, to which Aug took it from his inventory and passed it to her.
"Good, good. So, according to your statement, we will have to map this again as there are new tunnels to the ant's nest. However, since you were the only one who reported back and technically finished your mission, we will pay you in full."
She handed him a note to the teller, asking them to pay him out, followed by her signature.
"Thank you," said Aug, smiling at Lacy. Aug got up, assuming they were done, and went to leave.
"Augustus, one more thing," said Lacy as he stood up and turned to leave.
Aug turned around to look at Lacy, and her posture had changed to a more casual one.
"You omitted one detail," she said, resting her elbows on the table and interlocking her fingers.
"Sorry, did I?" asked Aug, unsure what she was referring to.
"How did you get those six kobold corpses into your inventory?" She asked, an inquisitive smile on her face and a look of ambition in her eyes.
"How did you know that?"
"If I tell you how I did it, will you answer me honestly?" She replied, leaning back in her chair.
"Yeah, I suppose," replied Aug reluctantly, knowing if he declined he would be at a disadvantage the next time they met.
"I can tell what's in a person's inventory if they use it. And you?"
Aug noted to himself not to use his inventory around her again.
"It's my class, [Corpse Collector]. It allows me to pick up corpses and convert them into items."
Lacy paused, leaning forward in her chair once more, her face changing to one of focus. She then grabbed a file and opened it. After reading it for a moment, she closed it and looked Aug in the eyes once more.
Could you show me how you convert corpses into items? She said, her smile changing back to an ambitious one.
"Yes, but it's best we don't do it in a clean room like this," said Aug, laughing slightly.
"That's fine, come with me."
Lacy got up and walked to the door through which he had entered. She was tall for a woman and was wearing black high heels, making her head reach just below his chin. She would be an imposing figure for someone of lesser stature than Aug, further amplifying her intimidating presence.
She led him out into the lobby, down another hallway, and all the way to the back where they emerged into an arena of steel and glass. The room was quite large and had a flat central area, with steps made of steel stepping upwards as viewing platforms.
"Cleaning this arena is easy. So make a mess if required."
"Alright," Aug replied, taking a few more steps into the arena to avoid dirtying Lacy's clean clothing.
Since Aug had already planned to process the larger goblin and now had adequate mana, he took it from his inventory.
He had earned about thirty percent experience in [Deep Rock]. Now, being just over halfway to level five, he contemplated for a moment the experience points the goblin processing would yield.
Aug removed the goblin from his inventory, and a terrible smell instantly permeated the room, causing Lacy to take a step back. The goblin slopped onto the floor, its pea-sized brain hanging out through its eye socket from the middle of its caved-in face. Blood leaked from its head, creating a crimson pool on the arena floor.
Aug scanned the larger goblin again.
[Corpse scan complete]
[[Tier 0 - Goblin - N8F]
[8 normal items, and 1 uncommon item obtainable from processing. Would you like to proceed?]
As he read the report, Lacy stepped forward once more and looked as if she were reading it too. Could she read any personal screens?
"You can read that too?" asked Aug, looking at Lacy.
"You caught me," she said, bowing her head slightly, as if apologising.
Aug accepted the prompt, all his mana drained, and nine items appeared before him. The items included ones Aug had received before, like a bone pile, hide, rags, grabby arm, pickled heart and arm weapons, but he also got three new items.
[Vial of goblin blood - Reagent - Smells similar to smelling salts.]
[Dried goblin intestines - Tool - Don't worry, they are empty.]
And finally, the uncommon item:
[Large goblin sword - Bigger and sharper than you expected.]
Aug also levelled up. It was a surprising amount of experience from one instance of corpse processing. But there were a lot of items, and one of them was uncommon.
After squatting to inspect an item, Lacy put it back and stood up.
"Are you interested in a job?" She asked, her face smiling with ambition again.