Chapter 20: Unexpected Reward (1)

Chapter 20: Unexpected Reward (1) Luke slowly opened his eyes and through his blurry vision, he saw a figure standing in front of him. "Finally, you’re awake!" "I lost consciousness again huh? How long was I out?" "Not that long! An hour. You used that technique, so it was inevitable!" "Haha! I’m still weak! I can’t even handle a single beast." Luke laughed in helplessness. "Thank you, Luke!" "Huh!?" Luke was surprised at Noah suddenly thanking him. "You saved my life today. I would have been lying there instead of the beast if not for you!" "I just paid you back! You saved me first. How can I let you die without paying you back!" Luke said with a smile. "But did I really kill it? I don’t remember anything after rushing at you!" "Who else if not you! I just froze there!" "Man! And you were saying you’re my teacher! Instead, you should be my student." "Don’t fly to the skies after hunting a single beast! I’ve been roaming these forests long before you even knew that it existed!" "Come on man! That was too much boasting! You’re from my grandfather’s generation or what! I should call you grandpa Noah then!" "Sure! Give this grandpa of yours a piggy back ride home. My bones have grown old. I can’t walk much now!" Noah imitated an old man’s voice as he hunched his back like an old man. Both of them burst out laughing, easing the tense mood. Luke yelled out in pain while laughing as his whole body was in pain from the limit break. "Take some rest. I’ll collect the materials till then." Noah passed the water bag from his waist to Luke, retrieved his shield and hammer into the locket and pulled out a knife from the other side and walked towards the beast’s corpse. He channeled mana into the knife and started removing the furry skin of the Screelowa. After he was done, he thrust the knife in the chest of the beast and pulled out a black mana stone from its heart and then cut the tail with the blade. He pulled a cloth and laid it on the ground, put the materials on it and tied it into a bag and carried it on his back. The color of the mana stones varied with the class of the beasts. The deadly class had red mana stone, which was the most common and available stone in the market. The killer class had a darker red, the nightmare had black, the disaster grey and the destruction class had emerald mana stones, which existed only two in the current world and no one had ever seen or heard about the color of the mana stone of an annihilation class beast. After half an hour of rest, Luke had recovered and they were ready to move. Noah carried the bag on his back and Luke followed behind him as they started moving back towards the city. Just when they were walking back, Noah stopped abruptly. Growling noises came from the front as a Screelowa came out of the darkness. It was not that huge like the previous one but big enough to be two meters in height and it has red fur in its body. "This one is the normal killer class." Noah said. "We dealt with its papa, why not teach this son a lesson too." Luke said in excitement. "Are you in the condition to fight?" "I was born to fight!" Luke said as he took position. Noah smirked and dropped the bag. He bit his thumb and smeared on the locket as his shield and Hammer appeared in his hands. "Just like last time. I take the hit and you deal the blow!" "Sounds easy!" "This bastard! Look at his confidence soar form a single hunt!" Noah laughed as he jibed at Luke. "Let’s go!" ***** Mia was filling out some documents in the reception when a bag was stomped on the desk along with a mission flyer. She yelled out in shock and moved her head up, furious. Noah was holding the bag and Luke was beside him, there was a wide smile on their faces and they were covered in blood and mud. Seeing their state all her anger vanished and replaced with surprise. "You...you two are already done with the mission?" "Obviously! Do you think we’ll take a week for such a simple mission?" Noah said. "Please confirm the materials and give us the payment." Luke hurried her, excited to receive his first income. She quickly untied the bag and looked through the materials. She was greeted with another shock as she found out the contents. "You...you’ve hunted a nightmare beast!?" She asked with wide eyes, shock apparent on her face. "The Screelowa we found first was an evolved one, so we hunted it. Can’t let something that valuable run off, you know?" Noah said with a proud face. "And since on the way back we found a killer class one, we took care of it too, as it was the mission requirement." Luke added. "I’ll have to consult with the customer who gave this mission, since the reward would be increased if he accepts the nightmare beast materials. And if he doesn’t, the guild will pay you the proper compensation." She said, still not recovered from the shock. "You can wait in the lobby for the time being till I contact the customer." "Alright!" Luke and Noah moved towards the lobby and took a seat, ready to wait for the customer. ’Who the hell are these two! I’ll have to report this to the guildmaster.’ She thought as she walked towards the backroom. After waiting for an hour, Mia came to the lobby and called both of them and guided them towards the second floor of the guild. After moving up through the stairs they reached the second floor and walked a few steps towards a private room. Mia opened the door for them as they entered inside. The room was small and there were only two arched sofas on both sides and a table in the middle. On the table was placed the materials that Luke and Noah brought and on one of the sofas was a dwarf. He was middle aged with long crimson hair and beard tied into a braid and had short pointy ears. He was sitting alone with a small hammer placed at his side on the sofa and was wearing a brown leather apron, and black ash marks were all over his face. "Let me introduce. These two are the young adventurers who hunted the nightmare Screelowa, and this is Mr. Holdok Strongholm, our customer!" "Holdok!?" Noah yelled out in shock.