Chapter 158 - Return

"Master… What happened to your face? About your left eye, is it still working?"

Magenta asked as soon as they reappeared inside Crystal's room.

Apparently, on the left side of his face, there is still some burnt mark left and his eye was burnt as well. Even after consuming the Lesser Healing Potion, his eyesight did not return at all.

"Ugh… It's that Lava Beast's fault. It's too strong. I probably need a Rank-A Healing Magic or Grade 4 Magic Potion."

Cyril said as he touched his left face. Recalling that he finally returned to the human world, he quickly finds a mirror to his face.

"…"

He was stunned looking at his burned face. Cyril sighed and immediately Xagan for the price to heal his face.

"Contractor, healing back your face should only be worth 371 days."

Xagan replied instantly as if he's been waiting for such a question. He had also revealed his projection and sat on a table nearby.

As for Magenta, she already left the room and gone to watch the garden outside.

"Three hundred seventy-one?! Isn't that too expensive?! That's over a year!" Cyril's shock was genuine. He thought that it would at most cost a hundred days considering his previous requests.

"Well, healing isn't my specialty, Contractor. If you ordered me to burn someone's face, it wouldn't be expensive though. Hehe… Anyway, that Lava Beast used some kind of energy to blind your eyes. Normal healing magic or potion wouldn't fix your face."

"Ugh…"

Cyril realized that Xagan is not joking with him and wanted to curse.

He can accept the deal and have over a year removed in his life span but it's too much of a price to pay. He still has to deal with a lot of things after all.

"Hmm… How about just fixing my skin, not my eyesight. How much was it?"

"That'll be 71 days, Contractor." Xagan replied.

"Ugh… Let's hold off this deal for now."

Cyril sighed as he looked for an alternative.

"This… I guess I'll need a mask, huh. Wait, the identity shroud mask should be fine."

Cyril then took out his Mask and fitted it on his face.

He didn't activate the magic it has so it's only a white mask covering his face.

It doesn't look that good as he expected.

"Hmm… It doesn't feel right. I probably need to have someone make me a mask."

Cyril immediately thought of the Old Crafter to make him a half-face mask. He wasn't too worried about his blindness because he knows that there will be higher grade potions available soon. So he stopped himself from using his life as a trade to recover his eyesight.

Though he will experience some inconvenience, it wouldn't really be that big since he already had a full grasp of his Aura and aside from that, his Conqueror Staff's Domain ability will become his best eye!

'Anyway, I need a rest… I'll probably greet Aunt Bonnie later.'

Cyril thought as he went to his room and slept… for two whole days!

***

During the past two days, Bonnie already realized that Cyril was resting in his room. It's because she saw the black lurking around the house.

She was, of course, surprised that Cyril took such a long sleep but she didn't panic. She only thought that he's too exhausted and she busied herself with developing new and improved healing potions.

Although Cyril named some healing ingredients for her that can be used, mixing them up to create a new potion is still difficult for her. She can only slowly do it until she finds the right combinations.

"Hmm… I wonder what happened in that Arcane World."

Bonnie sighed as she recalled Cyril's face when she visited his room to check his condition. She knows that Cyril is carrying lesser healing potions with him. If they didn't heal his injuries, it only means that the injury was done by a powerful being. He'll surely need a better potion to cure that.

This increased the pressure on her even more so she didn't notice that Cyril has already woken up.

On the other hand, Cyril had realized how much time he had slept and was bombarded by many notifications on his phone.

He had missed calls and text messages from Naomi, Jenny, Vanessa, Myrtle, and Valerie…

"Ugh…"

Cyril realized that all his close friends are females which is completely different from his other life where he only befriended his fellow Transporters.

'Oh… There's a single message from Director Eduard.' Cyril thought after seeing the Aeson Company's director's number.

Anyway, Cyril decided to check Jenny's message first.

He thought that she would already forget about him after he left that diner on that day. However, it seems that she really thinks of him as a friend.

"Hmm… Scholarship, huh… Good luck, then."

Cyril muttered seeing that Jenny is informing him about the scholarship she got. Anyway, she's only an F-Rank Awakened so she truly needs to go to college to find a decent job. After replying quickly, she opened Naomi's message.

"A trouble in the Martial Arts Hall?"

Naomi's family owns the only gym in that town and she has many friends within the Martial Arts Hall nearby. So anything that happens within that Hall can be easily learned by her family.

Apparently, there are already six martial arts practitioners from that Hall who died at night after their training.

"It's even a murder case. I wonder who's killing them now. I didn't hear anything about this before. Is it because of my actions? Ugh."

Cyril frowned as he had no idea that something like this will actually happen. Perhaps it was solved by the police in a while or it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

"I'll take a look at it…" Cyril decided to visit the town in a while. He may not be an expert in finding criminals, but he might be able to find some clues in case he recalled some serial killers that he learned in his past life.

He continued checking the other's messages.

Vanessa and Valerie wanted to get him to work. It appears that it is getting difficult to find the Bead Artifacts in these past few days. In a single mid-class Arcane World, there's no longer any chance of finding a Bead Artifact at all. As for the high-class Arcane World, there's only a 40% chance, and even if they find one, there are only 2 or 3 pieces of them.

It is completely different from before.

Since he has the record of finding the most bead artifacts in a single exploration, he was the first person that came to their mind to ask for help.

However, this is not a matter of getting a high difficulty. The bead artifact event is already ending so they are harder to find now!

'Ugh, it's not like I can say that. They'll probably not believe me if I said that they will no longer find any more bead artifacts.'

Cyril can only shake his head as there's really nothing he can do about that.

These bead artifacts can't be harvested forever after all.

He then checked Director Eduard's message and learned that the Forest Elves are requesting to meet him.

It's been a while since he visited that place but he didn't really have any purpose for going there as well so he has forgotten about it.

"Well, trading with their Elven Gears shouldn't be that bad. Now that they gained a lot of resources from the Aeson Company, they should've created some decent weapons by now, right?"

With all his plans arranged, he first went to the abandoned temple where the Old Crafter is at.

In the meantime, he covered his face with a hood and a sunglass before borrowing his aunt's car. He's not comfortable traveling in public with his new look.

"Oh? What happened to your face, young man?" The old man asked as soon as he saw Cyril's face. He almost didn't recognize him since he looks suspicious as well.

"It's a long story…"

Cyril chuckled as he started explaining his purpose for coming here.

After the old crafter took the size of his face and confirmed the materials he'll use, Cyril gave his full payment in advance. Well, the old crafter needed some budget for that Mask Artifact he's requesting after all.

He wanted to go all out in this Artifact so even after his eye gets healed in the future, he could still use the mask as a piece of magical equipment.

After finishing his deal with the old man, he continued his way to Reim Town.

His Aunt Bonnie, has many friends there and for sure, she'll be sad if she learned that there is a serial killer roaming that town.

'I can only hope that this is not a huge matter.' Cyril mused as he drives his Aunt's car. He still needs more than three hours of driving before he can get there.

However, as he was peacefully driving, he was unaware that another murder occurred within the town!