Chapter 70: Black Card

"..." Emilia watched Nero as he went inside the crystal. She looked at Sophia with a confused and concerned look on her face.

"Guess it wasn't gone," Sophia commented.

"Where did he go?" Emilia asked.

"I am here," Nero patted on Emilia's shoulder from behind.

Emilia jolted and turned around, then sighed in relief, "You scared me there."

Sophia squinted her eyes and stared at Nero with a puzzled expression on her face, "I thought you would be angry, but… you look happy. May I ask why?"

"Well, I got us some leads, and I now know where exactly we have to go," Nero said with a grin on his face.

"What do you mean?" Sophia asked curiously.

"We are heading east now, and—" Nero's gaze fell behind Sophia— on Elise.

After noticing Nero's gaze, Sophia also turned around and saw Elise. Sophia glanced back and forth at Nero and Elise.

"You saw everything?" Sophia asked with a tense look on her face.

Elise nodded as sweat started pouring down her forehead.

Sophia glared at Nero with her eyes full of anger, "Nice."

Nero shrugged his shoulders and walked towards Elise, "Pretend you never saw that, okay?"

Elise nodded and hid behind Emilia.

Although Nero was in his human form when he came out of the crystal, Elise caught a glimpse of Nero entering and leaving the crystal. She had also seen Nero with black and red eyes at the time of Laira's death, but she was too sad to care about anything at that time.

The crowd eventually scattered, and everyone went back to where they were. The man and the woman came back to the counter and sat on their chairs.

"Is there anything else you would want to issue?" the woman asked.

"Actually, there is." Nero tapped the counter with his hands and grabbed Elise's hand.

Nero dragged Elise out of the guildhall and took her into an empty alley nearby.

Elise glanced at Nero with an anxious look on her face, "Are you going to kill me?"

"Don't worry," Nero glanced around the alley and found an empty bag of cloth.

He picked up the bag and handed it to Elise, "Can you hold it for me?"

Elise nodded and held the bag from the open edges.

"Yes, just like that. Keep it open, okay?" Nero clapped and rubbed his palms against each other. He then made a small gap between his palms and lowered his hand towards the bag Elise was holding.

A moment later, a crystal dropped from the gap between Nero's palms. Then another and another. Crystals kept falling in the bag one by one as if leaves were dropping from a tree.

Soon, the entire bag was filled with crystals.

Nero looked at the bag and nodded, "This much should be enough." He looked at Elise and asked, "What do you think?"

"I have so many questions I want to ask— but yeah, this much is enough for whatever you are planning to do," Elise affirmed.

"Alright," Nero grabbed the bag from Elise's hand and turned to the way of the guildhall, "Let's go."

Elise followed him to the guildhall.

When they reached the guildhall, Sophia, Emilia, and Nero's universal guild cards were already created.

Emilia and Sophia had the same type of cards with their current appearance painted on them. But Nero's card was different.

It was all black, and the letters were of golden, white, and red colors. And his picture had a 3D effect on it, which changed when the card was tilted.

Even the man and the woman were bewildered by it.

"This has never happened before. It must be because of some issue in the device since there haven't been any adventurers higher than S rank. Only the legendary hero from five thousand years ago was an S+ rank adventurer," the woman declared.

'No, no. There is no issue. This is all that cat's doing,' Nero sighed.

"Anyway," Nero placed the bag of crystals on the counter and said, "I expect more than I am hoping."

The man looked inside the bag and closed it immediately. Confused, the woman glanced inside the bag, and she reacted the same way as the man.

They looked at Nero and gulped down, "Please wait here."

The man grabbed the bag and went into the room that looked like an administrator's office.

"May I ask why he took the bag there?" Nero questioned.

"We need to check if the crystals are real or not," the woman replied.

Nero raised his brows and asked, "There are fake crystals too?"

"Yes," the woman nodded and continued, "There are also crystals depending on their affinity, and they are further divided by grades."

'So crystals are now considered and have the same value as diamonds now?' Nero wondered as he glanced at the administrator's office.

After about 10 minutes, the man came out with an elderly man who had a long white beard and looked to be in his late seventies.

The elderly man stopped in front of Nero and stroked his beard, "Is this the gentleman?" he asked.

"Yes, he is the one, and he is an S+ rank," the man replied.

"I see," After stroking his beard three times, the elderly man turned to the woman on the counter and nodded.

The woman nodded back and tapped her finger on the counter to get Nero's attention. "Can I have your guild card, please?"

Nero gave her his guild card and watched as the woman took out a weird device from under the counter and placed it on top of the counter. She put Nero's card on top of it and started entering digits.

After about 3 minutes, the woman gave Nero his card and asserted, "Your crystals were mythical grade with affinity— pure dwlrini. And the exchange was 239,628 gold coins.

'Just for a bag of crystals?' Before Nero was sealed, the crystals were so abundant that they were used as ornaments to wear. While the worth of gold was quite similar to what it is now.

Nero was apparently a walking goldmine, who could produce infinite crystals and become the most wealthy person in the world.