After Aster greeted him, Officer Helvetica smiled while tightening the leash on the captured men.
"Right, it's been a while. Thanks to you, we've been busy as hell this past week." He grumbled with a smile. "Rather, you saw me first before you picked a fight with these guys, didn't you?"
"That, I'd leave to your imagination."
But of course that was exactly the case. But, well, even without the officer's presence, he would most likely step in and save Cassy and Liz either way. It was truly a wondrous coincidence!
"But what are you doing here, Officer? Patrol?" Aster asked, a little curious.
To his question, the elf smiled and winked at him. "Ah, we received a report that a certain someone went here, so we came to tighten the security."
"... I see. Thank you for your hard work then."
"Right. It's really hard work, I tell you."
Anyway, after chatting for a bit more, Aster's party decided to leave the Class Exchange Hall and head out. Officer Helvetica would be busy with handling the captured men, after all.
Of course, there's no worry of them escaping. The men might be around level 100, based on their words, but Officer Helvetica was more than three times their level at least!
"And? What should we do now?"
It was Kali who raised this question.
If it was as usual, they would go to the dungeon and farm slimes. However, Aster was currently sealing his Magic Carved Seal and avoiding using it. As such, they couldn't really go with their original plan.
Aster, of course, already had it planned out.
"... You're right." Cassy nodded. "At the rate we're going, it would take a decade before we reach the 1,000th floor!"
Liz also agreed. "Fighting equal opponents would be better for enhancing our battle senses. And the higher the floor we go, the more powerful allies we could gain!"
"... Suit yourselves." Kali shrugged, seemingly showing disinterest.
As for Tina, she was still grabbing Aster's right arm with a bright smile on her face. "Of course, I would go wherever Darling goes! You're mine after all~!"
Aster scanned everyone's faces and also nodded firmly.
"Great. Then, let's head to the guild to claim the bounties before buying supplies for conquering the second floor!"
"Yeah!"
With a loud cheer, everyone moved toward the guild with a spring in their steps. It took them about a 50-minute walk to reach the guild from the Class Exchange Hall, however. The two places were just that far from each other.
As soon as they arrived, Aster showed the video he had taken of the heads with bounties on them. Although Zena's face became filled with concern for a moment, she didn't seem disgusted or anything by the video.
After a thorough series of interviews and checking the validity of the video, the guild gave the bounties to Aster's group. For some reason, the amount was more than his estimate, reaching a total of 50 million Tels!
'Did Magnus pull something?' Aster doubted.
Of course, nothing of the sort had happened. Based on the video, not only those who got their heads cut off, but most of those half-frozen also possessed bounties on their heads. Some even had higher bounties than their leader-like figure!
If Aster knew that he had been duped, then he would've been feeling a little angry at them. Well, he did trick them too, saying he'd release them, although their time left to live was already limited with their organs frozen. And in the end, he didn't even release them.
Both sides lied to each other, so they were even!