Chapter 70: Dea Saint
In Orario, all the magic stones brought out from the dungeon have to be exchanged for money at the Guild.
The Guild, being the manager of the city, directly monopolized the production of magic stones from the source. They processed these magic stones into products and sold them around the world, earning a huge amount of money for themselves and the city.
Therefore, magic stones could only be exchanged for money at the Guild and could not be sold elsewhere, or else the Guild would crack down on it.
But drop items were a different story.
Drop items could be used as materials for creating weapons, armor, and even medicine. Though they could also be exchanged for money at the Guild, the price was fixed, the lowest in the market.
While the Guild monopolized magic stones, it didn't control the buying and selling of drop items. In many familias, exchanging magic stones at the Guild made sense, but selling drop items was more profitable in business-type familias.
Especially for those confident in their negotiation abilities, bargaining with business-type familias for precious drop items was not impossible. However, selling them on your own might lead to being tricked.
Many beginner adventurers fell into this trap, hoping for a high price but ending up being scammed and potentially losing money.
Of course, this risk was unlikely for the well-known and prestigious familias. After all, no one would want to offend a big and powerful familia, especially those capable of retrieving valuable resources from the deep floors of the dungeon.
Many merchants, shops, and business-type familias feared upsetting them and being blacklisted, which was a significant loss for those in need of deep floors resources to create high-rank weapons, armor, medicine, or items.
In this situation, Loki Familia, as one of the strongest and largest exploration-type familias, didn't need to worry about being deceived. Aside from higher-ups like Finn exchanging magic stones for money at the Guild, other members could confidently form small groups or operate independently.
Riezel's group had also arrived at the northwest street, walking down the adventurer street toward their destination—Dian Cecht Familia.
"A familia specializing in medicinal stuff, huh?" Riezel mumbled in thought.
"Yes." Lefiya, for once not gripping her staff, walked beside him and explained softly. "Dian Cecht Familia is a familia focused on healing and medicinal areas. Their main activities include selling potions they've developed and providing professional healing services and special items to the public."
This familia had quite a reputation in Orario.
Not only did they sell advanced medicines and items not found in other stores or familias, but they also offered superior healing services than the Guild's healing facilities. They were highly praised by adventurers.
Many adventurers with injuries that couldn't be healed even with elixirs have received treatment at Dian Cecht Familia, and most have fully recovered. Some even had their sight restored, while others with severe injuries installed prosthetics in this familia, enabling them to lead normal lives without hindrance.
Therefore, despite Dian Cecht Familia's high prices for goods and services, making it unaffordable for many adventurers, it remained a shop worth frequenting for familias with above-average financial resources and wealth.
"This time, our commission to collect water from Cadmus's Spring on the 51st Floor is coming from Dian Cecht Familia..." Tione complained. "They dumped this annoying commission on us. I'm totally gonna chat with Airmid about it."
"Don't go causing trouble, Tione." Tiona said casually while pursing her lips. "Airmid is a good girl; it's definitely her shady god who came up with this idea. If you offend her, be careful she denies you her healing services next time."
"I'm not in a condition where I need Airmid's healing..." Tione paused slightly. "But you're right... If you anger Dea Saint, even Captain will have a headache. For Captain's sake, I'll endure."
"Whatever." Tiona stuck out her tongue at her sister. "What a love-struck fool, Finn clearly doesn't want anything to do with you."
"Who said that?!" Tione shouted as if hit in a sore spot. "Captain clearly loves me!"
"Meh."
Tiona immediately distanced herself from her, making Tione frustrated.
Ais and Lefiya watched the amazoness twins playfully quarreling, one with a confused expression and the other awkwardly smiling, following them from behind as they continued forward.
Only Riezel squinted his eyes as he heard their conversation.
'Dea Saint, huh...'
He remembered.
Airmid looked at him with doubt, prompting Tione to answer.
"This is our monster rookie who recently joined our familia."
Her words made Airmid blink in realization.
"I see..." Airmid observed him for a moment, then nodded. "You must be Mr. Riezel Brynhart, right?"
"You know me?" Riezel raised an eyebrow.
"You must be joking..." Airmid smiled slightly. "In the present-day Orario, those who don't know you are the minority."
After all, he was the rookie who had climbed from Level 1 to Level 5 in just over three months, causing quite a lot of controversy.
The evidence was clear as adventurers around, upon hearing their conversation, immediately cast their eyes toward Riezel.
"Is he Riezel Brynhart?"
"Trickster Swordsman, huh?"
"The monster rookie of Loki Familia..."
Adventurers with clearly high levels cast scrutinizing glances at Riezel one after another.
Riezel paid no attention to those looks, only smiled at Airmid and stopped speaking. Although she was somewhat curious about him, she didn't show it.
"Are you all here today for the adventurer commission?" Airmid intended to get down to business.
"Yep." Tione replied. "We brought the water from Cadmus's Spring. Can you confirm it?"
After saying that, she took off the backpack she had been carrying and pulled out bottles of spring water.
It was the water Finn's party had collected.
During the spring water collection, Riezel's party sensed trouble ahead of time and opted not to complete the task. Instead, they left Cadmus's Spring as soon as possible, almost causing the commission to fail.
Fortunately, Finn's party collected the spring water, and it seemed to be enough for the commission.
Airmid picked up the water bottles one by one and confirmed them.
"This is indeed the water from Cadmus's Spring, and the quantity is satisfactory." Airmid said with a smile. "Thank you for your hard work. I have the reward prepared for you."
She took out a medicine box from under the counter, and inside the box were bottles of potions.
"Elixir?" Riezel recognized these potions.
"Yes." Airmid nodded. "According to the agreement, the reward for completing this adventurer commission is twenty doses of the highest quality elixir."
One dose of the highest quality elixir was worth 500,000 valis. Twenty doses meant a whopping 10 million valis.
'We're making quite a bit on this one, huh?'
Riezel suddenly remembered the amount of water in Cadmus's Spring. If only he had taken all that water with him.
Unfortunately, there was no 'if' in this world.