Chapter 16: Compensation

Chapter 16: Compensation

The young man looked at Alex as if he was stupid.

'Which idiot would try to swindle the adventurer association in such a stupid way?'

Alex was amused when he heard the words of the young man though. He felt a sense of pride in his accomplishment and the reaction of the young man only proved to him how impressive it was.

"This is the beast my mission required me to kill. I was just as surprised as you are when I found out that the information on its rank was wrong."

The young man looked shocked when he heard Alex's statement. He performed a sudden bow to Alex out of nowhere.

"I am truly sorry for our adventurer association's lack of judgement regarding this mission. If you excuse me, I have to report this incident to my superior."

With that, the young man left.

Alex was left at the table with his half dissected beast, feeling awkward.

'Is this truly such a big deal?'

However when he thought deeper into it, he realised how unlucky he was to have chosen a mission the adventurer association had misjudged.

Incidents like this didn't happen often, and when they did they almost always ended in tragedy for the adventurer who was assigned to it.

Few people were able to fight beasts a minor level above their own like Alex had.

Yet, Alex has done that twice now.

'Am I really just incredibly lucky or is there something about me that I'm not understanding?'

'Wait... Maybe my talent could be the reason? After all, I still know next to nothing about it. Just one of those purple orbs from that huge rabbit was enough to push me from F- to F rank. I still haven't got my hands on a beast core yet so I can't properly judge, but I bet they are nowhere near as effective as one of those orbs.'

Alex stood there in thought for a while until another worker came up to him, this one looking a lot more professional and serious than the enthusiastic young man.

"Good afternoon Mr Alex, I am the supervisor for this beast examination branch, you can just call me Dorian."

Rare enough that the association was willing to fork out such compensation for him. In their eyes it was seen as an investment betting on the future. It was quite simple really. Their plan could be laid out as simple as this.

Alex shows potential by killing an F+ rank beast while at the F rank.

The association notices this and invests in him in the form of 'compensation'.

Alex appreciates how much the association values their adventurers, shows more loyalty to the association.

Alex advances and becomes strong in the future, helping the association complete stronger missions, bringing in a much higher return on their investment.

Alex didn't know about the association's plans for him, and it seemed they were working so far as his appreciation and respect for them indeed did rise.

However it wasn't as if it was a bad thing, both the association and Alex would benefit from this in the long term.

***

Alex left the beast examination hall and immediately made his way towards the nearest hospital with glee plastered all over his face.

'I'm rich now!'

The reason was obvious.

He was now 10 gold and 5 F rank beast cores richer than before he entered the association.

Sadly, he hadn't been lucky enough to find an F+ rank beast core inside the Sleeper.

Before he left, Graniel advised him to visit the hospital before his injuries worsened or infection settled in and Alex took his words very seriously.

Alex looked at the huge building in front of him adorning the universal logo all hospitals used.

Many eyes looked at him the moment he stepped foot in there. His clothes were torn, his face was covered in dirt and scratches and blood occasionally leaked from his chest in various places.

Right as he was about to check himself in, he collapsed.