Chapter 278 278. FIVE-STAR

Quickly returning to his cultivation room, Noah opened his eyes to its white environment, and the first detail he noticed was the abundance of speed essence in the room. However, the walls weren't releasing any energy. That wonder was a result of the shining, deep-yellow, almost golden stone nothing more than 6inches in size floating in the air.

It slowly swirled and essence poured out of it into the room filling it up. His skin rejoiced at the wave of energy bouncing off its fabric, and Noah didn't hesitate to walk over to it and slowly took it into his palms.

The sheer amount of essence it released, all poured into his palms, and Noah saw his skin harden, but he didn't put too much focus on that detail. His eyes were on the panel that contained the stone's stats.

[Speed force stone]

[Purity rank: 2]

[Grade: Mid]

[Durability: 10/10]

[Capacity: 800,000]

[Reserve: 780,230/800,000]

[Emission/Absorbtion speed: 100SE/Sec]

[Note: interact with the stone to turn it on and off]

A whistle escaped Noah's mouth at the panel's information, mostly due to the capacity the small object was capable of. It could feed him a bit over 12 times. That detail was probably the most outstanding one. But it also meant he would need to charge it regularly, but compared to having to disappear to fill himself up, that was better.

Nevertheless, he would have to hide to utilize the stone since mana shouldn't even be seeable, and speed essence was dense enough for light to bounce off its mass.

'I'm entering a level where hiding my assets is becoming very difficult,' Noah thought playing a bit with the small stone. He had willed it to stop wasting its essence and refill its reserves. This caused waves of essence that rushed toward it.

'Hopefully, I can cross the gap between lower stage and higher stage with the dungeon,' he mused walking away from the floating stone to sit in a cross-legged posture. He didn't cultivate or anything, only sitting to meditate a bit.

In a few hours, he would go over to Elias's place to receive his package, after which he would immediately begin the process of the dungeon, at least the system would.

Eventually exiting his cultivation room, Noah left his room to begin his journey toward Elias' establishment. The constant darkness of the city with its shining lights had started to become something of a norm, even if he still admired its beauty.

The sounds of people chatters, the growls and heavy movements of carriages, the loud advertisement made by newly brought in merchants, and the sonic booms left by flying beasts above him, all resounded in Noah's ears, rather than feeling annoyed he felt at peace, knowing that nine f those things would come to hurt him.

Like any other busy day, Elias's shop featured a queue at its entrance, and Noah had to stand about twenty minutes before he could be allowed inside.

Elias spotted him on the line, but only performed a head bow, with Noah doing the same. Another five minutes had to pass before Noah could stand before the counter, but he didn't have to say anything since Elias passed a silent command to one of the two girls, and he gestured at Noah to walk into the open section past the reception.

Elias took him past the black door behind the reception into an empty but well-lit room.

"We don't want people seeing the sheer amount of coins you are about to exchange, that could lead to trouble," Elias remarked standing at the center of the room.

"What can they even do? Steal?" Noah asked jokingly while he inspected the room's emptiness.

"Yes," Elias stated shocking Noah.

"How? But the oath," Noah muttered uncertainly.

"I don't know the full details of the oath you real members have, but it doesn't activate when you steal from us," Elias explained.

"When I was just starting out in this city, I had friends that would be robbed by groups of masked members, I almost got robbed, but I had someone strong with me at that time," he continued.

"Do you give a share of your income to the guild," Noah asked falling into wonder.

"Well it's more of a small cut that is due every thirty days," Elias replied. "The guild is really nice and understanding in its doings, which is probably why there are so many people aspiring to sell here,"

"It not only increases our status in the lower lands, but we also gain a lot since you all earn a lot. Jobs sent to the great guilds are scrutinized and must be above a certain pay grade," Elias explained.

"Nevertheless people steal from us. Thankfully such incidents have reduced exponentially," he stopped.

'Isn't stealing from merchants that give to the guild also considered hurting it,' Noah wondered, the explanation didn't feel clear, which meant something was left out. But he wouldn't probe.

"So where is my order," Noah asked finding that nothing was truly within the room.

"It's within this ring, you can place the money on the floor and I'll reveal them unto you," Elias said with a shrug.

Noah did as he was told, and a bag of the already split money appeared on the black floor of the room.

Elias took a few steps backward and waved his hand at that point. In the span of an instant, a heap of carcasses appeared inside the room. The smell coming from the dead beats however wasn't rotten, probably due to the high-tier ring utilized to store them.

Noah took a moment to admire the sight of giant beast more than three to four times the size of an average human all piled up on each other.

Sending his consciousness forth to count them, Noah nodded when he found that they numbered 44. He quickly waved his hand to store them inside his inventory and turned towards Elias to give him a hand shake.

"It was nice patronizing you, I'll leave a five star review," he joked, almost bursting into laughter at Elias's confused expression.

"What's a five star review, do you mean rank B members?" Elias asked genuinely curious.

"Its nothing," Noah replied unable to keep the smile on his face away.

"Seriously tell me" Elias replied "What does five stars have to do with a review?" he pleaded. 'How do you even give a five star review!?"

"Nah don't worry," Noah continued to smile while walking towards the exit.

He spent a few minutes conversing with the man before exiting the place bottling up his excitement, Noah returned to his room to begin the preparation.