"T-that's... Azrite metal? And 5 stalks of Moonshine Clover and e-each of them at the highest quality?" Aria stammered a bit after she saw the items. Xander nodded in response.
She brought out the digital weighing scale to measure the amount of Azrite metal. Seeing the weight, Aria gasped silently, wanting to shout in surprise but her voice failed her.
"O-ok, Lonely Maker, you have submitted 2.000 kilograms of Azrite metal. A preliminary analysis of its purity will be n-now conducted." Aria said after a few seconds of silence.
However, this time, she was prepared. She immediately placed the material on top of the scanner, which showed a molecular breakdown of the material in holographic images. Although she prepared for it, her voice couldn't help but release a squeak.
99% purity!
To be exact, 99.9902% purity!
Aria calmed down and began to recite the estimated rewards of the missions.
"B-rank mission: Moonshine Clover harvesting. Reward: 10,000 Etas for 4 stalks, an additional 3,000 for every additional stalk; no limit. You submitted 5 stalks, resulting in a total reward of 13,000 Etas. 20% is taken away by MCGD, resulting in a total of 10,400 Etas."
"B-rank mission: Azrite metal collection. Rewards: 10,000 Etas for 50 grams, additional 2,000 per 10 grams more. If purity is above 95%, 100,000 Etas for 50 grams, additional 20,000 per 10 grams more."
"You provided a purity of 99.9902%, meaning you will gain 100,000 Etas for 50 grams, and 3.9 million Etas for the remaining 950 grams, making a total of 4 million Etas. Because this is an entrusted mission, the company will be taking 20%, leaving you with 3.2 million Etas."
Aria took a breather before continuing,
"The total rewards would be 3.214 million Etas. However, my superior has given me a task to inform you of another possible deal."
"Oh? What deal?" Xander asked coolly, although he already had a hint of what was going to be asked.
"My superior says if you can provide the location where you gathered the Azrite of this level of purity, not only will the MCGD not take any cuts for this mission, they will also reward you a total of 2 million Etas on top of your reward, bringing it to 6.014 million Etas," Aria said passionately, psychologically influencing Xander to choose this option through her words, attempting to show he would not lose out.
Xander merely smirked.
"Nah, I'm don't really care. Just transfer already my rewards." Xander responded coolly, not moved by money. Aria was a bit disappointed because she might also get a higher bonus this year if she could cinch this deal. Aria attempted to try one more time.
"Sir Lonely Maker, are you sure? This is a-" She was cut off by Xander's voice.
"No. Stop wasting my time. If you plan to do so, it would seem I would have another receptionist in the near future, like tomorrow." This time, Xander's voice was chilly and cold, holding a hint of a murderous aura. If Aria wasn't a Master magician, she might have gotten injured by just the aura alone. However, Aria realized that the man in front of him wasn't joking or fooling around. He seemed to have the capacity to take care of Aria, making her disappear!
Aria shuddered visibly and hurriedly processed the payment transfer. Aria quickly bowed before Xander left, apologizing.
"Pardon for my rudeness! I hope this doesn't affect our relationship in the company."
"Mmhm." Xander was quite mum and immediately headed off towards the restaurant he ate at yesterday. For him, he really didn't care what Aria did, after all, she was just a passerby in her mini-trip. As Xander moved towards the restaurant, he didn't bother stopping those tailing him and continued on to check the missions available.
He wanted to explore an ancient ruin before he does the mission concerning the capturing of magic beasts. He once again filtered the mission to "ruins exploration" and "B rank and above". The list refreshed and showed around 10 results within the Delta province, ranging from B+ to S ranked exploration.
He could only choose between the 2 ruins that were B+ ranked; although he could technically just teleport to these areas, he wanted to create a footprint, a trail of some sort, to people who are investigating Homer Simpson. At the same time, these ruins are usually heavily monitored and protected, meaning entry and exit to the ruins is tightly monitored. Only by becoming a mercenary can one enter without a hitch. The reason he didn't teleport is that people would actually have a list and holographic image of those currently in the ruins, so if he was discovered to just appear there, he could get arrested, jailed, or even tortured by military and government.
As he was thinking about the two missions, he had already reached the restaurant, in which a server came up to him and told him,
"Good day, sir. A gentleman would like to meet you in one of the private rooms. Would you please follow me?" the server then gestured to Xander, his appearance trying to look dignified and cultured. The server thought that it was an honor for an esteemed guest to invite such a man. On the other hand, Xander didn't give a rat's ass about the server and continued to look around the first floor of the restaurant and selected a table.
He also called for another server, who happily came over and began taking Xander's orders.
"600 grams of sirloin steak, medium-well. Add some hickory sauce, mashed potatoes, and bacon on the side as my main."
"1 whole breaded chicken bites, add some rice and mashed potatoes on the side for my appetizer."
"Also, a bottle of Carlyle-1800 red wine to drink."
"Yes, sir, right away! My name is Carliste by the way, your server for today." Carliste nodded and introduced himself briefly, before heading to the kitchen to submit the orders. He was going to get a huge bonus! The man, Xander, just ordered their most expensive wine, costing 1,200,000 Etas a bottle. Servers who managed to sell their expensive wines were able to get a portion of the cost, in which case, this one, he was able to get 3% of the selling price, so around 36,000 Etas! Not only that, if he served the mister well, he would still have to count for his tip!
Xander, who wasn't aware of the thoughts running in the head of his server, didn't care much and continued to check the missions.
[Ruin Eta-64] B+ rank exploration mission. The goal is to chart a map and explore the area as much as possible. So far, 20 floors have been charted, and it is unsure how many more floors exist. Rewards: 200,000 Etas per floor (paid per group) charted. If the floor has been charted before, no rewards are given. If additional information on the charted floors is discovered and recorded, a fixed payment of 20,000 Etas per additional information will be given (paid per group).
WARNING: Medium Level mortality rate. Traps are present and scattered all over the floors (deactivated in some charted floors), and the presence of magic beasts have been recorded. Electronic connection to the internet is lost while inside the ruins, as well as other kinds of communication to the outside world.
[Ruin Eta-155] B+ rank exploration mission. The latest ruin discovered in the country of Eta. the goal is to chart a map and explore the area as much as possible. So far, only 2 floors have been charted, and it is unsure how many floors exist in total. Rewards: 1,000,000 Etas per floor (paid per group) charted. If the floor has been charted before, no rewards are given. If additional information on the charted floors is discovered and recorded, a fixed payment of 20,000 Etas will be given per additional information (paid per group).
WARNING: High mortality rate. Multiple traps, mechanical and magic ones, and the presence of defense dolls, or golems have been detected to be present. No magic beasts have been detected or recorded. Electronic connection to the internet is lost while inside the ruins, nor any kind of communication to the outside world.
Xander pondered a bit and brought up the information on ruins. First and foremost, the rules of the ruins. The rules on ruins were quite simple to follow and were standardized all over the world after many trial and errors:
1. You are only allowed to stay in one for no more than 3 days. Past 3 days, you are considered a missing person; past 2 weeks, you are officially dead in the government's records. If you appear again, you would have to undergo quarantine and several tests to ensure that it really is still you, and not some monster or being that existed in the ruins. If you managed to escape the detection of the guards around the ruins, and you appear in public, you will immediately be placed under the unknown threat category, and be hunted down.
2. Only 4 groups may enter at a time in the ruins, and they cannot enter at the same time.
3. No one is allowed to use high-grade explosives.
4. No one above Mythical Class are allowed in the ruins. The ruins has the capacity to detect the cultivation levels of anyone above Mythic level, and they began bombarding that person with magic spells and attacks from numerous sources.
5. No government is allowed to forcefully steal or obtain the information, items, or remains that mercenaries, solo adventurers, or exploring magicians discovered within the ruins. They can only be bought by the government or anything of equal worth. The information or technology they obtain is automatically patented to that country, but items such as magic artifacts are not to be used for large-scale wars, but for research only.
6. The group or the person who entered the ruins once can only enter it again after 6 months.
Currently, Eta had 155 discovered ruins, while Nema had around 105 ruins discovered. Other countries all over the world have discovered around 2-35 ruins in each country. Ruins' research have also been rapidly expanding to areas not under the control of any country, such as international waters and uninhabited islands as technologies continued to develop.
After thinking for a few minutes, he decided to go with Ruin Eta-155, since it was the newest one discovered, and had more potential. When he tried to apply for the mission however, it said that he was in queue, indicating he was the 230th group. Xander rolled his eyes and canceled his application and decided to choose the other one, Ruin Eta-64. Although the rewards were cheap at least he had no competition.
He wasn't placed in a queue and was slated to appear in the ruins area by tomorrow morning. The ruins were located in Capsule City, 800 kilometers away from Verdant City. After reaching Capsule city, he only needed to travel another kilometer to the west and he would see the ruins.
Since this was a ruins exploration, the MCGD company would be the one paying him directly upon submitting the collated documents.
After a finalizing his application for the ruins, he was surfing the web while waiting for his food. It was at this point, an annoyance appeared.