Juan has been defeated after Ben punched his head mercilessly. Ben transforms back to his normal appearance before taking off the magic items that Juan wears. There are some small cracks, but they are still acceptable.
He put the magic items in a bag, then he returns to the mansion ruins while dragging the tied-up Juan. Ben doesn't have any injury outside, but actually, his muscles are damaged.
Juan's lightning doesn't make any external wound on Ben. But it damaged his insides, especially the muscles in his arms & feet. His muscles feel very sore now after he deactivates his elemental mode.
He doesn't feel it that much before because of the elemental mode's enhancement. His adrenaline was also high before, but now it has gone. But it's not a big problem as he doesn't need to fight again.
Ben arrived on the ruins after 5 minutes and see the others have been there already. He sighs in disappointment as he is the last to finish his battle. It's a little bit childish, but he really wants to finish his battle first.
"BEN!" shouts Bella while flying toward Ben with a happy expression.
"I'm back," says Ben as he catches Bella in his arms.
"Took you long enough to finish, Ben," says Elfman while smirking.
"Well, I need to make sure that the magic items won't get destroy-" says Ben before stopping so suddenly.
Ben looks at the tied-up Herry & Elise who have their magic items broken apart. He has a dark expression and looks at the 2 siblings. They throw their heads away and whistle nervously.
"I thought I've told you that we need to take the magic items back," says Ben with a dark expression.
"T-They're here you know," says Mira while pointing at the magic items' scraps near Herry & Elise.
Ben's mouth's corner twitches and he wants to shout in anger. But he stops it and just sighs defeatedly. It has happened, so there's nothing he can do now. Getting angry won't make the magic items return to normal.
"Sigh, at least the best one is still intact," says Ben to cheer himself up.
Bella pats his head because she feels sorry for him. She is also angry at the siblings and has scolded them before. But the both of them were happy instead because she looks very cute when she got angry.
"Sigh, whatever then. The job has been done, so we can return after resting for a bit," says Ben.
"Alright," replied the siblings.
Ben put Juan beside his Guildmates and tied them together. Then Ben lay on the ground to relax. Mira sit beside him after she finished putting bandages on Elfman.
"Are you okay?" asks Mira.
"Just some sore muscles. This guy is very tricky, he is the smartest opponent that I've ever faced," says Ben.
"I'm sorry for destroying the magic items," says Mira.
"Sigh, it's okay. We just destroyed 2 sets and saved the rest. That should be enough to avoid punishment. Besides, if they want all the magic items to be intact, they should do it themselves," says Ben.
"But won't it be a problem for your guild? I'm not proud of this, but we are used to being in trouble with Magic Council. We will be fine, but your guild might get a trouble," says Mira.
"They can do it if they want, I dare them to do it. That is if they're ready to take the consequences," says Ben while smirking.
Mira is stunned at Ben's answer, but she doesn't say anything. At least Ben isn't too worried about this problem and it makes her relieved. She's worried that Ben will blame her and hate her because of that.
'N-NO NO NO, w-why should I be worried if he hates me? It's not like that will be a problem. We don't have any serious relationship or anything. Eh? S-Serious relationship?! W-What am I thinking?' thinks Mira while blushing and shaking her head frantically.
Ben is confused seeing Mira, 'What happen to her?'
Elfman can only sigh seeing his sister act like this. He knows she likes Ben, but she is still oblivious of her own feeling. She might look like a bad girl in the past, but she is still very innocent.
After resting for 10 minutes, Ben decides to check the ruins. He might find some useful information that will give them extra points. Maybe there will even be some treasures and money here.
Ben lifts the ruins using his Gravity Magic. He reduces the gravity instead of increasing it to make the ruins float. Mira & Bella help Ben to investigate the ruins while Elfman is still lying down because he is too injured.
They really found some treasures and money that the Dark Guild has gathered. These treasures and money will be their bonus from this job. They also find some important documents that can be sold at a high price to the Council.
"Heh, now the Council won't be able to punish us over some magic items. These documents will be more important than those items," says Ben while smirking.
"Why are they more important?" asks Mira.
"These documents contain pieces of information about many Dark Guilds. As a Dark Guild, these guys must've got in contact with other Dark Guilds too. Some of them might want to work together to protect themselves," says Ben.
In the documents, there are some locations, Guild & Mages' names, their magics, etc. The Council will want it badly because it will make their Dark Guild hunting easier. Ben can use these documents as a bargaining chip to avoid punishments and get some extra rewards.
Ben flips through the documents and asks AI Chip to scan them because he is also curious about them. He won't be able to read them after he gives them to Magic Council. As he flipped through the papers, he find an interesting thing.
'A map?' thinks Ben as he looks at a small map.
Ben flips the map over and reads the writing on the backside. The writing shows that it is just a map to a lacrima mine. But then, AI Chip detects something on the writing and finds out that it is written in codes.
'Can you decipher it?' asks Ben to AI Chip.
[Deciphering codes....Finished!
Code: 'The Dark Sun.']
'Huh? What's the meaning of that?' asks Ben confusedly.
[There are no further details.]
Ben gets confused, but it also makes him very curious. 'The Dark Sun' means that this map has a connection with Sun somehow. It might be useful for him, so he decides to keep the map.
'It might be a dangerous thing, but it is also a chance. Maybe I'll find a way to stop my dragon seed or it might help me to get stronger. I really need strength if I want to defeat Acnologia,' thinks Ben.
Ben & co investigate the ruins again for half an hour. They found more treasures and money there. After that, they leave the forest and go to Ben's car. They drag the dark mages and tied them to a tree near the car.
Mira then calls the Magic Council to take the Dark Mages while Ben stores the treasures & money in the car. They wait for an hour before the Magic Council's airship arrived.
Just like what Ben predicted, the Council is displeased at the destroyed magic items. But they changed drastically after seeing the documents. They smile very friendly and praised Ben's group. They even give Ben's group a lot of additional money rewards.
'Tch, shameless bastards,' thinks Ben while smiling at the Council members.
Well, Ben is still glad that they don't get into trouble. With this, their job has been done 'perfectly'.
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You can read up to 30+ chapters ahead of this fanfic novel & the other one on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.
I've uploaded:
1. Chapter 129 of Fairy Tail: Sun Eater
2. Chapter 140 of Transcended as Lord Buggy
https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain
(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)