They stopped in front of a large abandoned building, but one look at it told them it was anything but abandoned.
"Alright, here we are," Barion said, pointing.
Emery recognized the area. This building was just a few dozen metres away from where he'd first encountered that tiger beast. It was wholly populated with Beasts and Awakened alike.
This area alone was Hemp and Carlos' hunting grounds.
Multiple people in strange clothes walked into and out of the building at all times. A few of them looked like Barion with several defining features, standing them out from everyone else.
Most of them held Beast corpses in their hands, several of which looked strong.
A large man trumped most of them. He was taller and bigger than most professional basketball players. A mantle of blood and bones crowned his head, matching the bony exterior of his armour. The man held in one hand a spear, in the other hand a large eagle-like beast that was twice his size.
But the man logged it around like he was carrying a small stone.
Everyone stopped to look as the man approached the entrance, kicking anyone out of his way.
Emery was almost one of those victims.
Barion quickly dragged Emery to the side before that could happen. "Come on, let's go inside. Awakened culture has deemed it rude to stare at your betters. Don't ask me how they came to that conclusion after only one year."
"Who was that man?" Emery asked after the large man was out of sight.
As soon as that happened, everything went back to normal. People continued walking as if they hadn't just seen anything.
Barion also walked towards the building, still using his mist to hold the beast corpses above his head.
Emery noticed the wide berth people gave him, so either this was strange or he was notorious around here.
After thinking for a little while, he concluded the second probably was the answer.
He followed after as they entered the building. The interior was a bustling marketplace. Merchants selling wares and equipment, food stalls, weapon stores. Rows and rows of little booths filled the entire floor.
Emery held Elyn's body a little closer than before. She was hard to carry but he wouldn't let her go for fear of losing her.
"Right, you asked who that man was?" Barion said, his voice somehow reaching Emery's ears despite the noise.
"Yeah."
"Well, put simply, that's one of Hemp's senior commanders, Konnor. He doesn't take any orders that don't come from the man himself, but he is also free to make decisions that won't directly affect his boss."
Emery's eyes widened slightly. Senior commanders?!
"What about his rank?"
Barion wagged his fingers in the air slightly, causing the corpses above the wag slightly.
Everyone around left some space as they noticed him.
"Ah, I'm not really sure. That beast he just killed looks awfully like one of the Class Seven Threats terrorising the south entrance of the city. So I'm guessing Class Seven or Class Six."
Class Seven or Class Six.
And the man spoke about it so casually, too.
"Are you shocked?" Barion asked.
What kind of question was that even? Of course, he was shocked.
"Yeah, that dude is pretty strong."
After that short conversation, Barion went silent for the rest of the journey. They climbed the stairs a few times until they finally got to the area they needed to be in.
This floor was relatively empty, with a few rooms here and there. A large booth sat at the centre of the floor. There weren't a lot of people on this floor, the ones that were here all looked strong, carrying a few bags dripping with blood.
'Beast corpses,' he realized.
Barion didn't waste any more time and quickly walked over to the counter of the stall.
"How you doing, Chris? Just came here to drop some items," he said.
Chris was one of two men who sat behind the stall. He had black hair and a pale shade of green eyes.
"What are you doing here? I thought you left for some other city?" the man asked.
"I did," Barion replied, "But I forgot to carry any money for gambling. So I brought a nice little corpse for you guys,"
"Who's this guy, then?" the other man asked, pointing at Emery.
"Oh, him? I met him out in the forest with his lady friend, they were fighting a Class Nine threat. Close to killing it, too."
Chris raised an eyebrow. "So? That's not exactly a rare occurrence,"
"No, it isn't. What's rare is the fact that the beast was a rare type. It was a teeny weeny snake close to evolving into a Wyvern. It had also unlocked its transformation abilities, if not I reckon they might have killed it right there."
Chris paused to regard Emery and Elyn once more.
"That is interesting indeed. But why did you bring them here, though?"
"No particular reason just wanted to help them out."
Chris and the other man stared at Barion for a long while before talking once more.
"So, this is your entire haul today," the second man asked.
"Nah, the Class Ten beasts belong to the kid and his girlfriend. I'm only here for the Class Nine, the Class Ten money is theirs."
"Okay," Chris nodded and grabbed the beasts that Barion set down next to the stall.
After a while, he seemed to have finished calculating the value of the beasts.
"Well, your Class Nine comes up to about 100,000 credits based on its special race as a pseudo-Wyvern. And then for the other guy, he has about seven Class Ten beasts here, a pretty good haul for a first-timer so I'll give him 75 for everything."
Emery's mind blanked out for the first time since the conversation started.
They got 75,000?
Then the realization set in. They earned 75,000.
"Transfer the money over to my account, I'll be going now."
Then he left. Emery didn't realize when that happened, the sheer amount still shocked him.
Finally, he came to his senses and asked for the first thing on his priority list.
"Is there a hospital nearby?"
"Yeah there's one just a few-"
Thud!
Emery dropped to the ground as soon as he heard the words 'yes'. He'd been running on fumes the entire time.
"Hey, someone take the two of them over to one of the infirmary rooms." Chris yelled, calling on the lower-ranked workers, "They're both in critical condition. And make sure to take care of them as quickly as possible."
"I want to speak with them as soon as they wake up."