Aeron appeared back in the hall with an array of doors around him after exiting from the Dark Ruin.
There was no one here, indicating that Dravin left after sending Aeron to a rather dangerous last test required to join the Star Horn guild.
But a few seconds afterward when Aeron made his way out of the array of doors in circular formations, Dravin entered the hall with another person. A lady looking in her early thirties.
She was wearing a black-brown leather vest on a shirt, pants, boots, and a belt at her waist with mini pockets. She had long dark red wavy hair, a slim but shapely figure, and an average face that would grow onto one after interacting with her daily.
"Congrats on passing, Aeron," Dravin said with a jolly laugh seeing Aeron. "You are unofficially a member of the Star Horn guild, and an official one after you get your badge."
"Thanks," Aeron nodded with a grin. "It wasn't that hard."
"Meet Minessa the Miss Fortune," Dravin said as he introduced Minessa.
"Hi, Aeron. I am Minessa Reiorn," Minessa smiled at Aeron, her eyes checking out Aeron's figure, eyes, and aura with interest.
[She is also a B-rank Phantom Hunter.]
"Aeron Specter," Aeron replied with a nod, his smile hanging on his lips. 'She doesn't have any ghosts behind her too. Good.'
[Are you going to kill people haunted by vengeful ghosts here too?]
'You bet I will. If they did evil to another, I shall do evil to them,' Aeron internally said as he laughed. 'It feels to do that.'
Well, that was how Aeron managed to develop Curse and Spirit power within him on Earth.
[Unfortunately, you don't know a few things about how death works here.]
'Is that why i didn't see any ghosts in the city?'
[Yes. I'll tell you about it later.]
"How was the experience inside?" Dravin asked before he handed a scroll to Aeron and continued, "Just write down common details of the Dark Ruin in this. You can do it later, no need to hurry."
"And you don't need to be detailed like how you defeated them, their powers, and such. Just write about the places, paths, phenomena, and Haunts you encountered from start to end."
"I can do that but, why?" Aeron was confused. "I thought Dark Ruin changed slightly, but only in regards to the structure and not Haunts."
"Nope," Minessa chuckled and shook her head. "Some Dark Ruins entirely change after one clears it. The one you entered remains the same in difficulty, but everything inside changes."
"This particular Dark Ruin is like that, hence we use it for the last test for people to join the guild," she added as she walked towards the door of that Dark Ruin.
[This is true, though I didn't know it was that kind of Dark Ruin. But this is indeed a good choice for a test.]
"Follow us," Dravin grinned. "It's time to check and get you a reward. Of course, you can keep whatever you got inside as yours, but this is an additional reward."
"Oh?" Aeron curiously followed him as the trio arrived before the door where Aeron had entered.
Minessa put her palm on the door's center area and closed her eyes.
'Do you know what's happening? And what reward?'
[No idea. The reward thing also confuses me.]
Dravin lightly chuckled and said, "Minessa has two Specialism Traits and she created a Phantom Ability called Lucky Slots based on her Miss-Fortune trait. This Phantom Ability can be applied in many ways and one of them is using it on a Dark Ruin's door."
"It's ready," Minessa said with a smile as a desktop screen-sized slot machine manifested, attached to the Dark Ruin's door!
"Slots?" Aeron was dumbfounded. He remembered this machine of disappointment where people used to play it and return home with an empty pocket.
'This reminded me of a possessed slot machine, hahaha. It was possessed by an evil ghost who first made people win small rewards and if they bet higher, they get higher returns for a few rounds, but then it would bring constant losses to them and play with people's minds to make their emotions volatile and suck negative energy, mainly disappointment and anger to grow stronger.'
Lapis dryly chuckled. [Average gamblers who can't control themselves. People really have created many things on a whole spectrum of self-destruction.]
"The rules of this are simple," Minessa smiled. "You infuse your curse energy in it and pull the lever. Based on your luck and factors depending on your journey in this Dark Ruin, you will get a reward related to the Dark Ruin."
"This is the 2nd effect of my Lucky Slots Phantom Ability, which I use to give rewards from Ruin Doors based on a slightly bent equivalent exchange thanks to my Miss-Fortune trait."
After Minessa finished speaking, Dravin said "For example, you missed something in the Dark Ruin or the Dark Ruin itself had some sort of reserve that didn't generate. With Minessa's ability, the one who clears the Dark Ruin recently can use the Slots to extract something based on luck and your performance in the Dark Ruin."
"Your luck at the moment when it comes to this Dark Ruin is volatile and constantly changing," Minessa smiled. "Luck is something you grasp when you have taken enough actions to make it move. Here, you'll see it in action, so let's start."
"Interesting," Aeron was surprised and curious, his eyes shining. "Alright, so I just infuse all of my Curse energy in it?"
"Just infuse 100 curse energy."
"Alright."
[This Ability is really cool. Based on her expertise, this ability can be a great support-ability in combat and other areas. For example, she bet something in exchange for increasing her attack or defense. It can be more niche and extreme as well, but only she would know depending on her cursed oath.]
Aeron infused 100 curse energy in the slots and then pulled the lever.
The slots started spinning inside.
"You can press stop anytime," Minessa informed as she pointed her finger at the red button.
Aeron rubbed her palms with anticipation, intending to wait for five seconds.
"Oh yeah, don't expect any ground-breaking reward, ok?" Minessa wryly smiled.
"That's right, hahaha," Dravin said with a laugh. "This Phantom Ability is mainly to aid her in combat, but we just use this on these Ruin Doors when someone clears it to get an additional reward."
"Got it," Aeron nodded and added with a chuckle, "I wasn't expecting any ground-breaking rewards anyway."
Five seconds passed and he pulled the lever, causing the slots to slow down.
In the end, the three slots showed green grass with purple and blue patterns, beautiful and shining.
Seeing it, Dravin was dumbfounded before he burst out laughing.
"What's that?" Aeron curiously asked.
"That's….Riser Haze Weed," Minessa couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, it's a Grade-4 Mystic Material, but it's rare and quite expensive. It's mainly used to get ultra high and intoxicated."
"Oh, so it's that kind of weed," Aeron was surprised before he laughed and said, "Yeah, I've used it before."
"Phantom Hunters use it while having fun in bed with someone or when using Haunt Core to experience nightmares, but the latter is a double-edged sword," Dravin said.
Minessa put her hand on the slot machine. It vanished soon, but the palm-sized plant of Riser Haze Weed appeared in her hand.
"Here, use it as you wish," Minessa said as she handed it to Aeron. "You can get quite a lot of money from selling it if you don't want to use it."
"How much?" Aeron curiously asked.