CHAPTER 17: GUILD LEADER

Silva made it out of the gate. It was getting late, but the sun wasn’t gone yet. As he walked out, he spotted the guard that had given him a hard time, and it seemed the gates had also remembered his face.

The guard was stunned to see Silva, but Silva didn’t pay any attention to him and walked past. He got to the road and immediately got a taxi straight for the guild. He had made fifty cores today, with two being from the hobgoblins.

He smiled as he saw them inside his inventory. This was good, his life was about to change.

The taxi pulled up at the guild and he got out. The same receptionist was there, and when she saw Silva, she gave him a suspicious look.

He didn’t care. He walked to the counter and let out all the cores. She noticed that he didn’t carry them in.

"Does this dude somehow have a spatial artefact or something? I’ll have to report this." she thought. She looked down and the moment she saw the cores on the counter, she freaked out, taking a step back.

Sure, it was low-level cores and though plenty, it wasn’t overly outrageous, but fifty goblin cores for an F-ranked was crazy. She could even spot the two hobgoblin cores.

She looked at him, forcing herself to calm down. "Is it from the friend again?" she asked.

"Yes, it was," Silva replied.

She looked at him for a few seconds, didn’t say anything more, and grabbed the cores. She pushed them into a tray.

Silva knew that she doubted him, but he would keep running with that story for now until he couldn’t.

She walked in with the tray, and after some time she returned with the cash.

"Each one went for a hundred credits, while the other two went for two hundred. That’s five thousand, two hundred credits," she said with a small stack of bills there.

He grabbed it without saying much. He walked out while the receptionist immediately headed inside. She used the stairs and made it to the guild master.

She knocked on the wooden door a couple of times and a calm voice came from inside, allowing her to come in. She unlocked the door and entered the office.

It was a simple office with a large wooden table covered in files and documents. There was a hologram machine sending images of news and other happenings.

And on the chair behind was a man, a young man no more than thirty. He had a sharp face and eyes, with jet black hair that was laid back.

He looked up from the document in his hands and when he saw the receptionist, he dropped the document.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Guild master, there is an issue that I feel is unnatural," she said.

He raised a brow, then leaned in, hands clasped together and placed under his chin.

"Go ahead, tell me what’s the issue," he said.

She went on to relay the two occasions that Silva had come in. He listened to her and felt that it was weird.

"You said his name was Silva, right?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"There was a Silva on the news about the gate that basically killed everyone that went inside first," the man said. He moved his hand in a certain gesture and the hologram responded. It shook and showed a face of Silva.

"Is this the one?" he asked.

"Yes, that’s him," she replied.

"Hmmm, he just got out of the hospital a few days back, and he is already gathering cores somehow," the man said. He looked up at the receptionist. "I’ll look into it more," he said.

She left the office and immediately he pulled out a phone and dialed a number. "Get everything there is about the kid called Silva that was found inside the gate."

He put the phone down and a few seconds later, some information came right into the hologram device.

He immediately looked through them. "He has no other friends, as expected, that was a lie. But then how did he get his hands on those cores?

Shouldn’t be possible. There might be something new with the kid. I’ll have to watch and see," he said and then leaned back into the chair.

"The guild must already have some eyes on him and waiting to see anything unnatural. If they find it themselves, they won’t give me the promotion I deserve.

This kid might become my one and only ticket out of here and into a better position. I should watch him and find out what he has to hide, and how he got these cores," the guild leader said. He looked at the image again with a calm expression.

[.....]

Back in the apartment, Silva walked in and spotted his sister making some food.

"Welcome back, bro," she greeted.

"Hey, Ella," he replied and walked toward her, then placed his hand on the counter, leaving a thousand credits there.

She turned and looked at the money. A look of confusion flashed on her face, she looked up at him.

"What’s this for, bro? Food? Because we have that covered for a while," she said.

"No, it’s not. It’s for you. Take it and do whatever you want. A girl your age should have some money to spend on herself," he said and walked past her.

"Wait, what? You are giving me a thousand to spend for myself? That’s too much, bro. That money could be used for something else," she said.

"No, it’s for you, the first of many, so enjoy yourself," he said and walked into his room.

She stared at the money for a few seconds, and then finally grabbed it. She was still in disbelief, but this was real. A smile slowly formed on her face as she rushed to finish cooking the food.