Chapter 67: Emptying Their Pockets

The commercial district grew busier the deeper Jet and Frey walked into it. Trading houses competed for space along broad streets crowded with carts, porters and returning expedition teams.

Acquisition boards displayed monster-material prices while workers pushed reinforced wagons toward processing warehouses.

Jet passed specialized shops before stopping outside a four-story stone building marked by a brass emblem of an open scale beneath a monster horn.

The sign identified it as Greyvault Exchange, a licensed Zenith trading house.

Frey looked through the open entrance, where two porters were maneuvering a rolled hide wider than either man was tall.

"Professional enough," he said, shifting his overloaded backpack. "If they try to rob us, I’m eating before we find somewhere else."

Jet ignored the second half and entered. Greyvault was spacious inside. Appraisal counters occupied the main floor, separated by waist-high partitions. Behind them, doors led toward preservation rooms and processing chambers.

Harvesters in dark aprons moved sealed containers between workstations, while buyers examined horns, claws, bones, venom glands and bottled monster blood under specialized lamps. Several enormous hides hung from ceiling rails awaiting inspection.

Nobody stopped working when Jet and Frey entered. A few people glanced at their equipment and the containers strapped to their packs, but Zenith received successful Walkers every day.

At one counter, a four-person party argued cheerfully over the price of a pair of antlers.

At another, an appraiser was explaining why damage around a monster’s venom sac had reduced its value. More expensive transactions disappeared behind frosted doors marked Private Appraisal.

Jet preferred the lack of attention; anonymity made successful business considerably easier in places like this. They joined a surprisingly short queue, and within only several minutes a grey-haired woman wearing protective gloves waved them toward an empty appraisal station.

"Selling, appraisal, or both?" she asked while activating the counter’s recording panel.

"Both," Jet replied. "We know we’re selling most of the harvested materials. There are a few pieces we want valued before deciding."

The woman introduced herself as Mara, requested their Walker identification for the transaction record, then spread a washable black sheet across the counter. Jet and Frey began unloading.

What had felt like a collection of awkward weight inside their packs quickly became a respectable pile: preserved hide sections, claws, teeth, horn fragments, sealed blood samples, tendons, several glands and smaller pieces allocated from the Raid Team’s harvest.

Mara worked without theatrics. She identified species where possible, weighed usable portions, checked contamination, graded damage and entered each figure into the panel beside her. Anything requiring specialist verification went into numbered trays for another appraiser.

The ordinary Lesser materials came first. Several pieces had suffered from the violence of the battle, reducing their value, while others had been harvested cleanly enough to earn better grades. Mara paused longer over materials taken from the peak Lessers.

A section of ivory plate from Bastian’s opponent produced a noticeably higher estimate after she tested its Mana density. One preserved membrane from Odhran’s flying target went to a specialist because its ability to conduct compressed Mana made it useful for certain crafted equipment.

Safiya’s six-eyed predator had yielded several valuable sensory tissues, though Jet and Frey’s allocation represented only a small portion of the total harvest.

Then came their limited shares from the Regal Coil Lions.

Mara’s hands slowed when Jet placed several bronze-black scales and a sealed vial of golden blood onto the sheet. She inspected the scale structure, changed instruments, then looked at him. "Greater-ranked?"

"Yes."

"What species?"

"Regal Coil Lion."

Her eyebrows rose, but professionalism won over curiosity. "These don’t come through often. The scale edges are damaged, but the internal Mana structure is intact. The blood was preserved correctly too. Do you have more?"

"That’s our share."

Mara looked from Jet to Frey, taking in their 1-Star records displayed on her panel, but she didn’t ask how two young Walkers had acquired Greater-ranked material. She simply requested permission to move the items into private appraisal.

Jet readily agreed. Explaining the Raid Team itself wouldn’t violate anything, but there was no benefit in discussing an expedition tied to information protected by the Red Seal. The Palladium Fruits remained buried inside their secured storage and never touched Greyvault’s counter.

The appraisal took nearly an hour. Jet and Frey sat near the private rooms while specialists examined the more valuable pieces.

When Mara returned, she carried a tablet containing an itemized offer rather than one dramatic total. She walked them through every category, explaining which materials Greyvault would purchase directly and which could earn more through consignment if they were willing to wait.

Jet chose direct sale for most ordinary parts. A handful of rarer pieces were worth keeping, while the Greater-ranked materials received strong enough offers that both men sold portions and retained a few pieces for future possibilities.

Mara finished entering the decisions before asking, "Monster Cores?"

Jet answered immediately. "Not selling."

Frey shook his head beside him. "Mine stay with me too."

"Fair enough." Mara didn’t press. "If you change your minds, Greater and peak Lesser Cores move quickly here."

Jet doubted he would. Months earlier, the numbers attached to his first three Lesser Cores had made selling them on Earth feel obvious.

He had needed money, and money had solved immediate problems. Now he understood the other side of their value. Monster Cores were not simply supernatural gemstones with price tags attached.

For Divine Rune development, they were fuel. Selling every Core and then wondering why his Rune synchronization remained stagnant would be stupidity disguised as profit.

Frey clearly reached the same conclusion for Vritra. When the transaction was finalized, both transferred their retained Cores into secure containers rather than letting Greyvault include them in the sale.

Their final material payout was substantial without becoming absurd. Jet’s portion came to 612,800 in standardized Citadel credit value, while Frey’s slightly different allocation and material choices placed him at 587,400.

The credits could be used throughout Zenith’s recognized trading network and converted through authorized exchanges when necessary. For a trip that had originally been intended as three days of hunting ordinary Lessers, it was easily their best Beyond payday. Yet Jet couldn’t help thinking that the true wealth in his possession hadn’t been included in the calculation at all.

One Palladium Fruit could dwarf what they had just earned.

The thought made him more protective of his backpack.

By the time they left Greyvault, evening had settled over Zenith Citadel. Ancient blue lines glowed more clearly along nearby structures, while human lamps illuminated streets still crowded with Walkers.

Their packs were dramatically lighter, and Frey celebrated the difference by rolling both shoulders before declaring that civilization had officially earned the right to feed him.

Jet didn’t argue this time.

They found a restaurant on the route back to their hotel and ordered enough food to make the server check whether they expected anyone else. Frey attacked grilled meat, roasted vegetables and thick bread with the concentration he normally reserved for combat. Jet wasn’t much better.

Days of field rations and constant movement had made hot food feel extravagant, and for several minutes neither spoke beyond requesting more water.

Once the worst of their hunger disappeared, Frey leaned back and patted his stomach. "Now I’m going upstairs, locking my door and feeding Vritra before that oversized snake starts filing complaints about neglect."

Jet drank from his glass. "You’re absorbing them tonight?"

"Why wait? We came here for Rune progression in the first place." Frey tilted his head toward Jet’s pack beneath the table. "Don’t pretend you’re sleeping before you feed yours."

He wasn’t wrong. Jet had been thinking about the Cores since Greyvault asked whether he intended to sell them. Their expedition had given him more usable Rune resources at once than he had possessed since awakening. He wanted to know what that amount of essence would do to an SSS-Rank Divine Rune.

They returned to the hotel shortly afterward. The lobby was quieter than the commercial district, and exhaustion finally began settling into Jet’s limbs as they climbed toward their floor.

At the corridor junction, Frey lifted two fingers in farewell and headed toward his room, telling Jet not to break anything expensive i. Jet told him to worry about his own Rune and continued to his door.

Inside, Jet locked it, checked the latch twice and closed the curtains. He removed the Vorpal Blade, set his backpack on the bed and sat beside it. For a moment he listened to the silence, letting the reality of being somewhere secure settle over him.

Then he opened the pack.

One by one, Jet removed the Monster Cores he had kept from the expedition and arranged them across the bedspread. Different sizes and shades caught the room’s light, each holding the condensed essence of a creature killed within the Beyond.

By the time he finished, multiple Monster Cores lay before him.

Jet looked at them and smiled.