BXBX NOVEL Chapter 173 - Death Valley
As Bren walked out of the building, a fly emerged from the pocket of his coat and flew into the sky. No one spotted it, nor did they realize its existence. The fly travelled about ten minutes and arrived in front of a huge gate. Many customers were waiting outside in line. Though the cold wind was blowing on the road, no one once complained.
The fly entered the shop.
In a few seconds, it appeared in the massive hall and transformed into a human form, but no one noticed as their attention was somewhere else; and even if they did, no one would find it strange, as they knew that there was a Shapeshifter in the shop.
Slyff looked at Kadyn who was dealing with customers and walked towards him and whispered something in his ear. Kadyn curled his lips and murmured, "It doesn\'t matter what trick they have up their sleeves; they can\'t do anything to us, anymore. If it was a month before, I might be a little apprehensive about offending them, but now—"
He trailed off and a disdainful look appeared on his face. There was nothing he didn\'t know in the capital, except a few matters related to the royal family. It was the same about the Sweeders and Webneys. They might be strong, but he knew how to deal with them.
Furthermore, if they dared to attack him inside the shop, they would only die a miserable death as he had already upgraded the shop to Rank 3. Even peak rank 4 mage could only escape if he dared to attack. He had no one to fear as long as he stayed in the shop.
"Common Rank healing potion," Kadyn said to the customer. "15000 Ces."
It continued for around three hours. It was already 5 o\'clock in the evening when all the customers left with satisfied smiles on their faces.
Everyone gathered in the house for evening snacks. "How should we deal with Sweeders," Elora spoke. "They dared to play tricks on us. It seems we were too soft. We shouldn\'t have just killed their people. We should have hung them at the Shining Fang Chamber of Commerce\'s gates after slitting their necks. Humph!"
Kadyn looked at his sister, and a slight smile appeared on his face. The hardship that she went through in the previous month had changed her temperament quite a bit. She was no more that naive girl that she used to be. She had seen blood; she had shed blood. She had seen all kinds of treachery and cruelty on her missions. If it wasn\'t for the people by her side, she would have died a long time ago. It was the same for others, too. They had changed considerably.
Nonetheless, they were cruel to others, they were still as gentle as before to each other.
"Yes," Slyff said. "That guy Lack, the leader of the Shining Fang, thinks himself too smart. He wants to see us fight with the Webneys and watch the show."
"Don\'t worry," Kadyn said. "We will launch Rank 2 potions from tomorrow."
Everyone\'s eyes lit up as soon as they heard his words. They knew that Kadyn had reached Rank 2 around 15 days before. Now he could brew Rank 2 potions! This blow was going to make some people realize that they could not offend Heaven\'s Door.
Kadyn looked at Barret, Hot Rod and Cecelia and asked, "How much time do you need to reach Rank 2?"
It seemed they had already abandoned their old runes and had chosen new ones from the shop. However, they didn\'t take too long to reach Rank 1 as they were already at that rank. They have a lot of experience with it, and in addition to the spirit replenishing of the meditation room, they didn\'t have to struggle a lot to reach their former strength.
"I think I will need two or three more days to reach Rank 2." Cecelia was the first to speak. Previously, she was already at that rank, so it wasn\'t surprising that she was reaching there once more.
Then Kadyn looked at the Barret and Hot Rod. "I think," said Barret, "twenty to thirty days."
"Same," Hot Rod nodded.
"It\'s too long," Kadyn frowned. "Try to reach Rank 2 in eight days, or I will send you to Death Valley to gather herbs."
"Bu—but—" the duo stammered in horror, but fell silent when they spotted Kadyn\'s piercing gaze. It wasn\'t just them who grew in the previous month. It was Kadyn who made the biggest progress in this time, and all of them knew that. Now Kadyn was really the boss of the shop in every sense.
"Remember," he said, "if you fail, you will go to the Death Valley, and you can\'t come back before spending a whole day at that place and if you did," he curled his lips, "you will have to spend two days there, and you have to repeat the process until you succeed, or… succeed?"
The Death Valley was one of the deadliest places on the Pengolla. It was where the most necromancers of the world gathered. If they caught any suspicious fellow, they would make him into a living corpse, undead, or a spirit that could fight for them. Even some of them had turned themselves into lich to get strong. No one didn\'t fear those creatures. Furthermore, Barret and others had seen them with their own eyes so they knew what kind of abomination those things were.
Around ten days before, Kadyn offered them a mission; he himself went with them. It was the mission of herb gathering, no one thought too much, as it had already become normal for them to complete mission regularly on every Sunday—the place that Kadyn brought them was Death Valley, as those herbs could not be found anywhere else, and then everyone realized what kind of nightmare they had entered.
"What do you mean succeed, or succeed?" Barret asked indignantly.
"Succeed to complete your mission, or succeed to… die."
"..." Barret.
"..." Hot Rod.
"..." Crowd.
Kadyn grinned at them and said, "If you don\'t want to go through that nightmare again. Just become rank 2 in eight days."
"I think I was going to meditate," Barret stood up and dashed towards the meditation room.
"I—I am also going to practice," Hot Rod sprinted behind Barret.
"Don\'t you think the punishment is too harsh?" Cecelia spoke after a brief silence.
"Is it, really?" Kadyn turned towards her. "Didn\'t you see how lazy those two are? They are old so they think it\'s enough for them until they can become Rank 2. They have little ambitions left in them.. I won\'t compromise with it, because there is no place for losers in my shop."