"What happened!? ...What the heck is this!?"

A group of adventurers chatting in the guild's common area rushed over at the receptionist's scream.

"Hey, what’s going on?"

Even a male guild staff member peeked out from behind the counter. The moment he caught sight of the massive beast on the counter, he froze, speechless.

"This is… turning into a bigger deal than I expected," Rio muttered, her voice carrying through the now-silent guild hall.

"That’s… a Murder Raptor," the man behind the counter finally managed, his tone shaky.

“Yep. I’d like to sell this,” I said casually, directing my words to the staff member who seemed capable of conversation. The woman who had greeted me earlier appeared paralyzed with shock, still unable to stand.

“You’re saying… you brought this thing down yourselves?”

The man’s skeptical tone was almost amusing. I nodded slowly.

"Alright… I’m Buildine, the guild’s deputy master. We can certainly buy it from you, but evaluating something this large will take some time.”

So, a proper evaluation, huh? The merchants in Zain barely checked the carcass before buying it, but maybe the guild had a more thorough process.

"How long will it take? I’d prefer to settle everything today if possible."

“That shouldn’t be an issue. Do you want to keep any specific parts?”

I was impressed—they even accommodated such detailed requests.

“No, I’ll sell the whole thing.”

At the moment, cash was my priority. If we were going to visit the castle, I wanted to have enough funds to prepare and buy anything useful.

“Got it. Come back after lunchtime. ...And Yuriel, get up already.”

Buildine addressed the trembling receptionist, who was still slumped on the floor. Apparently, her name was Yuriel. He helped her to her feet and instructed her to give me a claim token before heading to the back.

“My apologies…” Yuriel said, her voice strained as she forced a smile. She retrieved two wooden tokens from behind the counter, affixed one to the raptor carcass, and handed the other to me.

“This is your claim token. If you lose it, you may not be able to collect your payment, so please take care of it.”

“Got it. I’ll bring it back later. Thanks.”

Tucking the token into my bag, I left the still-silent guild with Rio.

“We never did find out the Murder Raptor’s rank,” Rio mused as we strolled down the street.

“True. It’s definitely strong, though. If the Murder Bear is C-rank, this one might be the same.”

“Sounds likely.”

With some time to kill before our payout, we decided to wander and see if we could find anything interesting, particularly at magic tool shops. Spotting one with a sign featuring a magic circle, we stepped inside.

"Welcome," came the raspy voice of a thin old man, his eyes half-closed—or were they fully open?

“Looking for anything specific?”

"Not really. Got any interesting magic tools?"

“Interesting, eh…”

The old man rummaged through the shelves, muttering to himself.

“How about this?”

He held out a small rod, about 15 centimeters long and 1 centimeter in diameter.

“What’s this?”

“It lights up,” he said, flipping a switch on the handle. The tip glowed like a laser pointer.

“Neat,” I replied, unimpressed. It seemed like something I could replicate with magic.

Undeterred, the old man dug out more tools.

“Try this!”

From self-fanning fans to balls that rolled endlessly while consuming mana, and a spinning top that never stopped, he showed us all sorts of gimmicks. Each was at least 100,000 flons—a steep price for such novelties.

The most intriguing item was the Mirror of Truth. It claimed to reveal true forms, though even the shopkeeper admitted he didn’t fully understand its effects.

“What does ‘true form’ even mean?” the old man pondered aloud.

Good question. Could it unmask a shapeshifting monster?

In fantasy worlds, human-transforming creatures were a common trope. Surely they existed here, too. I remembered the Ancient Red Dragon’s scale shield my master had given me. Maybe it was a gift from a humanized dragon acquaintance? Then again, knowing my master, they might’ve fought first.

“What are you thinking about, Shu?”

Rio tilted her head, giving me a curious look as I nodded to myself.

“Just wondering if Master might’ve had dragon friends.”

“Huh?”

She didn’t follow, but that was fair—I had skipped a lot of context.

In the end, the Mirror of Truth seemed too intriguing to pass up. I emptied nearly all my savings—1.5 million flons—to buy it.