Team Ben's job was complete, and now they were in the mayor's office to accept the reward.
"You guys are really fast at this. How did you manage to find them?" The mayor asked.
"We found their trail and followed it." Ben informed the mayor.
"Trail? We never found a trail during our investigation." The mayor said with a raised eyebrow.
"They tried to cover it up, but we weren't fooled. We're expert trackers because we're hunters." Ben explained.
"Hmm, well even if we could track them, it will be hard to fight them with a mage among them." The mayor remarked.
"Do you know the mage's identity?" Ben asked.
"Yes, his name's Allen Yuri and he's a wanted criminal with a 1 million jewel bounty. He was a member of the Phoenix Grave guild, but he killed one of his guild mates. He was apprehended by the Magic Council but managed to escape before he could be imprisoned. His actual bounty was 500k, but his former guild added another 500k." The mayor answered.
"Ooh, I've never heard of that guild before." Ben admitted.
"Well, I doubt you even know about another legal guild beside yours." The mayor replied.
"Do I need to know them?" Ben questioned back.
"Anyway your reward will be sent to your guild. It will be 250k for the mission, plus 1 million for the bounty." The mayor told the group.
"250k? I thought it was 150." Ben was now confused.
"Well, considering there was a mage among the bandits, an additional reward was given to you. It's also because you completed your mission quickly that we gave you the bonus reward. It's less than the bounty, so I hope you don't mind it." The mayor retorted.
"Oh, no problem then. Additional money is always good." Ben accepted the reward they were given.
Ben then took the reward and left the office. As promised, he and the others were going to explore the town. They left the car at the mayor's residence as they walked through the town.
They first went to the bank to withdraw some money for shopping. The receptionist's eyes popped out of her head when she saw Ben's bank account. She even needed to recount and make sure she didn't make any mistakes.
"T-This kid has 1 billion in his account? And this account, a VVIP, issued directly by Fiore's Royal Family? I-Is he the son of a high-ranking noble or mage? I need to be careful." The receptionist sweat dropped.
"How much do you want to withdraw, young master?" The receptionist asked Ben.
"It must be because of my 1 billion jewel." He sighed.
"Give me 500k." Ben instructed.
"Yes, right away." The receptionist went to get the requested amount of jewels.
It wasn't long before Ben obtained the 500k and he left before the receptionist tried to offer him a lot of useless programs. Then Team Ben commenced the exploration of town. They checked almost every store and tried the food that made them curious.
They purchased a lot of items, especially clothes because they don't have a lot of clothes. They also purchased some daily necessities that they couldn't find in the village. After that, they headed to the train station, because Ben wanted to know how the trains work.
"I thought it also used magic, but it uses a steam engine instead. Well, if it uses magic, it will require a massive amount of magic power." He noted.
"If there is this train, then why do a lot of people uses carriages on the highway? Wouldn't be easier and faster to use the train?" Wendy asked.
"Maybe the train is expensive?" Carla added.
"No, it's more likely the destination doesn't have a train station. It might be a small town or even a village. Even if the train is expensive, they would still choose it, because saving time is most important." Ben informed the other three.
"Ooh, that makes sense." Carla understood the point.
"Ben, smart." Bella patted him on the head with her paw while sitting on his head like usual.
"Thanks." He accepted the compliment.
The 4 then leave the station and head into a store. This is a magic store, the last store they were going to visit before returning to the village. They walked around the store and Ben checked out the spell books.
"Hmm, too bad it only shows the title and description. Now I can't copy all of them. They're just low level magic spells, but it's always fun to learn magic regardless." Ben smirked.
[They use it as prevention for mages who can copy the book without buying it.]
"I know. Have you counted the total?" Ben asked A.I Chip.
[73 low level spells, each cost 10k jewels. 23 medium level spells, each cost 100k, 2 high level spells, each cost 500k. Total cost: 4,030,000 jewels.]
"I'm surprised there are 2 high level spells." He commented.
[Although the spells are high level, they must be common spells to be sold in a public store like this.]
"Yeah, definitely." Ben nodded.
Ben went over to the clerk and asked about payment.
"Do you take payments using a bank card?" He asked.
"Yes, we receive bank payments through bank cards on transactions over 100k jewel." The clerk answered.
"Alright, then I want to buy all the spells available in this store." Ben declared.
"...Eh? Pardon me, I think I misheard that." The clerk repeated.
"I want to buy every spell book in this store." Ben took out his bank card.
"V-VIP?!" The clerk exclaimed in shock.
The clerk immediately ran off, leaving the stunned Ben behind. She then returned with a old man that seemed to be the owner of the shop.
"I heard that you want to buy all the spell books here?" The owner questioned.
"Yeah." Ben nodded.
"I understand. Please wait in our VIP room while we pack all the books up." The owner gestured to the VIP room.
Ben and company were escorted to a room that they can wait in. A servant then entered and gave them drinks and snacks. After waiting for a few minutes, the clerk informed them that the books were ready.
They went to check the books out and pay. After checking to see every book he ordered was there, Ben paid for the books with his bank card. It was similar to the cards on earth, but it contained magic tools, and not store had them. After finishing the transaction, Ben and company leave the store.
They returned to the mayor's residence to get in their car and drove out of the town. They immediately drove back to the village and reached it before it got dark. They handed the job completion letter to Roubaul.
"Good job. You completed the mission and more importantly you're all safe. So how was it? Did you all learn something?" Roubaul said.
"Yeah, I need to have more techniques to use in a closed space. I also need more defensive techniques especially for wide range attacks." Ben replied.
"I also need to train more for direct battles and increase my stamina." Wendy added.
"Good, review your mission to do a better job next time! Now, let's have dinner then you can rest." Roubaul suggested.
Team Ben then ate dinner with everyone else. It was a tradition to always eat dinner together. After dinner, they cleaned themselves up and then went to sleep. Before falling asleep, Ben went over today's battle.
"A.I Chip, did you get the data from the spells?" Ben asked.
[Yes, with the knowledge from Roubaul's magic book, I can find a lot of information from the spells.]
Ben had given A.I Chip a command to scan all magic that he sees or even receives. A.I Chip can scan and find out the structure of the spell that it scanned. Of course it needed sufficient data to be able to do it. That's why Ben needed to buy a lot of books about magic.
"Gramps said that there is a magic library that contained a lot of knowledge about magic. Maybe I'll go there one day." Ben said.
He put that in the back of his mind, because he needed to sleep. Ben woke up the next morning and headed into the cave to train. Wendy also joined him in training after finding out she didn't do well in a actual battle. Bella and Carla also trained with them. They began to train a few months ago, although it was just basic training.
[Name: Ben Cooper
Age: 12
Status: Alive
MP: 13,671/38,491
STR: 75
AGI: 72
STA: 80
INT: 91]
Ben had grown a lot since last year due to his intense training. Roubaul even said that he was reaching the threshold of a A-Class mage already. A.I Chip predicted that S-Class mages have a minimum average stat of 100, and their minimum magic power is 50,000.
Of course that was just A.I Chip's calculation on a S-Class mage's stats. However, the most important factor of a S-Class mage is their fighting ability. Still, strong stats mean that they have more power in their attacks, so it is correlated.
And to be a S-Class mage, a mage needs to have a lot of experience too. That was the one thing Ben lacked, a lot of experience with jobs. But now, he was allowed to take real jobs, not just ones issued by the guild like hunting.
Ben's current goal is to quickly be a S-Class mage. The reason was not only to take more exciting jobs, but also because of their guild. The only S-Class mage was Roubaul, but he was unable to take jobs due to being the guild master, at least that's what the old man said.
"If we have an active S-Class mage, our guild will be considered one of the big guilds in Fiore or even Ishgar. I will surely spread our guild's name in this continent and make it big." Ben grinned.