Chapter 40: Chapter 40 – Claudio Antares
Matthew and Vanessa were waiting a representative of the Tower of Ryvylin in a room in the administrative building on the dungeon complex of the Labyrinth of Enkidu. Matthew was still covered in blood, but he took no care to not dirty the furniture with it. He was too tired and hurt to give a damn.
Vanessa was looking at the air seemingly absent minded, but was actually checking her status screen.
"Hey kid." She called Matthew. "Did you level up?"
"I think I did." Matthew answered. "A message did show up, but I didn’t read it."
"I did." Vanessa said moving her hands in the air fidgeting with her screen.
"Guess killing a level 20 monster was enough for us to pass a level." Matthew said too tired to get excited about it. "Do you have a build in mind?" He asked keeping his eye on the floor.
"Was thinking about going Thief and then Assassin, keep focusing on Agility because of my Unique Skill." Vanessa said staring at her screen.
"It did save us back there."
"I’m also thinking about getting Worker for the Inventory skill."
"That’s good thinking. But you can always buy a magic bag like Paula. Unless you have a lot of mana, it’s better to just buy a bag."
"I thought that too. But a bag is expensive. And I’d like to have more access to throwing knives on the fly. I carry only 5 right now and it may come a time I’ll need more."
"Yeah. If I had an Inventory skill it would’ve have been way easier to have dealt with those robbers a few days ago." Matthew said shifting his gaze to the ceiling.
"What robbers?" Vanessa’s voice got serious.
Matthew slowly looked at her feeling the room getting colder. Her eyes were piercing holes on him.
"You got robbed and didn’t tell me?" Vanessa admonished him.
"I-I’ll tell everything after we’re done here." Matthew stuttered in fear.
Saving Matthew from a scolding, a knock on the door was heard. With no time to answer, the door was open and a man wearing a well fitting tight business suit and a cape entered the room. He had a square combed black hair and rectangular glasses covering his green eyes. His face was clean shaven and very smooth.
The man sat down across the pair and crossed his legs.
"My name Claudio Antares, director of research of the Tower of Ryvylin" He said fixing his glasses on his face. "I heard you two encountered an anomaly?" Claudio asked looking at the blood on Matthew with skepticism.
"We fought a Shedu." Vanessa said taking the lead. Her past as a lawyer made her used to these types of conversations. "But this Shedu was not made of mana." She pointed at the wing resting behind her and Matthew.
Claudio touched his glasses and looked both of them up and down.
"Just the two of you?"
"Yes." Vanessa said. "You understand if we don’t want to tell you how. Don’t you?" She smirked.
"It doesn’t matter." He said delaying his gaze on Matthew one more time. "And what do you two want?"
"We want to sell these." Vanessa said putting the Shedu’s mana crystal on the coffee table between them nudging Matthew to do the same with the head. "Also this." She added her map of the Labyrinth. "If you send a team now you can retrieve the rest of the body before the dungeon resets."
Claudio looked out the window to the big clock outside that marked the 10 hour cycle. He still had 2 hours.
"How much do you want?" He asked.
Vanessa was relentless on her negotiation. Using all her experience as a lawyer to use the time constraint as an edge on the talks. The amount they settled seemed surreal for Matthew.
Claudio quickly got on his phone and talked to someone. Soon a woman dressed as sharp as him came and took the map and ran away.
"I took the liberty of drafting a contract." Vanessa said showing Claudio her phone. "Please sign."
She sent it to Claudio’s phone that read it diligently and signed with no complaints.
"The money will be on your account tomorrow." He said standing up and shaking her hand. "Thank you for your cooperation with our research." He then looked at Matthew. "We’ll be sure to count on your help in the future as well."
Vanessa looked at him like she wanted to kill him after that last remark. Claudio however just smiled at her feigning ignorance.
"Let’s go kid." She said grabbing Matthew by the wrist and pulling him out of the building hurriedly.
When they arrived at where Vanessa had her bike parked, Matthew finally asked:
"What was that?"
"You didn’t realize?" She asked unlocking the lock that held hers and an extra helmet to the bike. "That fucker had an Identify skill. He saw your unique skill."
"And what’s the problem? There are a lot of people who know it." Matthew asked pending his head to the side.
"The problem is what he said last... ’Count on your help on the future.’" Vanessa shuddered remembering. "The Tower is obsessed with research. And now that Claudio guy has his eyes on you."
"Are they dangerous?" Matthew asked instinctively taking his hand to his machete.
"They can be. Depends on who you’re dealing with. That Claudio... He gave me the creeps." Vanessa said putting her helmet on and giving the other to Matthew. "I’m taking you to the hospital to do a check up. You took a beating in there."
"Yes..." Matthew answered getting on the bike still thinking about what Claudio could do to him.
While Matthew was being examined, he told Vanessa about the demonic mana and about the robbers with the most amount of details he could.
"I’ll check with some friends in the DA office about that man. If he dies this can get ugly to you. What you said the name of the detective was?" She said referring to the man Matthew almost killed.
"Richter. John Richter." Matthew said taking the detective’s card from his wallet and showing it to Vanessa that used her phone to take a picture. "But he said he was going to recommend this to be treated as self defense."
"Well..." Vanessa rubbed her temples thinking how she could explain this to Matthew. "The DA does not always follow the police findings. And recently the mayor is talking about curbing adventurer violence. They might try to use you as an example." She said already typing messages on her phone to her lawyer friends she made during her career. "But don’t worry we can easily defend you. Specially on a jury, since you survived Hell, that will carry a lot of empathy."
Matthew swallowed hard. He had no idea he could even face a trial. He thought everything was alright. He got nervous. His legs started to shake tapping quickly on the floor with his heels.
Vanessa noticed and knelt in front of him looking at his eyes.
"Matthew... Relax." She said touching his shoulder. "We’ll not let anything happen to you. Don’t worry. I have a lot of experience with this things. You’ll be fine."
He looked at her, nodded briefly and breathed deeply trying to control his anxiety.
"Matthew." Vanessa said holding both his shoulders. "Relax. Purify yourself. Your eye is turning red again."
He then looked at his reflection on a nearby glass door. His left eye had a large red circle on his iris.
He breathed deeply and purified himself again. This time it hurt a bit. Perhaps he went too deep?
Cid, Vanessa’s brother, soon came back with the results of the exams.
"Other than some small fractures on his ribs and on his face. He’s ok. I’m just going to prescribe some healing potions and some pain medicine, and no exercise for the next week until you’re fully healed. You also have some unholy mana poisoning on your blood. But since you have the Purification skill, just apply it on yourself every hour and I believe it will go away in a day or two. You can also ask a Priest for help if you want to."
"Thank you, Doctor." Matthew said getting the paper with the prescription from him.
Cid then pulled Vanessa to the side giving an excuse to Matthew that he wanted to talk about some family businesses. When they were far enough he said to her:
"This is the third time you bring this kid here beaten to a pulp." He said admonishing her. "You gotta tell him not to put himself in danger like that. This fighting with Anesthesia that he does will eventually kill him. You gotta to either teach him to fight properly instead of just getting beaten up, or tell him to quit adventuring."
"You’re right. But he’s also been very unlucky." Vanessa said holding herself for comfort. "Every time something different happens to him." She paused to look over to Matthew who was lost scrolling on his phone. "But he’s at Laufgraan now. They’ll teach him properly."
Cid sighed shaking his head. And then changed the subject:
"And how are you? Did you get hurt?" He asked moving her body with his hands looking for injuries.
"No. I’m fine." She said nodding at Matthew. "Because of him, I’m unharmed."
Cid hugged his sister goodbye with a smile and went back to work.
Vanessa drove Matthew back home saying she was going to call him when she got the money from the Tower and the golden tiara appraised.
She patted his head before leaving:
"You saved us back there, Matthew. Good work, kid."
Matthew realized Vanessa was using his name more now. Perhaps she was starting to see him as a man and not a kid anymore? This thought brought a smile to his face as he entered his home.