Charles walked towards the Explorers Association alone. He left Lily in the hotel. The little girl was still a little depressed and hoped that time could take away everything.
As soon as he entered the Explorers Society, Charles subconsciously cast his eyes towards the sofa in the corner.
This time, there were fewer captains, only four, and the giant beauty Elizabeth was among them.
"Dear Charles, I'm here." Elizabeth kept waving her hands.
Charles didn't go over. He pointed in the direction of the counter and walked towards that direction first.
"This is the information about the island." Charles handed the written record to the staff behind the counter.
“Did you…did you really go there?” The woman behind the counter looked a little incredulous.
"Hurry up, I don't have time to waste." Charles said to the stranger in front of him with some impatience.
"Sorry... I just got to work today. Please wait a moment while I ask my boss for instructions."
Not long after, a middle-aged man wearing round glasses and a suit came over. He smiled at Charles, picked up the paper and looked at it carefully, and also took out a few books, as if comparing something.
After a long while, he exhaled and said respectfully: "Thank you for your great contribution to the association. We have cleared a part of the unknown fog in the Earthsea."
"How much did I earn this time?"
"For the exploration of the fifth-level island and the detailed intelligence, your reward this time is 1.6 million echoes. After deducting the Governor's tax, you will finally receive 1.45 million echo coins."
To be honest, Charles was very surprised by this number. He didn't expect that exploring an island would be so valuable. With this price, he could buy a two-story building with a front yard on Coral Island.
But when Charles thought about the several life-and-death crises he had faced on the island, he felt that it was natural. After all, he had paid with his life for it.
"Mr. Charles, you filled in your bank account number on the previous application form. We can directly transfer the payment to it. Is that okay with you?"
"Let's do it." Charles turned and walked towards the sofa. He had other things to do today.
"What's wrong with your eyes?" Charles pointed at the black eye patch on Elizabeth's left eye, which looked like a pirate's.
"An eyeball is missing. Phew. The island is too dangerous. I'm lucky to be alive. It's so scary." Elizabeth moved closer naturally, not showing any fear at all.
"Why are there so few people today?" Charles looked at the other three unfamiliar faces.
"The captains returning to the port will gather together on Saturday afternoon. Normally, there are only two or three of them here. Huh? Why do you wear a ring on your ring finger? Are you married? My heart is broken." Elizabeth ran her finger over Charles' ring.
Charles raised his left hand and shook it. "It's just a relic. Elizabeth, how do explorers trade relics?"
When they heard Charles say this, the other three people immediately turned their curious eyes to Charles.
"It's the same deal as usual on Saturday afternoons, but you can take it out now and have a look. If it's very useful, I can offer a suitable price."
The person who spoke was a young man with a listless expression, holding a wine bottle. His clothes looked dirty and were covered with wine stains. Charles could smell the sour odor on him even from two meters away.
Charles took out the remaining two relics and placed them on the table.
The four people, including Elizabeth, observed carefully, and after a while, the drunk young man spoke.
"Unidentified relics usually don't have a fixed price, but let's be friends, 300,000 each, I'll take both of them."
This is a gamble. After all, no one knows what the two relics are used for. If the side effects are huge, it would be like spending money to buy trouble.
"Okay, deal." Charles moved to the side.
"My name is William. If you have other relics in the future, you can continue to cooperate with me." The young man took out a bag of red powder and poured it into the wine bottle, then raised his head and blew it.
Looking at William who began to twitch, Charles gave Elizabeth a puzzled look.
"It's okay. It's just the powder of the Joy Fruit. This guy has been eating that stuff for half a year."
Something addictive? Seeing William start to have snot and tears, Charles had a suspicion in his mind.
Charles didn't care too much about the other captains' affairs and turned to look at the giant beauty next to him.
"Do you still have the jelly that eliminates auditory hallucinations? I need to buy some."
Although auditory hallucinations don’t occur very often, they are still somewhat annoying when they occur from time to time.
"And some of them are really addictive. If you don't eat them, you will die miserably."
"Then do you have any other way to solve this problem?"
"Yes." Elizabeth answered quickly, "As long as we go ashore, this problem can be solved quickly."
Charles immediately threw this idea out of his mind. He would not go ashore at any cost.
After chatting with other captains for a while, Charles looked at the clock and stood up. "Miss Elizabeth, please bring some over on Saturday and I will buy them from you. It's getting late, so let's talk next time."
As soon as Charles left, Elizabeth stood up and followed him with a faint smile on her face.
Standing at the dock, looking at the workers busy moving goods in the distance, Charles didn't know what to do for a moment.
"By the way, I should buy a pocket watch."
When Charles returned to his room, there was a glittering gold pocket watch in the inside pocket of his coat.
As soon as he opened the door of his residence, Charles saw rats running around all over the house.
"Mr. Charles, you're back..." Lily, who was once sunny and cheerful, said lifelessly while lying on the bed.
After touching her head, Charles walked to his desk and began writing in his diary.
During this time, Lily also came over to look curiously, but she soon left in boredom. The Chinese characters with circles and hooks on it were completely incomprehensible.
"Knock, knock, knock." The knocking sound echoed in the small room.
As Charles winked at Lily, all the rats in the room instantly ran to various corners. After just a few seconds, Charles was the only living thing left in the room.
As Charles opened the door, a plump chest popped up in front of him. He looked up and saw the giant beauty Elizabeth.
"Honey, why do you live here? This place isn't very soundproof."
(End of this chapter)