First, I'll head to the workshop. I don't know how long I will need to take care of everything there, but I still have a few hours before my meeting with the people from the NAA. I'm worried about that though. I can pretty easily prove that I really am Aurora, and I'll have to explain that I can't just teach others to use a power like mine, but I don't know how they'll react to that. Hopefully they agree to simply update my level and let me continue as normal.
While I'm jumping from rooftop to rooftop on my way to my destination, I grab my phone and take a look at the dungeon-tracking app. Looks like the dungeon where I fought that big slime monster had its level set to 28. That low? I guess I did clean up the bigger threats there before they had time to run the analysis. Looks like it's scheduled to be cleared this weekend, so classes should return to normal next week. I didn't have any classes in the affected area so it didn't directly impact me, but I could tell the students were uneasy about the presence of the dungeon and went out of their way to steer clear from the barrier.
I'm surprised to see a level 84 dungeon on the map. No one's scheduled to clear it yet, and I assume the bigger free companies are trying to figure out who's going to do it. A dungeon that high level is extremely dangerous, even for top teams, but they can also be very lucrative, so there's always some back-and-forth before a party finally gets to clear it.
I reach the location of the workshop and let myself fall down from the nearest building, landing in front of the door, startling an employee who seems to be taking a smoke break right now.
"Do you have the habit of falling from the sky like that?"
"Yeah."
He shakes his head and throws his cigarette on the ground before saying:
"Adventurers really are a weird bunch."
The building in front of me is rather large, with an impressive garage door next to the main entrance. I assume that leads to the storage where they keep monster bodies, with the large door being there to accommodate free company trucks bringing in giant carcasses. Since the size of an opening in a dungeon's barrier is somewhat limited, larger monsters are often cut into pieces to be extracted. I never participated in such an operation, however, since low-level monster parts aren't useful to us, but I've seen convoys of trucks with free company logos on them going to or leaving the area around a dungeon.
Of course, with my ability to create these spatial beads to reduce the space an item occupies, I'll likely never need to make use of conventional methods to bring back monsters.
The employee enters the workshop, and I follow him in. He notices and turns towards me, seemingly annoyed:
"We deal with big monsters here. It's not a shop where a young man like you will find anything useful."
"Oh, I have a big monster. I wanted to get an idea of what you could do with it."
"Uh? You? A big monster? You're not one of our usual clients. Did a free company decide to hire someone as young as you to take care of their business?"
"I'm independent, I just happen to have gotten my hands on something big. Are you going to help me or not?"
"Eh, it's up to the boss anyway."
The grumpy smoker walks towards the back of the cluttered workshop we found ourselves in, knocks loudly on a door before opening it and screaming:
"Boss! There's a kid here who claims to have some big monster. Want to take a look?"
I hear a faint grumble that I can't manage to understand. Immediately after, a very tall man with muscles forged by years of crafting equipment from monster parts passes the door. He has long dark brown hair and an impressive beard that's starting to turn grey, and is wearing a thick leather apron stained by processes I don't know about. He exudes an aura of confidence that makes me want to entrust him with even the rarest materials I might come across.
In comparison, the other employee appears insignificant, with his large belly, stained white shirt, and bent posture. Doesn't help that he's grumpy.
"So, you have something you want us to look at?"
The owner of the workshop is looking at me, seemingly curious.
"Yes. I happen to have managed to get my hands on the corpse of a wyvern, and I was wondering if...
"A wyvern?!"
The grumpy smoker lets out a surprised scream before walking angrily to me and grabbing me by the shirt.
"Do you really expect us to believe that? Even the best of the best struggle with wyverns, and the only ones who ever brought a wyvern body to this shop were the Ouroboros company. You think I'll believe that an independent pip-squeak like you managed to get something that rare?"
"I don't need you to take my word for it. Is there somewhere in your shop where I can place the body?"
As the dirty guy is about to unleash a new tirade, his boss places a hand on his shoulder and says:
"In time, you'll learn not to underestimate adventurers. They're full of surprises."
He then turns towards me and continues:
"There's a large open space in the warehouse. Follow me."
Forced to calm down, the small man lets me go, and I follow his boss into the larger area of the building.
The walls of the warehouse are lined with shelves full of what appear to be monster parts, with ladders placed at regular intervals. There is, however, a very large space in the middle of the room, more than big enough for me to undo Saorin's spell there.
I put the bead containing the wyvern in the center of the room and move back. Both workers seem confused by my action, but they don't stop me. I extend a hand towards it, manipulating the threads of magic keeping the space warped, slowly weakening them. After a few of them snap, the whole spell falls apart, and a dead wyvern appears before us, to the astonishment of my two spectators.
"What... how.. but... I mean... uh?"
While the shorter guy stays there, dumbfounded, the owner of the shop approaches the carcass to inspect it. After a few minutes, he says:
"I don't know how you managed to get this body to appear, but it's the real deal. If you came here, I assume you would like to get some equipment crafted from this?"
"That's right. I don't have much money but I only need to outfit myself, so I'm hoping we can reach an agreement."
"I don't believe that will be an issue. Please come to my office so we can discuss this more comfortably."
