The next morning, Theo woke up and walked to the living room to meet with Ava, Agata, and Maya, preparing to leave.
However, there was no color in his face as though he was extremely sick.
Agata was the first one to meet him as her face became pale when she saw Theo's face.
"T-Theo? What's wrong with you?!" Agata hurriedly approached him and placed her hand on his forehead, checking his body temperature. "Are you sick? Anyone tried to harm you last night?"
"Ehm…" Theo showed a gentle smile before saying, "I'm fine. I trained too hard last night…"
"Training?" Agata frowned. She had been with Theo for more than a year, but there was never a situation where Theo showed this kind of face. So, she wondered what kind of training could leave this level of side effect.
"By the way, can I request something?"
"What is it? Do you want a warm soup?"
"No. I don't feel like seeing tomatoes or anything that looks like red sauce…" Theo shook his head. After torturing himself and dying many times, Theo didn't feel like seeing something like this for the time being.
"Is that so?" Agata thought for a moment before nodding her head. Although many recipes contained something like red sauce or tomato, she had no problem making something different for him.
"Thanks." Theo smiled.
"No problem. But are you sure you're fine?"
"Yeah. I'll be fine in an hour or so." Theo assured her again. This was the first time he showed such a weakness, so he could understand her worry.
"Well, since you say so…"
Ava and Maya soon found him in this state and panicked as well. Luckily, Agata de-escalated the situation or they would have made a ruckus.
After Theo recovered, they finally made their way home.
It took them a few days to reach the city, and most monsters died under Agata's hand since she didn't kill any of the imps in Demise Forest.
This allowed her to reach level 540 before returning to Earth, only two levels behind Maya.
As soon as they saw the bright city, Theo finally lowered his guard and sat down on the floor, saying, "We're back. Quite a hard journey this time…"
"Indeed. The hardest one so far?" Agata agreed and glanced at Theo.
"How about the previous one?" Theo asked about the comparison of this mission with the one where they met the Mountain King and the Lightning Authority.
"Well, this one is harder." Agata nodded.
"I guess…" Theo chuckled. "There are many times that we almost died…"
"True." Agata agreed without hesitation, remembering the hidden monster in Arkahan Volcano along with the King Class Monster. "Though, the trip is quite bountiful."
"Yeah. But the one that reaps the most benefit is…" Theo glanced at Maya, who was driving the Cubicar.
"It's me." Maya laughed out loud, shamelessly admitting the fact. "No matter what, this is business. Of course, I need to take benefits… as much as possible."
"Yeah, yeah. I know that you're good at business." Theo shrugged.
"Continue to praise me." Maya smiled from ear to ear.
"One line is one million Zils."
"Eh?"
The group laughed before Maya raised her Skylink, calling her father. "Yeah, I'm back."
Suddenly, her expression turned serious as though she had heard something important from her father.
"Hmm… Okay, I'll relay it to him." Maya nodded and asked Theo. "Theo, we're going back to my family house."
"That's the plan, right?"
"Yeah. But it seems my father wants to discuss the reward. Considering I've given a brief explanation to the one sending the message about the Blue Star Crystal Mine… I guess he wants to discuss it with you personally."
"I don't really mind. I'm only planning to train inside the simulation room for a month before returning to Italy."
"You hear that, Dad?" Maya raised her voice before putting the call on speaker so that they could hear it. "Theo can hear you now."
"Okay!" Bernard paused for a moment. "Do you have any plan in spending the reward money, Theo?"
"What do you mean, Sir?" Theo frowned.
"I want to know whether you have any plan in spending the money… I mean, even after reducing the reward for the simulation room, we'll still give you around three to five billion Zils. That's just a rough calculation."
"But that's not your matter, no?" Theo thought Bernard shouldn't teach him how to spend his money, considering he was an outsider.
"No, no. You're not understanding."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm thinking about inviting you to an auction… Well, I'll just let my daughter do it."
"Auction?" Theo raised his eyebrows.
"Now that I think about it…" Maya recalled something. "The Temple seems to be holding an auction in a few weeks… I don't remember the exact date since we were supposed to return a month later."
"Yeah. Since you come back sooner than expected, this idea comes to my mind."
"You can use Maya's reputation to participate in that auction. There should be one or two artifacts auctioned there, including A Rank Skills and any other rare items."
"Hoh?"
A Rank Skill immediately piqued Theo's interest. However, he also knew that Bernard was trying to prevent the money from circulating outside the country.
It might not be coming back to his hand, but it certainly wouldn't go to Italy or any other country. Of course, this kind of money was rather small, but it was enough to create a small-scale company.
So, Bernard planned to use this chance to make Theo return the money in one way or another.
Still, it didn't change the fact that A Rank Skills managed to convince him.
"Ahaha, it seems I need to accept this invitation." Theo chuckled.
"You sure?" Maya widened her eyes, never expecting Theo to agree.
"Yeah, why not. But I want to add a condition." Theo smirked.
"What is it?" Bernard asked.
"Since I'm following Maya there, she will bid for me."
"…" Bernard fell silent for a minute before saying, "That can be done. I'm sure my daughter has no problem with it."
"Yeah. Spending money is my forte. Though, it'll be your money." Maya looked at Theo. "I'm also good at giving loans."
"Haha, we'll see." Theo chuckled.
"It's a deal then. Come back here, and we'll discuss the rest."
"Okay."