"Let me see," after the final nod from William, Thomas said in a cold and monotonic tone, extending his hand to take the core.
By now, almost everyone in the restaurant got their eyes fixed over this table, waiting to see the end of this, like they were watching an interesting show or something.
Then William noticed that the black eyes and hair of that dude turned all purple in colour. William was astonished to see such a thing, as he'd never miss detecting such an extremely rare element in the world of spirit masters, even in the outer vast world.
"Karma spirit element?!!! No f*cking way!" Everyone got their eyes focused on Thomas at this point. And so, they all missed the faint trembling that William's body suffered for a few seconds when he saw Thomas in action.
All missed this tiny reaction, all but one; Ro. she was sitting just next to him, and without even intending to, his trembling body was felt by hers.
She gave him a weird look, but all this vanished a few seconds later and William returned normal again.
"I'm going to get you, add you to my team!" William pledged in his heart. As such a gem was thrown in the mud if he was left here in such a place.
Using the karma spirit element to just see if one killed a monster or not? That was the rudest insult William would think of towards such one in lifetime talent.
But when his eyes landed over the man who seemed to own the place with his family, William knew the task of recruiting this youth wasn't going to be an easy or safe one.
And yet, even if he knew the risks, he accepted the stakes.
"It's true," and a few seconds later, all the purple colour vanished and Thomas' eyes and hair returned to be pitch black again, "he is the one who killed the monster of this core."
He handed the core back to his master, but the old man's body was now trembling fiercely in disbelief and didn't extend his hand to grab the core in time.
"I'll take it back, thanks," William moved fast and took the core back in his hand, "now? Do you believe me?"
"This… But just how? How?!!" The man was now totally shocked, even questioning himself that he didn't know the world anymore.
He kept sizing William up and down, before finally asking the obvious:
"How old are you?"
"Eleven years old."
"Is this your true age? Or do you use some sort of camouflage technique or something to hide your true appearance and age?! Perhaps you used a technique to lower your age and give you eternal youth or something!"
"Come on, this is the most hilarious joke I ever heard since coming here," William responded to the taken aback man in front of him with a loud laugh, "now… Are we going to make a deal or not?"
He threw the core in the air, playing with it as if he was playing with a rock.
"Ahem," the man wanted nothing more in the world right now but to grab Thomas to a secluded room, interrogate him and listen in detail about what his man saw using his technique.
But he had to get over this weird meeting first before doing any of that.
"As I said earlier," he cleared his throat again, trying to regain his calm, "one core isn't enough! If you are the one killing it, then two hundred and fifty thousand more crystals will be added to the price of this core. And if you want the Red membership, then this single core won't suffice, won't at all! You need at least thirteen more of these cores, and the remaining five hundred thousand crystals will be paid back of course on the spot. However…"
The man wanted to tell William he didn't need to get disappointed by this and just sell him this core or the little few he got with him.
But the next instant, the man couldn't help but have his eyes narrow in seriousness, while his daughter and Ro stood slowly off their seats. As for the customers listening to their talk and watching this table attentively, they all sucked a cold air of breath, and many gasped in a loud and audible way.
*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*
"Here, there are twenty of them," William rubbed his hands as if he was clearing nonexistent dust or dirt or something, "I want this Red membership registered under my name, William. As for the extra cores, just pay using crystals in exchange for them."
"This…" the man didn't hurriedly answer William, turned to his man standing behind him like a statue, and Thomas slowly nodded.
After all, William took twenty similar cores as the one he took out first. And that was just the right price needed for the membership if he got these cores from someone else by any means other than killing the monsters himself.
And so, Thomas returned to inspect these cores, turning his eyes and hair all purple as he used his karma element in doing so.
"This one is killed by him…"
"This one as well…"
"This is too like the rest…"
But against what the owner of this restaurant guessed, Thomas kept saying things like this over and over again, using different words each time, while placing one core down and picking another up.
This came as a total shock to everyone, even the ones sitting in the place eating their meals.
It was indeed famous all over the fort, even at many nearby places as well, how anything related to scarlet monsters was a sensitive issue for this old man. Anything related to any scarlet monster, as long as these monsters were gold grade at least, then this man would always act differently than usual and do something crazy.
And right now, William just took twenty cores, adding the one in his hand, he got out twenty-one cores, all came from monsters he killed himself.
It became the hot topic in this place, and soon would be the hottest topic everywhere in the upper circle of the fort.
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