A core formed in the bodies of corrupted mana beasts after they died. These cores had more mana in them than a mana stone of the same size. However, unlike mana stones, the cores also included impurities. If one tried to directly absorb the mana from these cores, they would injure their mana channels, and in the worst cases, they would permanently lose the ability to use magic.

Therefore, no one had any demand for the beast's mana cores. At least that was the case in the Edrizoudia Kingdom. Only one nation had the technology to extract the impurities from the beast cores.

"Ten gold coins for each core." I told the trader who was inspecting the mana beast cores.

Since the trader was interested in the beast cores, he definitely knew where he could sell them.

"I'll take them for one gold each," the bearded trader said.

I laughed out loud. "I'd rather not sell them if that's the price." I placed the cores back into the bag and stood up to leave.

"Wait! How about two golds each?"

I walked out of the tent. "Five! Five gold each!" the trader screamed.

I took a step back and reentered the tent. "Okay. Deal." The trader sighed in relief. Judging from his expression, he would be making a good profit even if he bought them for five gold coins each.

I was also happy with the price. A family of three could live a decent life for a year with a hundred gold coins. Since I was selling over thirty cores, I would be getting close to two hundred gold coins. That was more than enough for our journey.

After I went back to the inn, I told Julian about the sale.

"Wow. I didn’t know we could sell those things. Then isn’t hunting beasts way better than a regular job?"

"Maybe," I answered. "But we can only sell them in a large city like this one."

"I see. That’s a lot of gold for just thirty beasts." Julian looked like he wanted to hunt more mana beasts in the future. Maybe he was thinking of hunting beasts for a living.

I didn’t think it was a bad idea. Hunting mana beasts was an actual profession in the Loxearyn Empire.

Now that we had secured the funds for our journey, I planned to head straight to the Cragian Mountain Ranges.

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Main Temple, Yukretia Theocracy

The gentle sunlight floating down from the open ceiling high above caressed Areithous as he entered the temple.

Gigantic statues of the gods took their respective positions along the walls of the temple.

Areithous walked to the center of the hall and kneeled before the figure that was sitting with her legs crossed.

She was the Divine Oracle, also known as the First Priestess. A white gossamer dress barely covered the sensual parts of her perfectly proportioned body. The First Priestess was famous throughout the whole continent for her otherworldly beauty. There had been many cases of kings and noblemen falling for her beauty in the past.

Areithous made sure to keep his gaze fixed on the floor. The silence was suffocating. He waited for what seemed like forever before the priestess spoke.

"Areithous, what do you think of the ignorant?"

"The ignorant are poor souls. We must be guided onto the right path. It is our duty as servants of the gods."

"Mmm. And what about the foolish?"

"They must be taught to change their ways. With force, if necessary."

"Good answer." The priestess smiled. "Assemble the guardians. Get the ignorant barbarians in the West to understand the glory of the supreme beings. I assume you know what to do if they refuse."

"Yes, Priestess."

"Go with the Forty-Seventh Order. I’ll wait for the good news."

Areithous stood up and walked back out of the temple. He had been serving as a guardian for over three decades, but he was still scared of the priestess.

After all, the First Priestess was an absolute existence that had been alive for a long time. She hadn’t aged a day since the first time Areithous had seen her as a child.

Areithous was the captain of the Fortieth Order of Guardians. There were fifty orders in total. Each of them consisted of two thousand divine warriors who were proficient in Holy Magic.

The Fifty Orders were ranked according to how powerful their captains were. Areithous was pretty low on the ranking, but he wasn’t weak by any means. The captains of the higher orders were just absolute monsters.

Areithous couldn’t help but grimace when he thought about the Forty-Seventh Order. The captain of that order was a weird person. Areithous would even go as far as to call that person crazy.

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Areithous knocked on the door and waited patiently.

Silence.

He knocked again.

The door opened this time, and a young man with messy black hair peeked out at Areithous. The young man was Halius, the captain of the Forty-Seventh Order.

"Ah! Reith! Been a long time!" Halius said. "My room’s a little messy, but wanna come in?"

Although he was ranked lower than Areithous, Halius had achieved the rank of captain at the age of eighteen.

"Assemble all the guardians in your order. We’re heading to the West," said Areithous.

"West? Are we finally going to slaughter those Edrizoudians?" A mischievous smile appeared on Halius’ lips.

"We’re going to the Cragian Mountains. The First Priestess wants the barbarian tribes to join our faith."

"Ah! I saw one of those barbarians being sold at an auction the other day. I wanted to buy it, but it was too expensive. Do you know that their bone structure is different from ours? Truly intriguing."

Areithous ignored the boy’s random comments and turned to leave. "I’ll be waiting in front of the temple."

Halius followed him. "Do we really need two thousand guardians? Just the two of us is more than enough, no?"

"It’s the order of the First Priestess. Are you questioning her judgment?"

"Haha. There's no need to get so serious. Let’s have fun hunting some barbarians."