30 minutes later, an entire brigade of people entered the clearing while Falk was escorting them.
They had tons of wagons, miners, and boxes.
Kyle approached an older man with luxurious clothing. "Mission done," he said.
The man smiled brightly. "It's even bigger than I thought!" he shouted in elation.
"And it's all yours, according to the agreement," Kyle said.
"I can't thank you enough for this," the merchant said as he pulled a couple of Ether Stones out of his pocket.
"You have to hand that to the Guild later," Kyle said.
"I will hand the reward to the Guild," the man said with a smile, "but I will hand THIS… to you."
Kyle looked at the Ether Stones.
20 Ether Stones.
That was quite a tip.
"Well, don't mind if I do, then," Kyle said with a smile of his own. "Thank you for your generosity."
"No worries," the merchant said. "I almost feel bad for giving you such a small tip. You don't know how much money I made today."
Kyle and the merchant laughed for a bit and exchanged pleasantries while the workers gathered the ore.
"By the way, I'm in search of some good ore," Kyle said. "I usually fight while wearing armor."
"If there's one thing I can provide, it's ore," the man said. "Come visit me in Brineshore later. I will make you a good deal!"
"I would appreciate that. Thank you," Kyle said politely.
After around an hour, all the remains of the Icestone Golem were collected, and the team escorted the merchant and his group back to Starkhold.
The merchant happily paid the Guild and went back to Brineshore.
"That's for your golem," Kyle said, handing the entire tip to Lily.
Lily just snorted and pocketed the money without saying anything.
The others felt a mix of annoyance and helplessness.
Lily received a bigger share than them, which was annoying, but they also knew that Artificers were money sinks.
Sven understood very well how Artificers worked, and he didn't see any issues with giving Lily the tip.
Naturally, just like how Kyle had used this mission to test the team, Sven had used this mission to test the team as well.
Sven could join any Guild in the kingdom.
For others, it wasn't easy or cheap to leave a Guild without any negative consequences, but that wasn't true for Sven.
If he wanted to leave, the Guild would let him leave while also hosting a goodbye party.
If the team wasn't good enough, he would just leave.
Luckily, what he had seen during the mission today pleased him quite a bit.
The members were powerful, and Kyle seemed to be a good leader.
Sven also finally understood how Kyle managed to build a team with such outstanding members.
It was because he himself was just as outstanding.
When Kyle rejoined the fight, Sven was shocked at the sheer power Kyle had unleashed.
He was like a Sorcerer who could unleash one powerful Spell after the other.
Sven had believed that his destructive power was the strongest in the team. After all, he could unleash powerful attacks a bit quicker than Michael.
Yet, Kyle's attacks were on another level.
There was so much power behind each swing that it seemed like every swing was a natural disaster.
When Sven had seen Kyle tipping over the entire Icestone Fiend, he hadn't believed his eyes for a moment.
And Kyle wasn't the only amazing member.
Due to his education and vast experience, Sven knew a lot about every class, including Artificers specializing in Golemancy.
Controlling ten golems with such power at the same time as an Early Artificer was also very impressive.
Golems could act according to their internal logic, but the Artificer could also manually give them orders.
Lily's golems were not just blindly moving forward like most golems, which meant one of two things.
Either she had an amazing talent for controlling several golems at once, or the logic inside the Golems was very advanced.
If Lily fought another Early Artificer with the same number of golems, Sven believed that she would most likely not lose a single Golem.
He wondered where Lily had acquired such skills.
The way her golems acted was very similar to the standard method the Royal Artificer Academy taught, but there were also glaring differences.
Her golems didn't follow the script fully and sometimes made almost illogical movements.
It was almost like she was trying to create a new way to control golems.
Naturally, Michael was also amazing in Sven's mind, but that was to be expected.
Being part of a top-eight team was beyond impressive.
Michael kept his calm during the most stressful situations.
His Spellcasting never wavered.
Every single Spell he cast was perfect.
Usually, Sorcerers lost their cool in dangerous situations, which would mess with their Spells.
The Spells would take longer to cast, cost more Ether, and would have less power. Sometimes, they would even fizzle out, achieving nothing but wasting time and energy.
When the Icestone Fiend had been about to strike Michael, he hadn't moved at all.
That was the right choice.
He knew that he wouldn't be able to evade in time anyway.
So, the smartest choice was to stay still in case a teammate saved him.
If he halfway evaded to the side, the rescuing attempt may fail.
Being able to keep one's cool in such a situation was not common.
It showed incredible discipline and control.
In Sven's opinion, the only weak member of the team was Falk.
However, it was important to note that Falk definitely wasn't weak.
Sven would even consider him above average.
It was just that every single other member was exceptional, which made him seem weak in comparison.
'Kyle has managed to build such a strong team,' Sven thought as he glanced at Falk. 'I will trust in his judgment.'
'If he believes Falk can become better, I am willing to believe him for now.'
Meanwhile, Falk's mind was going wild as he desperately tried to find a way to become better.
'I need to find a way to become better!'
'Kyle believes in me, and I don't want to disappoint him!'
'I have to do something!'
'But what?'
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