Kyle walked out of the gate with a big bag filled with ore.
As soon as he came out, the others looked at his bag with interest.
They knew how many Contribution Points Kyle had, and they knew that he must have bought something incredibly valuable.
"Your shift is over," the Colonel said to the Chief and Kyle. "Until we meet again."
"See you, and thanks!" Kyle said.
The Chief nodded.
Naturally, the Colonel's farewell was deliberately phrased like that.
After all, the army would ask the Stark Brotherhood to help them again in the future.
It was more of a, "I'll call you later to come back," goodbye.
The Captain escorted the two of them out of the fortress.
When they left the fortress, Kyle saw the Ace Team and Alpha Team again.
Now, he also noticed that Bonk carried a huge sack as well.
'Wonder what the Ace Team got,' Kyle thought.
He hadn't seen the Ace Team getting their reward, which probably meant that they had received it earlier.
'Based on their power, the Ace Team probably got more Contribution Points than the Alpha Team, but not as many as the Chief.'
Wyveria threw a glance at Kyle.
For some reason, Kyle felt different to Wyveria.
He didn't feel dangerous to her, but he also didn't feel helpless.
It was like Wyveria was looking at a peer.
Wyveria still remembered when Kyle had just joined the Stark Brotherhood.
Back then, he had been a worthless newbie.
He couldn't even have defeated the weakest member of the Stark Brotherhood.
But now, Kyle felt like a peer to her.
How long had it been?
Probably not even three years.
"Where's everyone else?" Wyveria asked Kyle.
"They all left," Kyle said. "Selene, Falk, and Lily all joined the army. Michael wants to become an unaffiliated Sorcerer."
"Kyle," Martin, the leader of the Ace Team, said. "Do you want to join our team?"
The remaining two of the Alpha Team looked with interest at Kyle.
The members of the Ace Team looked with wariness at Kyle.
If Kyle joined the Alpha Team, there might be a chance that the Ace Team would lose its top spot, assuming Kyle kept growing at this rate.
"Thanks for the offer, but no," Kyle said. "I have my reasons."
Martin had expected something like that. "The offer still stands."
"Thanks," Kyle said.
"Let's make our way back," the Chief said at that moment. "I don't know how long team Rapidstream needs. They can come back on their own later."
Everyone nodded, and finally, the Stark Brotherhood made its way back to Starkhold.
The journey was long since they had to traverse half of the Skysand Kingdom, but with so many powerful people present, nobody dared to attack them.
Within just two hours, they reached Starkhold again.
Noah was already waiting for them and looked at the gathered people.
"Is this everyone?" he asked.
"Team Rapidstream might come back later," Kyle answered.
The Alpha Team glanced at Kyle.
Why was he the one who answered Noah's inquiry?
Usually, the Chief would do that.
The Ace Team wasn't surprised.
The Ace Team knew that Kyle was the Guild's representative, which meant he was on the same level of authority as Noah.
"Did anything happen in my absence?" the Chief asked.
"No," Noah answered. "The army's protection was solid, as always."
Naturally, the army wouldn't allow the Stark Brotherhood's enemies to make a move on them while all their elites were away.
Being called into the army was not supposed to be a punishment but an opportunity to contribute and gain rewards.
If getting called into the army would end with the enemies at home gaining advantages, people would try to find all kinds of reasons to avoid entering the army.
Because of that, the temporary soldiers' homes had to be protected.
"Hey, have you seen Michael?" Kyle asked Noah.
"He quit a bit more than a month ago," Noah said. "He said that he would be opening a shop in Starkhold."
Kyle smiled. "Great! Do you know where it is?"
Noah told Kyle the way, and Kyle immediately ran towards the shop.
The shop was quite big, but there were even bigger shops in Starkhold.
After all, Michael was not in the Third Realm yet. He couldn't make his shop too noticeable, or the Count might take offense.
When Kyle entered, he saw a bunch of books everywhere.
Naturally, all of them were Spellbooks.
Kyle's eyes went over the books, and he realized that almost all of the Spells were for Apprentices or weaker Sorcerers.
But that was to be expected.
After all, these were all Spells that Michael had created himself.
Creating a Spell was not easy and took a long time.
"I'm coming," Michael shouted from a backroom before walking towards the shopfloor.
When he saw Kyle, he stopped for a moment.
"Oh, you're back," Michael said with a smile. "Did everything go well?"
Kyle's smile widened into a smirk. "It sure did."
Kyle walked forward and put his huge sack beside the counter.
"Hey, Michael," Kyle said. "Since we are no longer teammates, how about we become business partners?"
Michael looked at Kyle with an evaluating gaze for a while.
Then, he sighed. "I'm not sure. Aren't you angry that I left the team? Do you really want to enter an agreement, or is this some kind of ploy?"
Kyle just snorted. "Dude, I totally get you," he said. "Three people already left before you. You're in a Fighter Guild as a Sorcerer. To be honest, I would've left earlier if I were in your shoes."
"No, I'm not here to take revenge or something stupid like that."
Kyle smirked.
"I'm here because I smell money and power!"
Kyle opened his sack and pulled out a gigantic tome.
"You know what this is?" Kyle asked.
When Michael saw the title on the tome, his eyes widened in shock.
Kyle wasn't sure if he had ever seen Michael this shocked.
"I assume you do," Kyle said.
"Yes, that's the real deal, and you know what's crazy?" Kyle asked.
"With some tricks, two people can learn to understand this book."
"So, how about we learn a bit about Spellcasting, and in exchange, I get 30% of your future Spellcrafting Empire?"
tg://resolv?domain=StrongestHammerGod
The author's patreon. If he gets more than 1000€ per month, he will increase the number of words in the chapter.