Souta and Lumilia found Ranny and the guild master's body. Luckily for them, the guild master was still breathing. They quickly poured a healing potion in his mouth and casted healing spells so that the guild master won't die.
They did everything they could just to kept the guild master alive. Luckily, the guild master was a strong person and he managed to survive despite his grave injuries all over his body.
His right arm was gone and he had a large hole in his stomach. Some of his organs took damaged in the process. His mana pool was severely damaged because of the dense best feram and corrupted air. It was one of the most problematic wounds in his body.
If they delayed the treatment further, there's a high chance that the guild master will lose all of his mana. He would go back to zero and he needed to train once again to increase his mana capacity.
But that's not Souta's problem anymore. Souta just wanted to save him as thanks for his help in fighting the dark vine stinger. But if he could somehow help him later then Souta would do it.
He wouldn't forget anyone who helped him even if it's not intentional.
As for Ranny, he was already dead as he received the exp from him even though Saya was the one who killed him.
...
He came back with Lumilia and found that Yuko was sleeping in the corner. Souta smiled as he looked at her sleeping face.
"Souta! We've already finished gathering the fragments!" Bryan shouted when he saw Souta.
"Good job, give the fragments to Lumilia." Souta nodded and said. "You and Brando will help me move the corpse on the surface."
"Okay." Bryan and Brando nodded at him and they give the fragments that they gathered to Souta.
They proceeded to carry the corpse of the dark vine stinger to the surface. They also didn't forget about the guild master and Ranny's corpse. They called the adventurers from the guild and told them that the guild master with them.
They got to know that everything's done.
...
After one day...
"Thank you for saving this dukedom... Just like what I promise, everything that I owned will be yours." Old man Jared said while kneeling in front of Souta. He was thankful for Souta's help.
"Good. Name it in my name and I'll let you borrow it." Souta said while looking down at the old man Jared.
When he saved old man Jared, Souta received another quest from him. And that quest was to save this whole dukedom from the mastermind. That's what he wanted as he really didn't care about the old man Jared's property.
"R-Really?" Old man Jared lifted his head and looked at Souta.
"Yeah. Just don't forget that everything that you owned is mine. I'll visit this place one day and take everything that's mine." Souta said before he turned around and left the old man Jared's house.
Everyone in the whole Fersch Dukedom knew that their duke was dead and the one who's controlling him was the commander of his knights, Ranny. They were shocked when they found the truth. They couldn't understand how could Ranny do that thing to his lord.
The folks were ignorant of Ranny's backstory. They thought that Ranny was evil from the beginning and didn't know why he killed the duke and his family.
No one knew about this thing including Souta. Ranny buried all the reasons he had with him. He didn't tell anyone about this as he didn't need their sympathy.
The guild master explained this to every citizen of this land. He was still weak but he could walk properly with his condition. He just couldn't fight anymore as he was as weak as ordinary people. It would take a few months, maybe a year, before he could recover his strength.
Souta stopped walking as he turned his head and looked at the sky. He wondered how they were going to restore this dukedom to its peak. The damage it took was tremendous and the casualties were massive.
More than half of the dukedom was destroyed and only a few houses stood still after the incident. The guard's force was reduced to half and it's the same for the Adventurers Guild. The worse thing was that the duke and his family were dead all along without them noticing it.
The Fersch dukedom lost their leader and the citizen doesn't have a leader to lead them anymore. Luckily, some of the nobles in the dukedom bonded together and help the folks.
The Adventurers Guild also helped the people.
"Well, the outcome is not that bad. They are quite lucky that they are still alive." Souta shook his head and said. He continued to walk around the dukedom while looking at his system.
He managed to fill the soul requirements yesterday. He managed to fill it two times as the casualties were tremendous as the incident yesterday greatly reduced the population of the Fersch dukedom.
Souta used the effect to increase his Intelligence attribute making to 380 points in base form, and if he added the stats of his equipment to this then he would have a total of 440 points of Int.
The souls that he needed right now before he could use the effect was 1,500 souls. After a long time, the effect of this would become hard to use that's why he needed the other part of the [Soul Blood Earring].
He then went to the city gate and there he found Lumilia, Yuko, Brando, and Bryan waiting for him with a carriage.
Souta smiled as he walked towards them and asked, "Did you wait that long?"
"Not at all." Lumilia shook her head.
"Yes, I got bored waiting for you," Bryan said with a bored look on his face.
"..." Brando didn't know what to say as Bryan and Lumilia have different answers. He didn't know whose side he will take.
Yuko simply stuck out her tongue and lick Souta's cheeks. Souta patted her head in response as he looked at Bryan and Lumilia. He decided to ignore their answer as he went to the carriage and checked the corpse of the dark vine stinger.
"Did you finish what you need to do?" Lumilia walked beside him and asked.
"Yeah, they wanted us to stay here for a day and treat us for saving their dukedom but I decline. We still have outdoor training so we can't delay anymore." Souta explained to her.
"I see..." Lumilia nodded her head and she turned her head to looked at the city behind her.
Souta earned something from Ranny's body. Ranny had some skill books and orange grade equipment that could enhance the fighting capability of his pets. But he didn't know where Ranny got it.
He will come back here in the future to investigate it. He wanted to know how an ordinary knight got a powerful tamer's ability to the point that he could cultivate a peak third evolution monster.
...
The group went back to the Ladros city. It was already dark when they arrived in the city. They immediately went to Lanny corp and sell the corpse of the dark vine stinger.
Jimmy was quite surprised when Souta called him late at night. He immediately went down from his office when he heard that Souta brought a corpse of a dark vine stinger. They talk for a while and Jimmy decided to buy the corpse for 5,000 platinum coins which everyone agreed.
Souta gave one thousand platinum coins to each member of his party. Brando and Lumilia said to him that they didn't do that much help to receive such rewards but Souta said that he wouldn't be able to kill the dark vine stinger on his own. If not for their help, Souta alone would die fighting it.
With Souta saying those words, they reluctantly received the platinum coins. They said that they would train harder to increase their strength so that they could help him in their quest.
Bryan didn't have a problem with it. He was happy that he received a huge amount of money for the first time in his life. He couldn't help but think about the things that he could do with this much money.
Before going home, Souta gathered everyone in a restaurant.
"First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for doing a good job in our quest," Souta said to them with a smile on his face.
"Oh!!" Bryan shouted before he started to eat the food on the table.
"Oi! Bryan! Souta is still saying something!" Brando nudged Bryan's shoulder.
"Don't worry about him. It doesn't matter if he listened or not, I think that he will forget it later." Souta said to Brando as he shook his head.
"Oh! Your right." Brando nodded.
Lumilia smiled while looking at this scene. She thought that this life wasn't that bad.
"Brando, Lumilia, listen well," Souta said with a serious expression.
Brando and Lumilia looked at him as their expression turned into a serious one. They understood that Souta was going to say something important.
"All of you know that we're going to have outdoor training in the next day," Souta said to them and the two nodded their head in agreement.
Souta took a deep breath before he took out a map in his bag. He opened it and show it to the two.
"Two weeks from now after our outdoor training we're going to this place, the Forest of Eternal Light. We're going to enter and clear a dungeon there and that dungeon is called the Dark Light of Eternal."
This dungeon where the other part of the [Soul Blood Earring] resides. A lot of monsters inhabited that forest and a huge elf country also reside in that forest.