Global Beast Mastery: Only I Can See the Hints

"Mr.Kevin, all our stock weapons were kept in the vault, which is more secure than Lsgard's city defses, with 4-hour patrols. How could anyone have stol them?" Another smith, looking at the now-severed furious python spear, made his judgmt.

Backing up a bit, ev if someone could sneak in, how could they possibly have transported all those weapons without anyone noticing?

Kevin found this reasoning sound but still felt the whole situation was overly mysterious.

He immediately drove at high speed to Lsgard Bank, heading straight for the private vault located t floors underg.

Kevin first passed through an electronic scanner, th tered a password, and after numerous complicated idtity verifications, he finally reached the lowest level of the basemt.

Seeing the vault door untouched without any signs of tampering, Kevin's suspded heart finally settled, and he chuckled softly, "Haha, it seems we were overthinking it. With such strict security measures, how could anyone get in?"

Lightning demon ape...

The vault door slowly oped.

Instead of the neatly arranged weapons and piles of forging materials he expected, the vast vault was empty, ev the shelves that displayed the weapons were gone!

Kevin's smile abruptly ceased, turning somewhat grotesque, his clched fist loosing and tighting repeatedly...

"How is this possible? How is this possible!!!" Kevin began to mutter to himself, his words unclear, just repeatedly mumbling, "How is this possible... How is this possible..."

Over a thousand pieces of weapons and materials, the fruits of decades of the Drav family's efforts, had vanished overnight?

"Next door! Quickly, check the next door!!!"

Unable to restrain his shock, Kevin stumbled along, leading his m with keys to another vault.

Boom!!!

Wh the door to the next vault oped, all color drained from Kevin's face. Seeing only the four walls remaining in the vault, his knees buckled: "My beast cores... my hides... my weapons... my armor... everything I've worked for most of my life, just gone?

Evaporated? Vanished without a trace? This can't be! This must be an illusion!"

"Father! Father!"

"Pull yourself together!" Thomas cried out as he rushed forward.

The core members of the Drav family group, fearing any mishap, quickly helped him up from the g. Kevin was the linchpin of the tire Drav family conglomerate; if he were to fall, it could spell the d for the tire Drav family.

"Father, I've already checked the vault walls and found no secret passages. It must be a collusion betwe Isgard Bank and the Smith family. How else could so much disappear into thin air?" Thomas wiped the sweat from Kevin's forehead, feeling as though his father had aged a decade in an instant.

The suring managers were completely baffled, wanting to console Kevin but at a loss for words.

To monopolize the market with David's weapons, the Smith family group had tak out a high-interest loan of 5,000 silver coins—'nine out and thirte back'. The creditor would be knocking on their door in a week.

If they couldn't come up with the money by th, they would all have to look for new ways to make a living.

"Isn't this the Drav family? What has got you so worked up?" From the other d of the corridor, a somewhat surprised voice called out.

Thomas turned to see Sly Taylor, the head of the Taylor family, approaching with a few people.

Glancing at the now empty vaults, Sly couldn't help but snicker, "Are you two pulling a fast one on me, staging a theft to hike up the prices of weapons throughout the city?"

Such a large warehouse would take dozs of truckloads to empty, how could there not be a single sound?

Sly was a shrewd businessman who could smell a ruse from a mile away, seeing right through the Dravs' ploy.

But... seeing Kevin barely hanging on, lying on the g, Sly felt an unexplainable panic: "Could it be, the vault was actually robbed?"

He too had noticed at the expo, David offloading vast amounts of ferocious beast materials and miracle drugs, strikingly similar to those in his store.

Passing by Isgard Bank, he had just decided to check his invtory.

He hadn't be concerned initially, but upon seeing Kevin's completely emptied vaults, sweat began to seep from his palms.

Clack, clack...

The heavy, solid iron doors of the vault emitted a low, muffled sound.

Originally installed for security, these doors and the suring walls were made from reinforced steel plates, three meters thick, impervious ev to artillery fire.

As Sly pressed the electric switch, the vault lit up brightly, spotlessly clean to the point of being reflective!

At that sight, Sly's vision wt black.

He had personally escorted the ferocious beast materials to the vault, overseeing the unloading of each item.

But now, over 300 tons of ferocious beast meat, blood, fur, and bones... all gone, ev the refrigeration units from the adjact cold storage had be stol!

Cleaner than his dog's licked dinner bowl!

"No... this can't be... this can't be..."

Momts ago, Sly was mocking Kevin like he was mad, but now, he himself couldn't help but mutter uncontrollably.

These ferocious beast materials were the lifeline of the Taylor family!

The hunters who risked their lives in the mountains were still waiting for their pay. A large portion of these goods had be pre-paid by clits; what was he to do if he couldn't deliver?

Sly burst out of the vault and flung op the doors to the adjact room storing miracle drugs, only to find, unsurprisingly, that all the miracle drugs, alchemy raw materials, and ev several bags of alchemy waste had be cleared out!

These vaults, though beath Isgard Bank, were his private safes, and any loss therein was not the bank's responsibility.

This meant no one would compsate him for his losses!

The thought of his life's work being destroyed in an instant caused a surge of anger and a sickly sweet taste in his throat.

"Ptuh!"

He couldn't hold back, and a mouthful of blood sprayed forth.

...

In Isgard's ctral square, Charles leisurely leaned against a tree, watching the sales expo and yawning.

Today was the last day of the expo. Thanks to the Smith family's aggressive marketing, they had sold over 3,000 of the 4,000 mystery boxes, making both him and David a tidy profit.

Charles checked his account balance, and his phone quickly beeped with a bank message.

[Dear customer, the currt balance of your account ding in 957 is: gold coins, 7 silver coins, 600 copper coins.]

Seeing the long string of numbers in the bank message, Charles could hardly hide his grin: "Heh, this should be more than ough to buy the materials for the [spirit nail], and I'll still have a few gold coins left."

As Charles prepared to leave, a commotion at the expo caught his atttion.

Moving closer, it turned out to be members of the Taylor and Drav families causing a sce! Both Sly and Kevin looked distinctly unwell.

"David, you're reselling stol goods? Have you no shame?" Sly roared, nearly at the top of his lungs, as he was confronted by several security personnel in uniforms from the Smith family at the exhibition.

On the other side, Kevin, with a macing look, hurled a gleaming black supreme spear into the cter of the vue, saying fiercely, "Everyone knows this furious python spear can only be forged by the Drav family's weapon shop here in Isgard. David, be smart and give me back my gold coins, and I'll let this slide."

The lively expo quieted down suddly wh word got out that the items might be stol. It was rare to witness such a public feud among the three major families of Isgard!

Both parties made compelling points, and rect online leaks showing weapons and miracle drugs from the mystery boxes bearing labels from the Taylor and Drav families only fueled suspicions that they might indeed be stol.

Everyone was eager to see how David would respond.

"Ahem..." Noticing the crowd's atttion, David cleared his throat and switched on his microphone: "Sly, you claim the miracle drugs have the Taylor family label, but isn't it possible I bought your merchandise and resold it?"

"And Kevin," David continued with a calm smile, "where is your weapons vault?"

"Isgard Bank, sublevel -," Kevin replied coldly.

"And how many guards are a the vault?" David probed further.

"Twty... What are you getting at?" Kevin was growing impatit.

"That's exactly my point!" Upon hearing Kevin's response, David couldn't help but burst into laughter: "Over 300 tons of weapons and equipmt, stored in the Isgard Bank's sublevel vault with twty guards patrolling 4/7, and you're telling me it all got moved overnight without anyone noticing..."

Here, David paused for effect:

"Forgive my bluntness, but if that's what you're claiming was stol, are you treating me like a fool?"

David's remark brought a momt of silce over the expo, followed soon by continuous laughter.

"Ha, I was just thinking, how could hundreds of tons of material be stol in one night!"

"Unless those weapons grew wings and flew away? But I just won one in the draw, and I didn't see any wings on it."

"These Drav and Taylor families are so shameless, seeing someone else's business thrive and coming up with these slanderous tricks..."

Not only were his items stol, but the suring mockery made Sly's blood boil, causing a sickly sweetness in his throat once again.

Kevin's face turned ash with rage!

Swallowing the blood that threated to spill from his throat, Sly glared at David vomously and said, "Fine, fine, David! I, Sly, will remember this bitterness!"

Watching Sly leave, Kevin and his father Thomas had no choice but to let it go. As they turned away, the look in Kevin's eyes towards David was filled with chilling restmt and vom...

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