Chapter 7: Chapter 7

cWhen the Galewind Wolf King perished, the items it dropped made Qin Ruo speechless for a few moments.

Although he already knew that this Tier 3 Elite Boss would surely drop some good items, Qin Ruo was still dazzled when he came face to face with the actual scene for the first time. Gold coins were scattered all across the floor along with one Gold equipment, two Violet equipment and a couple of Blue equipment lying next to them.

F*ck, how many Galewind Wolves are these things worth if they are added up together?

Qin Ruo was not going to delay any longer. At top speed, he began to collect all the equipment into his bag, including those that were dropped by the adventurers—this was in case someone passed by at the last minute, which could cause the situation to become more complicated than ever.

After collecting all the equipment into his bag in a tense and nervous state, Qin Ruo secretly smiled in relief.

It seemed like the “big mouthed” guy was right. It was better if he embraced his adventurer’s spirit in its entirety than to earn money in an inflexible way. Just this momentous day’s profit snagged him at least three to four thousand gold coins. Normally, that would be the amount he could earn only after a month’s toil.

However, Qin Ruo smiled bitterly and quickly dismissed this thought after recalling his last party experience. The chances of encountering an honest team these days were not high, and his routine did not fulfill the recruiting requirements of most parties.

Still pondering, Qin Ruo arrived next to the Wolf King’s carcass. Ignoring the dozens of gold coins around the Galewind Wolf King, he started to work on its body. A lot of stuff on a Boss was very valuable as Advanced Craftsmen were willing to pay high prices for them.

In no time, the Galewind Wolf King was perfectly skinned. The fur was of 9-point quality and it was the raw material for all kinds of excellent equipment, much better than ordinary Galewind Wolf fur.

Not long afterward, he carefully removed a pair of Gigantic Wolf’s Fangs which looked like cutlasses. He could still feel the undulations of the elements in them. If given to blacksmiths, their hidden abilities could be fully unveiled and forged into Enchanted Weapons.

After harvesting the final twenty knife-blade-like Wolf’s Claws and twenty pieces of excellent-quality wolf meat, all that was left of the once arrogant Galewind Wolf King was a lonely, miserable skeleton. The sound of the crumbling skeleton echoed as the skeleton gradually faded into the dark and quiet jungle.

A few minutes later, the silence was broken.

A team of adventurers with complete sets of Violet equipment rushed speedily into the now-quiet battlefield, but all they could see were the Wolf King’s carcass along with the three players’ corpses—the Bandit’s body had vanished.

“Dammit!”

The leading Bowmaster cursed with hatred before he commanded, “Radiant Priests, resurrect them! Then, we’ll find that bastard and settle the score with him!”

***

Savis Town. Even though it was dubbed a town, it was actually an enormous medieval castle. Several observation towers soaring into the sky were magnificently located in the northern plains of Kane Jungle.

The northern side of the plains was the freezing snowy region; the east side was the seacoast, and the west side connected inland. Complete with breathtaking scenery and a large population, the Savis Town’s geographic location was very wide. It was one of the few places in the Mythical Continent.

Many parties, clans, or powerful player groups had designated this place as a crucial strategic point. Even solo players and tradesmen ¹  were also entrenched there for the sake of its rich, varied resources.

Qin Ruo was one of them.

However, what Qin Ruo was after were not resources, but the myriad of tradesman in the town. This was the only place he did not have to worry about being unable to exchange the fur and raw materials he had reaped for gold.

After returning from Kane Jungle, Qin Ruo walked into a small shop in the town with a sense of familiarity. It appeared as though he had done this, hundreds of times.

The owner of the shop was a player merchant and he has been doing a lot of business deals with Qin Ruo. Well, actually… no. To describe it more accurately, Qin Ruo always sold his fur and raw materials there. The raw materials he sold were usually cheap and the shopkeeper did not seem to be the extremely ambitious kind. He claimed that as long as the price was appropriate, he would be willing to accept anything in the Mythical Continent. So, Qin Ruo was not sure if a small character such as he would be remembered by the owner.

However, Qin Ruo did not really care. He just thought that since he was familiar with the boss, there was a chance the boss would buy his raw materials at a slightly higher price…

That was all there was to Qin Ruo’s decision to trade there.

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Unfortunately, the shopkeeper seemed to have figured out his routine. For the past month, he would always repeat two brief lines whenever he spoke with Qin Ruo, “How many sets?” and “Here’s your money…”

However, today’s situation appeared to be a little different…

When Qin Ruo saw the shopkeeper, he could clearly sense that the latter had a peculiar look in his eyes.

“Buying something?”

The shopkeeper’s new welcome greeting puzzled Qin Ruo. He had the sudden urge to pull out a mirror and see if he had transformed into a good-looking gentleman. Otherwise, why would the boss suddenly change his lines? What he did not know was, his eternal routine as a “supplier of high-quality wolf fur” was crystal clear before the shopkeeper’s eyes. His fixed online time, his duration in Kane Jungle, his supplies delivery time, the quantity range of his daily restocks, and the time he went offline; all of these things were as clear as day in the owner’s eyes. Therefore, Qin Ruo’s act of entering the shop a few hours earlier than expected really surprised the shopkeeper. It made him wonder what had happened to this guy.

Shaking his head, Qin Ruo gave up on playing tug of war with the old bugger, whom he had been working with for a long time. One by one, he retrieved the raw materials that he wanted to sell from his backpack, and placed them on the counter.

The number of materials was honestly nothing to boast about, being a little over 80 sets. Half of the wolf fur even bore unmistakable traces of an intense battle. That clearly reduced the quality of the fur.

The shopkeeper muttered to himself, flipping several pieces of fur as he examined them. He chanced a glance at Qin Ruo, wondering what he had done to make the fur so battered.

“What will be your best price?”

“Forty-one sets to be sold at the usual price. I’ll sell the remaining forty-three sets at a discounted price,” said Qin Ruo.

“Okay!”

The shopkeeper replied in a clear-cut manner, and handed over 67 gold coins as he received the goods. Then, he asked, “Did you meet a pack of wolves today?”

“Huh?”

Qin Ruo looked up and glanced at the shopkeeper’s tanned face, which was filled with unconcealed curiosity.

“How did you know that?”

Unknowingly, the shopkeeper was only making a wild guess. So, upon hearing Qin Ruo’s answer, he began to look at Qin Ruo in an odd manner. “Were these… all killed by you?”

“Yeah, I collected the remnants on my way back.” Qin Ruo was calm about it. He did not think that killing a pack of Galewind Wolves with little HP left was anything remarkable. But he did not find picking up remnants to be an embarrassing act too. He then explained his encounter in Kane Jungle as he arranged the goods he collected from the Galewind Wolf King on the counter.

“The quality of the fur is 90% and the quality of all the other stuff is also intact… Just name your price.”

When the shopkeeper saw the golden fur, the Wolf King’s Gigantic Fangs, as well as Wolf’s Claws being taken out from Qin Ruo’s backpack one after the other, there was a flash of delight in his eyes.

“I was just lacking a fine piece of fur… Umm, fifty gold coins for the fur. For these… I will take them for eighty gold coins… Oh yeah, where’s the Mana Core, and wolf meat? These are all really good things! Here, I’ll charge you the market price for the Mana Core. It’s about 1,500 gold coins… and 10 gold coins for a piece of wolf meat.” The shopkeeper’s eager expression stunned Qin Ruo for a while.

“Wait…”

“The Mana Core’s price is reasonable, but this wolf meat… Ten gold coins a piece?”

Qin Ruo opened his mouth, somehow speechless. He meant to barbeque the wolf meat at Overwhite Restaurant, because he had long heard that the Wolf King’s meat was delicious, especially if barbecued. However, he did not expect its acquisition price to be so… high! One would know that the conversion ratio of a gold coin to RMB was 1:2. This wolf’s meat… although most likely not as good as real life, was exceptionally high-priced.

“Final offer! Five hundred gold coins for all the twenty pieces of the wolf king’s meat!”

The shopkeeper stared at Qin Ruo, and his act of doubling the price with great longing scared Qin Ruo. So much so that he slammed the twenty pieces of fresh wolf’s meat and the Mana Core, which was the size of a pigeon’s egg on the table without further ado. He then said, “Two thousand gold coins, give me the money!”

As though afraid that the other party would soon regret his decision, the two of them quickly completed the deal.

All smiles, the shopkeeper carried the wolf’s meat and chuckled for some time. After that, he handed the business over to his assistant and went straight into the house within the shop, saying, “Hunchback, here’s your meat…”