Chapter 13: An expensive commission

After finding out that I’d successfully gotten away with it, in no small part due to luck, I would’ve loved to continue eating nicely and lounging around. Unfortunately, life kept on moving and I had about a week left before the money I had stolen would run out.

If I wanted to, I can just lessen my spending back to the level it used to be and simply eat less, and I would be able to stretch it out for a much longer time. But that would be counter intuitive to what I’m trying to do, which is to get rid of this thin frame and stick arms.

I mean, I’m no longer as thin as I was a month ago, but there was still a lot of places that could still be fleshed out.

The last time I met him, Huang was essentially the same person personality-wise. But from the outside perspective, they couldn’t be any more different. One was a thin grimy orphan on the streets that sold questionable products to the uninitiated, while the other is a reputable merchant that traveled around with his own caravan while occasionally selling questionable products to the uninitiated.

“I just need to take better care of my appearance, and I’m sure plenty of opportunities will open themselves for me.” I said while looking at my reflection in the river

But as to what kind of opportunities are they? I still had no idea. In fact, I still didn’t know what I would even do. I’m not interested in laborious jobs with so little returns but on the other hand, I don’t have the knowledge and expertise required for high-skilled work like alchemy or being a court magician. And I certainly am not willing to pay the exorbitant prices and decades of learning just to be able to do those.

I want to enjoy my life while I’m young, not when I’m already a crippled old man who can’t walk on his own.

“Aren’t I getting too ahead of myself?” I had to stop my thoughts there for a moment. I don’t even have the money I need to get through next month, and I’m thinking about such things.

I had other things to think about; My return to Vivian’s mansion, the weird interaction with those wolves, and mom’s memory loss.

Right now, I’m headed to one of the places I’ve worked at when I was younger- the lounge of the town’s hunting group. They were the people who regularly ventured deep into the woods, which I now know is actually called the ‘Forest of Ein, in search for all sorts of monster’s body parts.

Their lounge was set up near the official entrance to the woods, with a large open space surrounding it and fences that kept intruders at bay. Once I’ve arrived just at their doorstep, I saw one of their members walking out- a rugged middle-aged man with a beard and a receding hairline. Thankfully, it’s one of the members that I was already acquainted with that walked out of the door.

“Simon, how’s it going?” I greeted with a slight wave of my hand

“If it isn’t- Uhhh...” he struggled to remember my name, so I reminded him that it was Johannes. He then continued, “Ah yes, Johannes. I remember now.”

“Well, are ya looking for a job again?” He seemed troubled as he scratched his head. “Don’t have anything against ya, but y’know you’re sort of bad luck when it comes to hunting right?”

I tried to work under him before, when I was searching for a way to earn money. Hunting monsters were a dangerous but lucrative job, so long as you’re alive to enjoy your spoils. There was always a demand for monster’s body parts, whether it was a tooth, hide, meat, or ‘cores’, whatever they called it. There was someone that wanted some of it- be it alchemists, magicians, or even martial artists.

I figured back then it would be a good idea to get my spoil of the shares, even if I would just carry their luggage or something. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out because for some reason, when I was on the team, they weren’t able to catch anything, like not even a glimpse of a monster’s presence anywhere.

One bad expedition is normal, but seven to eight consecutive times, they knew something had to be up and the only thing that changed in their group was my presence. It didn’t help that once they left me out, they immediately started hunting successfully again

“That’s unfortunate...” I said like I found it to be a shame, before continuing; “I’m just curious, but there really are monsters in the Forest of Ein right?”

His face looked like he found my question to be ridiculous, “I already told ya, we call it ‘Profound Beasts’ in this line of work. Also, why’d ya think we keep coming back there? Of course there are. We’re drying the skin of a Three-headed Giant Python at the back right now, want to see it?”

There was only one time I had seen one of these ‘Profound beasts’ for myself, and that was only recently, when I broke into Vivian’s home three weeks ago. Before that, there were genuine thoughts in my head that these people were just bullshitting with me, so I gladly took him up on his offer to see this beast for myself.

Then behind their home, I saw the hide of what probably came from a stupid large serpentine creature. I had to ask Simon if all this really came from only one creature and he said yes. Though I couldn’t see it’s entire length because they coiled it to save space, I wouldn’t be surprised if the creature it belonged to went up to 15 meters in length.

“It was already injured when we found it, otherwise we wouldn’t have even bothered and just ran. Creatures this powerful usually ain’t worth hunting for anything except their cores. They’re too big, too strong, and ya can’t even bring their entire corpses with you.” he said.

I was curious so I asked him if it could use mana and he said: “Of course it can. All profound beasts by their very nature, can wield mana. This one was probably at the third circle even.”

“How far do you usually have to explore to find these kind of creatures?” I asked Simon. I wondered if he found it strange that I was asking him all these kinds of questions, but he actually looked proud to be able to share, or maybe brag, about his wealth of knowledge abut this topic.

“Three-headed Giant Python like these one, usually are only found very deep in the forest, like 30-50 km deep into it. But this one was injured so it probably lost a fight in that region and scurried over to the weaker areas to recuperate. Unlucky for it that it ran into us.”

“50?” I was surprised, as I thought of how long of a walk would that be? I myself have never ventured further than two kilometers deep into it, even during my most impudent days. “How about the weaker ones then? Where do you usually find them?” Full of curiosity, I asked him.

“A couple hundred meters into the forest and you’ll start seeing them quickly- Steelback wolves, Emerald snakes, Flame-eyed hawks. The place is teeming with them. But they’re still at the first circle, that’s why ordinary people don’t go there.” He nonchalantly said before leading me out of their base. “I still have things that I must do, so that’s about all that I could tell you.”

I wasn’t familiar with some of his words, like those ‘circles’ bit. But his words still got me thinking. I’ve been picking up mushrooms, berries, and herbs, in that place for many years, and I’ve never come across a single one of those beasts that he spoke of. if they really were so common, how come I’ve never come across them? Not even once…

It wasn’t just that. When I did come along with these hunters before, they mysteriously weren’t able to find anything despite setting up camp for multiple days.

Then the issue with those wolves at Vivian’s mansion. Surely those man-size beasts weren’t there just as simple adorable pets, are they? Yet they just let me get past them and even walk in to their master’s bedroom.

It was weird, definitely weird.

Some of these things, I’ve just grown to accept as completely normal because it was the way things have always been for me. But what if they weren’t? I wouldn’t have noticed if it was only a single example, but there was too much discrepancies in what other people tell me are supposed to happen and what actually happens to me, that it’s managed to catch even my own attention.

“Hey, Simon.” Just before he left for the marketplace, I called out to him for one last time. “How much would it cost for you to bring back one of those monsters back here alive?”

Now that money was involved, his ears perked up and his attitude changed. “Alive? Hmmm… Well, it depends on what ya want us to bring back… Any of those First Circle beasts and it’s probab-”

“Wait- wait- what are these ‘Circles’ you keep talking about?” I’ve been hearing that term pop up since earlier, and I wasn’t gonna commit to a financial transaction unless I fully knew what I was getting into.

“Oh right, I suppose ya wouldn’t know about that… Let me explain-” He scratched his head and laughed as if he knew he’d make a mistake. It was a gesture more polite and endearing than any he had shown me before. I guess this is the difference in response that you get when you’re seen as a customer instead of a beggar on the street.

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He then told me about the ‘Circle System’, a universal measurement system that gauged one’s ‘Combat Power Expectations’. Because different cultures used different metrics to determine one’s strength, it was all tied into one loose, vague, but universal understood system, for the sake of efficiency.

This applied not just to humans, but also profound beasts. Starting from the ‘No Circle’ or ‘Unclassified’, the most basic and ordinary of humans. Then the ‘First Circle’, which is then subdivided into levels 1-7. Then the ‘Second Circle’, subdivided into levels 8-14, and so on and so forth, with each new Circle, having 7 levels of their own.

“Though the First Circle is the lowest tier, it’s still a tier above the ordinary person. They can easily overpower and maul ordinary people like you with little to no effort.” Simon told me. “For us, killing them is easy but capturing them alive would be difficult. So for the price of a commission like that, I think 4,000 shekels is good, no?”

I blinked wondering if I had just heard correctly.

“4,000?” I asked again, but he just looked at me as if wondering what was wrong with that. “You know that I don’t have the most leeway when it comes to finances… can’t we… uhhh… I don’t know… lower the price a little bit?”

“Hmm… I suppose you’re right. 3,500 then. Leave the first thousand here as down payment, then you can pay the rest once we’ve brought it to you.” It was a price that still made me take in a breath of fresh air, but I took off 500 shekels at least. Simon’s face already said ‘Take it or leave it’ and I knew I wouldn’t be able to haggle the price down any lower than this.

I only had about 700 left in my pouch, because I was lavishly spending a lot of money on food.

“How much longer can you wait for the down payment?” I asked

“We’re planning another expedition to the forest in just a day, so probably until then. After that it’s probably a week or so before we return.” He then looked at me and asked, “Well, do you agree?”

“Uhh… sure. I’ll bring the money tomorrow.” With a dry laugh, I agreed to it.

Afterwards, he then asked me what I profound beast did I want them to bring back specifically. There were plenty of them: Steelback wolves, Emerald snakes, Flame-eyed hawks, Mandrake, Firethorns, Grotesque Red Ape, etc.

“The hawk please.” I told him. It sounded the least troublesome to deal with, compared to the others on that list. I just wanted to test a hypothesis of mine, and it actually cost me 3,500 shekels. That’s more than what I got from robbing Vivian’s mansion.

“Got it. Remember… money tomorrow or all of this talk will be for nothing.” Simon said before waving goodbye as he headed for the marketplace.

“Hahaha… this kind of puts a strain on my finances.” I only had a wry smile as I thought of how I would get that money ready for tomorrow.

* * *

A few hours later, just before the sun set.

I walked into the marketplace, fully cloaked and masked- the same attire I used when I entered Vivian’s mansion. I even made sure to take a detour into the woods to make it look like I came from outside the town.

I drunk one of my potions, because on my back was the Grand Silver Ax that I bought from Huang, still wrapped in cloth. Even now with the strengthening effects of the potion, I still felt like I was one push away from completely falling over.

It was just that heavy.

If one were to get a look inside of the cloth, one might even mistake it as a weapon of war rather than a wood-chopping ax.

Lately I was thinking that maybe the silver ax isn’t that good of a purchase after all. I had no practical use for it, because using it took too much toll on my body. Not to mention, I bought the large ax because I was blinded by the fact that it cost 2000 shekels, not because I was planning to chop down wood for a living.

Thankfully, I was able to find a way to make use of it, though not in the way I had expected.

Even with the heavy weight on my back, I made sure that my struggles were not made obvious to the remaining onlookers in the marketplace. A few eyes were directed at my direction, but I wasn’t nervous. After all, it’s not me, ‘Johannes’, that they’re seeing, it’s some random masked guy that came from outside.

Finally, I reached a stall that looked like it sold armors and weapons. The owner was a young man, whose name I had probably forgotten. He had brown hair with matching brown eyes, and a beard that had yet to fully grow.

He eyed me up and down, so I asked him if he was interested in trading and his gaze finally landed on the long item that I laid out on the table.

“Well, what’s this?” he asked as he looked at the ax still covered in cloth.

“Something that I think would be a great addition into your stall.” I said in the deepest voice I could muster before unraveling the silver ax. The young man eyed it skeptically, and said: “It looks good. But you don’t look too trustworthy, who are you?”

I kind of hesitated, before I realized it was just a ploy for him to lower the price on the basis of being unsure of my identity. “Just an ordinary traveler… I found this ax on the road and I thought I could sell it here.”

“Seems too good to have just been found on the side of the road.” he said as he admired the silver shine of the blade

“Well, isn’t that better?” I saw that he was definitely interested, after all it was shiny and looked beautiful. The perfect traits to jack up the price of something.

“Four gold coins, how about it?” the man considered for a moment, before naming his price.

Four gold coins? That was about 2,000 shekels, the same price that Huang claimed it to be. However, seeing that it was his first offer, I wondered if I could squeeze a little bit more out of him. So, I held out all five of my fingers and said: “Five.”

The man heard that and smiled, before handing over the money. The transaction went so smoothly and easy, that I couldn’t help but wonder if I could have squeezed out a couple more gold coins if I raised the price a little bit more.

But regrets were of no use to me now. I bought the ax for a measly 100 shekels anyway, the fact that I was able to sell it for 2,500 is already good enough. I pocketed the gold and walked away, my face still hidden by my mask.

With this, I had enough money to pay the down payment I needed tomorrow.

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