“So the plan is to kill monsters, take their cores, sell it, and use the money for the treatment of Muron’s little brother?” Ralph asked.
“That’s right.” Lith nodded and said.
“But Your Highness, can we not just give little money to Muron and resolve this situation faster? It’s not like we don’t have money at all, right?” Dennis put his thoughts out.
“The money our parents give us, it’s for our own use. If we want to help someone, the money spent should be our own. We can’t give out our parents’ hard earned money like this. Do you get it?” Lith explained.
Lith knew the importance of money. He knew how each and every single coin mattered. In his previous life, at some point he didn’t even have money to buy instant noodles which were available for cheap and had to resort to drinking sugar mixed in water and going to sleep.
He’s been through a lot of such nights and knew very well how hard it was to earn money and save it. Everything he had today was due to his mother’s hard work and it was one thing to use it for himself and another thing to give it away to someone else. He can’t just go around spending his mother’s hard earned money on others, can he?
“He’s right. We can’t use our parents’ money for others.” Ralph agreed with Lith and said.
“Fine.” Dennis changed his mind and said.
“Coming back to the topic. First we’ll hunt a few monsters. I’ll help you two for an hour or two and then leave. I’ll go see what’s the matter with the Jingmei Guild and then get back to where you are. If things go out of control, you can always send an emergency message to me and I’ll reach out to you.” Lith continued to say his plans.
“For now, let’s go to the village and get ourselves maps of the Kunlor Forest.”
The three flew for a few kilometres and reached a small village—the Norkenheim Village.
The Norkenheim Village was well known to adventurers since it was from this place onwards that the Kunlor Forest began. The village had become prosperous in recent years due to the adventurers and had expanded to become a nice, cozy, and relaxing place for the adventurers.
It had everything an adventurer needed, ranging from inns to weapons, and the trio currently needed maps of the forest. They walked the streets of the village in search of it.
In a few minutes, they found a young man sitting at the side of the street with a mat in front of him on which many scrolls lay.
“Are these maps?” Lith stopped by and asked the young man.
“Yes, sir. These are maps. Which ones do you need? I have maps showing areas where there are weak monsters all the way to areas where you can find weak but rare monsters, whose core on selling would make you loads of money. Which ones do you need, may I know?” The young man said with enthusiasm.
“The entire first level map that can tell me the various locations and monsters present.” Lith said indifferently.
“One second, sir. I have just the right thing for you.” The young rummaged through the pile in front of him and picked a dusty brown scroll and gave it to Lith.
“Here, sir. Your map.”
Lith opened it and checked its content. It seemed legit. “How much for it?”
“Just two silver coins, sir.” The young man said with a smile.
Lith’s brows furrowed. Two silver coins? Holy hell, such a big amount? Two silver coins were almost equivalent to forty to fifty meals. Or if he were to say the equivalent price from Earth, it was two hundred dollars.
The guy sure was scamming him. They appeared to be teens and were actually teens too, anyone would think of them as gullible and would try to take advantage. To check whether it was the truth or not, Lith decided to test it out.
Lith gave the young man a look and said indifferently, “20 bronze coins.”
“Eh? Sir… I am afraid that’s too low…” the young man said with an awkward smile.
Lith shrugged and gave the scroll back to him. He turned to the two beside him and said, “let’s go find another place.”
“Wait, wait, sir. The price can be negotiated. Please hear me out.” The young man said hurriedly.
Lith stopped and looked at him with the same indifference as before which made the young man think twice before saying his next words.
“Sir, we villagers have to put in a lot of effort to get maps such as these. It’s really not easy. We also need to–”
“Say the price, save the talk.” Lith said in a neutral tone.
“Sigh… Sir, I can’t go below one silver coin.” The young man said in a depressed tone.
“Do you have a map that says about the density of the adventurers in the first level?” Lith didn’t bother with the price like before and asked something different altogether.
“Yes, sir. I have one such map. It’ll cost–”
“Add that in and I’ll give you one silver coin.” Lith cut off the guy’s words and said.
“One silver and twenty bronze coins. Please sir, I can’t go below this.” The young man pleaded .
“Okay.” Lith took out the coins from his ring and handed it to him.
He left with Ralph and Dennis towards the first level.
Looking at their departing figure, the young man sighed and said, “what a troublesome bunch. I tried to make a little extra cash but it backfired. I would’ve ended up making nothing. At least I got this much. It wasn’t a good deal, thankfully I didn’t make a loss. Next time onwards, I’ll make sure that I don’t increase the price too much.”
…..
The trio reached the exit of the village. The exit was a narrow entrance and everywhere around was a big stone wall. This was made to protect the village from the monsters that may come out of the forest.
The three were about to exit the gate when they were stopped by two guards in metal armour.
“Halt. You can’t enter the forest.”
.
.
…..
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