Even though my brain was trying to accelerate and think things through, it could only go so fast. I was so tired that I couldn’t even be sure if I was just jumping to conclusions, or just greedy after thinking I’d get so much more.

‘I’m REALLY not in the mood for this…’ “ Just give me the rewards for the quest and the spiders first, that’s 1300. I’ll take a silver and three coppers.”

“Right, certainly, oh, sorry though, we are low on silver and copper at this time. Would you prefer 10 coppers and 30 obsidian instead?”

‘Is this another trick? How could he be out of one of the most common currencies…’ “Yeah that’s fine.” ‘Just hurry up already…’ His smile didn’t reach his eyes as he ever so slowly counted the money. ‘I’m about to kill this guy…’

I double-checked after he handed it out, and sure enough, ‘10, and… 28 This guy…’

I took the money and pocketed it, pretending not to notice. “I’m Chika by the way, it’s nice to meet you.” I raised my hand out to him and he hesitantly returned the gesture.

“Likewise, it’s good to see skilled adventurers such as yourself out here. I’m Alden.”

‘Now I know who to report at least… Causing a scene here wouldn’t be good.’I looked over to the guards watching them closely… ‘They might be in on it… So… Confronting him now would be a bad move.’ “Thank you for your service, Alden. Oh, I think I’ll be taking all the materials back with me. I’ll just sell them back in Rothet, I have an old friend that I think might cut me a deal.

His smile vanished and his eyes narrowed. “Come on now… Oh, what’s this? Actually taking a second look at this I see I made a mistake. I’m so sorry, I can actually give you 1600 for these materials. Of course, if you have a contact I understand.”

‘He’s covering himself up… So that the price difference won’t be suspicious… Interesting…’ I looked back at the guards. ‘I really don’t like this feeling… I should just leave… I should just…’

I leaned forward on the table. “Wow really, you don’t say, that’s 3,100 in total, isn’t it? That’s not bad, you know if you're giving me that much I might take you up on it.”

He smirked. “I’m glad we understand each other.”

‘He’s not even trying to hide it anymore… It almost feels like he’s bribing me to stay quiet.’ “I must say I’m surprised that a trusted overseer would make such a mistake. I know a silver might not be much to you, but you know to us low-level adventurers it can literally mean life or death.”

He grimaced as if asking why I was still there. “I’ll be sure to do better in the future…”

“Be sure you do that.” I grinned back at him as I walked away. ‘That felt good. My haggling is getting better. He gave me full price, and a little extra to make up for the 2 coins he cheated me out of. Well… I guess I don’t actually know what market price is…’

I paused just outside. ‘Sparks… Did he win?’ I looked down at my wallet. ‘I guess with this much money it doesn’t even matter if I got cheated a bit. Still… I should probably tell my beekeeper friend about this. Cutting people short can kill them if it means they don’t have enough to buy potions or medicine. It’s not like I’m the only low-rank strapped for cash. Lola… I wonder how long it’s been since we last talked.’

I headed inside the tavern and the familiar scent of sweat, dirt, and alcohol filled my nose… It was gross… And I hated it to be quite honest, but that was only one half of it, the less significant half if you asked me. The cheery voices and clanking mugs, the songs that were sung just slightly out of tune, and that one musician that was always way too overqualified to be playing there, and let's not forget the one guy that couldn’t hit a high note to save his life, so he just sang four octaves too low.

I could hear it clearly the moment I walked in, the kind of voice that vibrated your bones and made you feel kind of funny inside. Oddly enough it helped clear my headache too.

‘What was that man’s name again… Taggart? He owes me a toast for not dying.’ I looked around, and couldn’t seem to find him, but I did manage to spot the dwarf from his party. It was hard to miss the guy with full plate armor and a shield that was bigger than I was.

My feet almost carried me over to him on their own as the energy from the music started to run through me, but I quickly second-guessed myself. I knew I didn't belong in a party, and there I was trying to Budd myself into their dinner… ‘What am I doing?’ I looked back down at my coin purse, remembering that lonely feeling from when I first returned to camp after my hunt. ‘I guess I just got excited… And maybe I wanted someone else to be excited to…’

I sighed, turning to walk away, but the moment I turned around I heard a hearty cheer. “Hey, you there! The strange one with the wooden helmet!”

‘What? There’s some other idiot here wearing a helmet made out of wood, I mean, at least mine is covered in hide.’ I turned around to see who it was… And when I realized the dwarf was yelling those words at me… I immediately started to feel embarrassed. ‘It’s me… I’m the idiot strange one with the wooden helmet…’

I groaned, walking over to him. “You’re the dwarf with the alcoholic right? Where is he, he said he’d buy me a drink.”

He laughed as he grabbed my shoulder and almost forced me into one of the chairs beside him. “It’s fine. I’ll buy you one and charge him for it later.”

‘He… is still alive right? I mean, there pretty happy, but you never know… Wait, they could just be happy because they got a larger share with one less way to split the rewards.’ My eyes slowly widened as I convinced myself to relax. ‘This is why I hate meeting new people…’