The area was busy with hunters selling their group’s stash of materials to the various stalls set up all over. The reason this outpost existed was due to the firm backing and protection of the Monster Corps. In the beginning, existing solely for gathering and collecting all materials their squads would retrieve out on their hunts. Then as time passed, companies paid contracts allowing them to purchase items the military didn’t require.

The military solely aims for non-attribute core monsters, no one knows why since this info is classified. Any mercenary groups that happen to kill any must trade in the cores no matter what, but none complain since the pay is good and no one else will take them.

I searched for the least busy stall and went together with Eris. “Welcome, selling some materials?” A pleasing voice came from inside the stall. The trader came forward, long black hair and smooth skin. I wondered why there weren’t many people selling materials at this stall, but thought about how she was hiding and I didn’t see her until she came forward.

“Uh, Yeah.” I paused stunned by her beauty, then slung the rucksack double my size over. All the parts hanging from it reached the ground.

“All of this, I’ll need it in gold coins instead of Illnor credits. Is that possible?” I hoped she had gold on hand for the trade; if not, I’ll have to try somewhere else.

“That is possible, but the value of gold will be less than what you would get for Illnor credits. As long as you are okay with that?” I nodded in agreement.

She started to make space as Eris and I laid out all the materials for her to see. “Wow, Th-this you killed an adult Feral ape!” She stuttered in fright. “How much did they give you for the core? One million? No, two?” The trader stammered on as drool formed thinking about the lump sum she imagined I received for it.

I hid my surprise and smiled back. One or two million...? If we weren’t in public right now, I’d have ripped out my hair in frustration. That’s enough for two or three average slaves! I cursed my luck at wasting a jackpot of that magnitude like that.

“That’s quite the haul. Your group must be excited about the earnings this time around!” She glanced up at me since I kept quiet, still disturbed about the core.

I merely stared at her with an empty gaze. Eris nudged me awake from my shock. “How much is everything all together?”

She rechecked all the items and arrived at a number very satisfying to my ears. “I’ll take everything for a million gold coins.” Eris nodded her head, letting me know it was a good deal.

The trader handed me a single emerald coin, its value was one million gold coins. At first, I thought she was scamming me, but this was the first time I’ve ever seen or held something worth one million gold coins before. This little green coin costs that much! My hands needlessly shook a little before making sure it was safe inside my pocket. I couldn’t wrap my head around this, but then again, the more I thought about her handing over one million literal gold coins made me feel dumb.

“Thank you so much.” The woman stared at me somewhat confused as to why I thanked her.

“Please, I should be thanking you. If you ever have any more materials drop on by. I’ll be sure to take care of you.” I smiled and left at her vague response. We walked to the cafeteria to eat some dinner.

“There are reports of a Feral ape in the vicinity.” I overheard some people as we got our food.

“Yeah, I could hear the roars a while ago. It sounded not too far from here!” “I saw a Monster Corps squad head out to take care of the matter. Let’s wait until they return before going back out. It’s too damn dangerous with that beast roaming about.”

I wondered if that was the same one, we killed? If not, I was about ready to sprint out of here for my two million gold coins! I wanted to let Eris know so we could head back out right after we finished eating, but I finally realized she was utterly exhausted. 

She must have been hiding it the best she could on our way back. I watched her eat, enjoying her food, and patted her head. She looked up, and I had to admit she was super cute right now. My actions finally dawned on me and I removed my hand awkwardly to eat my food. Thankfully, Eris didn’t say anything and went back to eating.

“Make sure to tell me if you’re ever tired. Don’t hide it next time, okay?” I said before we finished eating. Eris complied with an audible affirmation.

We went to the outpost’s inn and got a room for the night. It wasn’t worth the back and forth commute from our hotel room in the city, especially with how exhausted Eris turned out to be feeling.

They only had a one-room one bed available and cheap too, so I went with that. I actually had no more gold coins and ended up having to spend a bit more than a gold’s worth of silver to cover the expenses and skip the identification process. I’ve really got to figure out what to do for the identification system. Too much money has already been wasted.