Two days passed like an eternity. I spent most of the time slouched over a table in the inn. Two large soft things pressed down on the back of my head, which I currently had laid down on the table.

“Deek, it’ll be alright. I promise.”

The person speaking was the warrior woman who had joined us on our infiltration into the dungeon. She had visited me along with a couple of the people I had healed. In the last few days, I had mostly just become a NEET, remaining in the inn and living minimally. I had stopped at the shops looking to earn money more quickly by selling the goods on me, but they didn’t have the coin to buy anything I had.

“Look at these… this is Shadow Rabbit’s hide!” The seamstress spoke excitedly. “And you have three of them! Miraculous!”

“So, how much do they go for?” I asked, desperately.

“If I make a cloak out of them, it’d easily be worth 25 gold coins! Pay me just a single gold coin, and I can make it. A cloak like this has many magical properties in speed and sneaking!”

“Give you a gold coin? I’m trying to make gold coins, not give them away!” I shouted.

“Ah… fine… I’ll do the cloak for free! Just give me the extra material not used in the cloak, and we’ll call it even!”

As for the jewelry, he offered to trade me much, but ultimately couldn’t convert any of it to coin. The village had no bank, and they weren’t lying when they said they cleared out the city to be able to come up with the bounty. At the moment, the town was on a bartering system until traveling merchants came by, and they could exchange their goods for coin.

“Deek!” A voice came at the door. “The money arrived!”

I immediately lifted my head, only to have her chest come down my face.

“Ah!” She cried out, pulling up. “Deek… you pervert!”

A couple of the men chuckled, but I was too caught up on Lydia. Heading to the door, I looked back and bowed to the big sister, who I now knew was named Ruby. “Thank you for all of your help.”

I turned and followed the messenger, and we headed right to the guild. The mayor was waiting there as was the Guild Master.

“Hello, Deek!” The mayor waved. “Given the circumstances, we’ve decided to forgo the formalities. Freeing a slave is, of course, a noble cause, and Chalm fully supports it. The Guild Master will go with you to make sure the payment is delivered safely. Whatever you don’t spend on the slave… well… we’ll talk about that when you get back.”

I looked at the Guild Master, but he only shrugged and started walking. “Let’s get a move on.”

I nodded, following after him. “Thank you for this.”

The Guild Master gave a look. “We owe you a bit more. The mayor doesn’t want to admit it, but from knocking out the dungeon to helping heal so many injuries, buying off a single slave is hardly sufficient.

“It’s okay…” I responded. “It’ll be worth it, as long as I can free Lydia.”

The pair of us continued to walk out of the village. It wasn’t quite as far away as the graveyard, but it was close. We ended up seeing a circle of wagons sitting in the distance. We approached it, and eventually, a group of two guards came out and greeted us politely.

“We’re here to speak to Figuro.” The Guild Master nodded, patting his belt, so the coins jingled.

As we were brought to the back, we saw that most of the wagons were barred and contained a group of people. One, in particular, looked very shabby. Most of the people in it were lying down.

“The sick and the dying.” One of the bodyguards spat as he noticed me looking. “Not a single slave of value.”

I noticed that all the slaves in this section appeared to be animalkin. However, there was only one slave I particularly cared about at the moment. We were brought into a tent, and after being instructed to sit and wait for five minutes, Figuro finally walked in. He didn’t look like he had bad news. Rather, he had a strange expression on his face as he sat down.

“I have the one you named, Lydia…” Figuro spoke tightly.

The Guild Master’s eyes narrowed. “What? What is it? We have the money.”

Figuro’s mouth twisted bitterly. “He sold Lydia as we expected. It was a great deal, in fact. You see, I’m required by the slave guild to assess any slave I buy. As it turns out, she’s a lot more valuable than I was initially led to believe. She’s a rare variant of catkin known as a tigerkin. These are very powerful and speedy animalkins. Furthermore, she managed to gain the Swordsman class, and it’s up to level fourteen. I now think I understand how you managed to make it out of the labyrinth together.”

“We fought and leveled together!” I said with irritation. “What of it?”

“Just get on with it, how much?” The Guild Master snapped.

Figuro shook his head. “I can’t let her go for any less than 100 gold coins.”