Tired was a kind word for how Noa felt. The trolls didn’t exactly have the same sense of a sleep schedule as the humans. That kept them up far past the time of exhaustion, which made Noa lazy with his mending. In fact, his last two attempts failed, and he learned the hard way that failed mends resulted in lost aether.

At the very least, he’d leveled [Lesser Examination] up to 9 and [Lesser Mend] up to 14. Narrowing his eyes, he pulled on more Aether, and pressed it to the young orange troll’s skin. Holding on to focus like it was his life on the line. The troll’s skin came together, and the marbling straightened out with a thin scar.

System [Lesser mend] level 14 → 15.

System class [Mender] level 1 → 2.

Noa took in a sharp breath at the new notification. “I leveled up,” he said, a smile coming to his face. For some reason, he’d been starting to think it was impossible to level his class with how many days it’d been. How long have I been on this world? he thought, pausing to recount the days. I’ve only been here for six days?

“Congrats. Takes most people twice as long to level,” Elvethor said, sounding just as tired.

Pulling more aether from the stone he held, Noa emptied it. With intense focus, he used [Lesser Restore]. Narrowing his eyes, he let out a sigh as the scar slowly vanished.

System [Lesser Restore] level 2 → 3.

Noa smiled at the notification, then collapsed, unable to push any longer. Not given much choice, his eyelids fell shut.

Waking up on fur pelts upon the stony earth was not as bad as Noa thought it would be. Still wasn’t great, but given that he’d been sleeping on hay on hardwood at the farmhouse, it was just as comfortable as he could hope. Then again, all of him ached as he sat up with a long groan.

“Good morning, newb,” Elvethor said from where he sat, picking at what looked to be breakfast━meat. A large plate of it sat beside Noa as well, far too large to be manageable.

“I passed out,” Noa said, huffing and running a hand down his face.

“You sure did, and scared all the trolls. There was a pretty heated argument over it, but I’m starting to think arguing is the troll way,” Elvethor explained. “You should eat quickly. I imagine they’ll have you start negotiating today as soon as you are able.” He pointed at the pale troll in the archway to their makeshift cave-room. He stood guard, but frequently looked back at them. “There were two trolls there, but the second one ran off when you woke up.”

Noa nodded, and picked up the oversized two pronged fork provided on the stone plate. Yeah, that was unwieldy. Setting that aside, he tore a piece of meat off with a hand, sniffed it, then shrugged and stuffed it in his mouth. A bit gamey, and far too salty, which caused him to reach for the provided mug of water, and... he couldn’t lift it.

Huffing, Noa moved to the water, and used his hands to drink from it. A bit... dirty tasting. What a morning. Returning to his food, he downed as much of it as he could before Magenta entered the room.

“We go now, human,” he said, and reached out for Noa.

“I can walk!” Noa said quickly, but that didn’t stop Magenta. At least he had one free arm out this time, and Magenta seemed a bit more gentle with him today. Either his fainting did him some good, or Magenta just liked his story that much. Probably both.

He was taken out to Chief, and they immediately started their journey, accompanied by two other trolls━one male, one female━with gladius-looking swords attached to their belts. Noa winced at the sun’s light as they emerged from the cave, finding it directly overhead. He’d really slept in.

Sadly, the journey back to the town didn’t take quite as long as it took to get to the caves, and Noa spent the entire time wracking his brain on how he would convince this town to trade with a bunch of trolls, especially since he was considered somewhat of a criminal at the moment. Then a thought occurred to him, and against his better judgment (probably his best judgment anyways), he directed the trolls towards Blondie the Barbarian’s manor a bit past town. He imagined seeing a bunch of trolls marching around the town like this was a bit daunting. He hoped no one panicked.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The trolls stepped right over the front gates, startling a set of guards that hurried to get them open and run back up to the manor where Magenta set Noa down at. He kindly made sure Noa’s feet were grounded this time before letting go.

Sighing, he watched as guards lined up in the courtyard, pointing their cute ribboned spears at the four behemoths. “Can someone please go get Lila?” he asked, crossing his arms.

“I’m right here,” Blondie said, emerging from the manor in a blue dress. “What in Elorn’s great name is this, Noa?” she asked, her jaw dropping further with each step closer she got to the trolls.

“I’ve made friends,” Noa said, pointing a thumb behind him.

“Indeed, you have. Why bring your new friends here? and where is Eliaz?”

“Uh, he’s resting,” Noa lied. “Long night. Anyways, my new friends are suffering a famine, and would like to trade with the townspeople. Pelts for food.”

“Preferably fruits and vegetables,” Chief added with a nod.

“Right. I assume you have sway with the townspeople to accomplish this sort of thing?” Noa asked.

“Sway? Noa, you’re adorable. I own all of this land.”

Oh. I really am adorable, Noa thought, facepalming. Of course she owned basically everything around.

“My biggest offender to such a novel idea, however, would be Yana. Force her hand for me, and I’ll jot up a trade treaty.”

It was almost easy.

“You know that I’m━”

“Indentured to her? Yes,” Blondie said. “But I hate her, I just can’t get rid of her. So you deal with her. Seems like this is your mess anyways.”

Noa pulled at his hair with a hand. Why couldn’t this be easy!

“Actually,” he said, an idea hitting him. “This is Eliaz’s mess. In fact, if I can’t manage to successfully negotiate trade here, then they might not give him back.”

Blondie frowned, glowered at Noa, and looked up at the trolls. “What you suggest could instill war,” she warned.

“WHAT?” Noa blatted, then quickly shook his hands towards her. “No! Blondie, we really don’t want war, not here! Not in this sleepy little town! Come on girl, work with me here!”

“Blondie?” she questioned, and Noa paled as she stepped forward and jabbed at his chest with a finger. “No one gives me nicknames,” she said, the slightest pink hue coming to her cheeks as she briefly looked away, “Maybe except for Eliaz...”

“So... about that trade?” Noa asked.

Blondie huffed, then crossed her arms and looked towards the trolls with indignation, which she then also regarded Noa with. “I’m unsure of how well the pelts will go in a warm place like this. Better luck selling them to traveling merchants. If the trolls would like to set up shop here, I can provide the space, but...” She shoved Noa aside, stepping towards the trolls, and pointed at Chief’s crown. “Those sapphires, do you trolls have an abundance of gemstones?”

Chief slowly knelt down to get closer to Blondie. “These useless things?” she asked. “More than we could ever want.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t call them useless,” Noa advised. “Could really show other negotiators how you value them, and to other cultures, those are highly valued. Might lose out on potential gain that way.”

“You are a wise human. Perhaps I can buy you from your master,” Chief said.

“Can I have him?” Magenta immediately piped in, grinning ear to ear.

“Guys, indentured doesn’t mean I’m a slave,” Noa said, rolling his eyes. Magenta definitely had a problem though. Almost seemed like he was looking to keep humans like hamsters.

“If you are open to trading gemstones, then I’ll facilitate all of that trading here━be your middleman, so to speak. You give me gemstones, and I’ll provide you with produce from our local farms,” Blondie said.

“Hold up, B━Lila, how do I know you’re going to give them a fair trade?”

“What are you now? The Troll Ambassador?” Blondie jabbed.

“In Eliaz’s words, derhur,” Noa said, and immediately regretted it. The look she shot him sent a shiver down his spine, and he was certain she’d be getting payback.

“The running price for Lesser Gemstones is fifty silver, seventy-five for Common, one gold for Greater, three gold for Master, and ten gold for deific. If you bring me the stones, uncut, I will pay you half their price in food. If you bring them to me cut, I will pay you three-quarters of their price in food,” Blondie offered. It wasn’t a terrible trade, all things considered.

Noa looked up at Chief, the sapphires in her headdress were rough━uncut. “Do you know how to cut gemstones?” he asked.

“It is not a skill we have acquired. This deal is acceptable to me. However, I would like more from it. Introduce us to your society, so that we may open up to trade freely to them in the future,” she said to Blondie.

“I would lose out in the future if you traded gems directly, but I’m willing to do so if you abide by merchant taxes when you set up to do such trading,” Blondie said.

“It is a deal.” Chief grinned, and poked Blondie in the chest with a large finger. She, impressively, managed to stay upright, and Noa was starting to think that the troll way of “poking” meant more than just poking. “Now, where do I find the child’s master, so I may negotiate for his life?”