Chapter 8 - Billy the Herb Guy
Billy made it back to town without much issue. With his leg fully healed, he was turning in his gathering quests within no time. The quests were repeatable, so he got paid for every unit that he brought back, netting him two silvers for each of his three heartflowers and three silvers for his handful of firethorn berries. He excitedly made his way to the market to check the prices on some wares. After all, he was a single silver short of a gold coin, more money than he had ever held at once. That was pretty crazy considering how quickly he was able to find the flowers. Oh well, he wasn’t going to buy his hometown without a few cheats.
He jumped from stall to stall, browsing and evaluating as much as he could. He even triggered his Gift a few times trying to see if anything would ping off of it. As nothing seemed to resonate with his Gift, he continued browsing.
Eventually, a stall drew his attention. There were glowing stones laid out on a table, under a warded magical dome. He didn’t need his Gift to tell him that anyone who touched the dome would be having a rough day. He could feel the mana leaking from the wards. A little mana leakage was normal, or so he was told. But for the glyphs of the wards to stay stable while leaking so much mana that it was tangible to anyone passing meant that the total amount of mana being funneled into the wards was astronomical. Billy couldn’t imagine how many poor criminals would have to be drained of their mana to power such a dome. Maybe they used beast cores? He shuddered at the cost of such a thing.
As he tried to take a step closer to the table to examine the stones, a second magical barrier, rising up from the ground, stopped him in his tracks. A voice from behind the table cleared up his confusion.
“If you do not possess a minimum of five gold coins on your person, the barrier does not let you waste both of our time.” The voice was calm, but loud and resonant at the same time. Billy looked over to see a figure in a hooded white robe standing behind the table. The figure seemed to be etching runes or glyphs into a sheet of rock. They hadn’t even spared Billy a glance, continuing to work.
With a gulp, Billy quickly walked to the next stall. He had recognized the robes. Big doomsday energy. No urchin who wanted to keep their hands would fail to recognize those. They were the robes of a member of the White Nights. They were a guild of borderline fanatics who only hunted at night and who supposedly never took off their white robes. At night, their robes would glow slightly, making sneaking up on their prey almost impossible. This was on purpose, as it forced them to push themselves to their limits. Rumors had it that if a White Night got blood on their robes, the blood would never wash off. Therefore, you could estimate the power of one of their members by how pristine their robes were. Billy tried not to sweat as he pretended to look at beast cores. He hadn’t seen a spot of red on the figure’s robes.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Eventually, Billy calmed down and spotted an object that drew his interest. There was a red beast core that was so obviously fire attuned that it was almost leaking smoke. Billy went over to the merchant selling the stone and, channeling his Gift for guidance, tried his luck at haggling.
“Dear sir,” Billy oozed confidence. “This core, it is clearly fire attuned, no? How about it, five silvers and I’ll get out of your hair.”
The merchant, a bald man in his thirties with arms so large Billy was sure they didn’t get that size from counting coins, laughed good naturedly before shaking his head.
“I am running business, not charity.” His voice boomed, but it had a friendly tone to it. He obviously had practice charming his way into deals. Made you think he was your friend, then BAM!
Billy struck a dramatic pose, leaning back with the back of his hand on his forehead, his eyes closed. “But sir, my brother entered a spire five years ago and never came out. I need to-“
The merchant cut him off with a boisterous laugh.
“HA! I’ve read that one, too, kid! These go for a gold apiece, no lower.” He shook his head, a pained expression on his face. “Only reason it’s so low is I don’t have staff to process these into something better.”
Billy grimaced. He was just short. “Okay,” he tried, “What if I buy this one for eight silver and promise to come back tomorrow with three silver as repayment?”
The merchant shook his head apologetically. “Come back when you have coin, kid, and I gladly sell to you. ‘Til then, sorry. I can’t take a loss.”
Billy sighed as he left the market dejectedly. He had really hoped to start working on his next project. Then, an idea struck him. He wasn’t sure if it was his own or not since he was still channeling his Gift, but he set off anyway. Cutting off his Gift’s mana flow, he made his way swiftly out of the town and towards Farmer Tim’s house.